Call Me Grim (13 page)

“But you’re not marked,” I say.

“I’m a Reaper. My marks are forgiven.” He won’t look at me. Instead, he watches a black bird sail across the sky. “You’ve changed your mind now, haven’t you?”

Of course, what Aaron did bothers me, but that was forty years ago. And I can tell by the sadness in his eyes and the grim line of his lips that he’s sorry. But it doesn’t matter anyway. I’m not doing this for Aaron.

I’m doing it for Kyle.

“I haven’t changed my mind,” I say firmly. “I said I’ll do it, and I meant it.”

“All right.” He drops his arm from around my waist. “We should get started then.”

“Now?”

He stands and reaches down to me and I take his hand.

“Right now.” He hoists me to my feet. I jog to keep up with his long strides as he pulls me toward the railroad tracks. When we reach the gravel hill supporting the tracks, he drops my hand and starts to climb.

“Where are we going?” I say.

“Up on the bridge.”

The bridge. Of course.

My shoes slip in the stones as I scramble up the hill after him. I climb onto one of the wooden railroad ties and dust myself off.

Aaron stands at the entrance of the bridge with his back to me. Mist drifts from the falls and wraps tendrils around his ankles as he stares into Jumpers’ Bridge. I wish I had my sketchpad. The tense lines of his body contrast against the steel bridge in a beautiful, yet strangely eerie composition.

I walk up behind him and touch his arm. He jolts.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he says dismissively. “Let’s go.” His hand brushes my lower back, touching bare skin. I feel the soft warmth of his fingers long after his hand drops away.

We enter the bridge together. The spaces between the ties are too narrow for us to fall through, but I keep my eyes on my feet anyway and ignore the vortex of water swirling far below.

“Why do we need to come up here again?” I swallow.

“This is where I died.” He stops walking and a chill rolls over me. We are exactly where we stood in my dream. “Well, it’s where I would have died, if Charlotte hadn’t saved my life.”

“Charlotte?”

“The Reaper before me.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, this is a significant place for me, for a lot of reasons.” He surveys the bridge around us, his eyes sad and distant. “Since this is where I was supposed to die, I thought it’d be the perfect place for you to officially accept my job.” His eyes meet mine. A blush colors his cheeks. “Does that make sense? Or am I being stupid?”

“No. It makes total sense,” I say, but it doesn’t make me any less afraid of heights.

“All right.” He smiles and takes my icy hand in his. The cool metal of his ring feels sharp against my skin. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” His deep blue eyes search mine. “I need you to say you’ll take over for me as the next Carroll Falls Reaper.”

I close my eyes and bow my head. Tears streak down my cheeks and I let them fall.

“I will take over for you, Aaron. I will be the next Carroll Falls Reaper. I promise.”

Warmth spreads where our hands meet. Light penetrates my closed eyelids and I open my eyes. Aaron’s thumb ring burns with white light. It throws out sparks and tendrils of smoke seep from the ring and circle our wrists like a pair of handcuffs, binding us together. The smoke dissipates into a glowing ball of light, brighter than the light that surrounds Aaron, encircling our joined hands. It grows to encompass our forearms, our shoulders, our chests, and then our entire bodies. The air inside of the bubble hums with energy.

“It’s okay.” His voice sounds muffled. “It won’t hurt.”

The ball of light surrounds us for what feels like an eternity and then collapses back on itself, moving down Aaron’s face and chest. It shrinks smaller and smaller, until only a sliver of light twinkles on the surface of the metal ring, and then it disappears.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Aaron says.

He looks different. The over-intense aura that has radiated from him since the day I first started seeing souls has dimmed. Now, he glows with the same intensity as Max and Mom and everyone else who still has a life ahead of them. Basically, he’s the same as everyone except me.

But that isn’t true. My hands are glowing now. Brightly. I follow my arms up to my body, and even in the harsh beam of sunlight streaming through the truss I can see my skin shining. I’m not a tea candle about to blink out anymore; I’m as bright as Aaron. The overabundance of light that was in him has somehow shifted between us and filled what was lacking in me, balancing us. Making us both normal.

We are now the same.

“As long as we’re together, you’ll be able to use all of my powers.” He lets go of my hands. “But when we’re apart, you’ll only have some of them, like seeing souls, the warning headaches, and the pulling sensation.”

“And I won’t have to worry about getting struck by lightning or hit by a car anymore, right?”

“Right. You can even throw your asthma inhaler away, if you want. Your naturally ordered death has been postponed.” He glances at me through his black bangs and combs the hair back with his fingers. “Well, unless you change your mind, that is.”

“Great. I’ll try not to do that.”

“Come here.” He walks to the safety railing and places a foot on the bottom rung. “Since you were concerned enough to jump off a cliff for me,” he says, grinning over his shoulder, “I want to show you something.”

I follow and stand beside him as he climbs to the top rail, but I keep both of my feet planted firmly on the wood. Reapers may have the power of teleportation, but I’m not about to try jumping off this bridge.

“I’m not climbing up there, Aaron.”

“You don’t have to.” He holds the bridge supports on either side of him and slides his feet along the top bar, spreading his legs apart. The breeze flutters his shirt and yanks it tight against his chest, giving the hint of toned abs under his black tee. I’ve always been so focused on the depth of his eyes that I never noticed how defined his muscles are.

“Now, watch me the whole way down.” He smiles again and lets go of the metal supports. He tips forward. Arms wide and legs spread, he drops from the bridge like a skydiver. The mist from the waterfall swirls around his body, clearing a path. And right before he’s about to smack into the jagged rocks at the bottom, he disappears, like a freaking magician. He’s just—poof—gone.

I grip the support beams and search the swirling mist for his body, but it’s not there.

“Cool, huh?” he says in my right ear, and I scream. He erupts in a fit of laughter, slapping his knee and holding his stomach, as if scaring the shit out of me is the best entertainment he’s had in years. It probably is. Asshole.

“Stop doing that!” I struggle to hold my already balled fist at my side.

“Sorry.” He manages between fits of laughter. “You should have seen your face.”

“Shut up.”

“Sorry.” He arranges his features into a serious scowl. It’s hard for him. His stupid grin keeps peeking through the frown. “I just wanted to show you that once you become a Reaper you can’t die. If you ever put yourself in a fatal situation, you’ll be removed from it before you get hurt.”

“So no matter what, you can’t die?”

“No. I can’t die.” There’s a pinch in the corners of his eyes. I’m not sure if he knows it’s there, but I see it.

The peaceful smile he had before he let himself drop from the bridge earlier floats to the surface of my memory. There’s no doubt in my mind that, to Aaron, jumping off this bridge means something. The thought scares me.

“Why do you want me to take over for you so badly, Aaron?” I ask him, outright. A strand of hair tickles my cheek, and I tuck it behind my ear.

“I already told you.” He swallows and leans against the railing. The grin has disappeared. In its place is a hard scowl. “There’s something I need to do—”

“Like what?” My fists dig into my hips. “Kill yourself?”

He looks back at me with hard eyes and pursed lips. He doesn’t say a word, but he doesn’t have to. His face says it all. I just can’t understand it.

“Why?” I say. “I thought you said being a Reaper is great.”

“It is.” He sighs and looks over his shoulder at the falls. “But I’ve been doing it a long time. Maybe it’s my time to go. Maybe dying is the only way I can solve a big problem.”

I lean against the railing next to him and give him a sharp look. The only reason I agreed to take his job is because I want to stop Kyle from killing himself. But by agreeing to do it, I’ve made it possible for Aaron to kill himself. Ironic. If it wasn’t for the sadness tugging at his face, I’d think this was a sick joke.

“There are other ways to solve your problems, Aaron.”

“No, there isn’t.” He glares at me, his eyes hard and cold. “Not with this. You wouldn’t understand.”

“What do you mean, I wouldn’t understand? I’m not an idiot. I can handle it.”

“I don’t think you’re an idiot. Jesus, Libbi, you are so stubborn sometimes.” He pushes away from the railing and paces back and forth in front of me like a caged animal. “Never mind what I said. I just want it over, okay?”

“But, you said…”

“Forget it. I want to die. That’s all there is to it.” His eyes hold mine for a moment and I know he’s done. He’s not telling me anything more.

“Well, how are you supposed to do it, then? You said you can’t die. How are you going to kill yourself, if you can’t die?”

He stops pacing and stares at me, eyes wide and cheeks pale. “I have a way,” he says.

I open my mouth to push him a little further, but a giggle drifts along the curve in the railroad tracks. I smack my lips closed and turn toward the noise. Voices, and they’re moving closer. At least two guys and a girl. The girl giggles again and it sounds like a high-pitched machine gun.

I know that laugh. It belongs to Makenna Collins, a senior with a serious party-girl reputation.

The group emerges from behind the trees. I’m right. It’s Makenna and two senior boys, Scott Walters and Travis Harton. They stroll around the bend in the tracks and Makenna pushes Travis playfully. He stumbles and catches himself before falling face-first into the gravel. A cackle bursts from Scott, like he’s a hyena on speed and watching Makenna push Travis is the funniest thing he’s ever seen. Loser.

“Don’t worry. They can’t see you when you’re near me,” Aaron says as he sulks down the tracks, toward the end of the bridge and the group of seniors.

“Because when we’re together, we share powers, right?” I ask.

“Right.”

“Well, how far away from you do I have to be before they can see me?” I don’t want to stray too far from Aaron and appear out of thin air, right in front of them. Not that they’d remember. They look hammered.

“Pretty far, actually, but within shouting distance. You’ll know you’ve moved out of range when your soul gets dull again.”

The trio skids down the gravel embankment supporting the tracks and onto the grass. Makenna spreads a baby-pink blanket out under the little tree, right where Aaron held me until I bawled myself silent. Before she can let go of the ends, Travis plops down and stretches out on the blanket, legs crossed and hands clasped behind his head.

“Move oudda way, blanket hog!” Scott shoves Travis’ hip with the tip of his boot.

“I wouldn’t be kickin’ the man with the goods, Scotty.” Travis continues to lay diagonal across the blanket as he yanks two liquor bottles out of his deep pants pockets. “But there’s plenty of room for Makenna…” He pats his lap and waggles his eyebrows at her.

“Ugh!” I say. “If I have to listen to any more of this, I’m gonna hurl.”

Aaron nods, but instead of continuing down the tracks past the drunken picnic, he stands frozen, eyes locked on the trio. Maybe he is a creeper, after all.

“Can we go now?” I say.

“Wait. Can’t you feel it? The energy in the air has changed. Someone is about to get marked. Right now.”

He points down the hill to the party on the blanket, but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just three drunk teens, two of them about to get busy. But I can feel it. The air is charged, electric.

“Now?” I say, but then Travis seizes Makenna’s wrist and yanks her down on top of him. Both of his hands reach around her hips, grab a hold of her butt, and squeeze. Makenna pushes herself off of him and rubs her wrist.

“Hey, asshole, that hurt!” She giggles, but it’s a nervous laugh, not her usual machine-gun burst.

And then I see it. One moment Travis’ soul is bright and intact and the next a four-inch-long, paper-thin fissure snakes over his left eye. It’s so fine I can barely see it, for now.

“Oh God!” I say. “Is he gonna kill her?”

“I don’t know.” Aaron’s hands clench and unclench at his sides. “But if he does, it’s not going to be today. The mark would be wider and darker if it was today.”

“Come on, Makenna.” Travis pouts and slides his hand a little too high on her thigh. “You know I’m just playin’, right? Tell her I’m just playin’, Scotty.”

“He’s just playin’.” Scott squats on the other side of Makenna, boxing her in between them. “But I don’t know why you’re acting all virginal and shit. Jayce said you like it rough.”

“What are you talking about? I never hooked up with Jayce.” There’s no laugh in her voice now, nervous or otherwise. Travis digs his fingertips into the meat of her inner thigh.

“Ouch!” She pushes his hand away and tries to get up, but Scott seizes her ankles and yanks her back down. “Oh God! Help!” she screams. Her eyes widen and her bottom lip quivers when Travis rips the fly of his jeans down. Scott forces Makenna back on the blanket and grabs her left breast. He pinches it so hard she cries out in pain. He smacks his hand over her mouth.

I jump to my feet. I’m not going to stay up here on this stupid bridge and watch this happen. I can’t. I step over the rail, intent on plunging down the gravel incline and slugging Travis in the jaw and then kicking Scott in the balls, but Aaron grabs my hand and yanks me to a halt.

“They’re gonna rape her, Aaron.” I rip my hand free. “Can’t you see that?”

“Yes.” His murderous eyes don’t move from the scene on the blanket.