When the Dead Come a Knockin'

by B. L. Brunnemer

  “How the fuck am I supposed to do that?” I snapped. She gave a smirk. Is that what I looked like when I did that? It was kind of cute.

  “Remember when Mary Summers tackled you in the cemetery?” She asked patiently. My stomach knotted.

  “Yeah.”

  “You felt something that night when you hit the ground, do you remember?” Yeah, I fucking remembered. It still made me break into a sweat whenever I thought about it. “You felt the entire cemetery, every one of the dead.” I gave her blank face. “How many dead were in that graveyard?” I hated that I knew the answer.

  “147.”

  “You touched the ground while fully open; you felt the dead. Eventually, in the physical world, you’ll be able to use that to raise the dead.” I felt like I got hit in the gut. Her eyes ran over me. “That, however, is a ways off. But here, you can use the ability to manipulate the Veil. Use it to calm the way.” I looked up at the way and took a deep breath.

  “How the fuck am I supposed to do that?” The pretender me snorted.

  “Meditation, focus, and will.” She shot at me. “You meditated in the physical world; now you’re going to do it here. Instead of focusing down, you are going to focus out.” She shrugged and looked up at the sky. “You’ll have to figure it out from there. Like I said, the Veil isn’t usually my field.” I nodded. I was on my own now. I looked at the pretender and asked about the word that had been haunting me since I met my true self.

  “What’s a Reaper?” The pretender me grinned as she turned back to me, a small light in her eyes.

  “Caught that, did you?” She took a breath. “Grim Reapers exist Alexis. They work with lost souls, and.… other situations. Natural Necromancers have Reaper blood.” She eyed me. “Some great grandma or great, great however many times grandmother of yours was a Reaper.” I felt the blood drain from my face. “Could be very far back, Reaper blood doesn’t dilute. But it does stick with the gender of the Reaper.” She ran her or my eyes over me, the corner of her lips twitching. “A woman is rare. It’s usually men.” I was trying to wrap my head around this when she started walking off. “Get to work Alexis; shit’s out of balance, and we need it back.” She disappeared. I stood there listening to the dry wind blowing across the stone. A Grim Reaper. Fuck me. I was tired, and I knew I needed to head back. I took one long look at The Way before heading back. I had more work to do it seems. Not today. I was going to get some sleep. I closed my eyes and was jerked back and thrown up.

  I opened my eyes and groaned. I pinched my nose shut then sat up. Putting my feet on the floor of Asher’s family room. I grabbed the tissues off the coffee table and put them to my nose. My head was pounding, but it wasn’t killing me.

  “You okay, Ally?” Asher’s voice was soft, and I really appreciated it.

  “Peachy,” I said in a nasally voice. I opened my eyes to see him still sitting in the wide armchair, a cookbook in his lap. “Just... give me a few. I think this will go away.” I closed my eyes and just focused on breathing. It wasn’t too long before my nose stopped bleeding and the headache was down to a dull ache. I leaned back and rested my head on the back of the couch. “I made it to the Veil.”

  “You don’t sound happy about it.” He observed. Asher was dead right. I filled him in on everything that happened. Minus the Reaper part. I needed to keep that to myself for now. In the end, he just smiled. “Ally, you’re a step closer to crossing the dead over. That’s a good thing.” He was right; I knew he was. I was just already so tired.

  “You’re right. I know it is.” I admitted smiling. It was progress; progress I needed. He grinned at me.

  “We should all go out and celebrate.” Asher checked his phone. I was already shaking my head. I wanted to sleep. “It’s still early, call Dylan down then we’ll go out and do something.” My heart ached at Dylan’s name.

  “I can’t do that.” I sighed looking down at the coffee table.

  “It’s not that late.” Asher tried again. I shook my head before meeting his ocean eyes.

  “Dylan broke up with me last night,” I said quietly. Asher looked so shocked that his mouth opened a little. Then he recovered.

  “What happened? You guys seemed solid at the party.” He asked gently. I snorted.

  “Yeah, I thought so too.” My heart still ached, but my anger was right there with it. “He pretended all night, so he’d have one more good memory. We got back here, and he dumped me. I didn’t even see it coming.” I looked down at the table, my voice getting thick. I swallowed hard. “He tried to say it was the distance, but I called him on it. It was the ‘seizures.’” I swallowed hard, keeping my eyes down on the table. “He said I had too many problems for him to deal with.” I smiled down at Hades who had just woken up and was looking to climb in my lap again. I was going to pick him up, but first I reached behind my neck and unhooked the second necklace Dylan had given me. I held it out to Asher.

  “Ally, that was a Christmas present.” He reminded me. I nodded.

  “Yeah, and I don’t want it. Not from him. Can you get it back to him, please?” He nodded and held out his hand. I put it in his palm. “He can probably get his money back, but I’m fucking keeping the other one.” He snorted as I picked up Hades. “Thanks, Ash.”

  “Were... did you love him?”

  “He made me feel beautiful. You don’t get that every day.” I was going to cry, and I needed to be alone before that happened. “Night, Ash,” I answered gently before getting up and heading upstairs taking Hades with me. I changed into my jammies and slipped into Asher’s bed. Then I cried. Because the answer was yes. I had loved him. It was new, and not completely but still. I had loved the fucker just a little.

  The Boys: Asher

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I can’t just sit here listening to Ally crying upstairs. My gut was a rock as I turned off the TV and got to my feet. I started pacing. I heard her sniff again. She was trying to be quiet about it. But I could hear every sniff, every time she had to catch her breath. A wave of boiling rage ran through me. I threw the TV remote at the wall. That fucking asshole! What the fuck was Dylan fucking thinking? Dumping Ally like that! Lying to her all night! Telling her, she had too many fucking problems! I started pacing again as I fought the urge to drive up to Dulcet and beat the shit out of him for every tear she was crying upstairs. That piece of shit! My hands were shaking as I tried rubbing the tension out of my neck, my chest one deep ache.

  Seeing Ally cry, always fucking killed me. Hearing it wasn’t any better. I needed a distraction. Not cooking, I’d probably slice a damn finger off right now. I looked around the family room trying to find something to fix, clean, anything. My eyes went to the photos on the wall. Ally’s voice ran through my mind. If you want them up, put them up. Yeah. Today’s the day. To hell with Dad. I walked up the stairs and found the linen closet. Or it was before Dad went and took down all the photos of Mom. Now it was the picture closet. I opened the door and started looking through them. I found the one of our fifth birthday. Mom had cake all over her face because instead of eating it, Jessica and I started throwing. I smiled remembering how Mom joined in. I picked up the big box with the good ones, along with the one of the birthday. I closed the door and started down the stairs. Then I stopped. Mom’s flag. I turned around, opened the game closet and pulled it out still in plastic. Feeling steadier, more sure, I headed downstairs and put the box on the coffee table. I paused. Ally was talking to Hades, telling him she’ll be okay. She’ll get over it. She always spoke to Hades. I focused on what I was doing, the only sane thing to do right now. Over the next hour, I put up every photo we had up when Mom died. Not just in the family room. On the stairs, in the upstairs hallway and I even put a few Jessica would love on her bed. She needed to have them too. It felt right and real damn good.

  I went to the table in the foyer and opened Ally’s Christmas present where I left it. The triangular box was beautiful. It had a trim of carved flowering vines and leaves. On the front plaque
was Mom’s name, birth and death dates. And the words ‘Devoted Mother.’ It really was beautiful. Mom would have loved it. I went back into the family room and opened the back. I pulled out the flag, making sure not to mess up the fold. I put the flag inside and closed the back. I turned it over. It was perfect. Something inside me finally felt done. Finished. This was right. We couldn’t just forget Mom. Erase her like she didn’t exist. We needed to remember... I snorted as Ally’s words ran through my head. Someone should remember, and she was right. How did she always see straight through to the heart of things? Straight through me? How the hell does she do that?

  Some things were so simple to her. You want to be a chef, go be a chef. Fuck everyone else’s expectations, fuck what they want. It’s your life, be happy. My fingers ran over the flower carvings on the box as I was lost in thought. What the hell was Dylan thinking? Ally was funny, smart, sweet and insanely giving. She had worked her ass off to make sure Dylan and his dad could use that cookbook. And all those fucking cookies! Not to mention she fucking apologized to Trisha! Who would do that? She was taking those girls shit for days only because we liked them and she wanted us to be happy. Who the fuck does that? And if you pissed her off? I grinned as I pictured her face when she realized we were going to make her take a nap. Her eyes went wide in surprise then narrowed in challenge. She always liked a challenge. She tried to take us all on, and she almost took out Zeke. I chuckled this time. She had fire and a smart mouth that never failed to make me laugh. I smiled, well, sometimes even her bad jokes are just too awful. But she always gave that strange giggle because she thought it was funny. Whenever those big green eyes flashed with her temper, I had to stop myself from smiling. What the fuck was wrong with Dylan?

  I put down Mom’s box. I picked up Ally’s necklace and looked at it. The initial Dylan had chosen for her was an A. It would have worked from me. I always called her Ally, but everyone else called her Lexie. No one called her Alexis. If he really knew her, he would have gotten an L. I turned over the pendant and went still. ‘One in a million’ was stamped on the back. I snorted. At least he got that right. Ally was definitely unique. She was beautiful, and that laugh… I went still, finally listening to what I was thinking. Had been thinking, for a few days. Since before the bowling alley, since she apologized to Trisha.

  The image of Ally soaked in my kitchen flashed in my mind. Taking her clothes off like that had been torture. I rubbed my eyes with one hand. I had done my best not to look, she was cold, shaking, shit, she had been turning blue. But I still saw her curves, her tucked in waist and her fucking legs. I groaned at myself. She was petite but had those legs that still somehow managed to look long. I needed to stop thinking about it; my body was more than aware of what I was thinking. And yesterday, waking up wrapped around her. My arm between... I was pressed … and my leg... I laid back against the back of the couch, tilted my head back and groaned painfully. And when I was pissed at myself for touching her like that, she was laughing at me. She made it okay again. Then she smiled up at me with that fucking smile. I really wanted to just kiss-my heart dropped; I realized what I was thinking. What I was feeling. I liked Ally. My heart raced as it sank in. And not just as a friend. Oh, no, no, you idiot. Asher! What the hell? You know you can’t date her! You know… and…. she’s... “Shit!”

  The Boys: Miles

  I shifted in my seat, trying to get comfortable. But it wasn’t happening tonight. Autumn had worked her usual magic on me, and every muscle I had was sore. I sighed as I looked out the window of the plane as we waited to taxi out to the runway. I moved my glasses to sit on my head and rubbed my eyes with one hand. Then I just sat there, fingers on the bridge of my nose, leaning my elbow on my armrest, eyes closed. I ran through the conversation with Autumn tonight in my head.

  “Miles, baby, come back to bed.” Autumn’s sweet, sultry voice called from the bed. I finished washing my face and used a towel to dry. Autumn needed to slow down, or she was going to kill me. My back was already scratched to hell.

  “If I do, we won’t talk.” I reminded her. That’s how the last round started. I was trying to talk to her about our relationship, then she... distracted me.

  “Do we really need to?” I snorted, hung my head and closed my eyes. How could she keep doing this? We needed to talk.

  “Yeah, we really do.” I kept my eyes off her as I grabbed my pants from the floor and pulled them on. Autumn was still only wearing the white sheet. Her blonde hair was streaked with pink and blue. Her eyes were an unusual blue. And her face was pretty. I thought beautiful at one point, but that was some time ago. That’s what I was trying to save here. I leaned against the dresser out of reach of the foot of the bed. It was the only safe thing to do with Autumn around. I crossed my arms, looked at her face and waited. She pouted, actually pouted. And it wasn’t nearly the cutest thing in the world anymore. When she realized, I wasn’t going to budge she sat up and wrapped the sheet around her body. A great body, but I was tired of this game.

  “Okay, you look serious. Are you pregnant?” She asked seriously. I snorted. Yeah. She made me laugh.

  “Autumn, I don’t like this arrangement anymore.” I needed, to be honest. “I want us, to be us, full time.” She blinked at me; I’d surprised her. That was strange, she usually knew what I was going to say before I said it.

  “Why the change?” She asked, her normal voice telling me she was being honest with me now. I sighed. How could I explain it? There’s a girl back home that’s driving me crazy, and I’m here hoping you’d date only me so I could maybe stop thinking about her? Yeah, even I know that would be a stupid thing to say.

  “I’m just... tired of the back and forth.” I licked my lips. She raised an eyebrow.

  “It’s Lexie, isn’t it?” She asked grinning. Shit, she knew me too well. “How hot is she?”

  “No, it’s not really about Lexie.” It was only a half lie but I never lied to Autumn, it felt... odd. “She just reminded me of what I want.” I tried again. “I want you, all the time. I know the distance stinks, but I can come down for a couple of weekends every month. Or I could fly you up.” Her eyes ran over me seeing entirely too much. I fought the need to start tapping. That would be a dead giveaway.

  “Miles, it sounds like you're saying we go full time, or we are over. Am I hearing this right?” She asked quietly. I felt that like a kick to the gut. But she wasn’t wrong. This was more difficult to do than I had thought it would be.

  “Yes.” Her eyes went wide. “Autumn, I can’t keep doing this. I want someone full time; I want to be able to call you when stuff happens in my life at any time.” I tried to get her to understand. “I want to be able to talk to you, and know I’m not going to be calling and interrupting you with some guy. I want to be your guy.” Her eyebrows went up in surprise. “I want us back, the way we were before we started this on again off again thing. That’s what I’m trying to save here.” She blinked, I could see from here that her eyes were filling with tears. Shit.

  “So, if I say no, we’re done? No talking? No games? Just done?” Her voice started to shake. I shook my head and came around the bed to sit on the side of the bed facing her.

  “No, not just done, Auty,” I reassured her. “I couldn’t do that, you have meant so much to me over the last four years that I could never just cut you out of my life.” I reached out and held her cheek in my hand. My chest burned. This felt awful. But I needed her to understand how I was feeling, what I was saying. “If you say no, then this part of us, will be done.” Her eyes went wide again.

  “You mean the dating. We wouldn't date anymore, no more kissing, no more…” She gestured toward the bed. I nodded. “Wow, that’s kind of mean... cause this part...” We both laughed. Yeah, this part we were great at. I dropped my hand from her face and held her hand, squeezing it gently. “You really mean this, don’t you?” She asked quietly. I looked at the nightstand and nodded. “What did she remind you of? Because this has been working for years.” I
sighed. Was she listening or not? I couldn’t tell anymore.

  “She reminded me what it was like to have someone there, someone who you can call at any time, who would... put up with a lot just to see you happy. She reminded me what it was like to have someone care about me.” I couldn’t explain it any better than that. The tears were gone as she nodded.

  “She reminded you what it was like to have a real girlfriend.” Autumn's voice was soft. She understood, she wasn’t hurt by it. It just was. “Miles… if we’re full-time, that is a lot of traveling. That is a lot of time taken away from other things. I’ve got softball coming up in the spring; you have swimming. I need that scholarship for college, and I’m not going to let you pay for it.” She stopped me before I could even offer. “We have other things we want to do, besides get on a plane every other weekend.” I nodded slowly. I knew she was right. I just... needed to give it another chance.

  “I figured that, Auty,” I said, giving her a sad half smile. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.” She gave me a teary smile.

  “I love you, Miles. I always will, but we just haven’t been that couple for a long time.” She sniffed and smiled at me. I smiled back, my throat tight.

  “I love you too. And that’s not going to change.” My voice was thick, this really freaking sucked. It was done, we were over. She gave me that sultry smile she knew drove me crazy.

  “Want to say goodbye the right way?” I asked. I laughed before I kissed the hell out her.

  “Mr. Huntington?”

  I lifted my head and brought my glasses down so I could see the stewardess. She was in her twenties and had always been very nice over the last three years.

  “Please call me Miles, Lucy.” I reminded her. “We’ve been on these flights often enough.” she smiled at me and sighed.