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Authors: Michelle Muto

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BOOK: Don't Fear the Reaper
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Daniel caught sight of me walking toward him. “I don’t want to hear it, okay? The kid’s not exactly a sweetheart.”

“Actually,” I ran my hand through my hair, pushing it away from my face and hoping he didn’t notice my hand was shaking. “I thought he deserved worse.”

Daniel howled with laughter. “Well, well. Little Miss Sunshine has a thunderstorm brewing.”

I ignored his humor. “How’d you do that, anyway? I thought we couldn’t do things if anyone living was around.”

“Only applies to earthbounds, which I’m not. Besides, you didn’t see me move anything, now did you?”

I hadn’t. I blinked a few times. “Well, no.”

He eyed me for a moment. “Oh, geez! You aren’t going to cry again, are you? You can’t do anything to the little twerp anyway. Not the way I can. You’re a self-centered earthbound with issues about being dead. You’re upset and whiny because things didn’t turn out like you’d planned.
Your
kind don’t earn your stripes until you become one of us. Or, if Banning is right…” He made fluttery motions with his fingers. “One of
them
.”

My mouth dropped at Daniel’s cruel words. But, he angered me, too.
Them
? Angels? My sister was an angel now, and I didn’t appreciate him talking about them like they were something nasty to scrape off the bottom of his shoe. And
my
kind? What did he mean, exactly?
Issues?
I had screwed up royally and killed myself. Since there didn’t seem to be any do-overs, I couldn’t
help
being dead.

I half-seethed, half-quivered over Daniel’s statement. “Gee, asshole. I’m so sorry I’m dead.”

Daniel smiled ever so faintly, and I wanted to hit him.

“I get it, Daniel. I really do. You don’t like me. Well, I don’t like you, either.”

He grabbed my shirt and pulled me within inches of his face. He smelled like a bonfire—a woodsy smell with an earthy weight to it. His irises flickered red—I thought I’d imagined it before, but up close there was no mistaking it.

“At least I hung in there,” he said, breathing onto my face. “Something you couldn’t do.”

So, this was it—the reason he seemed to hate me so much. “Oh, I suppose you ended up as a demon because you were so perfect.”

Lame. Totally lame. But he’d caught me off-guard and I had nothing to say, really. He was right. I hadn’t bothered to stick around.

He studied my face, my mouth, and I hoped he couldn’t feel my heart pounding with fear. He let go of me.

“Jerk,” I muttered softly, turning away from him. I started off in search of Banning.

Behind me, Daniel applauded. Hurt and furious, I spun around to glare at him.

“Congrats,” he said. “It’s about time. I was beginning to wonder about you. Purgatory is a nasty place for newbies like you, all weak and grieving. But, I figured with the way you killed yourself, you had to have spunk somewhere.”

Damn him! Daniel had baited me and I had been foolish enough to fall for it. “Well, I’m glad you find this so amusing.” I wheeled around to continue my search for Banning.

“Wait!” he said, catching up to me. I backed up into a wall. “Chill, all right? I just didn’t want you to keep crying, so I figured if you got mad, you’d move on to the next step of the whole acceptance thing.”

I didn’t answer.

“Come on! You were bound to head that direction anyway. Just saving you some time.”

He gently touched my arm. I didn’t move, didn’t speak. Why did he have to be so mean?

“So, you want to find your sister’s killer, or what? That
is
why you were so interested in what I did to that kid back there, right?”

Had I been that easy to read? More than anything I could think of, I wanted my sister. But I wanted to avenge her death almost as much. I raised an eyebrow. “I suppose you know where Peter Fagan is?”

Something in his dark eyes ignited, something akin to flint on stone. “I know a lot of things. I know that he was never officially charged. So far, the cops haven’t found enough clear-cut evidence to keep him in jail and he’s out free—for now. He’s staying in the area, but not at his house. I also know you haven’t been dead long enough to do anything you’d like to do to this guy without a little demonic assistance. So, what do you say? Let me help.”

I continued to stare at him, unable to come up with a single counterpoint.

“And maybe you’d like a few leads on where your sister might be while we’re at it.”

He had my complete attention.

“Yeah, thought so.” A slow grin eased onto his face. “Look, Banning is occupied at the moment. We’ll meet up with him later.” Without waiting for a reply, Daniel headed for the double doors.

A quick survey of the waiting area told me Daniel was probably right and that Banning
was
in one of the patient rooms, doing what reapers did. Watch Banning, or plan a little revenge on Jordan’s scumbag killer? Revenge won out. I glanced at Daniel. He was just the sort of guy to teach me a thing or two about getting that revenge. Sure, he was a jerk, but he had a certain…charm? Magnetism? No, I assured myself. He had what I needed—the means to punish my sister’s killer.

Maybe this was why I was still here, still in purgatory.
Maybe
I’d been given a chance to avenge Jordan’s death. Maybe if I kept moving, reality wouldn’t catch up to me.

I looked back for Banning one more time. Banning had been pretty kind to me. He’d said he wouldn’t let Daniel take me to hell. But, I had to see Jordan and I wanted to find out where Pete had been living since Jordan’s death. He deserved anything I could do to him.

I hurried through the waiting room. I held my breath, closed my eyes, and walked through the double doors into the hallway. I blinked and exhaled discreetly. Daniel was leaning against the wall like he had all the time in the world to wait for me. In a way, I suppose he did.

He ushered me through the lobby and onto the front porch. One of the visitors walked out behind us. He reached into his pants pocket, retrieved his keys and stepped into the parking lot. The kid talking on the phone sat in one of the rockers, smoking a cigarette despite the sign on the porch railing stating that oxygen tanks may be present and smoking was prohibited.

Daniel jogged off the porch toward a red pickup. We hoisted ourselves over the tailgate and into the cargo area as the pickup backed out of the parking space.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“County morgue. Your sister might come to visit your body,” he said. “This truck driver is going to make a stop about a half-mile from there. We’ll walk the rest of the way, check things out, ask around. After that, we’ll go find Pete, okay?”

I couldn’t trust Daniel, but he was proving useful. “Thanks.”

“Don’t go thanking me yet,” he said.

The driver gunned it as he pulled into traffic and I had to twist my hair in a ponytail and hold it tight to prevent it from whipping me in the face. “Banning is going to be pissed, isn’t he?”

Daniel shrugged. “Yeah. He’s really serious about watching after you.”

True, I
was
out of my element here. But Banning was a reaper—if he knew when people were about to die, surely he could find me if I got into trouble with Daniel. He’d said he wouldn’t let Daniel take me to hell. I just didn’t understand the hold up. “What’s with the waiting period, anyway?”

Daniel stared at me like I had just grown another head. “Waiting period?”

“You know, before you can take me to hell. Unless, that’s where we’re going now.”

He gave me a slight, almost charming smile. “Going to hell in a pickup. We’re on the highway to hell.”

I simply stared at him.

“No,” he relented at last. “With the way you died, the suicide and all, there’s a bit of a controversy about what to do with you. So, you’re stuck with Banning and me until the situation is resolved. But, we’re not going to hell—yet. A waiting period? Some souls hang around for awhile and some go to their destinations a few minutes after they die.” He paused as though remembering his own death.

I wondered if the memory of his death was as painful for him as mine was for me. I’d been responsible for my death. But Daniel? With his personality, someone probably took him out on purpose.

“Most people like to get to where they’re supposed to be when they die,” he said. “Well, after they visit and say goodbye and all that jazz.
Most
are like that. Others take longer. After a while, things settle down a bit for them. Usually, they leave once the party’s over. As we’ve said—they don’t call it purgatory for nothing. It’s no fun here. Earthbounds can’t usually communicate with mortals. There’s no way to stop a loved one’s grief or act as some sort of guardian angel. Worse, there’s nothing to keep
you
out of harm’s way.”

I frowned. The driver made an unexpected turn and I fell against Daniel’s legs. He withdrew them quickly and retied his shoestrings. I righted myself. “You mean purgatory can be dangerous? What do you mean? How do you hurt someone who’s already dead?”

Daniel watched along the sidewalks as we sped past. He nodded. “Yeah. It’s maybe even more dangerous for you here than the mortal world. It’s one more mechanism to force earthbounds to move on.”

He casually regarded the people in cars and on corners as we passed. A few glanced up as the truck went by. We slowed to make another turn. Two men, one in a navy suit and another in jeans and a dirty suede jacket stared at us. Hard to tell from a distance and in passing, but their expressions seemed less than friendly.

“Those two could see us?” Which meant they were dead, too, of course.

Daniel nodded.

“I guess they don’t like demons, huh?”

“No. But it may not be only me they aren’t fond of. A lot of earthbounds aren’t happy to be here and are looking for trouble. And, those bound for hell figure they’ve got nothing to lose,” Daniel replied.

Another chill of fear crept into my bones. “But, big deal, right? What can they possibly do?”

“Can you feel the wind? Your own skin? That didn’t end when life did. That’s good
and
bad. Some earthbounds don’t want to leave until they change their fate somehow. And
that
is a lot harder to do when you’re dead. Some get a little mean about it. They take out their issues on other earthbounds. Especially the new ones.”

“So, some people can stay?” I thought of my parents. Maybe I’d find a way to never leave them. Never harm them.

Daniel nodded. “All anyone can do is give the newbies the facts and hope they move on quickly. Sometimes, it’s best to let them find out on their own just how dangerous purgatory can be. On rare occasions, reapers step in and set the worst of the worst straight, seeing as they’re kind of the marshals in this plane of existence. Still, some earthbounds do decide to stay on—hundreds of years or more in some cases.”

“That long?” I couldn’t imagine being in this place and feeling this way for centuries.

“It happens. Unfinished business, disbelief. You think
you’ve
got issues!” He laughed. “Anyway, there’s more earthbounds in purgatory than you’d think. Millions. Probably ten times over. Once they finally leave here, though, well, they usually never want to come back.”

“But, why not just stay here until their loved ones die? They could all go to heaven together, right?”

“Yeah, except here’s the rub—someone always leaves someone else behind,” Daniel answered. “Jim won’t leave without Mary who won’t leave without someone else. You’ve already seen more spirits than you know. You’re just the new kid. After a while, you’ll sort it all out.”

The pickup truck pulled into an auto parts store. Daniel rose to his feet and offered me a hand. I took it and he pulled me upright so fast I thought my arm would rip from its socket. “Hey,” I said. “Go easy.”

Daniel hopped over the side of the truck. “That
was
easy. Lesson one: that’s why earthbounds never mess with demons. You’re already dead, so you can’t really die again. But, there are worse things than death. You can still feel pain, and pissed-off earthbounds aren’t the only ones walking around with nasty attitudes, savvy?”

Yeah, I got it. Why had I thought Daniel was the only demon around? I hopped over the side of the truck without his assistance, even though he offered. The last thing I wanted was to end up eating asphalt.

“Morgue’s this way,” Daniel said.

A bus whizzed past us. One of the passengers peered out at me, pressing a hand against the window. I don’t know if my presence startled or angered her, or if it was concern that flashed across her face. I thought about the men we’d seen coming here and how unfriendly they seemed. I hoped the rest of Deadsville wasn’t like them. Why hadn’t I stayed with Banning?

“Well,” I said, dusting off the back of my jeans and setting off down the street with Daniel. “You’ll tell me when we come across more like us, right?”

He grinned and his eyes blazed in a way that was dark and disconcerting. “Then heads-up, Sunshine. We’re walking straight into Metropolis.”

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

 

 

Although I’d lived in Atlanta all my life, I’d never had a reason to be in this part of town. Morgues and cemeteries weren’t exactly my idea of fun hangouts. There weren’t any clubs, malls, or parks on this street—just small businesses in ancient-looking but remodeled houses and dirty industrial buildings with parking lots full of cracked pavement. Not that it was some apocalyptic town or anything, but it still gave me the creeps. I guess the idea of running into a bunch of dead people was justification enough for making my skin crawl.

I had been in riskier places—like downtown and Buckhead. While trendy in some areas, Buckhead could also be pretty shady after midnight. Drunks, addicts, and dealers roamed the streets along with the nightlife crowd. Fights, drug deals, and shootings were not uncommon.

What this street and Buckhead had in common were the people. Well, except that a lot of the people roaming the streets here were dead. All sorts wandered about—the old, the young, the people in business attire, the homeless, the jocks, the goths, and the punks. A woman wearing a clingy evening gown and wandering the parking lot of a closed antique store had dead written all over her. Others were more difficult to figure out. In some cases, I had to rely on Daniel to tell me. Some ignored us, others glanced, and a few leered in our direction. I felt like center stage at a freak show. I wanted to go home.

BOOK: Don't Fear the Reaper
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