After Midnight

by Brandy Greeley

  He stopped at a crosswalk and I sidled up behind him, tapping my foot irritably against the pavement as we waited for the signal to change.

  I checked the list again, watching as his name slowly slid from red to black and I glanced up, confused, even as I heard the squeal of rubber on asphalt as the light flickered from red to green and the screams as the car hit his body – oomph, like a sack of wet flour, flying through the air – and I couldn’t do a damn thing about the crowd that gathered around him, pressing in close.

  “That wasn’t very nice.”

  I jumped and squeaked as several people glanced up at me, perplexed. I plastered a smile on my face as I turned towards the newly-formed soul.

  “If I hadn’t noticed you following me for the past several blocks, I probably wouldn’t have walked so fast, and I could have missed the light.”

  “I don’t choose how you die, Mr. Declan, or even where. Just when,” I whispered, pretending to pick a piece of lint off my shirt.

  “Except that you do, whether you realize it or not.”

  “Is there someone I need to call for you? Wife? Kids?”

  He shook his head, squinting up into the bright blue sky. “No one that would care enough that I’m gone.”

  Don’t get attached, Amy...stick to the script.

  “Do you know where you’re supposed to go now?”

  He smiled and when he did, it was dazzling.

  He’s so young...

  “If you’re trying to ask if I see a light or something like that, the answer is no.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe if you...I don’t know...concentrated a little harder?”

  “Do I look stupid to you?”

  “No, of course not it’s just, most people need a little help adjusting to the idea of being, well, dead.”

  He shrugged, brushing dirt off his denims. “I knew you’d come for me eventually, but I didn’t know exactly when.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’re death, aren’t you?”

  “Sort of...”

  “Well, I have a season ticket, so to speak. Here, let me show you.” He took the tablet from me, using the stylus to scan through the names until he finally stopped at Kyle Declan...in red lettering...

  “That’s impossible. You did something to it.” I snatched it back, double checking and hell, even triple checking, just for good measure, but nothing I did changed his status.

  “You could try re-starting it; sometimes those darn machines just don’t work quite right.”

  “This isn’t funny,” I said, feeling right at the edge of either full-blown freak out mode. Or bad constipation.

  “Oh, come on, it’s a little funny.”

  “If your name is red, it means you’re alive and, last time I checked...” I gestured to his lifeless body. “So, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll body jump soon enough. That’s why I’m alive-not-alive; the Fates have chosen one for me already, or I’d be moving onto...wherever it is most souls go...”

  “Tartarus or Elysium,” I supplied, and he blinked at me a moment.

  “Right, well, as long as they don’t slap me into a female body again, I’m fine.” He shuddered delicately at the thought.

  I frowned as sirens pierced the afternoon air. “I’m so confused right now, Mr. Declan -”

  “Call me Kyle, please.”

  “Kyle, you know who the Fates are, you know who I am, and you think you have some kind of eternal reincarnation deal, but things like that don’t...happen...”

  “There are things in this world that neither you, nor I, could possibly begin to understand, so just because you don’t get it doesn’t make it any less plausible.”

  “But how -”

  “I have to go now.” He turned towards his apartment again and I danced in place, watching as the paramedics loaded his body into the ambulance.

  I was running out of time, as evidenced by the three alarms currently buzzing on my phone, so the smart thing would have been to let him go, but there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind like I wasn’t finished with him yet, but the most annoying part of it all was that I wanted to see where this went.

  Okay, ten more minutes with him, and then on to Mrs. Lewis, who will just have to wait to die until I’m good and ready for her...oh, goddess, she’ll wait, right?

  He rounded the corner of Marshall and Twenty-First Street, heading for the Starbucks and I paused, a creepy crawling sensation spreading over my neck and back and I glanced behind me in time to see two women duck out of an alleyway, skeletal eyes trained on me.

  I swore profusely, racing down the sidewalk and almost slammed headlong into Gabriel. He caught me with ease and the breath hitched in my throat as he smiled, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear a nanosecond before reason slapped me across the face.

  I shoved him away, gaze flicking from him to the furies and back again. He wasn’t supposed to be here, dammit, and his presence was doing all sorts of weird things to me that I didn’t have time to stop and acknowledge because there were still seven souls to collect, and I was woefully behind...Declan!

  You might want to look behind you. Goodbye.

  The slightly smug, domineering expression turned curious as he followed my line of sight, but I didn’t stop to see what he did about it as I dashed into the café and froze.

  Everyone in there, from the baristas to the hippie guy in the corner on his laptop, stared back at me with oddly vacant, droopy looks and directly in front of me, arms crossed over his chest, was a teenage boy, messy brown hair flopped across his forehead.

  “I’m sorry – I was just looking for someone.”

  “I told you they had a body waiting for me. This is a little younger than I typically go, but I’m hoping it comes with a better life expectancy.”

  “Kyle?”

  “One and only.”

  I stepped nearer to him, senses on full alert. “What happened to everyone in here?”

  “They’ll be fine. I’ve compelled them to forget everything after I leave.”

  “That doesn’t make any damn sense.”

  “Says the woman who collects the dearly departed and sends them on their way to the Underworld.”

  “What about the soul?”

  “Which soul?”

  “Don’t play stupid with me now, alright? The soul of the body you just jumped into.”

  “Oh, him. One hundred percent gone.”

  I massaged my brow, pinching the bridge of my nose. “He wasn’t on my list, and they always are, so where did he go?”

  “You’re kind of hot when you’re angry. It must be the pheromones talking. Alright, alright!”

  I skewered him with a loaded look as he held out his hands in front of him for protection.

  “He was your one thirty appointment – Derek Luther. I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you to get here before stealing him, but I was kind of pressed for time.”

  “What the hell, Kyle? Now I have to figure out where his soul went, too. Not cool – not cool at all.” I checked my screen, relaxing a tiny bit when I noticed his name in black, which probably meant he was already on his way to whatever afterlife the Fates thought he deserved, but I couldn’t be certain about that and -

  Damn, this was not how I wanted today to go.

  “If his name is black, you’re fine, right? Problem solved,” he said, peeking over my shoulder and I glared back, taking a tiny step away.

  “Except that it was my job to make sure his transition was as smooth as possible and now I can’t do that.”

  “Amy.”

  I sucked in a frustrated breath as I turned to see Gabriel standing in the doorway.

  “You’re going to have to wait your turn. I can only handle one crisis at a time. Tell me everything – starting from the beginning – and do it now,” I said to Kyle, who sighed and took a seat, folding his hands together on the tabletop.

  “Three thousand years ago, I died, rusty knife
-fight-style. If the stab wound didn’t do it, tetanus did. Horrible way to go, by the way. I had some sort of...life review, told whatever deity wanted to listen to me that I couldn’t go then, that I had more to do with my life and that if they were smart, they’d bring me back. Next thing I know, I’m on the ground, barely conscious, and there’s this guy leaning over me, wearing the same pissed-off look you now have. That guy, to be exact,” he said, pointing at Gabriel. “I’ve died countless times since then, in truly creative ways, but each time I do, I come back to life. At first, I would return as a baby, which was frustrating because when I was old enough to know what a thought was, I would tell my parents about past lives I’ve had, which resulted in me getting ostracized from my villages, murdered four times and hung once. When I was living in Greece, I met the Fates, who gave me bodies to hop into, memories in-tact, as well as some...other gifts.”

  “He was the reason I started collecting souls myself,” Gabriel said, standing behind me to place his hands on my shoulders as I shuddered and tried not to shove him off. “I couldn’t be sure who he would choose next.”

  “And you didn’t think to tell me this sooner?”

  “You didn’t have this job before.”

  I spun around. “Lucky me. Why are you even here? I need space.”

  “The necklace doesn’t work if you don’t wear it, sweetheart.”

  “Clearly. I hope you didn’t have to kill them to get away this time.”

  “I sent them on a wild goose chase. They won’t bother you again.”

  “Well, I’m safe – thanks for that – but you can leave now.”

  “Yes, please, I have a new life to enjoy,” Kyle said to me, pulling out his wallet to look through the contents. “Mastercard...nice. Gotta love a kid who’s well-endowed.”

  “Make this right,” I said, gesturing around the coffee shop, and he rolled his eyes.

  “I’ve been doing this for a very long time. It’ll be fine.”

  “It had better be. I have six souls to collect in the next three hours, or I’ll be in trouble, so if you don’t excuse me...”

  “And, what about me?” Gabriel stepped forward. “What would you have me do?”

  “Disappear and don’t come near me again until I’ve finished what I’m meant to do here.”

  “You’re doing a good job, by the way. I’m proud of you.”

  “Coming from you, that doesn’t mean much.” I walked outside, pulling the tablet out to inspect the list.

  “Doesn’t it? Being told you’re a confident, talented woman is a compliment, Amy.”

  “It would be if I trusted you, but...dang...I can’t seem to find a reason to. Maybe next time.”

  He smiled, but the light didn’t touch his eyes. “I suppose I deserved that, after everything. Can I see you to your next appointment?”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head back and forth. “That’s not a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m trying to stay away from you, because you drive me crazy and because I can’t think when you’re around.”

  “Maybe if you stopped trying to force me out of your life, things would be less crazy for you.”

  “Don’t start down that path, Gabriel. You won’t like where it ends up.”

  “I’m sorry that I miss my wife, Amy. Those aren’t feelings I can easily wish away.”

  “So, it’s all about you, then? Perfect...wonderful...” I started walking up the sidewalk, angrily pushing aside a curl when it flopped onto my face. “Have you ever considered the fact that I don’t want to do this? That I never wanted to be Persephone, goddess of spring and death, married to Hades, lord of the Underworld, at all? For crying out loud – I can’t even keep a flower alive anymore!”

  He gazed back at me, perplexed, as I sighed and popped a rose to life in my palm, where it immediately shriveled to black dust.

  “So, don’t tell me that this...angst...I’m feeling is normal, because nothing about who I am is. It won’t change the fact that I’m still chasing down souls of the dead for you – because of you. You say that you want to help me remember who I was when you knew me before but having those memories aren’t going to magically make me want to be with you.”

  “You might feel differently when that time comes,” he said, picking dirt from under his fingernails and I scowled, stopping to make sure I was going the right direction.

  “I highly doubt it. I lost my job at the hospital, by the way, when you took me to the Underworld and it’s not like this pays me anything whatsoever for bills or food...”

  “If you need money, just ask.”

  “That wasn’t the point of my statement. I needed a normal job and now that’s gone. You kept Maddy in the Underworld with you -”

  “For insurance purposes,” he said as I stopped, facing him.

  “You high-jacked my Toyota, AT&T and State Farm bills, which I’m pretty sure is illegal in all fifty states, not to mention someone paid off the entirety of my rent for the next year.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to be without a place to live while you took care of things here.”

  “Right, well, if you keep severing my ties to the city, soon I won’t have any reason to stay here at all, which I know is your goal.”

  “I just want to make you happy.”

  “Try harder, then.”

  I felt his eyes on my back long, long minutes after I’d turned heel and walked away.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Portland, Oregon, 2017

  “So, I told Sean that I didn’t care what that bitch did to him, he needed to stand up for himself and act like a man for once. Are you going to eat that? Because I’m still hungry,” Sarah said, and I smiled, pushing my half-eaten plate of spaghetti towards her.

  “As much as I enjoy our time together, I don’t think everyone in here needs to hear about your boy drama,” I said, as a mother and son looked over at us, annoyed. “You don’t have enough tact.”

  “What would be the fun in that?” Sarah asked, breaking into a breadstick. “The problem with you, Amy, is that you’re too safe. You need to lighten up occasionally – learn how to be in the moment.” Her eyes bugged out of her head for a minute before she dug through her purse. “And I know just how to help you.” She passed me a pamphlet – one of those small pieces of paper you find stuck under your car windshield wiper – grinning as I unfolded it.

  “You want me to go to a club? Awe, c’mon, Sarah, you know I don’t really do things like that…ever.”

  “That’s my point! Please go with me? Molly and Dennis will be there, too, so we won’t be alone.”

  I sighed, rubbing my shoulder as I felt the gathering tension. If I delivered five souls an hour, it would take me ten hours to get through my list for the day, an hour back home to change and feed Maddy…

  “Fine, but you get me for two hours, alright? Two, and then I need sleep.”

  She nodded, reaching into her purse for her wallet. “Deal. But, you’ll want to stay longer, trust me.”

  I pulled the dress off the hanger, holding it up against my body as Maddy gnawed on her bone, the crunch…snap echoing around the room. Sarah’s be outside at seven o’clock…no exceptions… bounced around in my brain as I dug through my closet, pulling out a pair of high heels and matching purse.

  This was ridiculous. There was a reason I didn’t party, and it had nothing to do with not wanting to have fun. The last time I went out with Sarah and her friends, I wound up so drunk that I woke up at three o’clock in the morning, threw up in her sink, then drove my tired, nauseous ass home.

  So, it wasn’t that I didn’t know how to let loose and be the person she wanted me to be – I just didn’t like the repercussions.

  “Molly is going to be a little late, but we can get a table and drinks while we wait,” Sarah said, grabbing ahold of my arm as I stepped onto the curb. “You’re wearing that?”

  I glanced down at the bright red tea dress, picking a bit of li
nt from the sleeve. “What’s wrong with it?”

  “You look like you belong in the nineteen-forties. Whatever – you don’t have time to change. Don’t blame me when no one hits on you.”

  “That wasn’t the goal of coming out with you in the first place.”

  She rolled her eyes, depositing her coat on a chair as I did the same, following her to the bar. “Apple martini – extra sugar on the rim, please.”

  “And for you, miss?” The bartender gave me the once-over as he swished a towel through a couple of tumblers, and I felt my cheeks flush.

  “Margarita on the rocks.”

  “You’re no longer with Max,” Sarah said as we carried our drinks back to the table, “and you’ve been dodging the conversation for weeks, so what gives? I saw the way that bartender was looking at you.”

  “He was just being friendly – hoping for a nice tip.”

  “I’d like to take the tip of him.” She licked her lips for emphasis as I whacked her arm, smiling when she winced.

  “That’s the most vulgar thing I think I’ve ever heard from you, and you’ve said some pretty nasty things in the past.”

  “Oh, come on Amy. What’s the point in being human if you can’t daydream a little now and then?”

  “He is a little sexy, I’ll give him that I mean, that chin stubble…” I heard a low growl reverberate through my skull and smiled into my drink.

  One point to me, please.

  “See? You’ve just got to get back into the game – find a man who makes you truly happy.”

  “I thought I was happy with Max…” I lowered my eyes to the tabletop as she squinted over at me, taking in the bit lip and stranglehold I had on the glass. Stupid, lying asshole. He disappeared without so much as a ‘goodbye’, even after everything that happened to me in the Underworld, and now I’m just supposed to – what – move on? Forget he even existed?

  “He did have his finer moments.”

  “Yeah, like when he was hitting on you. Don’t think I didn’t notice that, by the way; I almost went fisticuffs with you over it,” I said, and she smiled.