“Uh, yeah. Other reapers and demons. But they’re really cool. It’s okay.”
Dave shook his head in slow disbelief. “Oh, man,” he said. “Look, Uncle Dave doesn’t want any trouble.”
“The only trouble is that I’ve got to get—”
“Hey, man. It’s cool. Whatever you did, cool. We’re cool, okay? Maybe you need to move on, you know? Maybe you want to leave with ‘ol Dave here. You got some different friends I can hook you up with?”
I immediately thought of my sister. Could Dave help me find her? I looked back at Daniel. I couldn’t take off again. Not yet. I shook my head.
“Damn!” Dave said. “I can’t just go and leave you here. They’ll eat you alive, girl. What did you say your name was, anyway?”
I stood at the side of the road watching Daniel getting the crap beat out of him. Think! Think! I kept telling myself. But the only thing that came to mind was to get into that awful house without the demons seeing me—both those kicking Daniel’s ass and the ones inside the house. Then, I had to find Banning. Alone. In the dark. With who knew what scurrying at my feet.
“Keely,” I replied without turning my attention away from Daniel. “My name’s Keely Morrison.”
I eyed the house again, working myself up to the task. Sure, I was afraid. But fear wasn’t going to help Daniel. I had to try.
Dave continued to stare at me. “You’re kidding, right? You ain’t thinking of going back there, are you? Demons aren’t my idea of friendly, if you dig what I’m sayin’. You die of a head injury or somethin’, Keely girl? Maybe we need to find you an angel, have you moved along.”
I didn’t want to tell him I wasn’t going anywhere until I saw my sister go to heaven. Besides, angels weren’t in my future. Daniel took another bone-crunching hit. He ratcheted his neck, adjusting what clearly had been broken a moment ago. I had to get help, and quick. I ducked into a patch of shadows, trying to be quiet and hurry at the same time. Dave was right behind me, cursing under his breath and mumbling that chicks weren’t nearly as crazy back in his day.
I made it to the old oak when a shriek echoed from within the house and sent ice along my spine. A second later, three demons emerged from one of the lower windows, carrying with them a screaming wide-eyed half-demon half-human being I barely recognized as Cooper. As he fought against them, I noticed that his head wasn’t firmly attached to his body. He crooked it toward me and grinned.
“I got you!” he screamed before breaking into a gale of laughter.
Got me? What was he talking about?
Banning or one of the other reapers had done their job. Cooper’s flesh puckered in spots across his cheeks, arms, and chest as though the demons carting him off to hell had embedded hundreds of large fishhooks.
A shadowy mist emerged from the upper window, becoming a flowing river of black sweeping across the yard toward Daniel and the others.
“Banning,” I whispered. “Please let it be Banning.” If it wasn’t, Daniel was going out with his fighting buddies.
The shadow collected itself, taking an ominous, hooded form. The reaper held the scythe in both hands, approaching the bloody battle. Baldy turned his head in time for the scythe to swing forward. For a moment, I thought the demon’s head had been severed, but he vanished in a broken, fragmented cloud of smoke. Daniel whirled the second demon around. The demon momentarily pitched forward and into the path of the swinging scythe.
“Daniel!” I screamed, hoping with all my might that the reaper was indeed Banning.
Dave grabbed hold of my arm, his eyes wide. “Hush! Be quiet, Keely girl. Don’t be drawin’ attention!”
The reaper’s hood lowered and I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of curly blond hair. Banning nodded over his shoulder, letting me know he had everything under control.
“Whoa, whoa!” Dave said, fear etched across his face. “You weren’t kiddin’? You know that reaper dude?”
“Yeah,” I replied, surprised at the amount of pride in my voice.
“Say, I’ve seen you before, ain’t I? A week ago. Or maybe a month ago down in the ’burbs? But you didn’t say your name was Keely.”
I spun around to face Dave. “You saw my sister? You saw Jordan?”
Dave slowly shook his head and backed up a step or two. “Jordan, you say? Oh, tell Uncle Dave it ain’t true, Keely girl. Tell ‘ol Uncle Dave what that girl said wasn’t true at all.” He stole another glance at Banning. “You’re the one taking the reaper to hell with her?” Dave blinked, his mouth hung askew.
“Not if I can help it,” I said. “And in another day or two, my sister and will be in heaven.”
He took several more steps away from me. “Heaven? They’re yer friends and they ain’t told you yet? You mean to tell ole’ Uncle Dave you don’t know about your own sister? What she done and all?”
“What about Jordan? What are you talking about?” I nearly shrieked.
“I’m so sorry Keely girl,” he said, and then Dave fled into the night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
All the exhilaration coursing through me a few minutes ago when Dave said he’d seen Jordan vanished. I felt shaky, limp. Nauseated. My mind refused to consider what Dave implied. Something had happened to Jordan? I had just gotten used to the fact that she wasn’t an angel off on a mission, and now she was in some sort of trouble? I couldn’t deal with that. No way. I also wondered why Banning and Daniel hadn’t told me.
Banning and Daniel caught up to me. Daniel’s wounds were stitching themselves together, scabbing over and healing. Another time, this might have amazed me. I might have asked about how we all regenerated as quickly as we did. For now, the questions remained stuck in my brain, firmly lodged behind the paralyzing thought that Jordan might be in danger. Or, that she’d done something to put herself there. I wasn’t delusional—my sister wasn’t a saint. But, after what she’d endured, the way she’d died, I just assumed she had a free pass through the pearly gates.
Mom always told us it was easier to hear the answers than to not know the truth. Yet, it’d be easier to not ask a single question than risk hearing a lie. If a regular earthbound like Dave knew, then Banning and Daniel did, too. Hell, Dave made it sound like everyone knew. Why hadn’t they told me? A moment ago, I’d considered them my friends.
“Why?” I asked. My voice sounded weak. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Daniel frowned. “Tell you what?”
“That something happened to Jordan.” I searched both their faces and I knew the truth, but I had to hear them say it. I had just started to feel not so alone here, but maybe that was the biggest lie of all.
Banning rubbed the bridge of his nose. Only people with headaches, or those faced with a very annoying and complicated situation did that. Somehow, despite the events of tonight, I didn’t believe Banning had a headache.
“It’s not like you think, Keely,” Banning said, his voice low. “She’s not hurt, and to the best of our knowledge, she’s not in any real danger. She’s just… misplaced at the moment.”
“Look, I’ve been patient, but it’s time we find her. She doesn’t have anyone but me.” I met Daniel’s gaze. “It’s not safe for her.” Even if Jordan were an angel, she wouldn’t be entirely safe here. No one who walked purgatory was safe.
Banning looked truly uncomfortable. “She’s a tough kid, Keely. She’s smart. So far, she’s stayed a step ahead of anyone who’s been searching for her.”
“So, she can’t be far, right? I mean, she was at the morgue with my body, and it’s not like I’ve been dead that long.” My heart and lungs seemed at odds with each other: one raced in my chest, threatening to burst while the other felt constricted, frozen. What if Jordan had come across demons?
“She’ll be fine,” Daniel insisted.
“What’s happened to her? If Jordan was in purgatory, she’d have come home to be with me. She wouldn’t go it alone.”
“We thought so, too,” Daniel said. The last of his wounds were healing, his
broken nose looked less and less puffy. “We were banking on the fact that she’d come for you. Honest, we don’t know where she is. Your sister refused her angel—who, by the way, was your grandmother. She just took off.”
“She ditched Gram?” I said, amazed, but not totally surprised. We were twins after all, and Jordan had been just as good at avoiding parents and grandparents as I’d been.
“Guys,” Banning interrupted. “I don’t think it’s wise for us to stay here—just in case more demons decide to show up.” He strode off down the road, leaving Daniel and me to trail after him.
I didn’t dare glance back at the house. It made me feel like it was watching us. “Are you going to help me or what?”
“Yes, of course,” Banning answered without slowing.
“As in you know she’s been seen, or that you’ll help me?” I asked, catching up.
I swear, the man always seemed in a hurry. That, or he hoped I’d drop the subject. Banning may have thought he understood me, but if he did, he’d know I had no intention of dropping the subject—not until I found my sister.
“Someone has to have an idea where she went,” I insisted.
“But they don’t,” Daniel replied. “She didn’t hang much with anyone we’ve found out about. And, other than that day at the morgue, we think she’s been traveling at night. Otherwise, the ravens would have spotted her by now. Believe me, we have been looking for her.”
They sounded genuine, but I was hurt they’d known more than I did about Jordan. Hurt that they hadn’t told me everything. “Looking for her? When? You two have been with me non-stop since I died!”
“That’s not true,” Daniel countered. “Don’t tell me you didn’t miss me the other night? Damn! I’m hurt!”
I glared at him. This wasn’t funny.
“While you were off at the morgue with Daniel, I asked around,” Banning said. “She’s still here, still local. There have been enough sightings to tell us that much.”
I shot Banning a sardonic glance.
“Don’t go getting your soul in a twist,” Daniel snapped. “Stuff like this happens.”
“She did get into a little trouble, but it wasn’t her fault,” Banning assured me. “She wasn’t hurt. I promise. We’ve told you everything. All I know is that she had been seen hanging out with Cooper a couple of times. But, we’re sure she never contacted him. We think he just ran into her once or twice—that’s all. This all happened before you died. We’ll find her.”
Either I believed Banning and Daniel or I believed Dave. I just didn’t like the idea that Jordan might be in some sort of danger. Terrified, actually. I almost asked them what Dave had meant about Jordan causing trouble, but decided if neither of them was going to tell me, then maybe Dave was exaggerating. After all, she was my sister. If she wasn’t where she was supposed to be, that was trouble enough. Besides, no way would I believe she was hanging around the likes of Cooper. There had to be an explanation and when I found Jordan, I’d ask her side of the story.
“I want to know what happened,” I demanded. “I deserve to know.”
Banning stopped at the corner, checking for cars. I found it ironic that a reaper looked both ways before crossing a major intersection. Ironic for all of us really. I never would have thought I could find much humor in being dead. But, like punching Daniel in the stomach, it relieved some of the stress. Or, maybe Daniel’s attitude was starting to rub off on me. There should have been a joke in there somewhere about a reaper, an earthbound, and a demon crossing the road. The punch line seemed equally stupid, but had a weird twist on words—to get to the other side. I almost laughed. Except, the side I wanted was the one I’d come from. Given the choice between heaven and my life as I’d known it, I’d take my life back.
“Fair enough,” Banning said.
“Let’s start with what happened back there,” I said, a bit calmer now. There wasn’t much point in staying mad at them forever. Not if I wanted to find Jordan. I couldn’t do it alone. “What happened with Cooper and the demons?”
“Banished them to hell,” Banning replied.
“How does that work, exactly? The scythe?” I asked.
Banning gave me a curious look, like wondering why I’d want to know such a thing. Probably detecting I needed reassurance that he wasn’t withholding information, he replied. “In a nutshell, it severs their existence in purgatory, and as you may have gathered, it does so in a very unpleasant manner.”
“He’s not kidding!” Daniel said. “Really effing hurts from what I hear, and that’s saying something. Demons might feel pain, but we get used to it. The pain of getting hit with a scythe is supposed to be off the charts. Takes months, sometimes even a year to recover. It’ll be a while before we see their faces again.”
“So it’s not permanent? Demons come back?”
“Some do. Eventually,” Banning said.
The consolation here was that at least I wouldn’t run into those two particular demonic goons anytime soon. Not that there weren’t others. The thought made me shiver. “What did those demons want with me?” I asked.
We finally caught a break and hitched a ride with a guy driving a white Taurus. The car was old and creaky, and fast food wrappers littered the floor. But, it was a ride and I was tired of walking.
“Like I said, negotiators,” Daniel continued. “The message was more for me than you. They wanted to make sure I was still in the game, still on their side. And, they wanted to make you angry, spur you on.”
I also thought it had something to do with their perception that Daniel might be protecting me. I think we all knew that, but Daniel would never say it outright.
“Wish granted,” I replied. I thought of how the demon offered to reenact my sister’s murder. “I’m mad enough that I’d kill Pete right now if he was here.”
Banning gave me another glance. “Remember, Keely, it’s also in their best interest to lie, to make things sound worse than they might have been. I’m not saying I know exactly what happened with your sister before she died—I’m not the reaper who came for her. I know some details, but not all. Demons always play things up.”
“Believe me, they’d tell you anything if they thought it would work to their advantage,” Daniel chimed in.
The Taurus took us about a mile from the house. Banning made no attempt to find us another ride, so we walked.
“Best not to dwell on it,” Banning said, ruffling my hair. It was a gesture I’d expect an adult to do to a small child, not a teen. Maybe he was thinking of his daughter. “Thinking on it for too long is exactly what the demons want—your imagination working overtime.”
And my imagination was working overtime, making me angrier. I wanted more than ever to avenge Jordan’s death. But, I couldn’t. Banning would go to hell with me. He had a family in heaven, and if he went to hell, he’d see them less than he did now. I couldn’t take his chance to be with his family away from him. Not when I wanted my own as much as I did. Besides, Jordan belonged in heaven. I needed to be sure she would be okay. I hadn’t slit my wrist to spend time with the likes of Baldy and his tattooed friend, and even though I really liked Daniel, I didn’t see myself spending all my time with him, either.
“So, how do we find Jordan?” I asked. “Because, regardless of where I end up in a day or so, I’ve got to find my sister.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
We returned to the house a few hours before dawn. Banning said I should catch a couple hours sleep. He claimed I’d heal faster. I was tired, and I still hurt from the beating I’d taken. He thought I’d have a clearer mind by morning, too. I didn’t want to tell Banning that technically, it was morning. Tuesday. Besides, I had to admit, fatigue had clouded my ability to be rational about where to start looking for Jordan. A few hours of sleep would help me think more clearly.
The house was dark and quiet when we got in. Daniel didn’t waste any time before taking one of the sofas. We were all bone tired and I guess he didn’t care to check
upstairs to see who was sleeping where.
“Sleep well,” Banning said as he took the sofa opposite Daniel.
I trudged up the stairs. “You, too,” I managed to mumble. I made my way down the hall and to my room. The door was closed, and I considered trying the knob for a minute. Everyone was asleep, so I reasoned that it might work. But, fatigue won out and I just walked through it. I flopped onto the bed, too tired to worry about clothes or shoes. My bedside clock with its glowing numbers proclaimed it was four in the morning. I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling.
The high school would be our first stop. Daniel had already been there to check on leads that might help us find Jordan. An earthbound kid told him someone fitting Jordan’s description was hanging out by my locker yesterday. Apparently, my locker had been plastered with letters, sympathy cards, and photos. Daniel felt pretty sure the kid really had seen Jordan because he’d pointed to a photo of her and me and said he was as certain as he could be since he didn’t know either of us in life—his own death had been years before.
The more I thought about it, going back to school made me feel jittery inside, as though it was the first day of school instead of approaching mid-semester. As I lay staring at the ceiling, I thought it had more to do with the idea of seeing my locker with all those photos and cards. There would be my friends, too. What did they think of me now? And, there was Miles. I cared more about what he thought than anyone else. Funny, I guess I still loved him. The longer I stayed in purgatory, the more I missed those I had shared my life with.
As worn out as I was, sleep eluded me. I got up and paced, thinking about my friends and about Miles. I was overtired, and whenever I got this way, random thoughts kept surfacing, one after another. Sometimes, I just had to let them exhaust themselves. I stayed in my room, trying to keep out of everyone’s way. Dad’s parents were frail and the last thing I wanted to do was cause them harm. I listened to the sounds coming from the guest room. A floorboard creaked as one of them got up to go to the bathroom. They’d go home soon after the funeral. Then Mom and Dad would be alone here. Alone with all the memories.
Don't Fear the Reaper Page 15