Death Becomes Me (Call Me Grim Book 2) (13 page)

15

Nicholas’s house is not at all what I expect. I wouldn’t be surprised if he lived in a lavish Victorian mansion to go with his old-timey mannerisms, or a psychedelic trailer with painted flowers and peace signs to go with his faded jeans, ponytail, and scraggly goatee. But where he actually lives is neither of those things. No, Nicholas stops in front of the neighborhood haunted house, complete with broken shudders and peeling (most likely lead) paint. He bounds up the front stairs like he can’t see, or doesn’t care about, the gaping cracks in the wood and the missing step.

“Don’t be shy.” He gestures from the porch for us to follow him, and we do, but much more cautiously. “Welcome to my humble abode.” He throws open the front door and bows, allowing us to enter first. “Please, make yourselves at home.”

If the outside surprised me, the inside astounds me. The place is packed full of stuff. Unlike Bobby’s nostalgic, junk-piled attic, this stuff looks useful, though I have absolutely no idea how to use any of it. Levers, gears, winches, pulleys, ropes, and chains fill the space like steampunk spaghetti. The scent of motor oil permeates the still air of the dilapidated living room. Interspersed within the organized mess are computer screens, keyboards, what looks like a torn-apart cell phone, and some contraption that occasionally throws out blue sparks like that static-electric ball at the science museum we went to in the fifth grade.

“Nice place,” I manage, after I pull my metaphorical jaw up off the floor.

“I apologize for the mess.” Nicholas picks up a clump of wires from one crowded table and moves it to another, equally crowded table, as if that makes this room look less confusing. “I wasn’t expecting company. This way.” He leads us through the maze of wires and cords, under an arched doorway, and into a traditional-looking kitchen. A wooden table with four chairs sits beside a large window. A bouquet of fresh daisies adorns the middle of the table.

“Please, have a seat.” He pulls out two of the chairs. “Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Tea? Water?”

“Water, please,” I say as I settle into one of the chairs.

“Tea.” Aaron sits across from me. He catches my eyes and tilts his head toward the mad scientist’s dream that is Nicholas’s living room. I shrug. I have no idea what to make of it.

“Iced or hot?”

“Iced?” Aaron says, his eyes wide with curiosity.

“Coming up.” Nicholas retrieves two glasses from the cabinet next to the sink and sets them on the counter. He opens the refrigerator and the light inside blinks on.

“Your refrigerator works?” Aaron says, astonished. “From the outside, this house looks abandoned.”

“It is.” Nicholas fills one cup with tea. Condensation collects on the glass almost instantly.

“Then, how do you have electricity?”

“I have my ways.” He sits the two glasses on the table in front of us. “If you give a man almost two hundred lonely years—” He grins and angles his head toward the living room. “—he can get exceedingly creative.”

The glass of ice water almost drops from my suddenly weak hands. “Two
hundred
years?”

He nods and takes a long sip of his iced tea. “But you’re not here to discuss my longevity. You want to know what happened to Sam.”

“Yes,” Aaron says when he realizes I’m still too stunned to speak. “What’s Sam’s story?”

“Well, it’s not just Sam’s story. This story actually begins with Ruth.” Nicholas’s chair creaks as he leans back and crosses his legs. “Many years ago, Ruth and her older brother—that would be Sam—were in a car accident. As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, Ruth was supposed to die that day. Instead she was offered the chance to become a Reaper, and she took it.”

Finally able to speak, I open my mouth, but Nicholas holds up his hand to stop me.

“Don’t ask me why. I don’t know her reasoning.” He draws a line with his calloused thumb in the condensation on his glass. “Anyway, Ruth would have died instantly that night, but because of the interventions of the former Reaper, she walked away unharmed.”

Aaron and I glance at each other. This story is starting off very familiar.

“Sam, unfortunately, was not so lucky.” Nicholas continues. “He was rushed to the hospital, barely clinging to life. This devastated Ruth. Even though she wasn’t old enough, she was the one driving, and she felt responsible. She knew that once she took the Scythe, she wouldn’t be able to go to the hospital to see him. It was in another territory.” Nicholas looks at me and lifts his eyebrows. “Can you guess which territory that hospital was in?”

“Millie’s?” I say.

“Correct.” Nicholas touches his nose, tips his head, and winks. “During her training, Ruth befriended Millie at the Gateway. After she became a Reaper, Ruth asked her to check on her brother, which she did. Every day for months, Millie checked in on Sam and reported his progress back to Ruth. But one day, Ruth was stunned to hear that Sam had taken a turn for the worse. His soul was fading fast and it was only a matter of time before he met Millie face-to-face.

“Ruth, in her desperation, asked Millie to give up her Scythe and offer Sam her job as Reaper so he would live. She knew it was a long-shot, but much to Ruth’s surprise, Millie accepted. She went to his hospital room and offered him her job, making him her apprentice.” Nicholas taps a finger against his lips thoughtfully. “What Ruth didn’t realize was Millie had fallen in love with the boy. She didn’t want to give up her Scythe and die for Sam. She wanted to be with him. So she came to me.”

“To you?” Aaron says, “Why would she come to you?”

“I’m not sure, but it might have something to do with my reputation.” Nicholas beams. His eyes shift to the doorway. Whirs and beeps sound like an electronic orchestra in the living room. “Tell me. Have you ever heard of Scythe travel?”

I nod as I take a sip of water.

“Only recently, but yes,” Aaron says.

“I invented it.”

“You what?” I say.

“How?” Aaron adds.

“Once I figured out a few basic principles of the Gateway, it was relatively simple. I built a contraption that taps into the power on the other side and amplifies it in our world. It then broadcasts out, using the territory borders like telephone wires. It’s a great big web, you see. A fabric that covers the entire country. Like this.” Nicholas uses the pooling condensation on the table to draw several joined hexagons, forming a honeycomb pattern. “And when we wear a Scythe, we become a part of it.” He swipes his drawing away and props his elbow on a dry part of the table. “It drains most of the energy from our souls to use it, but it does work. You see, I have a theory—” He starts to lean closer; his eyes shine with excitement. Then he stops, blinks a few times, and sits up straight. “Oh heavens. You probably don’t care one bit for my theories.”

“No. I do. I want to hear it.” Aaron looks to me hopefully and I give him a half-shrug half-nod. Honestly, I’d like to hear this theory too. It might help us. “
We
want to hear it,” Aaron amends and gestures for Nicholas to continue.

“Okay.” Nicholas claps his hands and grins like he can’t believe he finally has a captive audience. “I think the Gateways lead somewhere … else.”

“Well, yeah,” I say, slightly disappointed. I was really hoping for something earth-shattering. “They lead to the afterlife. Heaven. Hell. Limbo. Nirvana. Whatever you want to call it.”

“Maybe. But I’ve never held much credence in those explanations.” Nicholas shakes his head, then his wide, excited eyes meet mine. “I think there’s more. Go back to the fabric analogy I used earlier. The borders that separate our territories are threads, and where a group of threads intersect there’s a Gateway. I already proved these threads have power.” He gestures to the living room. “When they come together at a Gateway, it’s enough to open a door to an alternate universe. When we Scythe travel, our souls ride the current in between dimensions.”

“Wait. I’ve heard of this.” I dig into my memory for that science documentary Max made me watch a few months ago. “Are you talking about String Theory? Multiverse stuff?”

“I don’t know what it is. Not for sure, anyway. That’s the beauty of being a scientist. I don’t have to know everything.” Nicholas smiles. “Of course, I have a theory, but I’ve come to a dead end. The only way I can test any of this is to somehow enter a Gateway and follow that light to wherever it leads.” His hand drops heavily on the table. The moments stretch and I’m about to say something to keep the conversation rolling when he finally speaks. “I’m working on something, but I’m not certain enough it will work to take the next step. And if Abaddon were to find out….” He trails off, his eyes losing focus.

“This is truly fascinating,” Aaron says with not even a hint of sarcasm. “But what does this have to do with how Sam avoided Abaddon?”

“Ah, yes. Sam.” Nicholas chuckles and swipes a few stray hairs away from his face. “I got off topic there, didn’t I? I apologize. Where was I?”

“You said Millie came to you because of your reputation,” I offer.

“Of course. My reputation.” Nicholas presses his hands together, palm to palm, and leans back in his chair. “I’ve made quite a bit of one for myself. I suppose Millie thought if I was able to experiment with the Gateway and create a communication system out of it without Abaddon finding out, that I’d be willing to help her.” He shuffles his feet under the chair. “I suppose she was right.

“Together, we came up with a plan to keep Sam moving between the three of us and one other Reaper named David. Having a soul that should be dead in one territory for long periods is almost unbearable to a Reaper if the soul isn’t physically close to them.” He touches his temple with two fingers. “Headaches, you know. Anyway, tapping into the power of the Gateway for communication makes it possible to feel when Abaddon is approaching our territory. There’s a surge of energy as he approaches. I’m sure you’ve felt it.”

“That’s because of you and your invention?” Aaron asks.

“Yes.” Nicholas smiles and pushes on. “Knowing when he was close made it easy to move Sam around. Luckily, Abaddon never figured any of this out. Actually, he still has no idea me or the other Reaper had anything to do with this plan, which is probably why Ruth and Millie insisted on bringing you to me. Abaddon thinks of me as a bit of a buffoon, a misconception I have no intention of discrediting.”

“You?” Now it’s my turn to be surprised. “A buffoon?”

“I’m intelligent enough to know when playing dumb is the wisest thing.”

“But Abaddon figured something out,” Aaron says slowly.

“Yes, he did.” The grin slips from Nicholas’s face. “We managed to keep the ruse up for several years. When Abaddon asked where her apprentice went, Millie said he ran away. Certain Sam had run to Ruth and she was hiding her brother, he tortured the poor girl. He had some kind of zombie creatures follow both Ruth and Millie for months and still learned nothing. All the while, Sam was either here with me or with David, that other Reaper I told you about, all of us waiting for the all clear, completely oblivious to Abaddon’s cruelty. He’s evil, you know. Whatever he is, he’s evil.”

I nod. There is no doubt in my mind Abaddon is evil.

Nicholas takes a slow sip of his drink before he continues. “After some time, he stopped showing up, withdrew the zombie creatures, and let poor Ruth heal. Perhaps he gave up, or perhaps he decided to give us some rope to hang ourselves with. Either way, he stopped, and we relaxed.”

A chill rolls from my scalp to my toes. I shiver. When it comes to Abaddon, nothing good happens when people relax.

“It was finally safe for Sam to go see his sister. At the sight of her broken, beaten, scarred body, he broke down. He vowed to never let that happen again because of him.” Nicholas pauses. He swipes a hand down his suddenly haggard face. Sadness tugs at the corners of his eyes. “Unfortunately, he got the chance to keep that promise.

“Abaddon came back. Somehow, he knew Sam was in Chicago, but he didn’t know where. Whether he had to bring Ruth to the brink of death or not, he was determined to find him. When Ruth felt him coming, she shooed Sam to Millie’s territory, but he didn’t stay there. He went back to the Gateway in time to find Abaddon in the midst of giving Ruth the scar she has down her face now. Sam turned himself in. But Abaddon can’t just take a soul from inside a living body. He needed Millie to kill him. She didn’t want to. She cried and pleaded with Abaddon to let him live. She told him she loved Sam, and Ruth was just about hysterical to lose her brother. But Sam wanted Millie to kill him, for Ruth’s sake. Eventually, she gave up and did.”

“Millie killed him?” I say, more surprised than I probably should be.

“Yes.”

“So that’s why Millie said she owed Ruth,” Aaron says as the pieces snap together in my brain.

“Probably.” Nicholas nods. “Ruth was not happy with Millie for killing her brother. Not even Abaddon’s punishment for Millie made things right for Ruth.”

“What did he do to Millie?” I ask, though I’m pretty sure I have an idea.

“The worst punishment he could give a Reaper. He took Millie’s left hand.”

Yup. That’s what I thought. But something still doesn’t make sense. “I know it sucks and all, but why’s losing her hand the worst punishment?” I say, thinking of Aaron and Ruth’s scars, and Bobby’s Shadow niece.