by Amy Barrett
“Yep. There was a woman.”
“A woman?”
“Tall thin job. Blonde hair tightly tied. Her face was like stone, you know, kinda scary.”
“Can you remember what this woman was wearing?”
“Yeah. A black and white outfit that contrasted nicely with her cold blue eyes. And a cap.”
Kershaw feverishly scribbled it all down. “Where there any other witnesses?”
“That one in the terrible dress, she saw it all, but I think she missed the murder.” Ivan smirked at the officer. “One other thing.”
“Yes?” Kershaw leaned over the table.
“She doesn’t take jokes well.” He winked at her and his eyes glistened.
Kershaw sat in silence for at least a minute before she caught up. Her mouth fell open and air rushed out. “You are describing me, aren’t you?”
Ivan smiled wider. “Was it the joke thing that gave it away?”
“These games aren’t helping you.” Kershaw stood and smacked her hands palms down on the table.
“I wouldn’t have to play games if you just let me go, mate. I saw no one and I did nothing. Case closed, for me at least.” Ivan strode to the door. “Now, can I please go and get my job before someone takes it.”
Kershaw pushed past him. Her arm caught on the doorframe and she swore. “No. You will remain here for now. I might still have some questions for you.”
Ivan had never been pushed before and it distracted him enough that he didn’t try to get out the door while she was leaving. Once he was done marvelling at the feeling he cursed himself for not trying to get past her. God knows how long he was going to be trapped in this dull place now. With nothing else to do to pass the time, Ivan resumed fixing his hair in the mirror.
Chapter 5
Nick woke up, but he didn’t open his eyes. He knew, by the familiar ache in his bones and fatigue in his muscles, that he had spent the night hunting. That it had been in control. He lay where he was for a while. Cold seeped from the ground into his bones, making him shiver. With his eyes closed, his mind wandered. He saw Mia’s face slip around the door frame, her hair a curtain that hid the other room. He remembered the silly faces she made while the adults did their best to explain to an eighteen-year-old guy that he had a great responsibility to the world. He remembered hearing his mother shooing Mia away. The worst of the images came after that. His heart started to pound, and a tightness formed in his chest.
He opened his eyes before the darkness of the past could suck him in. The place he was in was grey and dark. Not too far away, the sun stained the path. The alleyway was big and held two large dumpsters. Nick surveyed the area for bodies. When he didn’t see any he wasn’t hopeful. He knew that it always killed. He sat reclined on the concrete. It took a while before he had the heart and strength to get up. But he didn’t have time to lie around and come to terms with the feelings rampaging around his head. The wolves were out there somewhere. They had turned too and could be in danger. He pushed himself onto his feet. He shook but managed to stand straight. The ground was sharp, and he had no shoes, so his feet were being stabbed by tiny stones. He cringed while he walked but once he was out in the street the pain faded into the background and his vision narrowed into a tunnel.
The remains of bodies lay scattered, like gruesome confetti, along the pathways. At least six or seven piles that used to be people lay before him. Eyes that were ripped from their sockets and abandoned on the street, watched him. Their accusing stare crippled his breathing. Hands were torn miles from their arms. Strings of intestines lay in the road, tangled like purplish shoelaces. The city air drowned out the smell of their death, but Nick still recalled the stench from times before and imagined he could smell it now. He could see Dan’s face on the mangled bodies. His chest hurt so badly he doubled over. He was no better than the demons.
It made him think of hell. Perhaps hell had followed him. His vision swam as tears piled up in his eyes.
Police cars had already started to arrive. Parents hid their children’s eyes and muttered about the horror of it. Nick receded into the dark of the alleyway again. He was naked, but he didn’t feel like it. He felt dressed up in blood. He felt like he wore a disguise crafted from their skin. He wanted to peel off the truth of what he had done and how much it reminded him of the actions of a demon. Only those dead eyes saw past it all and who could they tell?
***
Ivan had waited three hours in that weird place. Kershaw was then forced to come in and admit that she had nothing on him, and she let him go. When he got outside, Ivan was prepared to go and get his job. If he didn’t hurry then someone might steal it and then he would have to, well he didn’t know what he would do to them, but it would be bad.
Rain pelted down on him in huge drops, each one seeming to soak him over and over. He tried to shield his hair, but the rain flattened it to his head. A policeman was walking out of the station and Ivan stopped the square shouldered man on his way.
“Is it okay to go to a job looking like this?” Ivan spread his arms like wings so that the man could get a clear view of him. The guy’s flat face didn’t change, and he brushed past Ivan and continued on his way.
“Thanks mate!” Ivan called after him in a sarcastic tone.
“It could be fine, but I suppose it depends on where you work.” Ivan turned to face the voice and found it was Ciara. She leaned on the silver railing just inches from Ivan. Her hair was pulled back and twisted into a ponytail. The wind wagged it gently.
“I am gonna work in some restaurant if you must know.” Ivan grabbed the end of the railing and spun around it, so he was on the footpath and able to get past her.
“Cool, then it should be fine I suppose.”
“The approval of a stranger is very important to me so thank you.” Ivan started to walk. Ciara jogged around the railing and fell into step beside him. Ivan glanced back at her and flattened his eyebrows onto his eyes. “Stalking is a crime I think.”
Ciara laughed. The sound startled Ivan and it took a moment for his heart rate to slow again.
“I’m not stalking you really. I was headed home actually and just ran into you outside the station. What are the odds? I figure that the world is trying to tell me something.” Ciara skipped off the edge of the pavement, trailing after Ivan as they crossed the road.
“The universe doesn’t have a mouth so it can’t-” He forgot what he was going to say. The street met a sharp corner a few feet ahead and a woman lingered there. A face from a past Ivan wanted to leave behind.
“Stay here.” Ivan waved in the direction of his jolly stalker. If she had followed him, he wouldn’t have noticed.
The bun on the woman’s head was just as neat as the first time he had seen it. Not one strand had slipped out of its place. It was unsettling. She smiled thinly at him.
“Reaper.” She nodded in greeting.
It took a while for him to find his voice. He cleared his throat. “People call me Ivan nowadays.”
She watched him without blinking. “People shouldn’t be calling you anything.”
“Well then you shouldn’t be here either.” Ivan pointed his finger at her and tried to shove her in the chest with it, but she moved so it never made contact.
“I’m not here. Not in the way you are.”
“I look nuts? Wonderful. As if the humans don’t already think I am weird.” Ivan was done talking and attempted to leave.
She appeared in front of him. “You have broken something reaper.”
Ivan narrowed his eyes and backed away from her. It was a habit that he didn’t like to stay close to her. “You know that you’re a reaper, too right?”
Her jaw twitched. “You need to fix this, or things will fall apart.” A car flew past and the splutter of the engine broke some of the tension.
“What have I done then?” Ivan threw up his hands.
Without warning she grabbed him. Ivan was initially thrilled that she could touch him at all.
He had never been able to touch another reaper. His joy faded fast. The world swam, and Ivan gagged as bile rolled up his throat. The feeling passed, and he found himself viewing the world from a familiar place. The eyes of a reaper.
“Look,” she commanded, tugging him around to see the street. Silver outlines of people wandered inches off the ground. They glistened like the surface of water and flocked towards Ivan.
“Oh. There are only ten or eleven of them.”
“This is the start. They are your spirits to reap and if you don’t, they will only grow stronger.”
Ivan broke from her grip. “I don’t need you to tell me the rules mate. I know them. They will become pissed off silver people and then shit hits the fan. I get it.”
“Then fix it.” She made her way into the alleyway. “This holiday is over. Collect the spirts that should have been reaped and catch those who have escaped hell because of you and then return to where you belong, reaper.”
Ivan was wrapped up in his mind and picturing life as a reaper again, so it took a while for the statement to sink in. “Those who have escaped from hell?”
“Yes.” Her smile seemed more genuine now. “You must kill those who should not be here. You stopped collecting souls and souls give heaven and hell their power. Because of you, hell was weak enough that monsters escaped. Kill them and make sure they go back to hell. Do it reaper before things get worse.”
She vanished like a puff of air on a cold day.
Ivan wondered how he was supposed to do any of that. Its not as if there is a bus to hell or anything, he thought. Yet more than anything else he dreaded the silence he would return to when he started to collect souls again.
He needed to find Zerachiel.
***
Nick found the pack shacked up in an abandoned business. The building slumped to the left and vomited the remains of its windows onto the pavement. Nick could have imagined a better place to hide but it would have to do. Already the wolves had placed wood over the windows and a dumpster in front of the door. Nick went around the back and as he had imagined that door was clear.
He knocked, the last thing he needed to do was freak them out by barging in. The street around him hummed with life and he felt the wild impulse to run away. As soon as he stepped through this door he would be the saviour again. The memory of being defeated and locked in hell the first time was enough to make his stomach do flips and his palms sweat. Taking a steadying breath, he forced himself to stay put. They needed him.
The door opened with a joyous swing. The wolf who had opened it didn’t even look out at first. He was talking to someone inside. He had blonde curly hair and metallic blue eyes. He wasn’t as tall or built as Nick and his shoulders were a bit sloped. Nick knew his face but couldn’t remember his name. He squinted at the werewolf, but nothing came to mind.
“Nick!” the boy cheered.
Great he is a fan, Nick groaned inwardly.
“You came. Oh, we knew you would come. There were those who doubted but don’t worry I am a believer.”
Nick felt sick to his stomach. The glistening in the boy’s eyes was familiar. Every time the werewolves looked at him, their eyes shimmered in that way. Like a malicious spirit.
“Yea okay. Thanks…um…” Nick pretended that the name was on the tip of his tongue.
“Oh, I don’t expect someone like you to remember me.” He motioned for Nick to come in. “My name is Josh but I’m not important.”
Nick wanted to cringe, but he managed to hold himself still. He had learnt before that people don’t like the chosen one to show weakness. They preferred if he was as strong and unmoving as marble.
The hallway in which they walked was short. When they broke from it, the building expanded into a large space. The room was made bigger by the fact that the second floor had caved in a long time ago and now you could look up and see the ceiling. It was cold but that had no effect on the wolves. From various points in the room, wind whistled in. In the west corner, some people stood with phones out. They were doing something with them and a small blue tablet shaped object.
Josh noticed Nick looking. “Bluetooth, remember?”
Nick struggled to grasp the memory. It was faded and twirled out of his reach every time he tried to grab it.
“Yea, it took me a while too. We think it has something to do with hell.” Josh shrugged. “Like it burned memories outa us or somethin` .“
Nick nodded. He could imagine that. Those flames could have burned away his soul. Memories weren’t much of a stretch. “Why are they using Bluetooth?”
“For the back to earth party.” Josh smiled briefly before it fell away. “It’s what the others would have wanted us to do. You know?”
“Right.” Nick spoke in a dry tone and considered the room.
“We are going to change in the basement on the full moon.” Josh told him; he was quick to understand what it was that Nick was looking for. Nick hoped that all his thoughts weren’t as clear.
“Is it strong enough?”
“For us, yea. For you, well you are stronger than a freckin` god so I don’t know.” Nick hated the awe in his voice. Hated the way he spoke about it. It made his skin crawl.
“I will look at that.” Nick regarded the space again. They could live here. It would do. Lets just hope that they don’t get carried away with celebrating our escape, he thought, rubbing his hands together, we are still being hunted by demons afterall.
***
Ivan had been praying more than a monk who had sinned.
He had got nothing out of it.
He yelled at the sky and that had a similar result, with the added effect of Ciara thinking he was mad. She stood and watched all of this in silence. She hadn’t said anything about him having a conversation with an inivisible person, but she watched him with wide eyes and wrung her hands together.
“Jesus Christ!” Ivan tipped his head back and threw his hands up.
“You are very religious then?” Ciara glanced up into the sky into which he yelled.
“No. I am not. Angels are asses and God is as concrete as a fairy, but maybe good old Jesus can find my honeymooning best friend and snap him out of the rosy daze that he is in and get his holy ass here.” He finished is rant by stamping his foot.
“I could help.”
Ivan saw an excited shimmer to her wide eyes.
“You can help?” He raised one eyebrow. He seriously doubted she even knew what he was talking about let alone how to help.
“Yea.” She smiled shyly as Ivan stared at her.
“You don’t think I am crazy?” Ivan moved closer to her and searched her eyes. She had to be messing with him. He had just told her his friend is an angel and she wanted to help.
Her cheeks flushed pink. “I can feel dead people.”
She doesn’t think he is crazy because she is. Ivan scraped his hands down his face. He was never going to get rid of this nutjob now. He was about to tell her to hit the road when he remembered how she had shivered when she had come into contact with him in the café before he had become visible. He had been freaked out by it at the time and it wasn’t as if she had spoken to him, but it was something.
“Unless the date went seriously worse than I thought, he is still alive.”
“I’ve never tried with a living person before. There is a first time for everything.”
Ivan heard her stop breathing while she waited for his response.
He studied her a moment longer before he decided to throw caution to the wind. It was either side with the possible lunatic or keep screaming in the middle of the street.
“Okay, mate, here I go,” he said these words to the sky then looked back at her and clasped his hands together. “My friend is an angel. So, he is not the same as the dead or the living.” Ivan waited for her to freak out. She remained totally still and and her face was blank.
“Wow. You know angels.” Her tone was cautious, and she took a slow step back.
Ivan didn
’t care that she might not believe him. At this stage he had already said too much to back out.
“Yes, and if you help me to find him then I will tell you what’s up with me.” It was a steep promise and he had gotten her attention.
“Fine. I will try and contact an angel.” There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice which Ivan decided to ignore.
“Yes.” Ivan cheered. “Right, his name is Zerachiel. He has blonde hair and is about as tall as I am and his eyes…”
Ciara waved her hand. “It doesn’t work that way. I just need his name and some kind of connection to him.” Ivan thought until an idea formed.
“Use me. I am a connection to him. His powers made me solid.” For emphasis he hit his chest with both palms.
“Solid?” Ciara gnawed on her fingernails and scanned him head to toe.
“Keep focused mate.” Ivan snapped his fingers in front of her face. Although he liked being looked at now wasn’t the time.
Shaking herself, Ciara spun and walked down the street.
“Hey!” Ivan jogged behind. “Where are you going?”
“Home.” She glanced up at the worn bus timetable on the bus stop. “We can’t do this out here.”
“Right.” Ivan shoved his hands in his pockets. The wind blew and moulded Ivan’s jacket to him from behind.
They waited for the bus in silence. The rain started. The bus came, and Ivan and Ciara got on.
Ciara walked on first and Ivan tried to follow. The driver stood up in his seat and put an arm out to stop Ivan.
“You need to pay the fare.”
Ivan covered his nose when the driver spoke to him. With breath that bad Ivan could only assume he had had shit for lunch.
The driver scowled at him.
“Are you okay?” Ciara had come back up the bus. She kept her voice low and didn’t look at the angry driver.
“Do you wanna pay your boyfriend’s fare?” Ciara jumped when the driver spoke to her. she immediately rooted around in her purse for change. When she looked up to hand over the money Ivan noticed that her face was pink again.
