Dearly Departed

by Katie May

  Adrenaline pumps through my veins, and my halo glows above my head, illuminating the forest around me. I narrow my eyes and search through the darkness when I hear a thud. Calling upon my bow and arrow, they appear—the bow in my hand and quiver of arrows across my back.

  I grab one and nock it, aiming my arrowhead towards the noises. Then I notice the insects that usually grace the night with their music are silent. Someone—or something—was here before me.

  I sneak towards the noise, my halo lighting the way.

  Thud.

  I turn quickly to my right and start jogging, my dead heart racing inside my chest. My halo glows brighter as my apprehension grows.

  And that’s when I see it.

  A body.

  Dangling from a rope slung high in the branches, thudding against the side of a tree as it sways in the wind.

  After I’d discovered the body, I raced back to the Academy and woke Mrs. Celeste to tell her what I’d found. She immediately took me to Administer’s office where I had to relay what I’d seen to a panel of professors, mostly Demons now that I think about it. They kept me up nearly all night asking me questions before I was allowed to go to bed.

  Unfortunately, sleep was not my friend. I kept trying to forget what I saw, but the image of the corpse bashing against the side of the tree, his open eyes haunting and unseeing, was burned into the backs of my eyelids. So sitting here in class today is a struggle. I’m completely exhausted, my eyelids droopy as I struggle to keep them open. I curse the need for sleep even though I’m dead. That should have been more thought out by the Fates.

  At least we get to sit on couches in Mrs. Celeste’s third year class, Angel’s 301, which is located at the tip of a turret in the Afterworld Academy. Angels do like their comfort, all that flying through the clouds surrounded by soft feathers will do that to a person.

  Even though I’ll never admit that.

  “Hey, stallion,” I hear whispered near my ear as the DDs enter through the door.

  Dry heave.

  I grumble, but ignore the old woman and distract myself by putting my long, white hair up into a ponytail.

  “Hey, Auston.” Now that’s a voice I want to hear. Sweet, just like the girl it belongs to.

  “Hey, yourself,” I respond, patting the seat next to me. “Big day today. You ready to try out those wings again?”

  “Urg,” Hadley complains, flopping down on the seat next to me. I’m so tired I can’t even appreciate how pretty she is.

  A yawn takes hold of me, and I reach my arms above my head, stretching my wings out behind me. I peek at Hadley from my slitted lids and see her eyes watching my arms and wings. I make sure to give my biceps an extra flex as I clasp my hands in front of me.

  “Long night?” she asks me sweetly.

  “You have no idea.”

  Thud.

  I jump up and look around me, eyes peeled for the swaying body. But there’s nothing here I need to be concerned with besides the fact that all eyes are on me.

  “Sorry,” a young DD apologizes, picking up his dropped book from the floor.

  I frown and sit back down.

  A hand touches my shoulder, and I jerk again, but it’s only Hadley.

  Get control of yourself, man.

  “Auston, what’s up with you?” Concern laces her voice, but how do I tell her, knowing what she’s seen?

  “I—”

  “Class, may I have your attention, please?” Mrs. Celeste cuts me off, saving me from having to either lie or tell Hadley the truth.

  The conversations floating about the classroom die down as everyone waits to see what’s in store for us today.

  “Dearly Departeds, today is the first day of your training with the Guardians. Unlike what you think you may know about being an Angel, I can assure you, Guardians are much different. Chosen to look out for and protect humans from an early demise, Guardians are entrusted with the very lives of their charges. This is not something to be taken lightly.”

  She gives a stern look at the boy who dropped his book.

  “Take care to listen to your mentors. Do as they tell you. And if a few of you show the proclivity and the fortitude to hold the lives of others in your hands, you may just earn your wings.”

  Hadley blanches at the mention of wings.

  She should.

  Her flight skills have been less than adequate. Although, if Preston didn’t insist on accompanying her to every fucking session of flight training, I have a feeling she’d be less distracted.

  Now that I think about it, why have I allowed him to be there? I should have forced him to leave us alone. I don’t barge in on her training with him. Learning how to fly isn’t easy. And his presence is hindering her advancement.

  “Jake, will you please pass out the elixir to the DDs?” Mrs. Celeste gestures to a tray containing the fake wing potion. Jake grumbles but gets up and does as he’s told, which is surprising. Jake usually jumps at the chance to be combative. Makes me wonder how he fooled the Fates into making him a Guardian in the first place.

  Jake turns around with the tray in his hands, and I notice that he looks as bad as I feel. His eyes are all red, his hair disheveled. His clothes are even mismatched.

  Hadley takes the elixir off the tray and gives me a pleading look. I shrug my shoulders, but give her an understanding smile. It sucks, but she needs to take it if she wants to come down to Earth with me.

  She uncaps it and plugs her nose, downing it in one gulp.

  “Yuck,” she exclaims, sticking her little pink tongue out in disgust. Even with that nasty potion on her lips, I still want to taste them.

  A shudder racks through her body as white, iridescent wings form on her back. It’s still odd to see wings protruding from material and not from skin as they do on us Guardians. Angels and Demons must always wear racerback tank tops, allowing our wings to have the freedom they need.

  Hadley and the other DDs tentatively flap their wings, almost like a practice swing, getting acclimated to the weight of them on their backs. Just wait until they feel the real thing someday. I almost toppled over when mine first appeared.

  Mrs. Celeste gets up and heads to the back wall, all eyes following her as she does. She grabs the long chain hanging down from the ceiling and tugs, moving the tapestry depicting a Guardian nocking his bow and arrow to the right. In doing so, she reveals the hidden door behind woven fabric, a portal that leads back to Earth.

  “DDs, mentors, line up against the wall in your pairs. DDs, hang on to your Guardian before you enter the portal.”

  I’m nervous how this is going to work when she sees who we’ve been charged with Guarding, but when she threads her fingers between mine, I only feel a sense of relief.

  I give her hand a squeeze, forgetting about the horrors of last night, and think about how good it feels to touch her. I can’t stop myself from bringing her hand to my lips and placing a chaste kiss on the back of it.

  She allows it, a crimson flush covering her cheeks as she pulls that plump lower lip into her mouth.

  God, she’s beautiful.

  But I need to push my feelings for her aside. She is here to learn, and I’m in charge of protecting her while we do so.

  “Ready?” I ask, glancing down at her.

  “Yep.”

  “Okay, don’t let go.”

  The pair in front of us, Layla and her mentor, jump into the darkness beyond the door.

  “On the count of three, we step through.” She nods in understanding. “One.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Two.” She squeezes my hand tightly in hers. “Three!”

  She holds her breath as we step off the ledge. We free fall through the darkness, just like when I leave Heaven, but unlike the vortex leading back to the Academy, this one I can control.

  In my mind’s eye, I picture the length of freeway running through Sandy Creek.

  “Stretch out your wings, but don’t let go of my hand,” I tell Hadley as the stretch of ro
ad comes into view. “Now, fly!” She struggles at first, her wings moving at opposite times. But as I beat mine in a regular pattern, her fake ones begin to mimic mine.

  “I’m doing it!” she almost screams. But the excitement quickly wears off when she notices her surroundings.

  “Are… Are we in Sandy Creek?”

  “We are,” I confirm.

  “You know I lived here when I was alive.”

  “Did you?” I feign surprise. I’m not quite sure I’m ready for her to know my role in her previous life.

  The pull to my human steers me in the right direction. We veer off the path and head over a corn field. It’s the beginning of summer on Earth and the corn is growing rapidly.

  “I know this place,” Hadley comments. Her eyes narrow as the rest of the farm comes into view. The bright blue hair of my charge is visible while her father is mowing the vast amount of grass in their fields with his headphones on.

  Distracted, he’s completely unaware of my charge, who’s stuck in a length of wire right in his path. She’s screaming, her blue hair flying around her head, but her dad can’t hear her.

  “Oh my God,” Hadley chokes out. “It can’t be.”

  “Narrow your wings, Had, we’ve got to dive to save her.”

  I tuck my wings in close to my body, and she does the same as we soar through the air. We land near my charge, but she doesn’t notice. The living can’t see us unless we allow them to.

  “What do we do?” Hadley screams, tears streaming down her face. “She can’t die like this.”

  “We dig.”

  As our blue-haired human tugs at her leg, Hadley and I move the Earth around it until she pulls herself free. Of course I have other means to save her, but I need Hadley to feel the adrenaline rush that allows us to complete our jobs.

  The riding lawn mower closes in on us.

  Ten feet.

  Five feet.

  “No!” Hadley shouts, making herself tangible with surprising quickness and pushing the girl out of the way. The human stumbles out of the path of the mower just in time. Hadley rushes over to her and moves to place her hand on her face, but it passes through as she becomes invisible once more.

  “Ocean. Ocean, it’s me,” she tells the trembling girl. “You’re safe.”

  Ocean stills, her eyes looking frantically around as Hadley drops her hand. Ocean reaches up and touches her cheek where Hadley’s hand just was.

  “I miss you,” she whispers before tears fall from her eyes. “I know it was you who saved me. I can smell your chapstick, Had.” A smile crosses her face even as she cries. “Thank you.”

  Chapter 24

  Hadley

  My mind continues to reel after the revelation that Auston has been watching over Ocean. Seeing my best friend again…

  Having her acknowledge me…

  It feels like I’m floating directly above a sword, just waiting for my body to drop and be impaled by the blade.

  I miss Ocean something fierce. Her witty banter. Her younger brother River, who could never pronounce my name, so ended up calling me “Ha.” Her hillbilly parents who were determined for us to marry the brothers across the street.

  It’s been days since I’ve seen Ocean, since I saved her from the tractor. The week felt unnaturally long and daunting, making it difficult to concentrate on my studies. When the mentor rotation bounced back to Preston, I barely acknowledged him.

  I was a shell of myself. Seeing Ocean reminded me of all I had lost—my life, for one.

  But when Preston took my hand and brought it to his lips, butterflies fluttered in my stomach and I began to think of all I'd gained. Him. We may be dead, but he made me feel more alive than I'd ever felt before. When we'd joined together, his body under mine and his intense, mossy green eyes staring up at me, I melted. I adored everything about him. The planes of his chest, which was surprisingly muscled and sculpted. His silky smooth hair that couldn't be tamed no matter what he did. His cock that was a perfect contrast of hard and soft...

  I never knew a cock could feel so good. I'm not a virgin, not by a long shot, but none of the other guys I'd been with made me feel as good as Preston did. He was inexperienced, yes, but he was the only man who had stared at me with such...love in his eyes.

  I know it's way too soon to be throwing those words around, but something emanates from his eyes whenever he stares at me. Something warm and heady. Something I can’t define but sends pinpricks of pleasure skating down my spine.

  Movement pulls me out of my reflections and I glance up to see my Demon professor, Dominic, standing in front of a gaping black hole.

  We’re outside, the bright sun heating my skin. Dominic has brought us to the South Forest where we have stopped at a locked shed. After using his keys on the padlock, the walls cave in, falling backwards until they hit the ground on all four sides. We now find ourselves staring at a black hole in the center of the weedy ground.

  A literal hole to Hell.

  It churns rapidly like a toilet after it’s been flushed, bubbling slightly. My tongue turns to sandpaper in my mouth.

  I know Demons have more...practical ways of teleporting to Hell, but us Dearly Departeds are forced to travel the old-fashioned way. In this case, jumping into darkness.Hell to the fucking no.

  Literally.

  “You will stay with your class the entire trip,” Dominic demands curtly. He clasps his hands behind his back, raising to his full height. His beautiful black wings flap slightly, emitting a gust of wind that blows my hair from my face. “Do not go off the main trail. Do not talk to the Demons. Do not look for the lost souls. If you do, you will become lost in Hell and burn up in Hell’s fire. Any questions?”

  Well...that sounds terrifying.

  “I don’t want to do this,” Layla whispers from beside me. “I much prefer working with my Reaper mentor. I’m good at that...good at helping the souls understand what’s happening to them.”

  Last week, when we were training with our Reaper mentors, they’d allowed us to take charge of a soul. My soul was a middle-aged woman named Tabby.

  “Um...I’m Hadley. I’m going to be your Reaper.”

  “Am I dead?” Tabby sobbed, her hands snaking around her waist as if she wanted to hold herself together. “Oh my gawd, did I die?”

  Oh my gawd? Who says that anymore? Especially a forty-year-old woman.

  “Yes?” It came out as a question, and I glanced at Preston over my shoulder. He nodded at me encouragingly before dropping his gaze back to my ass, his eyes lighting up with lust and wanton desire. Now that we’d had sex, he had been...insatiable. Sneaking kisses here and there. Plunging his fingers into my pussy. In all honesty, I liked this side of Preston. If I was Aggie, I would say something about him making my motor rev.

  “I can’t be dead! I can’t be! I still have so much to live for!”

  “Well...I’m sorry.” I tried to infuse gentleness into my tone. “But we really need to get your soul to the Judgment Hall.”

  “No, I’m not dead! You’re lying!” Tabby threw her hands in the air before leveling me with a piercing glare.

  “Come on. Let’s go.” My already thin patience was waning. I crossed my arms over my chest, my foot tapping with increasing speed as the seconds dragged on and she continued to sob.

  “Gentle,” Preston whispered, exaggeratedly rocking an invisible baby in his arms.

  What the fuck?

  “I’m gentle,” I hissed back.

  “What?” Tabby glanced between me and Preston. “I’m not going anywhere, especially with you.” The last statement was sneered in my direction.

  “Why you—”

  “Okayyyyy.” Preston placed his hand on my shoulder and pushed me behind him. “I’ll take over from here.” He flashed Tabby a disarmingly charming smile before extending a hand. “I’m Preston. I know you’re confused, but…”

  It took him less than two minutes.

  Fucking show off.

  Afterwards, Pr
eston pulled me into his arms and kissed me senseless. He could be a showoff all he wanted if that was the reaction I was going to get.

  Smiling at the memory, I come back to the present just as Dominic claps his hands together.

  “Who’s first?”

  Aggie raises a hand in the air.

  “If I go first, can I ride your stallion and spank that tight ass of yours,” she questions seriously. Dominic’s eyes widen slightly, almost imperceptibly, and his hands go to cover said ass. Of course, that just draws the crazy old woman’s gaze to it, and she quite literally stalks around him like a lion hunting a gazelle.

  Dominic clears his throat and raises his chin imperiously.

  “There will be no ass spanking in this class,” he states in a stern tone. Of course, that makes me giggle, and he turns in my direction, flashing me a wink.

  “Alright. Who’s first?” He claps his hands together once more, ignoring Aggie who’s on her hands and knees, her tongue hanging out as she pretends to lick him. Well, lick his asshole.

  Layla and I exchange a look, and she nods her head once. Together, we step closer, our hands instinctively interlocking. Dominic glances at us, a wide smile brewing on his face.

  “Wonderful. Your Demon mentors will meet you on the other side. Ready, ladies?”

  Layla and I glance at each other one last time. When she nods resolutely, I grit my teeth and face the hole. It almost seems to shimmer, as if there is an entire galaxy within its depths. I’m terrified I’ll become lost in it. Circling and fumbling like I’m stuck in a riptide. Drowning.

  “On the count of three,” Layla says softly, for my ears only. “One. Two.”

  Before she can get to three, I jump into the hole. She lets out a screech as I yank her after me.

  Oops.

  It feels like...slime. Gross, disgusting slime that seeps along my skin.

  In only moments, we are expelled into what appears to be a...volcano? No, not a volcano.

  Hell.

  Rocks create the cavernous room, roughly strewn on top of one another. Molten lava drips from the gray stone like water on cave walls. We’re standing on a flat surface, which is an onyx color, with fire surrounding us. Flames lick the edges, a turbulent force I can’t entirely understand. It almost appears as if there are waves in the fire, cresting against the stony walls.