by TJ Adams
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
“Coffee.” Which made me look at her breasts again. Just a quick glimpse this time because she kept her eyes on me.
“I promised mom I would get her a decent one and not the rubbish they dish out from the breakfast trolley.”
She chuckled at the irony of the situation.
“I need to find you something to help clean that up.”
“Too late now. It’s done.”
“It wasn’t hot, was it?”
“I got them in town, so the drive over cooled them down somewhat.”
“I’ll pay for the dry-cleaning. Or buy you a new one.” Because she should definitely wear that shirt again. A lot.
The coffee was likely going to stain her skin, but not if I licked it off. And how did that thought slip in? Time to cool it down.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be stupid. How’s your mother?”
“Alive.”
“Which is a good thing, right?”
“Of course. I’m not sure if she sees it like that.”
Bounty’s brow creased, then her eyes drew into a sad expression. “Let’s go in search of that coffee.”
She headed back the way she’d come, me falling in line beside her.
“Of course your mom is still in a lot of pain. I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose a child.”
“I think she’s giving up the will to live.” Or rather the soul snatcher is taking her will from her. But even without his theft would she still be willing to engage in life?
“Has she spoken to anyone, like a grief counsellor, or therapist?”
“No. She doesn’t see the depression.”
“It must feel like you’re losing your mom as well.”
By the way her hand twitched toward me, I could tell she wanted to touch me, perhaps hold my hand. I couldn’t be sure if her withholding was a result of her usual aversion to touch or if she remembered what happened last time; I’m still sure she received more than a friendly zap when we went hand-to-hand at Hot Swirls. For the first time, I was glad of her restraint. The aftereffects of us touching were too scary, even for me.
“Something like that.”
Not for the first time I thought about her reasons for avoiding physical contact and a heavy lump settled over my heart. Of late I’d been thinking maybe she’d been a victim of abuse. That was likely to make any woman shy of being touched. Whatever the reason, this was not the right time to broach the subject. Between now and four days there may never be a good time to say the things I wanted to say to her.
“Perhaps you could speak to the doctor and see if they can organize a visit from pastoral care. I suppose you’ll have to tread carefully. You don’t want to go behind your mother’s back and organize too much.”
“I never thought of that. Thanks. I’ll have a word with dad, see what he says.”
“He must be taking it hard.”
“Dad’s old school. Not a lot gets said.”
“Seems like the conversation is needed.”
The lift was open when we arrived. I placed my hand over the sensor and ushered Bounty through. About to join her inside, I was violently wrenched backward and fell on my ass.
When I looked up the soul snatcher stood in front of me. He craned down on his thin long neck so its face dangled in front of mine.
“Stay away from her.” It hissed.
“That was not part of the bargain. I’ll visit my mother as much as I like.”
“No, you fool. The woman.” It raised its hand toward the lift. The lift door had closed, locking Bounty inside. “I strike a new deal. This one includes keeping away from her.”
“No way. You’ve already made your deal.”
“Then I add an appendix. Refuse and I take five grams per day instead of four.”
I slammed a fist into the ground. Sharp shots of pain ran up my arm, but I had to release the rage somehow.
The soul snatcher wheezed a cackle at me then faded away. Only once it disappeared I realized I’d been viewing the hospital corridor as if through a gray filter. With it gone, the corridor colors became vivid. Looking out from the void onto the world diminished its vitality. But what exactly was the void?
I was still on my ass when the lift doors opened again. Bounty burst out and skidded to a stop when she saw me on the floor.
I looked up at her while nursing my sore hand, feeling foolish and dazed. Why the new rule about not seeing Bounty?
4
“What happened?”
Matteo sat on his ass outside the lift. One minute he’d been about to join me and the next he’d disappeared. The damn lift then closed and I was forced to ride to the next level before changing lifts for one heading down.
He shook his head, a crease on his forehead. He looked stunned, so I doubted I would get a proper answer. Had he just suffered a minor black-out or some fugue, which scrambled his brain? I wasn’t a doctor, but stress was the culprit for all sorts of physical ailments. Nearly losing your mother would amount to stress overload. There was also the added bonus of feeling helpless against the insidious wave of depression. How did you fight against something like that, especially when the one you loved refused to accept there was a problem?
“What did you do to your hand?”
He held it the way people do when in pain.
“I must’ve fallen on it.”
“Pretty hard by the looks of things. Your knuckle joints look a little swollen. Handy we’re in a hospital.”
“It’ll be fine. I can barely feel it now.”
Was this him trying to be macho? “Still it’s best to get it checked out. And while you’re at it you can get your head checked.”
“Thanks, is that you saying I’m a mental case?”
“Sorry, that came out wrong. But if you’re having a vague moment, enough to make you fall on your ass, maybe that’s a signal all is not well. It wouldn’t hurt.”
“I’m fine, really. It’s just a small strain. It will come right soon.”
Matteo went to stand. He didn’t use his sore hand, which said to me it was more painful than he admitted. I wanted to offer him help up, but after the last time we touched, I couldn’t bring myself to reach for him.
“Is everything all right here?”
I spun to see a nurse coming down the corridor. Matteo managed to get to his feet and lowered his hand to his side, to hide it no doubt.
“We’re fine.” He said.
“My friend felt woozy and went down, landing wrong on his hand.”
The look Matteo flicked me wasn’t good, so I ignored him and focused on the nurse.
She looked at him, holding her hand out. “Can I see?” He held off a moment, no doubt arguing with himself about whether to oblige her. Being the polite guy he was, he had little choice. Refusing would draw more attention than complying.
She examined the hand, now looking more swollen than when I spied it last.
“This looks nasty.”
“Feels fine.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Men are usually difficult.”
I could tell Matteo was growing impatient. What was going on with him? I wouldn’t know what it was like to see the person you loved slowly willing themselves to death, but I wasn’t going to allow Matteo to dismiss his own deteriorating health because he was emotionally falling apart.
“How is your head now? Still feeling faint?”
“I didn’t feel faint.” He snapped, then recognizing his anger, his body sagged, as if in resignation of how low he felt.
“If you don’t mind I would like to run some simple checks. And I think we should get this hand x-rayed. It’s not looking good to me.”
He breathed out. “Fine, but it’s over kill.”
“That is the point of a hospital. If we didn’t go to the end of the line for someone than a lot of people in this place wouldn’t survive”
Matteo flashed me a grim look. I gave a wan
e smile.
“I only went for a coffee, mom’s expecting me.”
“Let me go see her.”
“She’s not to know about this.”
“I’ll tell her you tripped.”
Nope, not a happy boy. I left him with the nurse before he changed his mind. I looked over my shoulder as I walked away, only to find his eyes following me, a heavy frown as his expression. We’d faced a couple of life threatening situations and he’d remained a solid wall. This was him crumpling inside. The guy I’d met, the one who steam-rolled along his self-determined path with unbreakable resolve was close to being swallowed by a situation he could no longer control, weakened by what his mother meant to him.
I rounded the corner from where we’d first met and felt a faint ripple, which ran along my skin then penetrated deep into my body. The hum zinged for a few seconds longer as I skidded to a halt. What the hell? Supernatural activity here, in a hospital?
My skin rippled again. My organs felt like they were oscillating. I looked down the length of my body expecting to see myself undoing molecule by molecule. This was nothing I’d experienced before.
When I glanced up I saw a gray palate. Bloody hell, someone had pulled me through.
Up ahead two doctors turned into the corridor, deep in conversation as they approached. A couple of nurses came along behind, also chatting. A few seconds earlier and they would’ve caught my disappearance.
I hugged the wall and moved forward toward Dot’s door, which suddenly vortexed into a dark mist of gray, swirling with the violence of a category ten tornado. This did not look good. So quick I couldn’t react, a jet of energy pulsed from the center and slammed into me. I was flung backward through the wall, into the patient room behind, through one bed and an elderly patient in the next, whom was standing at her bed going through her bag. I finally stopped with my head on the outside of the building, staring up at the sky, the rest of my body still inside the room.
Bewildered by the sudden attack, I remained as I was. Something crossed me over into the void and then attempted to expel me. The mad flurry of noises from inside the room brought me back to my senses and I pulled my head back inside. Nurses flooded in. Everyone in their beds were sitting up and craning to get a better look.
The old woman I’d passed through was lying on the floor. A nurse was at her side barking orders as she prepared to resuscitate her. This was because of me. I’d nearly killed someone. Death’s Angel. The one responsible for the smooth running of death had nearly caused a free roamer. I stood beside the nurse willing her to work faster. Another nurse informed her the crash cart was on its way. I wanted to yell at them to get it in here on the double.
More people ran in, doctors by the looks of things. I was forced to make space lest I cause another cardiac arrest. The crash cart careered into the room and I was on the verge of yelling at everyone to back off and let the team do their work. In no time the paddles were set in place and the woman received her shock of life.
When she gasped a small lung full, I would’ve sighed a breath of relief if I’d been breathing; something I had no need for in the void, thank god. She was alive.
Disaster averted. My attention returned to what the bloody hell was going on. Something malevolent lurked and I was its target.
I crossed the floor and back into the corridor. The door to Dot’s room was back to looking like a door.
“Is that all you’ve got?” I yelled at nothing in particular. Now the scare was over, my anger rose, lashing like a cat’s tail. “I don’t appreciate being jerked about. I wish everyone or thing would stop thinking they can tug me around when they want to.”
I felt nothing, heard nothing.
“You’ve got my attention. What do you want?” Nothing nice I’m sure.
Without a true corporeal form to feel pain, and being indestructible, I wasn’t scared to goad whatever had tried to get rid of me. A lame attempt it had been, which meant whatever I faced wasn’t particularly powerful. The fact it lay in hiding also signaled its inferiority.
Just when I was about to call one of my reapers, I saw a ghostly shape in my periphery. I spun the way I’d come, but there was nothing there. I moved to the corner of the corridor, but saw nothing either way. Perhaps it had been my mind playing tricks.
I glanced back toward Dot’s door. It looked how it should. A nurse exited and headed toward me. I backed against the wall to give her a wide berth. Staff came out of the room opposite, where the elderly woman had suffered a cardiac arrest. They walked calmly, which told me she was doing all right.
Was it Dot’s room I was supposed to stay out of, or the void? The doorway remained looking like a doorway as I approached. This time I was ready and if the thing suddenly transformed again I was going to charge straight through before the energy slammed me into the carpark.
Nothing happened.
In her room I was brought up short by the ugliest creature standing beside her bed.
“What the hell are you supposed to be?”
“You’re too late, reaper.” Its voice raspy.
“Too late for what?”
“She will be mine.”
It waved long spindly arms over the still form of Matteo’s mother. Was she dead? Had this creature just killed her? All sorts of emotions spiked, too many for me to know how to react first. The greatest emotion, panic, stymied me for valuable moments. I couldn’t bear the thought of Matteo’s pain at losing his mother months after his sister.
“You got two things wrong, creepy thing. Her soul is not yours, and I am not a reaper.”
“Stupid, child, you don’t think I can smell a reaper.”
“Okay, so I may smell like death, but that’s only because I’m Death’s Angel.”
It reared back, raising to a considerable height given everything about it was long and thin. “I have not heard of such a one.”
“I’m new. And this.” I waved around me to incorporate the void. “Is my domain. No one takes souls from me.”
It leered in close, which it could do without moving because when its neck stretched out it had to be meters long. “Are you so sure about that?”
“What are you?”
“If this is your place, you should know who I am.”
“Like I said. I’m new. I’m still meeting everyone. You I don’t care for. I suggest you leave this woman alone before I twist your long limbs into a knot.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what I could do to the creature, given it was obviously from the void. Threats were all I had in my repertoire when I was not dealing with ghosts.
“I cannot be defeated. I will get what I want.” And with that it disappeared.
“Just great. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
Silence was my answer.
5
Dot slept peacefully, not dead like I’d thought. I collapsed into the chair close by the bed and felt the adrenaline ebb from my body. For one horrible moment there my mind had been filled with visions of Matteo returning to find she’d passed away. Cynthia would go apoplectic if I tried to console him, given how bad I’d already made things between us. And what’s the good of consoling someone when you couldn’t touch them?
I would have to speak with my reapers and find out what sort of creature could threaten the life of the living like that. Given it was immune to my threat, it must believe it can steal souls from me; who knows, perhaps it could. Why had none of my reapers mentioned it before? Since Death gave me no advice at all about how to take care of my business, it was no surprise he failed to mention it in his lightening quick introduction to the job.
I fixated on Dot’s chest, watching it rise and fall as if I expected it to seize at any moment. Could the creature simply take her soul while she was still alive? I thought that power was for Death alone. And if I left her would the creature come lurking back to finish the job? Problem was, I couldn’t remain on guard forever, nor could I ask my reapers to take shifts in protecting her.
“You
made this sound like it would be a simple job.” I grumbled under my breath to Death.
“Thanks for nothing.” I folded my arms across my chest, like a petulant child.
“I hope you’re not talking to me.”
I jumped. “Jesus. You surprised me.”
My face flushed red as Matteo came into the room. I leaped to my feet, wishing I could fade to the void right now.
“Just got off the phone to Robert…Hot Swirls. Who would’ve guessed serving ice cream could be such a demanding job. How’s your head and your hand?”
He raised his bandaged hand, looking like a white boxing glove. “Looks worse than it is. Nothing broken, just swelling that will go down in good time. As for my head, they say I’m marginally sane and there’s nothing they can do to help me.”
He looked so good when he smiled. I wanted to take a snap shot to keep in my bag for private viewing when I was sitting propped in bed with my red. How long was it since I last saw him smile? A genuine smile that reached his eyes.
Not a lot had happened in Matteo’s life in the last three months that was worth laughing about. And the jinn incident had really messed with him. He hated the idea of being vulnerable. I’m sure I hated it more than him, but he’d showed no signs of developing promise, as Samuel had suspected. As the days passed I was sure the truth of Matteo was more in line with what the Devil had said; with his desire to replace Trinity, Samuel had made Matteo into something he wasn’t.
Matteo looked at his mother.
“She was sleeping when I came.”
“Probably best we don’t wake her. She needs all the sleep she can get. I still haven’t got that coffee.” He flicked a glance to the coffee stain on my shirt. “Shall we make a second attempt?”
“I’m sorry. Robert needs me. Maisy’s AWOL.”
“You better go, the masses will be rioting if they don’t get their ice cream.”
We both remained where we were. I wanted to ask him if we could catch up again since our conversation of earlier had been cut short by his dramatic fainting spell, or head spin, or whatever he’d suffered. He would surely need the company. The thing that kept me quiet was knowing I would be making things worse for myself, and by extension him, by spending more time with him. Especially intimate time where he shared some of his heart with me.