“Actually, I think I’d rather not. I’d like to stay as far away from any reapers as possible.”
“But you already agreed to help! You can’t back down now!” Her tone was a mixture of pleading and yelling.
“Well, I didn’t really think I’d be doing it all on my own.”
“Just this one part.” she assured me. “Then we’ll get rid of them together.”
I still wasn’t convinced, and apparently it showed on my face. Samantha got that sad, pleading look on her face again. But instead of trying to guilt trip me, she decided to switch to a different tactic.
“Wouldn’t you at least like to know if there are any around you?”
“I’m pretty sure I’d know if there was a reaper near me.” I told her. They were big, ugly skeletons in black robes; I’d seen the drawings.
“Oh, you’d be surprised. In fact, I’ll bet there’s at least one at school with you.”
Now that got my attention. I was ok with reapers being far away. But going to school with me? That was something else entirely. I still wasn’t 100% sure that I was really going to help get rid of them, but I would like to know if they were there or not, if for no other reason than to avoid making them mad. Samantha saw the look on my face and knew I was starting to come around.
“We’ll worry about the details later. But for now, there’s only one thing you need to know.”
“And what’s that?”
“Reapers never smile.”
Chapter 13
“What?” I asked. I looked closely at Samantha, trying to see if she was messing with me.
“Reapers never smile.” she repeated. As if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Why wouldn’t they smile?” I asked. It seemed like a weirdly specific rule for them to have.
“Well… I guess they do smile sometimes. But not that often. Really, they just tend not to.”
“Why?” I repeated.
“I think it’s just because it tends to lead to laughter. And no matter what else you might say about them, they are not an emotional group.”
“Oh. Ok.” I said. I still didn’t know what she was talking about, but if she wasn’t going to give helpful explanations, I wasn’t going to bother.
“Have you ever seen a reaper?” she asked, seeing that I was starting to lose interest.
Of course not, I thought. It’s not like they wander around all the time advertising their presence. I shook my head, and she continued.
“A lot of people think they look like skeletons and carry sickles around all the time. But they don’t.”
“So what do they look like?” I was starting to get frustrated and wished she would just get to the point.
“They look like regular people. If you just passed one on the street, you wouldn’t know it.”
“Oh. Well, then finding one should be easy.” I tried to keep the sarcasm to a minimum, but it was getting pretty hard.
“Actually, it will be. Because I already told you, they don’t smile. Or laugh – they never, ever laugh.”
“Lots of people don’t laugh.” I said. “That doesn’t mean that every grumpy old man is a grim reaper hiding in plain sight.”
“Of course not. I didn’t say they were grumpy, did I?”
“So how come they never laugh? What’s so special about laughing?” I asked.
“Because they have no sense of humor?” she asked. I just stared at her, wishing she’d stop. When she saw that I was about done talking to her, she finally became serious.
“Well, in general they tend not to smile. They’re pretty good at keeping their emotions in check – they don’t cry and they don’t laugh. But if they ever do laugh – or cry – that’s when you’ll know your dealing with a reaper.” She shuddered.
“Why? What happens when they laugh?” I asked. It had only taken a second for me to realize that it would be a lot easier to make a stranger laugh than to make them cry. And if I had to make a hundred or so people either laugh or cry, it was pretty obvious which one was going to get me branded as a jerk. So, obviously there was only one choice for finding a reaper.
“Things get really weird when they do.” she told me in a way that said she thought that should answer all my questions.
“Weird like what?” I tried again. Clearly it was something bad, and I didn’t want to walk into a situation where I didn’t know what was going to happen. But no matter how much I asked, Samantha wouldn’t say any more. Figures, I thought. It was just like her to give me all sorts of useless information and stop when she got to the important parts.
Samantha disappeared, and I still didn’t have any idea of what was so bad about a reaper’s laugh. It looked like I was going to have to find a reaper – presumably by finding the grumpiest person in town – and seeing what happened when they laughed.
Chapter 14
Mindy was a strange girl. She sat next to me in economics, but in all the months I’d been going to school here so far, she hadn’t said a word to me. She hadn’t even looked in my direction. But that wasn’t what made her weird.
To be honest, I wouldn’t have cared one way or the other if I ever talked to Mindy. She was a bone-thin girl with charcoal eyes. Her hair was pulled evenly into two pigtails, but it stuck out in all directions like tree branches in winter. She wore baggy flannel shirts and gave the impression that she’d read about being a kid instead of actually going through the experience herself. She reminded me a lot of Derek, to be honest.
The first time I’d actually talked to her was almost three months into the school year. We’d had to partner up for a quick presentation that was due at the end of the class. Even thought I wasn’t technically new to the school anymore, I was still the newest kid in class. So, I still got treated like the new kid that no one wanted to partner up with. And, no surprise, Mindy didn’t seem to have any friends in class either. So, I found myself sitting next to the weirdest girl I’d ever seen, talking about the advantages and disadvantages of a free market economy.
Our presentation went smoothly enough. I had to admit, she was smarter than I’d initially given her credit for. The next day when I came to class, I found myself actually keeping an eye out for her. She smiled at me when I walked in the room, and I felt a little relieved to know that at least now I had one friend in econ. Since that day, I’d made a conscious effort to say hi to her every morning. Sure, calling her bizarre would be putting it nicely, but who in this town wasn’t? If I were completely honest with myself, I’d have to admit she wasn’t any worse than Derek. And since I wasn’t exactly the most popular kid in class here, I couldn’t afford to ignore any of the few people I did manage to meet.
“So how are you doing today?” I asked casually as I sat down.
“I’m doing good.” she shifted slightly in her seat. I waited a few seconds, but she didn’t say anything else. Clearly, if I didn’t want to sit around in silence, I was going to have to be the one who did most of the work.
“So, did you grow up around here?” I asked.
“No. I moved here.” Her tone was neutral, and I couldn’t read her face. I decided to keep trying.
“Me too. I moved at the beginning of the school year. It’s hard to move to a new place, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“You don’t talk much, do you?” It might have been too obvious for most people to say, but I was running out of things ideas at this point. And I was afraid that if I stopped trying to talk to her, I’d never get to know her. She didn’t seem like the type who’d start a conversation on her own, and I knew that if I gave up after only getting this far, I wouldn’t bother with her again.
“Not really.” she replied, shrugging.
“Well, why not?” I was getting frustrated, and I hoped it didn’t show.
“I guess I don’t see the point. No one here really talks to me, so I don’t bother to talk to them.”
“Yeah,” I nodded, understanding. “It seems like no one here i
s really interested in meeting new people.”
“Yeah.” Her tone still seemed pretty uninterested, but at least she was glancing my way, which was an improvement.
“So how long have you lived here?”
“A little over a year and a half.”
“Why’d you come here?”
“I didn’t want to. I had to.” she sighed, and I suddenly got the impression that I was bugging her.
“Is everything ok?” I asked.
“Why are you talking to me?” she asked, and I had to admit I was taken aback by her bluntness.
“If you don’t want me to talk to you, just say so next time.” I told her. She didn’t have to be so rude about it.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” She turned towards me and gave me her full attention for the first time since I’d sat down. “I mean, no one at this school is particularly friendly. I guess I was just wondering why you’d decided to talk to me when no one else really has since I’ve been here.”
“Oh.” That made sense. I guess if I’d been here as long as she had and people were still acting like I didn’t exist, I’d probably be suspicious of anyone who talked to me too. “I just thought I’d get to know you, that’s all.” I said, shrugging.
Mindy looked at me, her eyes softening. The corners of her mouth twitched a little and I thought she was going to give me the first actual smile I’d seen from a student at this school, but it was cut short by our teacher walking into the room.
I thought about what Mindy said as the teacher droned on about supply and demand. I hadn’t realized she’d been the new kid before me, and even though I wouldn’t wish the kind of treatment I’d been getting on anyone else, at the same time it was nice to know I wasn’t the only one having problems here. I’d been starting to think that it was just me.
Class seemed to drag on forever, and when the bell finally rang, I almost jumped out of my seat. I stood up to leave, but before I did I turned back towards Mindy.
“Well, it was nice talking to you.” I told her.
“Really?” she asked, and her surprise made me feel kind of bad for her.
“Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?”
“Ok.” Mindy looked at me, her eyes sparkling. I could tell I’d made her happy just by saying it was nice to talk to her. Slowly, a smile spread across her lips. Her eyes looked really pretty, but the smile was wrong somehow. It looked unnatural, like maybe she was out of practice and was just doing it wrong. But before I could pinpoint what it was, Mindy’s smile turned into a kind of giddy laughter. And that’s when a chill ran down my spine.
At first the sound was nice. A little high pitched, maybe, but still sweet. But as the laugh continued, I started to hear another noise beneath it. Laughing along with Mindy’s somewhat high pitched giggle was the sound of a much deeper and somewhat maniacal sounding laugh, like the sound of an old carnival doll that was breaking down and had become distorted in its old age. The noise spun around and around in my head, knocking me off balance. I put my hand lightly on my desk, fighting the sudden urge to throw up.
“Are you alright?” Mindy asked, a look of concern on her face.
I looked up at her. Her sudden concern for me had caused her to stop making that terrible sound. Slowly, the nausea started to fade away. But the cold, unnatural feeling still stayed in the pit of my stomach.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I lied.
“You look a little pale.” She peered into my eyes, and I had to fight to keep from taking a step back – or worse, running out the door screaming. She didn’t seem to notice that I’d just heard the creepiest sound imaginable, and I really didn’t want to draw attention to the fact if I didn’t have to.
“I didn’t eat breakfast this morning. I think it’s catching up with me.” I told her.
“You should go to the cafeteria and get something to eat real quick.”
“Good idea. I think I’ll do that. Thanks. I’ll see you later.” My head was still spinning. I tried to leave as fast as I could without actually running. As the classroom door swung shut, I heard Mindy call out to me.
“See you tomorrow! I hope you feel better.” I couldn’t tell if her concern was genuine or just an attempt to throw off anyone who might have been watching us, but it did nothing to actually make me feel any better.
Chapter 15
When I told Samantha about Mindy, her reaction wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
“So you found a reaper?” she asked happily.
“Yeah. If that laugh is anything to go by.” I shuddered, remembering the sound all too well. Just thinking about it made me break into a cold sweat.
“Well, what did it sound like?”
“Like she was a complete psycho. It made my head pound and I thought I was going to be sick.” I knew I wasn’t doing it justice, but there really was no way to describe something so horrendous. Samantha tapped her finger on her chin. After a moment she gave a short nod and shrugged, turning back towards me.
“That sounds about right.” She said, nodding like I’d given the correct answer to some trivia question. I just stared at her for what felt like several minutes before I opened my mouth.
“So… you weren’t going to warn me or anything?” I just couldn’t believe it.
“Warn you about what?” she blinked. Like I was the one who was acting crazy here. “Did you get hurt?” she asked.
“No.” But that wasn’t the point.
“Then I don’t see the problem.” Her eyes twinkled. “You were scared, weren’t you?”
“Of a grim reaper?” I scoffed. Of course I was! But there was no way I was going to tell her that. Especially while she was wearing that smirk. “Of course I wasn’t scared! I just think it would have been nice if I’d been warned first.”
“I don’t understand what the big deal is. You’re fine, you said you weren’t scared. So what’s the problem?”
I wanted to point out that I’d nearly jumped out of my skin when Mindy had laughed. Samantha really was lucky that I hadn’t screamed. Who knows what would have happened if Mindy was forced to act to keep me from drawing attention to her? But, I kept my mouth shut – explaining all that to Samantha would mean going back on what I’d said and letting on how nervous I’d really been. When I didn’t say anything, Samantha just shrugged; she obviously couldn’t care less. I was getting frustrated that I would even have to explain this to her. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, and the fact that I couldn’t only made me more frustrated. I decided to take a deep breath, calm down, and change the subject.
“So, do you think she knows that I know?” I asked.
“Know what?”
“That she’s a reaper.” I sighed. Why was everything so difficult with this girl? “Look, she laughed when it was just the two of us talking. She has to know I heard her laugh. Do you think she’ll know that I know what it means?”
“Probably not.” Samantha said, after a minute of thinking. “I don’t think they realize they sound so creepy to other people.”
“How could they not know?” I asked in disbelief.
“Being dead does weird things to you. Especially with regards to how you perceive things around you.”
“I didn’t think reapers were dead.”
“Well, they’re not really. But they’re not exactly alive either, are they? Have you ever heard of a reaper dying?”
“No.” I admitted.
“Well, there you go.” she said triumphantly.
“So now that we found one, what do we do?” I asked.
“Well, we’re going to have to get rid of her, aren’t we? I mean, there’s just no other option.”
I wanted to ask what “get rid of” meant, exactly. But I didn’t have the nerve. Instead, I just nodded and tried to convince myself that she probably just wanted to scare Mindy away. And if not, we could figure out a new plan later, right?
“Ok.” I mumbled.
“Good.” she said with an air of finality.
“I’ll look into the best ways to get rid of her. And you,” she leveled her gaze at me, “find out everything you can about Mindy. I want to know all her weaknesses before we attack.”
I nodded absentmindedly, my mind not really on Samantha anymore. I was more focused on what she’d said about finding out everything I could; that could only mean I’d have to keep on talking to Mindy, and that was about the last thing I wanted to do. Samantha didn’t seem to notice my preoccupation and slowly faded from sight. And I was left standing alone with a growing feeling of worry in the pit of my stomach.
……
The next day in class I made sure to say hi to Mindy for two reasons. The first was, of course, so I could learn more about her for Samantha. The second, and by far more important reason, was that I didn’t want Mindy to suspect anything. When I had bolted out of the room, she had seemed to only be concerned for me. But I still wasn’t sure whether or not that was just her pretending not to notice. Normally, I’d say there wasn’t a chance that she didn’t know I knew she was a reaper. But with this girl… who knew? She seemed disconnected enough that she might not realize that running away from a girl who’s smiling at you wasn’t typical behavior; it looked like Samantha might actually be right about her not realizing how scary she was.
Samantha might not be too concerned about Mindy finding out I knew, but that was because she was already dead – what did she have to lose? But to me, doing anything that might upset a reaper seemed like a real bad idea.
“I’m sorry about yesterday.” I told her.
“Oh, that’s all right.” She tried to say it casually, and even gave me a small smile. It wouldn’t have bothered anyone else, but after I’d seen a bigger version of that smile the day before, all I could think about was that hollow, evil laugh of hers that had followed it. I quickly pulled my eyes away.
“Are you feeling better now?” she continued, not noticing my discomfort.
“Yeah. Thanks.” We sat for a minute or two in silence. She looked like she wanted to keep talking but didn’t know what to say. I didn’t really feel like it at the moment, but I knew I was going to have to do it sooner or later if I wanted to find out anything about how to get rid of her. I thought about it and realized that the best way to learn what her weaknesses were would be to find out what kinds of things she liked to do – and what she didn’t.
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