Raven's Breath (The Women of Purgatory)

by Tish Thawer

  Garrett laughed at my obvious disgust. "Come on, Raven. It's only a few days away and you know how he loves the holidays. It's only natural."

  "Are you defending him?"

  He shrugged. "Defending him against what? He hasn't done anything wrong. He's recruiting another female Reaper and will be announcing her at his favorite party. So what! If you remember correctly, we celebrated you for at least a week straight when you showed up."

  I flopped back against the booth, crossed my arms, and tried to reel in my bottom lip. He was right. It was Death's choice to bring on whoever he wanted for whatever reason, and presenting them to the rest of Reapers at a party had always been a normal occurrence. So, why was this bothering me so much?

  Jealousy, plain and simple. Whether Holli was meant to be Death's girlfriend or not, she was still a hit to my ego.

  "Raven, just let it go. You will always be the first female Reaper in history, no matter how many other women Death drags into Purgatory."

  I reached for his hand and smiled. Again, he was right. Now, if only I can get rid of this terrible feeling. I had ice in my veins.

  7

  Garrett and I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing my errands which included a trip to the dry cleaners, a run to the market, and a visit to a liquor store called The Last Stop. It was now early evening on the first day of my vacation and I had no idea what to do. Normally, being alone was my first choice and I was comfortable with that, but I couldn't deny the needling feeling that I should be living it up before Holli arrived and completely shifted my world.

  Live it up? Ha! We lived in Purgatory for crying out loud. An endless expanse of gray and gloom, reminiscent of old London. I supposed Garrett and I could run across the rooftops, pretending one of the phenoms was the infamous Mr. Hyde, and see how we'd fair at tracking and catching the notorious beast, but instead I simply took Garrett out for a flight above the rooftops. When we returned, I found myself happier and more at ease than I thought was possible only a few hours ago.

  "That was fun! I don't remember the last time you took me flying." Garrett flopped down on my couch, out of breath.

  "Yeah, it was, we should do it more often. Hey, do you want some wine?"

  "Sure. That sounds good."

  I popped the cork, poured two glasses, and returned to the living room. Garrett was just about to reach for his when a loud knock resounded from the front door.

  I looked at the clock and glanced at Garrett. His eyebrows lifted as he shrugged his shoulders.

  "Who is it?" I called out.

  "Death."

  I froze, the glasses threatening to slip from my grasp if I took even one more step.

  Death had never visited my home before, and his appearance here tonight did not bode well.

  "Just a moment, please." I didn't know what else to say. I sat my glass down and took a second to gather my thoughts. I didn't want to seem flustered in front of Death, in fact, I always made it a point not to.

  I opened the door. "Please come in." With a swipe of my hand I gestured inside.

  "Thank you, Raven. I'm sorry to call on you at this hour." The ring of sincerity in his words surprised me.

  "Of course, it's fine. Garrett and I were just sitting down to watch a movie. How can I help you this evening, Sir."

  Death stole a quick glance at Garrett before continuing. "Unfortunately, I have to cut your vacation short. Another outbreak of phenoms has just been reported topside. I'll need you to start gathering them right away."

  My shoulders fell and I exhaled sharply.

  "Is that a problem?"Death asked, his terse tone enough to snap me to attention.

  "No. Of course not. Just let me get changed and I'll be on my way."

  "Great. You'll need to use portal seventy-five."

  I started towards my bedroom but halted when Death continued.

  "Oh, and Raven, just one more thing."

  8

  I turned around and froze. Standing in my living room was the beautiful Holli, her white wings filling my doorway as her satin dress pooled on my floor.

  "Raven, this is Holli. I'd like her to accompany you tonight."

  I clenched my fists. Was he kidding? I couldn't believe this. Not only had Holli showed up a day early, but now he thought it was a good idea to shove her down my throat on a mission?

  "Um, with all due respect, Sir. I don't think sending a new recruit on a gathering mission as their first assignment is a good idea. As you said yourself, I need to hurry and she would only slow me down." I lifted my chin and crossed my arms.

  The look on Death's face sent chills down my spine. Silence hung in the air and Garrett seized the opportunity to jump up from the couch and reach for Holli's hand.

  "Hi, Holli. I'm Garrett. It's nice to meet you."

  I'm gonna kill him. How dare my best friend speak to her, let alone be nice to her.

  "Hello." Her voice was sweet and soft, just as you'd expect. Gag.

  I stared, taking in her porcelain skin, dark gothic makeup, and long platinum hair. I wanted to rant and rave, to verbalize all the venomous thoughts pooling on my tongue, but with Death's icy stare boring into me, I quickly gained control of my emotions and introduced myself instead.

  "I'm sorry. Where are my manners? Holli, I'm Raven and it's very nice to meet you. Please understand, I meant no disrespect, but gathering missions are a bit...different from our usual retrievals. I wouldn't want you to become overwhelmed on your first assignment."

  I wasn't sure if Death was buying my concern, but Holli seemed to be.

  "Thank you. I'm so nervous to get started, but definitely excited to learn from the best."

  Awesome. A suck up.

  I met Death's gaze and knew I didn't have a choice.

  "All right. Let me change and we'll head out." I nodded at Death and asked, "Have you given her Reaper ribbons as well?"

  "No, but Holli has perks that should come in just as handy."

  Cryptic...Great!

  "Fine. Give me five."

  I stomped into my bedroom, slammed the door, and ripped a pair of leathers off a hanger in the closet. Five minutes later, I was dressed and standing in front of the mirror, my dark hair and black wings a complete contradiction to the snow-white angel waiting in my living room. I shook my head and walked out to rejoin the crowd and caught Holli removing her hand from Death's forearm. The gesture was small but spoke volumes.

  "You ready?"

  "I think so," she smiled tentatively.

  I glanced at Garrett, who was still plastered at the end of my couch. "Lock up for me?" I asked.

  "Sure. No problem."

  After escorting Death from my apartment he turned and added, "Raven, you should know that until I've officially introduced Holli to the other Reapers, she will remained cloaked––shrouded by my magic. No one but you, Garrett and me can actually see or communicate with her."

  With no further explanation he smiled at Holli, wished us luck and disappeared, leaving me and the invisible girl to make our way to the portal fields.

  In Purgatory the portals were housed in mausoleums, exactly as they were topside, but here they were laid out in rows of tens, covering an area of about two square miles. Death had said to use portal seventy-five, so after walking to the seventh row, we strolled down five spaces to the mausoleum we were looking for. I yanked open the door and gestured for Holli to enter.

  She hesitated. "Where will we end up?"

  "I don't know."

  "What should I do when we get there?"

  "Stay out of my way."

  Already sick of the exchange, I pushed passed her and entered the glowing orb. A split second later I was overlooking Tokyo.

  Holli emerged and would have slammed into my back if I hadn't moved. "This way," I commanded.

  I could see the phenoms circling a building in the distance. There were at least twenty, which was damn odd, seeing as most outbreaks only numbered in the single digits.

  "Have you
used your wings yet?" I asked.

  "Yes. I've been trained."

  I glared at her. How could she have possibly been trained if she wasn't supposed to arrive until tomorrow night? I was about to pose my question when she interrupted my train of thought.

  "It looks like the longer we wait the more ghosts appear."

  Her soft voice annoyed me, but not as much as the fact that she was right. The cloud of phenoms seemed to be growing. What the hell? "Let's go."

  I pushed into the sky and felt Holli do the same. Her form was good and she glided smoothly beside me.

  The building had a flat roof which made for the perfect gathering point. I landed, tucked in my wings, and stretched out my hands.

  Ribbons left my fingertips just as Holli stepped up beside me. I turned my head and it was as if the world had dropped into slow motion.

  Holli stood next to me with a large silver sword raised high above her head. The weapon glowed, its metal engulfed in a purple light which highlighted the etched symbols along its blade. It pulsed, as if alive, and the swirling mass reacted.

  I stood and watched the phenoms twist into a vortex and soar towards us. Holli never moved as the souls were sucked straight into her massive sword.

  It was over in the blink of an eye; an entire cloud of escaped phenoms gone while Holli retracted her magical weapon.

  "I call it The Devourer." She clipped the now small, charm-like knife onto the chain belt that cinched her gown and shrugged like she'd just tucked away her sunglasses.

  "The Devourer?"

  "Yes. It's one of the perks Death gave me. I like it."

  "I can see why."

  She had to speak again to snap me out of my daze.

  "Do you think that's all of them, or should we make a sweep of the city?"

  "Um...yeah. We probably should," I stammered.

  Holli pursed her lips and tilted her head, probably in response to the underwhelming impression I was giving so far. Who could blame her? One mission and I'd become obsolete.

  I pushed off the building and flew into the cobalt sky. The stars twinkled and lit up Holli's wings, making them sparkle. She looked like an angel sent straight from Heaven.

  My blood boiled and I surged faster into the night. I may have disliked the idea of her arrival before, but now, with her gliding gracefully beside me, dislike was too mild of a word.

  As we darted in and out of Tokyo's famous high-rises I spotted three more clouds of phenoms writhing at the top of three different buildings.

  "You take this one, I'll get the others," I instructed.

  Holli nodded and landed on the building closest to us. I watched her raise "The Devourer" into the air once more and shook my head in disgust.

  I landed on the next rooftop and immediately flung out my Reaper ribbons. They easily wrapped around the escaped souls and began to retract with the black mass fully in tow. It was the most runaways I'd ever gathered at once.

  The large ball of swarming ghosts got closer and closer and I wasn't sure how I was going to get to the next batch without dropping these off first.

  That, of course, was when I heard Holli yell, "Do you want me to get the last of them?"

  She hovered above me, her hair blowing in the wind and her sword poised at her side. She looked like a warrior princess.

  Dammit!

  "Yes. That'd be great. I'll head back to the portal with this bunch."

  "Okay. I'll be right there." She took off like a shot towards the remaining cloud.

  My nostrils flared. I wanted to stomp my foot through the roof of the building, freeing the angry beast inside of me who was clamoring to escape. But instead, I flew back to the portal to finish my mission.

  The instant we returned to Purgatory all the phenoms were sucked into the sky, adding their black inky souls to the dismal gray expanse. I turned to Holli. "We need to let Death know what just happened. I've never seen anything like that before. Usually I've only collected five or six runners at a time," I explained.

  "Oh, he already knows. That's why he wanted me to come with you. He told me there would be a lot more souls to gather tonight."

  The angry beast inside me howled, its cry filling my head.

  9

  I paced my living room after busting through the front door, scaring the crap out of Garrett, who'd decided to wait for me.

  "Garrett, I'm telling you, something weird is going on. She said Death already knew there would be a lot more souls to gather this time. How did he know that? He's never been able to predict what we'd be facing topside before."

  Garrett slumped into the couch and exhaled a long breath. "I don't know, Raven. Maybe he's figured out a way to use his gazing pool to see the future." He shrugged.

  I glared at him and huffed at his lame excuse.

  He threw his hands in the air and exclaimed, "Well, shit, I don't know!"

  I had to think this through and if Garrett was only able to offer assumptions, he wasn't going to be much help to me. I needed to be alone.

  "Well, I guess I'll sleep on it and let you know if I think of anything tomorrow." I gestured towards the front door.

  "You kicking me out?"

  "Yep."

  "Fine, but promise you'll actually sleep and not stay up all night, freaking out about this, okay?"

  "I promise."

  Four hours later all I could see were the tiny red pixels of my digital clock through squinted eyes––2 a.m. Even after all the brainstorming I'd done, I couldn't come up with a logical explanation to how Death could have known about the extra phenoms. I'd contemplated Garrett's comment over and over. It was widely known Death's gazing pool was a way for him to see topside, but now, I'd begun to wonder if Garrett was right. Was Death's pool somehow becoming predictive in nature?

  Exhausted, I flopped back onto my pillow and hoped to get a couple hours of sleep, keeping my promise to Garrett, if only minimally.

  Tonight's dream wasn't of Holli, but instead of the runaway ghosts we'd collected and their brethren. I saw massive groups of phenoms in cities all over the world, swarming like bees around rooftops and trees. It was as if they were balloons and someone had cut them free, causing them to float up and up until they hit an invisible ceiling.

  Lucid dreaming wasn't a skill I'd honed, but I made the effort to turn around and search the scene for clues. Nothing else stood out or struck me as odd, so after one last look at the cloud of souls, I told myself to wake up.

  This was the hard part. Sometimes I'd get caught in-between, knowing I was dreaming and thinking I was awake only to realize I was still asleep. Wake up!

  As my eyelids fluttered, I saw one more thing; Death stood in a candlelit room, holding a large scythe, surrounded by souls.

  I rolled over and reached for the pad and pen I kept next to my bed. The dream was cliché, but regardless, I didn't want to leave out anything when I talked to Garrett about this. Maybe together we could take these pieces and complete a puzzle that would somehow make sense. If not...it looked like Holli and I were going to become very busy in the near future.

  I scratched down all the details I could recall. The massive clouds of runaway souls, the names of the cities I'd recognized; New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. The shape and items in the room where Death stood. I closed my eyes and concentrated, hoping to remember at least a few more details.

  Seconds ticked by and I began to drift back into that space between conscious and unconscious thought.

  Holy shit! My eyes snapped open and I grabbed the pad again, quickly drawing the balloon that hovered behind Death's head.

  10

  I hammered on Garrett's door, regretting that I'd sent him home last night.

  "Open up. I have to talk to you."

  I didn't care it was only six a.m. on Sunday morning. It was imperative that I told Garrett what I'd seen.

  "Garrett! Come on, man. Wake up!"

  "I am awake, Raven."

  I spun around to see Garrett strolling up behind
me with fresh coffee and donuts in hand.

  "Oh my God, I love you."

  "I know."

  I followed him in and grabbed a cinnamon twist and the caramel spice latté he'd bought just for me.

  "I figured you'd be banging down my door this morning, so I got up early and ran out for some grub."

  "You're a life saver. Did I mention that I love you?"

  He laughed. "Yes, yes you did, and I love you, too. Now tell me what you got."

  I sunk into his oversized chair and crossed my legs. "Okay. So I thought about what you said and I don't think this has anything to do with Death's gazing pool, but I do think he's behind the increase in runaways."

  He squinted at me over the rim of his styrofoam cup while I laid it all out for him. By the time I finished it was, well...seconds later because I was talking a mile a minute.

  "Basically, I think he's found a way to snip the souls before the Reapers have a chance to retrieve them. I just don't know why he'd do that. It goes against everything the Reapers stand for."

  Reapers were bound by free will. The souls had to choose to come with us in order to move on. Even running was a choice. Only I, and apparently Holli, were exceptions to the rule since we could gather and bring them to Purgatory against their will.

  The slight change in Garrett's demeanor would have gone unnoticed by anyone other than me. I scooted to the edge of my chair and leaned forward, setting my coffee down and steepling my fingers.

  "You know something. What is it?"

  Garrett sighed and set his cup on the table. "I can't tell you."

  "Excuse me?"

  "I think I might know something but I'll have to do a little digging to confirm my suspicions."

  "Garrett! Tell me what you know right now!"

  He pushed up off the couch and started pacing. "I can't, Raven! If I'm wrong we'll be in trouble, and if I'm right...we'll be in big trouble."

  Oh shit. "That bad?"

  "Potentially."

  Damn! As curious as I was, maybe I didn't want to know after all.