by S. L. Baum
Trey sat down beside her while Eva pulled the blanket around her body. “You still get to see them. That’s nice. Can I use you for a pillow? Will you mind?”
“You look exhausted, Evie. Lie down. I’ll be your pillow.”
“I am exhausted,” Eva admitted as she rested her head against his thighs and blocked everything out except Jimmy Stewart and the beautiful Grace Kelly. “She became a princess in real life because she married a prince. Did you know that?”
“I did not know that.”
“Abe always recites facts when we watch this movie,” she yawned.
Trey ran his fingers through her hair as Eva yawned again. The pressure on her scalp felt good. It had a comforting and quite relaxing effect on her. Her eyes fluttered as sleep threatened to take over.
“Trey, you’re the best boy friend that I have.”
“You’re the only girl friend that I have.”
“Thanks for everything.”
“You are very welcome.”
Recording No.88
I think this is going to be the last time I turn on this tape recorder. I know that is my eighty-eighth recording, so it seems like a good place to stop… since Uncle Abe died when he was eighty-eight. I was mainly making them for him, he always thought an audio diary would be a cool thing for me to have, but now that he’s gone I just find it harder and harder to keep making them.
I am a Deathtaker that has failed to take a death. It actually might’ve worked if Abe had gone away from me and kept his distance. But, we’ll never know because he refused to let me use my gift on him.
I finally made myself practice making the paper swans. My dad tried to teach me so many times, but I never really put any effort into it. I keep a glass jar near Uncle Abe’s resting place and whenever I feel the overwhelming need to tell him that I love him, I make one of those little birds and bring it out to him. I finally see why my dad likes to make them. You can really put your heart into each and every fold.
My dad’s been real sad; he’s lost every single relative he had that was older than him. My mom feels like I do, sad that we couldn’t save him. Although, Momma says she wouldn’t have tried. Eighty-eight is over her threshold for taking a death. She’s concerned about me, too. I made a connection with Abe. I was able to grab hold of Death and bring it into me. I just wasn’t able to finish the process. She wants me to tell her if I start to get muscle aches, twitches, and headaches like she does if she waits too long in between. But that might not happen for a few years.
My freshman year is almost over. Trey is going off to college. He got a basketball scholarship, just like his family was hoping for. He’ll do great. I’m happy for him, but I wish the school wasn’t so far away. Trixie said he’ll probably only be able to come home once during the school year, for Christmas. But he’ll be back for the summers. She’s going to miss her brother, and so will I.
Trey has now seen me cry more than anyone else. For some reason I always try to hold it all in and hide my feelings, when I’m around everyone else. Trey knows everything I went through that day, but only after Abe died the second time. I don’t think it would be a good idea to tell him about our family secret. I don’t think he’d understand it all. I guess my mom is the only other person that I’ve totally confided in. She may not have been there that day, but she knows my pain in a way that nobody else can. Dad tries to understand, but he can only grasp the surface of what it means to be a Deathtaker.
Everything about Death is hard.
I wonder if I should erase these tapes, or maybe I should just burn them.
Bonfire time.
Evidence: destroyed.
Maybe I will.
This is Eva, signing off for the very last time.
THE END...
for now.
You can download The New Deathatker soon!
https://www.amazon.com/S.L.-Baum/e/B00419BHVW
Novels by S.L. Baum
THE IMMORTAL ONES SERIES – YA paranormal romance
A Chance for Charity (The Immortal Ones – book one)
My Link in Time (The Immortal Ones – book two)
Of Fire and Brimstone (The Immortal Ones – Elizabeth’s Novella)
Our Summer of Discontent (The Immortal Ones – book three)
The Eve of Destruction (The Immortal Ones – book four)
The Arrival of Dawn (The Immortal Ones – book five) *coming soon
The LUSH novels – YA Dystopian
LUSH (a LUSH novel – book one)
HUSH (a LUSH novel – book two)
CRUSH (a LUSH novel – book three)
The Deathtaker Series – Paranormal Romance
The Deathtaker (Deathtaker – book one)
The Deathtaker’s Daughter (Deathtaker – book two)
The New Deathtaker (Deathtaker – book three) *coming soon
You can catch up with all the random stuff that I do (not that it’s really all that interesting to anyone else but me)… at any one of these places…
Website - http://slbaum.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/slbaumnovel/
Blog - http://mywriteroad.blogspot.com
Twitter - @slbaum
Instagram - @slbaum
Snapchat - @slbaum71
Thank you so much for downloading The Deathtaker’s Daughter.
*Thanks to my editor for this novel: Andrea Harding at Express Editing Solutions.