Grim Crush (Grimly Ever After) (3 page)

“Okay,” Shilah said. “See you later.”

“Maybe. Bye.” I spun around and ran through the forest. When I was out of sight, I teleported to go to my next reaping assignment. And I arrived just in time to guide an elderly lady into Purgatory.

I wonder how Shilah would react if he knew what I did for a living?

Chapter 4

Rule #1: Do not interfere with someone’s death.

Rule #2: Do not become emotionally involved.

Rule #3: Do not show yourself to the living.

The three Rules of Reaping were carved into a stone formation that looked like a rectangular table. It was where the reapers of Section #303, where I belonged, met up with our superiors. There were twenty-six seats around the table.

“Xia, you’re not looking at the Rules. I told everyone to look down at the Rules,” spoke Aquil, one of my three superiors. She was a middle-aged woman with hair the color of snow. She stood at one end of the table, beside another superior. Only two superiors showed up at one time for meetings like this.

“I already
know
the Rules,” I said, exasperated.

“Well, apparently some of you don’t, because a couple of you have been breaking them.”

Around the table, reapers gasped and looked at one another. I sat up straight, more attentive now.

“Now, I’m not going to say
who
is breaking Rules and which Rules are being broken, but I think you all need a reminder why these rules are in place.”

Uh oh, why is Aquil giving
me
a look? She’s always keeping her eye on me, but I’ve never broken one of the major Rules. Sure, sometimes I might be a little rude to irritating dead spirits, but that’s only a violation of our code, not the Rules.

Our oldest superior, a bald dark-skinned man named Waiser, cleared his throat. “These rules are important because they help ensure the balance of life and death. For the most part, Rule Three was set up so you won’t befriend a living person and start caring about that individual. Which leads to why Rule Two was created. And if you break Rule Two, that may lead to an attempt to break Rule One.

“Death cannot easily be interfered with,” Waiser continued, “but if somehow one of you
did
stop a person from dying when it’s their time, it would start a horrible chain of events. People may start dying sooner than they’re supposed to. There would be too many or too few deaths. The world of the living would panic if the population increased or decreased too rapidly. It could lead to the destruction and, eventually, extinction of humans. And think of the mess it would be here with so many souls coming through at once. It would lead to the downfall of our existence too. Not one of you wants to be the cause of all that, right?”

Several reapers shook their heads. I sighed and rolled my eyes, having heard all this numerous times before. Beside me, Jayza glanced my way, then raised her hand.

“Yes, Jayza?” asked Waiser.

Jayza lowered her hand. “Um, speaking of the Rules, I think Xia has something to tell you and Aquil.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to me, while I turned to give Jayza a look that could kill, if she was living.

“Is this true, Xia?” Aquil asked, her eyes boring into me. It was like she already assumed I’d done something bad.

“No, I have no idea what my reaper sister is talking about,” I replied, smiling innocently.

“But remember that
thing
you told me about the other day?” Jayza gave me a meaningful look.

“It’s nothing. I’m taking care of it,” I muttered through gritted teeth.

Jayza shook her head in disapproval, and I announced, “Jayza was a little confused. I have nothing to say.”

“All right,” said Waiser. “In that case, now I’ll let Aquil go over our code, which is a topic we
know
you’ll be interested in, Xia, since you need constant reminding about it.”

My fellow reapers snickered, some of them glancing my way. I sunk down in my seat, and waited while Aquil went over how to treat a dead soul, like being courteous and patient with them and not teasing them. Of course, she kept giving
me
looks throughout her lecture.

As soon as we were dismissed from the meeting, Jayza grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.

“Hey–!” I protested as she forced me away from everyone else, stopping when we were out of earshot.

“What was that all about?” she hissed.

“I should be asking
you
that!” I growled, yanking my arm out of her hand. “Why did you say that at the meeting? I don’t need you to speak for me!”

“Obviously you did, because you never spoke up for yourself. You said you were going to tell our superiors about the human boy who could see you!”

“You mean Shilah?”

“What?”

“The boy’s name is Shilah.”

“How do you–? Oh my gosh, you didn’t go back to talk to him, did you?”

“How else was I going to find out why he can see me?”

“Xia! What about the Rules? What about the balance of life and death?”

I rolled my eyes. “Girl, Rule One says not to interfere with death. It says nothing about
life
.”

“Um, aren’t you forgetting the third Rule?”

“Rule Three says don’t
show
yourself to the living. It isn’t my fault Shilah can see me! The Rule doesn’t apply to him, obviously.”

“Then you should probably stay away from him!”

“But I need to know what’s special about him. He can see a reaper, and he even said his family is obsessed with death.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Those can’t be coincidences. I’m
about
death, and he can see me…there’s something important about him, I just know it. Our superiors might want me to study this boy’s connection to us.”

“Well then, you should
tell
them and see if that’s what they want you to do.”

“This is too important to discuss at a regular meeting. I need to tell our superiors when all three of them are together, and in privacy.”

Jayza crossed her arms. “You know what? It sounds like you’re stalling.”

“I am. I want to learn more about Shilah first so I can have a lot to report.”

My friend raised an eyebrow. “Is that the
only
reason?”

“What other reason is there? It’s not like I
want
to see this boy. I can’t stand talking to the living. It’s too complicated. I’m doing this for research purposes only. By the way, I need you to meet him.”

“Why? I don’t want to talk to the living!”

“All you have to do is pretend you’re human. I want to make sure he can see
all
reapers, not just me.”

Jayza sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it, on one condition.”

“One condition? Where did you learn that from, the humans?”

“As if
you
don’t learn a trick or two from watching them. I will meet Shilah if you promise to talk to our superiors afterwards.”

Now it was my turn to sigh. “Okay, deal. But will you come with me when I talk to them?”

“Yeah. You’ll probably need a witness, especially to convince Aquil.”

I sucked my teeth. “She acts like I’m a big liar. I’ve only lied to her…” I thought. “…four times.”

Jayza and I laughed. What I’d just said was a lie.

* * *

A reaper’s schedule can be hell. One day you can have just five deaths, and the next you can have thirty. They can occur every couple hours, or only minutes apart. Sometimes, I’m not alerted about a death until the last minute because some change of fate has occurred (like a couple months ago when some maniac decided to shoot up a grocery store). The Angel of Death can’t predict
everything
ahead of time. When he knows something, then the rest of us reapers know.

Therefore, it wasn’t until two days later that I finally had a few hours to spare. So I went back to Chad’s Cliff (that was my official nickname for it). I didn’t have to wait long before the reaper-seer showed up this time.

“You shouldn’t stand so close to the edge, Xia,” I heard a voice say behind me.

I turned away from the cliff precipice to see Shilah staring at me from a few feet away, his long hair tossing around in the wind. He was giving me that this-girl-is-insane look again.

“I’m not afraid of death,” I replied. After I’d said it, I realized it probably made me seem even crazier in his eyes.

Instead, he chuckled. “You sound like my grandmother. She says things like that all the time.” He walked closer to me, his eyes showing concern. “You seem brave, but I don’t want to see someone else die on this cliff. You should get back.” Then, before I could react, his hand reached out toward my wrist.

“No–!” I cried. And then, something strange happened. Shilah’s hand actually
grasped
my wrist. His hand didn’t pass through me. A jolt traveled up my arm at his touch, and I could
feel
the warmth of his skin. I gasped.

“What?” Shilah asked, confused by my reaction.

I pulled out of his grip and walked around him. I kept my back to him as I stared hard at my wrist. I’d only ever been touched by another reaper, and usually I could feel nothing. No coldness, no warmth, no jolt.

“What’s wrong?” Shilah walked up behind me. “Did I hurt you?”

“N-no. I’m fine.” I massaged my wrist, and the feeling of his touch disappeared. I was glad because it had felt awkward, but at the same time I wanted to feel it again.

“Then why did you–?”

I spun back around to face him. “So, how are you today?” Humans were always asking each other that question, although I didn’t know the purpose of it. For me, I was using it as a distraction.

“I’m…fine.” Shilah’s answer came out slow as he continued studying me. “And how are you?”

“I’m good.” Okay, what else did humans usually say? “Uh…the weather’s nice today, isn’t it?”

“Um…not really. It’s cloudy and very windy today.”

“Oh.” I frowned. I needed to study humans more so I’d know how to properly converse with one.

“Xia?”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t have to try so hard to be normal. That’s what you’re doing, isn’t it?”

“Well…last time you said I was weird. Do you still think I’m weird?”

Shilah nodded. “Yes. More than ever. You’re weird even when you
try
to be normal.”

I narrowed my eyes, and Shilah laughed. After a moment, my face broke out into a grin, and then I was chuckling with him.

“So, you decided to come back,” Shilah said when the laughter had died down.

“Yeah. I like it here,” I answered, gazing around the scenic area.

“Or you just missed me.” Shilah grinned, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah right. I didn’t even know if you’d be here.”

“I come around here a lot. This is where I get away from my family. I was here yesterday, actually.”

“Were you looking for me?”

“No.” Shilah hesitated, then added, “Maybe.”

I beamed. I don’t know why it made me happy to know he’d been looking for me. “It’s hard for me to come here as much as I want to. I don’t have a lot of free time.”

“Why?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it to think about how to answer that. Finally, I said, “It’s too hard to explain. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“All right.” Shilah turned and headed toward a tree, where he sat on the grass with his back to its trunk.

I went over and sat across from him, crossing my legs. “Does that make you mad?”

Shilah shook his head. “You don’t have to tell me what you don’t want to. You don’t know me well, so I understand.”

Well, that was a relief. I think I could actually like this boy, but I couldn’t keep seeing him. A reaper befriending the living would be…well, it wasn’t possible. The sooner I found out why he could see me, the better. “So, tell me more about your family and their obsession with death.”

Shilah screwed up his face. “Are you sure you want to hear about that?”

“Yes. Uh…back in Italy, where I’m from, my community studies death a lot. We learn not to be afraid of it and how to handle it. So I’m kind of fascinated by it.”

Shilah rolled his eyes. “Oh, brother. My grandparents would love you.”

“Can I meet them one day?” I wondered if his whole family could see me.

“Maybe.” He paused, then said, “This obsession with death goes way back in my family. My ancestors tried all types of spiritual methods to try to manage death.”

“Manage death? Ha, I’d like to see that.” A human controlling death. How amusing.

“If you think that’s crazy, there were also rumors that they had special powers to talk to the dead or something.”

“Really?” That sounded close to what Shilah was doing now.

“I think so. I don’t know the whole story. My grandmother is especially intrigued by our ancestors. My parents didn’t used to care about that stuff, but they got into it more when my little sister died.” Shilah stared at the ground, his hair falling forward to curtain the right side of his face.