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.
“It’s…an odd collection of people all right,” I said, trying not to appear intimidated.
Daniel scoffed. “Reminds me of the afterlife version of what the Florida Keys calls Fantasy Fest. Sun, booze, and some of the strangest body paint going. Good times, Sunshine. Good times.”
A small group of old men shuffled away as we approached, careful to keep their backs to us. I scrunched up my face. “If you say so.”
He laughed. “Can you imagine dead people at Fantasy Fest? It’d be like Zombie Ink.”
“But they’re not zombies. They’re ghosts.”
Daniel shook his head. “Do you always take the fun out of things?”
Yeah, that’s me. The new me. My afterlife’s mission? Taking all the fun out of being dead. Why not? I’d taken all the fun out of being alive. Daniel didn’t wait for an answer, which was just as well.
The street we turned onto seemed average enough, with a small used car lot, a fast food place, and a corner bank. People walked in and out of the burger place. Mortals, I assumed, since most had bags of food and they didn’t blink when a man wearing only socks and a hospital gown strolled by. Further down the street we came across a dozen or so people standing outside a tan brick building with a flat, white roof. A man walked by wearing nothing but boxer shorts.
Daniel caught me staring. “Maybe it is as bad as Fantasy Fest,” I said.
“Don’t go getting your fashionista panties in a twist. Here, you can wear anything you want. Well, everyone except reapers, that is. They usually only wear black. The guy in boxers, the cocktail diva, and the guy in the hospital gown are in what we call full denial. They haven’t come to grips wi
th their deaths yet. That’s how you were right after you died. They’re just taking longer.”
I had not come to grips with this. I scanned the crowd, but didn’t come across anyone resembling a reaper. The guy in the hospital gown paused at the street corner and looked around, clearly confused.
“He looks lost,” I said.
“Yeah, well. It happens. He should have checked the hospital morgue first. This is county. Don’t worry about him, though. Someone will set him straight.”
He had to be kidding. “You mean all these people are searching for their bodies?”
“Yep. Very few people make funeral arrangements, so all they can think to do is come to the county morgue instead of going to a funeral home or the hospital morgue. It’s a closure kind of thing. Then, there are some who figure deceased relatives might meet up with them here once they get the news.”
“And you think we’ll find Jordan here?” Finally, a glimmer of hope in this awful place. Daniel’s words about closure hit home, too. My body was here. Would I be allowed to see it? My corpse was all that I had left, the last tie to my former life.
“Hard to say if she has or hasn’t been here,” Daniel said. “Since we don’t exactly have photos and you two are twins, we can use you to ask if anyone fitting your description has been here—and left. But, unless I miss my guess, your sister will show up to take a sentimental gander at your corpse. If she hasn’t already.”
The sound of air drills blared from the auto repair shop and several men were talking to each other outside one of the bays. A lanky mechanic with sallow cheeks turned his head our direction as we walked past. After a moment, he went back to listening to the other men’s conversation.
“Now he didn’t like demons,” Daniel said.
“How do you know? Maybe he just happened to notice fellow ghosts.”
Daniel smiled and shook his head. “No, he’s used to seeing earthbounds heading for the morgue. Besides, I know the look. I get it a lot, especially here. Earthbounds don’t much care for us demons. Neither do reapers or angels. Can’t say I blame them.”
I didn’t want to ask why Daniel frequented the morgue.
“You said reapers hunt down people in purgatory?”
“Yeah. Sometimes. Purgatory’s troublemakers. Demons, mostly. But, I guess the occasional problematic earthbound, too,” he said with a shrug. Another couple of people gave us unsavory glances.
“Reapers sound…”
“Bad-ass? Yeah,” Daniel agreed. “You only saw the nice side of Banning. When he has to collect a soul and send it packing to hell in a hurry, he can be downright brutal.”
I straightened, trying not to think of Banning as anything other than kind. Parental. Thinking of Banning as some wild-west marshal with a scythe unnerved me.
We passed a short-haired woman fidgeting with her wedding ring. She smiled demurely as we passed, keeping her eyes more on Daniel than me. Earthbound. Definitely. A man heading the opposite direction stepped aside, allowing us to pass. I looked over my shoulder and we exchanged glances. He seemed more self-assured than the woman. Was he earthbound? Or demon? I guess everyone here sort of figured out who was who after a while.
Demons weren’t what I thought they’d be, that is, if they were all like Daniel. I recalled what he said about earthbounds and how they shouldn’t tick off a demon. I made a quick mental note to keep Daniel close, at least until we got back with Banning. It was that whole the devil you know is better than the one you don’t sort of thing.
We made our way to the front of the morgue. People shuffled aside, making room for us as we approached the doors. All except three teens—two boys and a girl, each wearing jeans and hoodies, with baseball caps under them. The girl wore more hardware on her face than anyone I’d ever seen. All that metal made it hard to tell if she had once been pretty or not.
Metal Girl’s sidekicks weren’t much better in the eye candy department—poorly done tattoos covered much of their faces, and they looked like they’d both had their noses broken.
I used to hang with a crowd who thought they hid their drugs and alcohol use pretty well. We didn’t try to stick out. We didn’t go looking for attention. A chance to escape is all we wanted. But these three were attention seekers.
Daniel raised an eyebrow at them. They had no plans to step aside to let us pass.
“You mind?” Daniel said, although he didn’t say it like it was a real question.
The three glared at us. I wasn’t feeling the love.
“I said step aside, kiddies. Demon coming through,” Daniel warned.
The two boys stood resolute alongside Metal Girl. The uglier, beefier of the two stepped forward. “Demon, huh? Well, we’re your updated replacements,” he announced.
“What a loser,” Metal Girl exclaimed.
“Either you haven’t been earthbound long, or you’re really stupid,” Daniel said. “I said, step aside.”
The thinner guy flipped Daniel off, then folded his arms in defiance.
Daniel grinned. I didn’t find the situation particularly humorous. Worse, something in Daniel’s stone-cold eyes and hardened expression chilled my blood—if I had any to chill. The big, ugly guy lunged forward. Daniel caught the kid’s fist and squeezed until bones snapped. The kid screamed and dropped to his knees.
“Pleased to meet you, too,” Daniel said, finally releasing his grip.
The kid cradled his broken hand to his chest, swearing and gritting his teeth in agony, unable to hide the fact he was in a lot of pain.
Daniel cracked his knuckles and the sound set my spine on edge. “Still feel like playing?”
The skinny kid took a step forward. Daniel shoved him in the chest, setting him on fire and sending him flying backward. The kid screamed and rolled on the ground in an attempt to put out the flames.
Everyone around us scattered. Everyone dead, anyway. The living walked past as though nothing had happened.
“Stop it!” I yelled. “Daniel, stop it, you’re…” I paused. He was what? Killing him? No, far worse. Here, in this nightmare of mine, you could feel the pain, but you couldn’t die. You’d just continue to suffer.
Daniel waved a hand and extinguished the flames. Metal Girl ran to her friend’s side. The ugly kid with the broken hand glared at Daniel and cursed a few times, but Daniel ignored him.
“How do you like me now?” Daniel asked the burned kid who lay groaning on the ground. His blackened and charred flesh had miraculously begun to heal all on its own, but it still looked incredibly painful. “I was just warming up. Sorry. Was that bad?”
I clasped a hand over my mouth and nose. The stench of burnt flesh made me nauseous. I wanted to scream for Daniel to walk away now that he’d made his point, but I was too stunned. All I could do was shake my head in horror.
Daniel looked at me long and hard. “Is that the kind of stuff you wanted to learn?”
I couldn’t answer.
As mortals continued to walk past us, one of them shivered slightly. Others I knew had to be earthbound by the way they looked at Daniel and me—as though we were hungry wolves and they were sheep. Some moved away, others went about their conversations like nothing had happened. Just another wonderful day in Deadsville, nothing to see here, move along.
Daniel tugged at my arm.
“Show’s over, let’s go.” He strode toward the glass and silver-framed door at the front of the building. A small group of men and women had collected on the sidewalk, the same expression on their faces as those men who’d watched Daniel and me earlier—contempt. I wasn’t a demon—yet, but in their eyes there wasn’t any difference. To them, I’d be one soon enough. If I’d hoped to find a friendly face in this crowd, I wouldn’t now.
Without wasting any time, I scrambled up the small set of steps and passed through the front doors after Daniel. I’m not even sure I held my breath that time. I found him in the lobby, pacing. The young woman who sat behind the Formica walnut reception area continued to type away
at her computer. I glanced back through the floor length windows to Metal Girl, her friends, and a few other earthbounds who seemed less than thrilled with the commotion we’d caused. If the receptionist had any idea of the number of dead people standing outside she wouldn’t have remained so calm.
“Daniel, what did you do out there?” I had no idea why his actions had surprised me, but they did. Maybe because people didn’t self-ignite in the living world.
“Wasn’t like I didn’t warn them.” He stalked straight past the security guard at the desk. “Wasn’t like I had a choice, either. You’ll see.”
I had to sprint to keep alongside him. “What do you mean you didn’t have a choice? Not that I particularly care for those asshats back there, but I didn’t see anyone bending your arm behind your back.”
He rounded on me. “Cheap talk for someone who killed herself because she didn’t think she had a choice! Worse for someone who’d love to fry her sister’s killer. You wanted to see a few parlor tricks? Fine. There’s plenty more.”
I sucked at rebuttals. He was right. Worse, I was afraid to push him too far. I recalled the way those people had looked at me outside. Right now, I needed Daniel on my side to stay safe. And I needed him if I was going to get even with my sister’s killer.
He stopped, took a deep breath and leaned against the wall, hitting his head hard enough to put a hole in the plaster. Remarkably, it stayed intact. His eyes were closed, and I could tell he was struggling to control himself again. But instead of anger, I thought it was frustration this time.
“You have no idea what’s going on here, Sunshine. I’m a demon. I don’t have much of a choice when confronted. And neither will you.”
The muscles in his jaw worked as he struggled to put his temper back in check.
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