Grim Crush (Grimly Ever After) (4 page)

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “When did she die?” I might’ve been the one to reap her soul.

He wrapped a blade of grass around his finger. “About four years ago. She was nine.”

Grim reapers didn’t start reaping till they were fourteen, and I was thirteen four years ago. “How did she die?”

“She had cancer.” He yanked up the piece of grass.

“Oh.” I sighed. “I hate seeing kids die from something inside their own bodies.”

Shilah stared at me. “You’ve seen that happen a lot?”

“Uh…yeah. I’ve…worked in hospitals.”

“Volunteer work?”

“Yep.” I sure wasn’t getting paid. “Were you close to your sister?”

Shilah sniffed and nodded. “I was only thirteen when it happened, but I was like her protector. When we were in school together, I made sure the older kids didn’t mess with her.”

I smiled. “You must’ve been a great big brother.”

“I guess.” Shilah was silent for a minute before saying, “I wish I understood death better. Why does it have to happen to the young and the innocent?”

“I think it has to do with the balance of life and death,” I replied. “For every death that happens, there is more life to replace it.” When Shilah gave me a funny look, I added, “That’s what Italians say, anyway.”

“Right, you’re
Italian.
So, tell me about
your
family. Any brothers or sisters?”

“No. I’m an only child. Is your–”

“What about your parents?”

He was trying to keep the conversation about me. This was
not
good. “Uh…I never get to see my father. He’s always busy.” That was part true. The Angel of Death was the closest thing I had to a father. He was more like a creator though. And he was so busy that reapers, unless under very special circumstances, never got to see him.
I
had never seen him before.

“And what about your mom?” Shilah prodded.

“I don’t have one.”

“Oh, sorry.” He appeared sorrowful, and he didn’t even know how true my answer was. “What happened to her?”

“I never knew her. Complications in child birth.” Ironically,
I
was the one who had died as a human baby. That’s how I arrived in The In-Between and grew up to become a reaper.

“Wow, I can’t imagine having never met my mom,” Shilah said sympathetically. “That must be hard for you.”

I stared at the ground. “Well…you can’t miss what you never had, right?” Then, I sensed that a death was occurring in my area. This one was unscheduled. “Dammit! I have to go.” I got to my feet.

“Now?” Shilah asked, looking up at me. “Why?”

“I just remembered I have to do something.” I didn’t want to go. I enjoyed talking to Shilah, when I wasn’t making up lies about my supposed human life.

Shilah stood too. “Will you come back tomorrow? Or I could meet you somewhere else, like at the mall or–”

“No! Here’s fine.” I imagined everyone in a public place staring at Shilah as he talked to an empty chair. Or I could
allow
myself to be seen by other humans…no, no, I shouldn’t think about breaking a Rule. Aquil would kill me…or try to find a way to. I’d heard reapers could be sent to Hell.

“O-kay,” Shilah said, probably wondering why my answer had been so vehement. “We’ll keep meeting here. What time will you be here tomorrow?”

“I seriously don’t know. I have to see when I’ll have time. Got to go. Bye.” I started jogging away.

“Hey, Xia?” Shilah called.

“What?” I stopped and turned back, frowning at him. I was already irritated that I had to leave, and if I was late for this death, I’d have to deal with a wandering spirit.

Shilah’s brown eyes studied me. “There’s something about you I haven’t figured out yet. But I will. Even if I have to pry it out of you.” He grinned.

I responded with a nervous smile, swallowing. Then I ran away until I had a clear place to teleport from.

Chapter 5

“Shilah, I’d like you to meet my best friend, Jayza,” I introduced, giving my friend a gentle push. She stiffly stumbled a baby step forward. Good gracious, this girl acted like the living would bite.

Shilah stuck out his hand. “Hi, nice to meet you.”

Jayza’s eyes widened, and she gave me a look. I gave her one back that said,
see, I told you
.

Jayza turned back to Shilah and jerked out her hand, as if she were a robot. Shilah shook it, and my friend cringed when his hand didn’t pass through hers. I’d warned her not to react that way.

Shilah didn’t seem to notice. “So, Jayza, is it just me, or does Xia act weird to you?”

“Uh…” Jayza looked just as uncomfortable as I had when I first talked to Shilah. “Yes, she’s definitely weird. Like, beyond weird.”

I glared at her as Shilah laughed.

“Girl, you are just as
weird
as me,” I reminded. “You’re from
Italy
too.”

“Italy?” Jayza questioned, a confused look on her face. Then she nodded. “Oh, yeah. Right. Italy.”

“Anyway,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Jayza has been wanting to meet you, so I brought her here today.”

“Oh,” Shilah said. “So you talk about me?”

“Not a lot, Mr. Ego,” I muttered as Shilah grinned. “Jayza just wanted to know who I go see.”

“I wonder if Jayza will tell me things that you won’t.” Shilah turned to my friend. “Like, where does Xia go all the time? Why is she so busy?”

I bit my bottom lip and glanced uneasily at Jayza. She answered, “Xia’s father is very demanding of her.”

Shilah lifted his eyebrows at me. “You work for your dad?”

“Yeah,” I replied reluctantly. The Angel of Death
was
my boss, too.

“What do you do for him?”

Reap dead souls
. “I collect…stuff…from people.”

“And you’re not going to tell me what you collect, are you?”

I shook my head. “I can’t. I’m sorry.” I didn’t want to lie to him if I didn’t have to.

“So, yesterday, you suddenly remembered you had to
collect
something for your dad?”

“Yes. This girl needed to give him something.” That girl had
wanted
to give up her soul. I had responded to a suicide, which was why it had been unscheduled. “I would’ve gotten in big trouble if I didn’t do it.”

Jayza nodded in agreement. “Yeah, there are
major
consequences if we don’t do what we’re told.”

“So you work for Xia’s dad too?” Shilah asked.

“Yep.”

“I see.” Shilah didn’t look like he believed everything coming out of our mouths. I thought we sounded pretty convincing, since most of what we were saying was true.

Jayza turned to me. “Well, Xia, I should get going. I have to go to a fire to pick up–”

Panicking, I made gestures telling her to stop what she was about to say.

“–my…brother-in-law,” Jayza said instead. I winced.

“Fire?” Shilah repeated, his eyes large.

“Uh, she means fire
department
,” I lied. “Her brother-in-law is a fireman. Jayza gets confused with the English language sometimes, so she forgets to say certain words.”

Jayza narrowed her eyes at me. “Hey, my English is fine, thank you very–”

I cut Jayza off, placing my hands on her shoulders and pushing her forward. “Right, well, you should get going to that fire
department
.” I leaned close and whispered, “Remember, don’t teleport till Shilah can’t see you.”

“I
know
that,” Jayza growled, shrugging me off. She stopped and turned to face me. “You just remember to meet me back at base later so we can talk to our superiors about this.”

I glanced over at Shilah standing ten feet away. “Look, I
am
going to talk to them, but I just need to do one more thing first.”

“Xia…”

“Don’t you think they’re going to want to know if there are others like Shilah? What if he got it from his family? I need to know if they can see me too.”

Jayza rolled her eyes. “
Fine
. I’ll give you three more days, and then I’m telling them myself if you don’t. No more stalling. This is too important to keep a secret.”

“Okay, whatever. Bye.” I headed back to Shilah, while Jayza walked away.

“Your friend is nice,” Shilah told me when I reached him.

“But she’s a little weird too, isn’t she?” I said, gazing after my reaper sister.

Shilah shrugged. “A little. She probably gets her weirdness from you.”

I shoved Shilah in his chest as he chuckled. When my hands touched the red cloth of his shirt, I felt the warmth of his body through it. And suddenly, I had a strong urge to feel his skin with my fingertips. I clasped my hands behind my back to keep them under control.

Shilah and I sat and had our first long conversation without interruption that evening. He talked mostly about his family, and I used my knowledge of current human trends to keep the conversation away from being about me.

However, at one point, he said, “I think I have a way to prove if you’re really from Italy.”

“How?” I asked, frowning.

He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

“What’s that?” I asked.

He unfolded the paper. “I’m going to see if you really know how to speak Italian.”

My eyebrows shot up in amusement. “You’re actually going to
quiz
me?”

“Yes. Nervous?” He flashed me a taunting smirk.

I laughed. “No way. Bring it on.” I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when I spoke perfect Italian. Heck, he could quiz me on Chinese and Arabic while he was at it. I’d learned over a hundred languages before I became a reaper, for when I had to do reaps around the world.

Shilah didn’t look so sure now since I had so much confidence. “Okay…how do you say ‘bird’ in Italian?”

“
Uccello
.”

“That was an easy one. How about ‘pencil’?”

“
Matita
.”

“Shirt?”

“
Camicia
. And a blouse is
camicetta
.” Now it was my turn to smirk.

“How do you say ‘what are you watching’?”

“
Cosa stai guardando
?”

“This is a hard one. Newspaper.”

“
Giornale
.” I sighed.  “Are you done? Or, to put it in Italian,
Ha finito
?”

“
No
.” He frowned at the paper, then stared up at the sky. “How do you say…stratosphere?”

I narrowed my eyes. “That’s not on the paper.”

He smiled. “But I bet you can’t say it.”

I didn’t even know what a stratosphere was, but I wouldn’t let him know that. I gave him a smug look. “You’re just mad because I proved you wrong.”

His face scrunched up. “This still doesn’t mean you’re Italian. You could’ve just learned the language.”

“True. But what do you
think
I am, then?”

Shilah shrugged. “I have no idea. You’re just so…mysterious.”

“Maybe I want to keep it that way.” I didn’t want to talk about me anymore. “So, what do you like to do for fun?”

That question distracted him. We chatted till the sun was going down, coloring the sky orange and purple. I felt comfortable talking to Shilah by now, and the sunset view from Chad’s Cliff was so beautiful and perfect that I never wanted to leave. But death didn’t take a break for long in my area, and soon I had to respond to someone’s drowning.

Before I left, Shilah gave me something I’d never experienced before. A hug. At first it startled me, but then I slowly wrapped my arms around him too. His warmth seeped into my entire body this time, and it felt so soothing that I held him tight for several seconds.

“Um…Xia? I thought you had to go,” Shilah said when I didn’t let go.

“I do,” I murmured against his chest. I listened to his heartbeat as it thrummed in my ear. It was one of the sweetest sounds I’d ever heard.

“Then can I have my body back before you leave?”

I finally came to my senses then and let him go, backing away. My cheeks burned, and I knew they must be red. “Oh crap, sorry. I…don’t know what came over me.”

Shilah was smiling, to my relief. “It’s okay. You don’t get a lot of hugs at home, do you?”

I shook my head.

“I definitely need to take you to meet my family,” Shilah said. “Even though they are death fanatics, they’re very loving.”

“I can’t wait to meet them,” I said. I liked the concept of love, despite how hard it was to understand. I wish reapers had love.

“Well, I’ll see you…whenever I see you.” Shilah turned and walked down the hill leading off the cliff.

“Tomorrow, at five o’clock!” I called. I would try my hardest to be back here then.

Shilah faced me again, gave me a thumbs up, and continued on his way.

I exhaled heavily, staring up at the darkening sky.

“Death, please give me a break tomorrow,” I prayed.

* * *

Death did not spare me. Someone was scheduled to die at 4:59 p.m. the next day. Figures.

At 4:58, I stood beside a half-constructed building, tapping my foot. I’d been here twenty minutes early, hoping this death would happen sooner than scheduled, but it hadn’t.

It felt rude wanting this person to hurry up and die. But I had somewhere to be today. I was eager to see Shilah.

Hm…this wasn’t good. I was a little
too
eager to see him. A reaper should not be getting this close to a living human. It could lead to the breaking of a Rule, and that could lead to ‘the end of the world’, as my superiors put it.

So I had to make a decision. First, I’d consult my superiors like Jayza wanted. Then, I would tell Shilah I was moving to Canada or something. I’d have to try to avoid him from then on when I go reaping so he wouldn’t know I’d lied, but it shouldn’t be that hard. It might be better if I could get relocated to another area though.

I was ripped from my thoughts when I heard people start yelling, and then a tremendous crash echoed through the air. Men in hard yellow hats ran around, gathering at some catastrophe, and one shouted for somebody to call an ambulance.

Finally. I can get this over with.

I strode past the frantic crowd and stopped. Dust obscured the air where a large concrete wall had fallen over, on top of a construction worker. I spotted a transparent man with a short, muscular body standing from the rubble.

“Hey, over here,” I called to the dead soul, waving my hand. “Come, I don’t have all day. And if I were you, I wouldn’t look down.”

The spirit eyed me with a blank stare, then looked down. His corpse’s hand lay unmoving, peeking up through the broken fragments of rubble.

I sighed. This always happened.

“Oh my God,” the soul gasped. “That’s–?”

“Yes, yes, it’s your body,” I replied in an impatient tone. “You’re dead, and I’m here to guide you in the afterlife. Now, if you don’t mind coming with me, please.”

“B-but…I’m
dead
?”

“Look, I don’t have time for the whole ‘oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m dead’ thing today. You can freak out later.” I opened a portal to Purgatory beside me. The gray vortex appeared immediately.

“Uh, who
are
you?” the soul asked, staring me up and down.

I faced him again. “I’m Xia, your grim reaper. Now–”

“You’re the Grim Reaper?”

“I’m
a
grim reaper.” I made my scythe materialize into my left hand. “I don’t like it when I have to use this, but if you don’t come on…”

The soul hesitated, took a step toward me, then stopped and looked back at his body again. Around us, the other workers stared down at his corpse with horrified looks, their faces filled with grief and shock.

I frowned. Why did I always let these souls get to me? I walked up beside the spirit, trudging carefully through the rubble, and gazed down at his body too. “Construction accident. Happens all the time. But at least a plaque with your name on it will be put up in the new building.”

“How do you know that?” asked the soul, a pained expression on his face.

“Grim reapers have to be a little psychic to do our job. Now, it’s time for you to cross over.” I pointed toward the vortex with my scythe. “I’m not taking the chance of another soul running away from me. I don’t have the time.”