TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part1?)
AUTHOR: trista
.DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don’t sue me, not that I have any money or anything you’d want!
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George UST
SUMMARY: George, or should I say Millie has a convo with Reggie at a park, and since I couldn’t write my first DLM story without a soul popping Mason and George have to take the souls of a couple, some strangeness ensues.
AUTHORS NOTES: there may be some illusions up to season one’s “My room” I don’t think there are any blatant spoilers. This is just something I whipped to together, if you wanna post it somewhere keep my name on it and add my email addy (PM me first to tell me if its going anywhere)
*****
Jesus Christ it’s ridiculous the lengths I have to go to get some quiet time. Once I got used being alone I really started to like it, and then hurricane Daisy happened, and I can’t even be comfortable in my own home. I guess I could find a new little place, but dammit I like the place I have, I’m used to, and for fuck’s sake I don’t want another thing in my life to chance. Why can’t I tell her that? Why? Why? Why?
So here I am in this little park that I loved to go to when I was a kid. I’m not really sure why my mom ever took me here, but after Reggie was born we never really came back. Its not like there is much to do here, a sandbox and some swings but I loved this place so much. I like here now cause no one ever comes here, maybe that’s what I liked about it then, I don’t know. There’s just something about swinging that makes you come back to your childhood, and somehow right now that is something that is making me feel better.
Strange when I was alive, or whatever, I tried to avoid remembering my childhood, and now all I want to do is go back and ask my mother a million questions. But that’ll never happen, God why did I think that I could go back? If only I had played my cards right, maybe somehow I could have them in my life again. I don’t even want them as my family anymore. I just want to get to know them so that I can understand life again.
I stopped swinging a while ago, I’ve learned that when you get older you can’t swing for so long without getting a feeling you’re going to yak. Besides the idea of going over the bar is much more frightening now that it doesn’t seem so impossible. I just have this picture of me falling on my head, and dying. Of course I can’t die, but just the idea of falling on my head is not exactly appealing. Besides even if I did fall on my head I’d probably have wheel over to rooms in the hospital to pop souls or something.
Why is it that I’ve been sitting on a swing for half an hour, by myself? If anyone were around they would have had me committed by now thinking I was mental. Maybe I should bring a pen next time and pretend to write, or maybe I could actually write, keep a journal. I can just picture it now, “Life as a Grim Reaper, Behind the cloak and Sickle” by Georgia Lass, wait I’d probably have to use a penname cause Millie doesn’t seem to be the type to keep a journal, plus I’m not really sure what Deloros would do if she found out I was a reaper.
Rube would probably pissed too, he never said I couldn’t write a book. I’m sure somewhere in those rules of being a reaper that I never got to see its there “Reapers cannot write books, it would freak people out.”
Just when I was starting to get comfortable. Well as comfortable as you can get with their ass going numb from sitting on a swing, I saw a little kid coming toward the swings. Well she wasn’t really that little, Reggie’s age. When I realized that was Reggie part of me wanted to bolt, cause I knew if Rube found out he’d flip. But it wasn’t like I went to her, she’s coming to the same place as I happen to be. I didn’t plan it, I didn’t even know she knew of this place. It’s not like she’ll even talk to me or anything, she doesn’t even know me. She sat down on the swing next to me. Strange she’d pick that one when there were five others free, but I though nothing of it and went back to what I was doing, nothing.
“Hi,” she said.
I was kind of surprised when I heard her speak. I had forgotten what her voice sounded like, not that I listened to her much when I had the chance. I couldn’t figure out why she was talking to me, but I knew that even it was something fleeting at least this way I would have the chance to have a conversation with my sister.
“Uh, hi,” I replied.
“Am I interrupting you or something?”
“No, I’m just, well sitting here.”
“Why?”
“Cause I like to be alone.”
“Oh…” Reggie stood up to leave.
I took her wrist, gently, hoping not to scare her. “You can stay, you were the little girl at the house where I went to return the Frankenfruity doll, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, Joy would be pretty mad if she knew I was talking to you.”
“You call her Joy is she your stepmother or something?”
“No, she’s my mom. I just don’t like her all that much.”
“I didn’t like my mother much when I was about your age. I regret it now though.”
“You’re like my sister’s age, how can you have such a big regret?”
“I can’t see my mom anymore, actually I can’t really see all my family anymore.”
“Oh, I’d be happy if I didn’t have to see them.”
“You don’t know what you want until its taken away.”
“Maybe. So what’s your name anyway?”
“Everyone calls me Millie,” I replied. It was still odd not telling people that my name was George, but I certainly couldn’t tell Reggie of all people my real name. “What’s your name?”
“Reggie.”
I didn’t know what to say to her then. She was my sister, and I had to address her like a stranger on the street. I wanted to tell her that I was her sister, hoping that somehow that would make her better, though I’m pretty sure that if someone like Millie said to her she was her sister she’d probably need even more therapy. I wanted to tell her that I was sorry that I never paid attention to her, and that even though I didn’t really know her I miss her. Most of all I didn’t want her to turn into me, I wanted her to live. I didn’t want her to never know what love was. I wanted her to know that her family does care about her.
So what if my parents had never intended for her to be a part of their lives. She was put in their lives for a reason, and I didn’t want them to fail her as well. She needed them more then I had. But what was I supposed to say to her. She’s a kid, I can’t tell her the truth, and yet when she looked at me it was almost as if she could see something in me that was different from anyone she knew.
I had to think of something to say to her, I didn’t want her to leave. “So you said you have a sister, what’s her name?”
“George, but she‘s dead.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Isn’t there a better word in the English language then “sorry” when someone looses someone. “Sorry” is something you say when you step on someone’s foot, or accidentally drop paint on them. There should be another word you can say to someone who is dealing with the pain of loosing a family member or friend. Something more then sorry is something that a graveling should say when he drops a piano, or a sign, or a toilet seat on your head.
Before I knew what was going on my mouth opened and began to talk. “Seems like a pretty stupid word to be saying at a time like this don’t you think?”
She laughed. “Yeah it is, sorry is something you say when you get caught doing something you shouldn’t, and you feel bad. Or you make a mistake like kicking them, or calling them the wrong name, or something that people should say when then call you a name.”
“Yeah, I know how you feel. You’d think with all the thousands of words people have made up over the years they’d think up something a little more then sorry when it comes to something big.”
“People are just stupid I guess.”
What was a seven year old thinking like that for? “You’re pretty young to be so jaded.”
“You’d be jaded too if no one in your family liked you.”
“Maybe they do like you, they just don’t understand you. That’s what it was like with my little sister. It’s not that I didn’t like her, it’s just that I never got to know her. I know I should have, but when she first came home I was mad at my mom for having to pay so much attention to her when *I* needed her. Then after a few years its hard to get out of that mind frame. You know what I mean?”
“I think so, but it still doesn’t make it right.”
“No, it doesn’t, but everyone only thinks of themselves, they don’t see how their actions effect people around them. It’s a ripple effect.” Fuck I was sounding like Rube, but I think she was starting to understand what I was telling her, and a few things Rube has told me along the way.
“I understand what you mean completely. What was your sister like?”
“To be honest I have no idea, and that pisses me off, a lot. I mean I had seven years to get to know her, and I didn’t, and now that I want to I can’t.”
“I wanted to be just like my sister. I don’t know why, cause she wasn’t very nice to me, but she seemed pretty happy, and really cool.”
“Really!” Shit I almost blew my cover. “Sorry, you just remind me of her, and I’m reacting the way I would have if she had told me that I was cool.” This lying thing gets confusing after a while. Although I wasn’t really lying, other then saying that Reggie isn’t my sister. Which she isn’t because I’m Millie, not George.
“It’s all right, you kind of remind me of my sister.”
“Funny how the universe works sometimes, but I need to get going, it was nice talking to you, Reggie.” I could almost see Betty saying something like that to someone just before she popped their soul. A part of me still misses her, I think I always will.
“Nice talking to you too, Millie, maybe we’ll see each other again?”
“I’m here a lot, maybe we’ll run into each other again.”
She nodded, and I knew that somehow Millie and Reggie would somehow be closer the George and Reggie would ever be. I just hoped there wouldn’t be repercussions for this too. I’m not trying to get my old life back, I’m trying to get a new life, and I’m trying to help my little sister. If I had to be undead I wanted to make the most of it. I looked down at the yellow post it note in my hand. Strange that the soul I needed to take today was right near somewhere that I love to hang out. I looked at ETD, and I still had ten minutes before the M. LaBelle. When I looked at the location again, I realized that this poor guy was going to die in his apartment, which sucks for him cause I can’t pick a lock to save my life. Where’s Mason when you need him?
“What are you doin’ here?” I heard a familiar voice with a nice accent say.
Oh, Mason, dear Mason, I could kiss your lock picking ass right about now. “What do you think I’m doing here? I just like to fucking stand around shittier buildings then mine wondering if maybe this is what I would have to stoop to to get away from Daisy.” Not exactly the way to charm a guy into picking a lock for you.
He laughed, of course. “Bitter little bugger today aren’t we?”
I smiled. “So where are you headed.”
“Apparently T. LaBelle is set to die in apartment 53-” He looked at his watch.
I cut him off. “In nine minutes now.”
“Yeah, that’s it! Seems that we’re a team today George.”
“Great, so any thoughts on how we might get into the apartment?”
“Well, if it’s at a party that these two or going to die then we just waltz right in and act casual. If we don’t hear any strange sounds I will pick the lock and assume they are dead, and take there souls. If we here cop needed noises, we walk ourselves back down here and wait till the medics drag them past.”
“And then what?”
“Well first lets see which of the scenarios we have, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.”
I rolled my eyes. He grabbed my hand and we followed another guy into the building when he opened the door. He looked at us sumptuously.
“Hey, mate,” Mason said. “My girl and I are thinking about moving in here, all we can afford with our parents kicking us out, you know how it is, and we like to see a little bit before we rush into things.”
“Wish I’d done that,” the guys said. “Let me give you a word of advise anywhere is better then here.”
“Thanks, but we like to find out for ourselves don’t we honey?” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder .
“Yeah,” I said unsure of myself. If he kisses me I swear to god he will not know what hit him, we walked down the hall and he let go of me. “You’re too good at this, you know that?”
“I’ve been doin’ this too long. Well here we are!”
“You fucking slut!!” we heard a male voice scream.
“These walls don’t give much privacy do they?” I asked, not even realizing till after that I had lowered my voice from before.
“Yeah, I think it’s a fair bet to say that these two love birds are going to kill themselves.”
I nodded, “lets take off before we somehow get involved.”
“Good plan.”
The guy from before was at his door. “They’re always like, they’re not the scariest thing in the building!” He called to them as they existed the building.
“So now what?” I asked.
“Well first we wait for cops, I’d say across the street, then when we see them we get a little closer, then when we see an ambulance we get closer to the building, maybe act like a couple. See what happens and hope to hell we get the right people, cause it’ll look a lot odd if we both touch both bodies.”
“Yeah, I’d imagine.”
“I’ve had it happen once, you know?”
“What happen?”
“That I was with someone else, and in front of all these people we both had to go over to each body and see who had which soul. We got the wrong one and ended up both patting these two people on the shoulder and then walking away. The cops were yelling at us or something but we just kept walking with these people who had no clue what had just happened. They were banging up against a window and the screen broke, and they fell or some shit, how embarrassing.”
What a way to go, I swear the people in this division had seen it all. We walked across the street, Reggie seemed to have gone, and we sat down on the lawn at the park. Mason and I didn’t really do the small talk thing much anymore. I don’t really know why, we get along when we’re forced to be together, but I never have the urge to do anything with at any other time. Though he has been hanging out at my apartment more since Daisy’s been there. The guy just don’t take a hint, she’s not interested in him. She likes the clean cut, pretty-boy types, and that most certainly isn’t Mason. I’d put him as a bad-boy, but that doesn’t seem right, more like a starving artist. Almost a rock star-boy, yeah I could totally see Mason on MTV smashing his guitar.
“What are you thinking?” he asked all of a sudden.
“Nothing,” I lied.
“Strange, I can never stop thinking. I try to, but there’s always this annoying little voice babbling on and on in my head. It usually doesn’t even say anything useful. Certainly didn’t say anything to stop me the day I died. That was pretty stupid, don’t you think? You’d think that voice in your head would tell you that this is a bad idea and to just stop it.”
“You would think that wouldn’t you?”
“Makes you think don’t it? I’m getting a headache.”
“So what were you thinking about, before started thinking about thinking?”
“About how I’m not really a breast man, and I wonder if that makes me gay.”
“Mason you’re not gay.”
“Well how do you know?”
“The way you’ve been lusting after Daisy may be one indication.”
“Maybe you’re right. I hear sirens.”
“Well they were supposed to die about three minutes ago.”
We watched the scene play out across the street, a couple minutes after the cop car pulled up an ambulance pulled, what a surprise. So we walked back across the street, and Mason placed us right in front of the doorway, where we would sure to be in the way. He put his arm around my waist, and all of a sudden we were making out. A few moments later we were interrupted when two very angry paramedics asked us to move as they wheeled to stretchers out of the building.
Quiet the crowd had gathered, as we separated, and I touched the first guy’s foot, making it look as if I had tripped over my own foot by mistake and took his soul. I was glad that some higher power had at least let me get the right guy. He put his arm around my waist, and two very confused souls followed us to the park across the street.
“What the hell is going on!?” asked the man.
“Well,” said Mason. “You’re dead.”
He had a way with telling people that, so, blunt. “We don’t need to tell you how it happened,” I said.
“So who the hell are you!?” the man demanded.
“We’re grim reapers, we’re here to help you to your final destination.”
“Where are your cloaks?”
“Do we look like a cliché?” I asked.
“So what now?”
“Well you have to move on.”
“I’m dead that’s great can I move on now?” asked the woman, breaking her silence.
“Well you have to wait, you’ll know when its time,” I explained.
“Am I going to hell for killing her?” the man asked.
“I don’t know, I’m just a messenger,” we both said at the same time.
Just then a strange looking heart shaped, I don’t know what the fuck it was appeared in front of us, and the two of them, who had joined hands, and walked into it together. Go figure some people, I just don’t get it, the guy kills her, and then himself to not get any jail time and they decide they want to spend whatever comes next together.
So now, here I am in bed, replaying the day. What a day! That whole thing with the chick leaving with the guy that killed her is odd, but I’ve been told that love is blind, and apparently stupid. But that’s not what’s really getting to me it was that after all that Mason just said “we’ll do that again all right, sweetie?” and walked away. Sweetie, why the hell would Mason call me sweetie? The whole thing with Reggie then pops into my head, and it just becomes a vicious circle, and I can’t sleep cause I can’t turn my brain off. What the hell is going to happen tomorrow. I hate my afterlife.
Part Two
“Have a hard time sleeping last night, Peanut?” Rube asked.
I looked up, kind of surprised. “Yeah, I had something on my mind,” I replied.
“A boy?” Daisy inquired.
“Not exactly.” If fate had wanted to kick me in the ass, Mason would have walked in at that exact moment. Well maybe fate has finally stopped being such a bitch, no Mason, and better yet no work today. Happy Time work anyway. Daisy, Rube and I were at our regular table at Der Waffle Haus. Roxy was absent, surprise, surprise, and Mason was nowhere to be found either. He was probably in a gutter twitching somewhere, having mixed the wrong drugs with the wrong substances. Why am I even remotely, strangely, drawn to that man?
Rube was about to say something when our food arrived. Daisy had her usual cottage cheese, fruit and whatever wheat substance medley. Rube had eggs, toast, jam, and hash browns, all cooked a certain odd way that I’d be afraid if actually remembered. These people probably cringe when they see Rube and Daisy walk in. I could almost imagine them in the back flipping coins to decide who had to deal with them on any given day.
I had a chocolate milkshake, cause I had been craving one for quiet some time. I began playing with my straw. As I did that remembered when I was kid one of my friends showing me the fun way to drink a milkshake. My mom freaked at me when she saw me do it, and I never did it again. Something came over me, and I decided to plug my straw with my finger, lift out the straw, lick the shake around the straw; then tilt my head back, and drop the contents of the straw on my tongue. Daisy and Rube both gave me funny looks, and I did it again.
“That’s unattractive Georgia!” Daisy said.
“Peanut, it looks like something Freud would have written about,” Rube commented.
Freud would have a field day with me, I began to think. Honestly, I have an obsession with playing with straws, that right there is cause for concern. I’m not in love with my father or anything, but the playing with straws thing, and the liking a drink better through a straw. Now Daisy, that is someone who needs to talk to Freud to figure out why she’s so obsessed with sexual things.
“Freudians make for lousy lovers, I’ve dated a couple, they analyze everything. I’m a very hands on kind of gal, that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with me,” Daisy proceeded to explain. Why must she share everything about her sexual past with everyone?
“You wouldn’t happen to know where Mason is would you?” Rube asked, nothing ever seemed to phase him, just once I’d love to see him flip his wig.
“Frankly I wouldn’t mind if that guy was under a bus, and I wish it could get him out of my hair. Honestly the nerve of some people!”
“Did he try to pick you up again?”
“Yeah, well it’s just not going to happen I don’t care how horny we both are, I don’t touch things like him!”
I shook my head. “I have no idea where he is, haven’t seen him since yesterday.”
“How did that go anyway?” Rube asked with his mouth full. Now THAT is unattractive.
“It went all right, he’s good at blending in. We pretended we were a couple looking for a place. We got done what we had to.”
“Ah, well he seems to be AWAL, and since you’re not working today Peanut you can give him this.” He handed me two post-its. “The bottom one’s yours.”
“Why can’t Daisy do it? I like my days off, I had something planned!”
“Well, Georgia I have more important things to do today, my skin doesn’t get like this all by itself. I need to find a new tanning salon.”
I nodded. “Have fun then.”
It wasn’t really that I had anything to do, I was planning on spending the day like always do, lifting a soul, and then just relaxing. Its nice to be away from Happy Time, and all the crazy happy people. It wasn’t that my day would be ruined waiting for Mason, it’s just that I wasn’t sure what to say to him. There was safety in numbers, and the numbers were leaving. After all most of the things that kept me up were in my head anyway. Nothing yesterday really meant anything. He was just doing his job. It was like acting or something. Daisy was gone, but Rube was still sitting there giving me a funny look.
“What!?” I asked.
“Well I just think you’re keeping something for me is all,” he explained.
“Why don’t you trust me?”
“You’ve never given me a reason to trust you. So what happened yesterday?”
“It was nothing while we were waiting for the medics to bring the bodies out, cause we couldn’t get into the apartment, we kissed. You know to blend in, it was nothing, just part of the job, I guess.”
“With Mason you never do know, but kissing girls is certainly not something he does as just part of his job.” With that Rube got up and walked away, throwing down a some money to cover his and Daisy’s food.
Just great, just when I finally have myself believing that it was nothing Rube has to go and fuck it all up! I wanted to go somewhere to think for a while. Somewhere that didn’t smell like eggs, pancakes and coffee. But I knew I couldn’t really go anywhere cause I had to give good old Mason his stupid post-it.
I mean really a post-it you would think that they would have another way of informing us what we had to do. You’d think that if we didn’t show up it wouldn’t be the least busiest person’s job to wait for someone to show up. What happened if Mason just didn’t show up at all?
I nursed my milkshake for about half an hour, I really wanted to eat something else for a change, since it was my day off and I could. A few minutes are I finished my shake Mason sauntered into the restaurant. He went right over to where I was sitting, looking as if it wasn’t a big deal that he was running late. He then did something really odd, especially for Mason. He kissed me on the cheek, before sitting down next to me.
“Hi, Sweetie!” he said, almost chipper.
“Sweetie?” asked giving him a strange look.
“You know, yesterday?”
“Yesterday? Yesterday was just work.”
“Oh, I’m sorry you feel that way. Which one is mine?”
“The top one.”
He took his post-it. “Thanks Georgie Girl.” He then left the place, looking dejected.
Part of me wanted run after him, and tell him the truth. That I didn’t think that yesterday had been just work. That I had stayed up all night thinking about what had happened and what it had mean. But another part of me knew that if I ran after him it would be signing a deal which lead to me loosing him. I had already lost so much and I couldn’t bare to loose him. I lost my family, and although I didn’t think that I cared about them before hand when they were gone I really missed them. I think part of it’s because I can see them and I know who they are, but they don’t know who I am; and then never can.
After realizing that if I tried too hard to get my family back I would loose the precious few memories I had of them, I tried to make a friend. But she had to go and piggy back ride with an Irishman, and she left me too. She left me with a few great memories. But I still miss her, a lot. I just wish I knew what happened to Betty. I didn’t exactly care about Ronnie or anything, he was crazy, but he did see me for who I was and I would have liked to have gotten to know him better. But work got in the way, and I did what I had to do.
So you can see where the train of the thought on the Mason thing is going. If I did decide to just throw caution to the wind, chances are I’d loose him. For whatever reason I cannot even bare to think about losing him, so we’re both just have to deal with being quasi-friends. I hoped I didn’t crush the guy too much. He’s been around a few times, I’m sure he’ll bounce right back.
I left Der Waffle Haus, and was thinking about the whole Mason situation, and somehow, almost on auto-pilot I ended up at the park I had been to the day before where, I, or Millie, had talked to Reggie only a day before. I sat down on the swing, and just sat there, I’m not really sure for how long, but I totally zoned out. I didn’t even hear anyone coming to sit beside me, until a hand waved in front of my face. I was too busy thinking about what had happened with Mason.
“Earth to Millie!” Reggie said.
I snapped out of it, and in my state I almost told Reggie to get lost, as I would have when I was alive. “Hey Reggie, I didn’t think I’d be seeing you so soon.”
“Me either.” She admitted.
“What brings you out today?”
“Just needed to think, and I’m not comfortable in my usual spot since my mom found it.”
“Oh, how do you know your mom doesn’t know about here?”
“Like she’d ever hang around here, it’s kinda dirty, and grungy looking, not a place Joy would like at all.”
Joke’s on her, Mom had been there plenty of times with me. I guess she really did care, cause come to think of it this place was pretty dilapidated , and not a place she’d usually want to be within arms reach of. But I loved this place, and for a while we were going once a week. I really did miss times like that with my mom, but there is no going back, sadly.
I smiled. “Yeah, to each her own, this place is so quiet and stuff, I don’t really care that it looks like it had its best days long before I was born.”
Reggie smiled too. “So why are you here?”
“Just had something on my mind and I ended up here.”
“Anything you wanna talk about? I’m only eleven, but I always listen when someone comes to me with a problem.”
Another thing I didn’t know about my little sister, she had the ear of a shrink, and she was only eleven. I felt kind of odd talking to her about a problem that she would not face for years, but somehow just letting it out, and telling someone who was beyond removed from the situation helped.
“It’s just this guy at work, we’re kind of confused as to what we are to each other. Just friends, or something more.”
“Oh, that can’t be fun. Is he the guy you were talking to yesterday? I saw you with someone as I was leaving.”
“Yeah, that’s him, something happened after we talked, and I don’t know I just don’t think I want to be anything more then friends with him.”
“Well you have to tell him how you feel, else you’ll not even have him as a friend.”
That was damn good advise coming from an eleven year old. I guess she had done a lot of growing up recently. I never even noticed but at times it was as if Reggie didn’t really have a childhood. From the time she started school she tried to act like me. I wondered how she fit in at school, if the kids picked on her for being different. I almost felt sorry for her, because when she got older she may regret that she never really had the opportunity to have a childhood. I also wished I had told her when I had had the chance to just have fun and be a kid while you can still get away with it. Reggie and I weren’t all that different I learned.
“Don’t you go to school?” I asked her suddenly.
“When I feel like it.”
Geez, I hadn’t gotten into that phase until high school. “Why not, don’t you like school?”
“It’s not school I hate, it’s the people there. I mean sure I can handle myself, I always have been able to, but it just gets hard sometimes. I don’t like having to face all these people who think I’m weird every single day. I know I’m different, but they don’t have to rub it in. I wish they would just try and ask me why I act the way I do rather then assume that it’s because I don’t like them.”
I sighed, I wanted to cry. All of a sudden I was afraid that one day I’d get her post-it, and find her dead at her own hand. “Maybe you’ve just been talking to the wrong kids?”
“I really don’t know.”
“You just have to find someone that you can connect with. Once you find that person then nothing else matters really.”
“Have you found your friend like that?”
“Yeah, and I lost her, but I’m glad that we had the time we did have together.”
She smiled. “I think I’m going to go back to school regularly, and find my friend like that.”
I smiled, relieved. I knew that somehow she’d be all right. “Don’t forget about your mysterious friend.”
Reggie laughed. “I’ll make you less mysterious one of these days Millie. I know that there’s something you’re not telling me and I’m going to find out what that is.”
“Maybe the mystery is what’s keeping us friends.”
“Maybe, well I’ve gotta go, you know I still have half a day of school left.”
“I think Joy’ll be glad you’re back.”
“Me too, but I’m not gonna tell her why I’m back.”
“Well have fun at school, and if you ever need any help with your homework ask me.”
“I’ll hold you to that, bye Millie.” She then ran off. I was glad that I finally had some kind of relationship with my sister, I just hopd that I would not get in trouble for it. I looked down at my post it, there was still about an hour before D. L. Moore was going to die at a place about half an hour from where I was, in the opposite direction of home, of course. I walked toward where I had to be, which was a mall food court, which was perfect cause while I was waiting I could get a lovely non-Der Waffle Haus meal!
I went to one of those teriyaki places, and sat down and ate, looking for clues as to the identity of D. E. Moore.
As I was finishing my meal a rough looking guy stood in front of me. He handed me a card.
My name is Dennis-Elliot, I am a deaf mute, selling these cards so I can eat. Please donate whatever you can. THAT was easy. I gave him a dollar, and as I gave him the dollar I took his soul. He walked away, and I looked at my watch he had two minutes to live. He wondered outside and started giving the sheets to people who were waiting for the traffic light to change, so they could cross the street.
He was following a person when the guy suddenly began to run across the street. Poor Dennis-Elliot must have really been deaf as he didn’t hear the ambulance that hit him with its sirens blaring he was hit. A crowd gathered in the street, and I went outside and before I even got outside he had crossed over. I wondered if when he died he got his hearing back. I had more important things to think about as I walked back to my apartment
Part Three
Surprisingly today everyone was at the Der Waffle Haus, Roxy included, and we were all waiting for Rube to show up. I wondered where he was, it was unlike Rube to be late.
“I bet he went on a bender last night and is so hung over he can’t wake up,” Mason suggested.
“No, Mason, that’s you!” Roxy snapped. “I’ve had to haul your wasted ass out of bed when you had work to do a couple of times.”
Daisy and I laughed. About five minutes after we all ate Rube showed up. He looked like he had just rolled out of bed, I didn’t think Rube could do the just rolled out of bed look, but there he was with disheveled hair and everything. I wanted to laugh but I’m sure under the bed head he still had the same Rube attitude.
“I slept in,” he informed us.
I was surprised when Roxy didn’t say “no shit!” But I think we all knew that it was a bad time to get under his skin. There was probably a damn good reason why he slept in, and he didn’t want to share it with us. He handed us each our post it notes. We all went to leave.
“Mason, George,” he said. “I need to talk to you.” We both sat back down, as Roxy and Daisy left, pretty quickly I might add. George? Rube never called me George, something really strange must be going on I don‘t remember him ever calling me anything but “Peanut“ even when I was in a lot of trouble. I couldn’t think of anything I had done wrong of late. I was really trying not to piss him off. I started to play with the straw from an empty drink that was in front of me.
“You’re not in any trouble, you two have to go out of town for a few days,” Rube informed us. “Mason procure a car, I’ll give you all your post-its, they’re all in the same place. Come back when all the souls have crossed over.” He handed us each a huge stack of post-its, and then walked away.
“Well Georgie, it seems it’s just you and me for the next few days,” Mason said with a Cheshire cat grin.
“I’m late for work.” I walked away, and I didn’t even look back to see the look on his face.
I got to work, a little bit early. I had to think of an excuse as to why I needed to go out of town for a few days. I decided that the best way was to say I had to go to a funeral, I wasn’t exactly lying. I actually worked really hard all morning until Delores walked by.
“Delores, I need to talk to you,” I said.
“What’s going on Millie?” she asked. “I really hate to do this to you, but something things just cannot be avoided. I have to go out of town for a funeral for a few days.”
“Oh, Millie, take all the time you need. Death is never easy.”
Don’t I know it! If only she knew the half of it. “She was my aunt, we weren’t overly close, but you know she was still my aunt. I’ll do whatever extra I can today, you know to keep my mind off of it.”
“Oh, that’s sweet of you Millie, but if you need to you can take the rest of the day off.
“That won’t be necessary, really I want to work so that I’m not sitting all alone at home today thinking about it.”
“Whatever you want, how are you getting there?”
“A good friend is driving me, but he works today too, so I can’t talk to him to make me feel better if I went home.
Delores gave me one of her signature sympathy pouts. “If you need to talk just find me.”
I smiled. “I will, thank you.”
She then walked away. After work when I was done I went to the park to see if Reggie was around. I sat down on one of the swings, and within a few minutes she showed up.
“Hey,” we both said at the same time.
“How was school today?” I asked.
“It was all right, I guess,” she answered.
“Yeah, school’s no fun, but you have to do it.”
“I know, it sucks.”
“Just try to look on the bright side.” That sounded really lame. “On second thought I’m not sure that there is a bright side to school when you don’t have many friends.”
Reggie laughed. “I’m going to try really hard to make friends.”
“Good for you! I guess I should tell you that I’m going out of town for a few days.”
“Why?”
“Work stuff.”
“That sucks, I’m sorry I can’t stay long today, but I have homework to do, but when you get back I want to show you something.”
“All right, later then Reggie.”
I stayed at the park a little while longer, thinking about having to go away for a while with Mason, sometime on the way I knew that the reason I’ve been avoiding him would come up, and I just don’t think I could lie to him. I wanted to but for some reason I knew that I wouldn’t be able to. Why can’t this be easy? I mean I was really good at telling guys to go fuck themselves when I was alive, and now that I’m undead the most annoying guy is after me and I can’t tell him off.
Why was I so afraid of loosing him? He’s just a stupid pothead! I knew that I was only kidding myself thinking that Mason meant nothing to me at all. From the first time I met him I was drawn to him, and for whatever reason fate was forcing me to explore whatever feelings drew me to him. To get my mind off of Mason I looked at my post-it note, and realized that I had no idea where I had to go. I left the park in search of a phonebook.
I looked at my post it note again when I got up to the building named “the Lucky Hen,” what the hell kind of name is that anyway? I was expecting a restaurant bar and grill thing, instead I was standing in front of a rather dark looking music club. It could be worse it could have been a strip joint. The idea of going to a loud dark pit with a ton of other people never much appealed to me when I was alive. It still didn’t much appeal to me especially since I was alone. Who the hell goes to places like this by themselves anyway?
With all these people how would I know which one was the person who’s soul I needed to take?
I think it was the being along thing that got to me the most, especially considering the first time I was at a loud bar was with Betty, and I kind of felt more at ease with her there. I couldn’t ask Daisy to go with me, it’s not her scene, she thinks that music is a waste of talent when you can be an actress. Yes, I was that desperate I actually asked her. Normally I would have asked Mason, he would have fit in perfectly, but considering the circumstances of the whole kissing thing that didn’t seem like a good idea.
So I went and opened the door to the place and there was this guy sitting there. Mason had given me a fake ID for some reason, I was glad to have it now.
“It’ll be five dollars tonight, and can I see some ID please?” the bouncer asked.
I wasn’t pissed about the ID, cause he hardly looked at the thing, but no one said that I’d have to PAY to get into a place that I had to be to grab their soul! I gave him a five dollar bill, and he gave me back my ID.
“Wait!” the guy said.
“Huh?” I replied.
“You need a stamp, give me our hand.” I held out my hand and he moved it so that my palm was up and stamped my wrist. Why the hell are the people so fucking picky anyway? When I went to the washroom a little later, and washed my hands I figured out why.
They didn’t want people going in who said that their stamps had come off when really they had never been in in the first place. I got in and there was already a band on stage. Perhaps finding the person I was looking for may not be as hard as I had thought.
The place was pretty empty there was no more then fifty people in there including staff, but nothing looked particularly suspicious. Although what does look strange in a dank music club? There was still twenty minutes before L. Penny was supposed to die.
The band on stage were all right, not ever having seen a live band before I thought that they’d do more then just stand there. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a graveling, creeping around two people. One was a guy and the other was a girl. They exchanged something, and the guy took off, I followed him, and he left the club, and he seemed to be moving pretty fast. Why would a graveling be hanging around a petty drug deal? I had to figure some way of talking to her, and touching her without looking like a perv.
A few minutes later the band stopped playing, and the DJ started to play some music. I sat down and the girl was not to far from where I was sitting, she was standing against a wall, singing along to the songs. Then I heard one song that just kind of spoke to me.
“Sometimes I wanna change you
Sometimes it always seems to
Sometimes I think you’re so fine
Sometimes I wanna change you
Sometimes it always seems to
Sometimes I think you’re so fine
So fine, so fine, so fine, so fine ow!
Sometimes I wanna build you
Say things that only hurt you
I seem to do that all the time
Sometimes I wanna build you
Say things that are gonna hurt you
I seem to do that all the time
All the time, all the time
All the time, all the time, yeah
All I need is just one last fix of your unforgettable sunset kisses
Now I’m back to the roll I promised you - I only wanted to hold you
Forgetting everything I’ve told you that could give me away
Oh hey! Don’t get too carried away -
Don’t get too carried away
I’m standing my ground my head in the ground
Everything’s floating away , oh no
I’m standing my ground my head in the ground
Everything’s floating away
I’m standing my ground my head in the ground -
Don’t get too carried away
Away, away, away, away”
It almost seemed to sum up everything that I was feeling about Mason, well kind of as much as a song about a living girl liking a living guy could appeal to and undead gal liking an undead guy. But just the way the girl acted was so like me, doing something that’s uncharacteristic and then just then just shrugging it off. I wanted to know what song it was, I had to know what song it was. Then it hit me that I could kill two birds with one stone. I walked over to the girl who had been singing, and tapped her on the shoulder, and took her soul.
“Sorry to bother you, but could tell me what song this is?” I almost had to scream to be heard.
“It’s called “So Fine” by a band called Peppersands!” she told me, louder then she probably needed.
“Thanks.”
“They’re a really good band, you should listen to more of their songs.”
“I’ll have to remember that.” I walked away. I was still curious about how that girl was going to die in less then fifteen minutes, but mine is not to question why.
A few moments later I lost track of her, and I looked for her for a while, but soon got engrossed in the band that were on stage. They were really amazing, kind of loud, and energetic, and the few people there were freaking out and dancing. Between the time I got there and the second band went on the amount of people in the club close to doubled. I almost wanted to join in but L. Penny had died about five minutes ago and there was probably a very confused soul walking around the bar. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw her heading toward the dance floor, I didn’t want her getting there cause there were so many people it may take some time for her dust particles to become a soul again.
“Hey!” I said to her. “I didn’t ask you your name.”
“It’s Leslie, but everyone calls me Penny Lane.”
Like as in the Beatles song? Why the hell would anyone want their nickname to be a song? “All right then I’ll call you Penny. I’m George.”
“You wanna know something, George?” She giggled.
“What, Penny?” I played along.
“I am on the worst trip EVER!”
.“Why do say that?”
“Well I locked myself in a bathroom stall downstairs to sniff some shit, and when I was done it felt like I walked right through the bathroom door!”
She was laughing madly at this point. “Then I don’t remember unlocking the door. Cause I lock the whole bathroom so I won’t get caught. And then I went to go get something to go with the coke and the bartender didn’t even come over to me, and no one seemed to notice me standing there.”
“I hate to tell you this, but it’s more then just a bad trip, it’s your last trip.”
“Who are you? One of those like undercover angel people who help kids get off drugs?”
“Not so much.” Just then someone walked past me, and thru Penny, she turned to dust.
When she came back she coughed. “What the fuck!?”
“You Penny Lane, or whoever are dead.”
“Dead?”
“Yeah, someone poor person working at this bar is going to find you in that bathroom stall at some point tonight. I just took your soul when I knew that you were the right person so that I didn’t have to wait around.”
“Dead? No way!”
“I’m afraid so, and then soon you’re going to move on.”
“Not without seeing this band first! After that how will I know?”
“You’ll just know.” So I had to stand and watch that band play with the soul I had just popped, and worst of all she didn’t just make me stand there, she made me dance. ME dance! I don’t dance I look like a dumbass, but she told me that since she couldn’t dance and I was her reaper fairy. Yes! She actually called me a reaper fairy! She told me that I had to do whatever she said so that she’s actually move on, and that was dance and get into the show like she would have had she not had the slight handicap of being dead. It wasn’t actually that bad, the band was really good, and I would have found it very heard not to move throughout their entire set.
After the band finished their set they got offstage, and the crowd dispersed. Then over the real stage was another stage with three guys, all of them young and pretty hot; one with a guitar, one with a bass, and one behind a drum set, and the mic was empty. The three guys seemed to be motioning for her to come forward, she took a running start and then hoped up on stage, and took the mic, and then the apparition disappeared.That night I hardly slept thinking about having to go away with Mason for a few days. What am I going to say to him when he asks me why I’ve been ignoring him? Why must fate fuck so much with my afterlife?
Part Four
“Georgie, why do you hate me?” Mason inquired giving a sad puppy dog face from the driver’s seat.
I knew that at some point the question would come, but I never thought it would be the first thing out of his mouth after I got into the car. Of course asking right off the bat would make for a long trip if I refused to answer the question. I didn’t know how to answer the question, part of me wanted to tell him the truth, but most of me wanted to just resort to back to the easiest way to avoid getting hurt, lying.
“I don’t hate you Mason, it’s just that I don’t know if I like you like that,” I answered.
“How can you not know? Honestly Georgie, it’s either yeah, you know what I think we can try and see what we can make of this, or no I don’t think that there can ever be anything between us.”
“It’s not that easy.” I don’t think I had convinced myself of that fact.
“Sure it is! It’s that easy, just tell me do you like me as more then a friend, or do you see me as your brother? I can handle either one, but I don’t like us being in limbo!”
“Mason! I don’t know!”
“You do know, and you don’t want to tell me. What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing!” I wanted to stick my tongue out at him, or give him the finger, but that would be juvenile and wouldn’t accomplish much.
“There is something that you’re not telling me, and I’m going to get out of you if it kills me.”
“Whatever.” I wanted to leave it at that but, again the silence for a long car trip didn’t seem like such a good idea. Why couldn’t Mason jack a car with a stereo system of some kind? “Besides Mason have the time you go around like a horny rabbit how do I know that I’m not just some flavour of the week?”
“Well if someone would help me with certain things perhaps I’d be less horny!”
“And if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“I’m trying to use a metaphor dumbass!”
“Being horny is like a tree?”
I wanted to jump out of the moving car, I would have if it would make much difference. “Mason, how do you know that being in a real relationship will help? How do you know if whoever can keep up with you?”
“I’m not an animal for fuck’s sake! This is not helping, you are avoiding the question.”
“So what if I am.”
“I need an answer George, I thought we had shared something, and then you tell me that it was just work. I can’t believe that that is your idea of work, and if it is you should quit your fucking day job and find a nice corner or strip joint. Cause I know I was feeling something even if you weren’t.”
“Look Mason, so what if I felt something, it’s just not going to work so just leave it be all right?”
I looked down at my hands, and my throat began to hurt. I was NOT going to cry in front of Mason. I couldn’t cry in front of him. I tried to tell myself a joke to make me laugh, but it didn’t work, my throat just got more sore. Finally I gave in and started to cry, trying to be quiet. I looked out the window in hopes that he hadn’t noticed.
“Georgie are you crying?” Mason asked gently putting his hand on my shoulder.
“No,” I whispered with a sniffle.
“You are crying! What are you crying about?”
“Nothing! Leave me alone!”
“We may not be lovers, but I hope that we are at least friends, and friends talk to friends.”
“I don’t wanna to talk about it.”
He handed me a Kleenex. “Well when you feel like talking I can actually be a good listener.”
I took the Kleenex, and for a good half an hour we both just sat in the car silently. I was thinking about weather or not tell him, and what I should tell him. For reasons I don’t think I could ever explain I was drawn to him, and a very big part of me wanted to be more then friends with him, but none of me wanted to loose him. I just cared for him so much I wanted him to be around for a large part of my afterlife.
Then before I really realized it I was telling him how I felt.
“Mason it’s not that I don’t want to be with you or anything,” try as I may I couldn’t shut myself up. “It’s just that so far in my life everything that I’ve ever cared about was taken away from me. It started with pets dying. Then I lost my dad and my mom through my own stubbornness, thinking that they had replaced me when my sister was born. I went thru my life trying not care about things cause I knew that they would be taken away from me. Then one day I get smacked in the head with a toilet seat, and you’d think that that would be the end of the torment, but no. I find out that I’m a grim reaper doomed to be undead for who the fuck knows how long! Why am I telling you all this?”
“Cause I’m a good listener, keep going.” His voice was quiet, and so relaxing.
“Then I think maybe now that I’m undead things will change, but whatever control life and death likes to fuck with me! I made my first real friend and BAM she goes and jumps off a cliff and I don’t know what the hell happened to her. I start to feel something for a guy, stupid considering I knew he was going to die, and well surprise, surprise he dies! I can’t loose you too, all right Mason?! Are you fucking happy now I fucking told you how I feel!”
He pulled over, I was half expecting him to say, ‘you, me backseat now!’ But instead he simply leaned over and hugged me.
“Look, Georgie, from what I can tell you have to be a reaper for a fucking long time before your quota is up. And since we are undead we can’t really kill ourselves to get out of our duties. So I think that you may be stuck with me for a very long time.”
“Betty’s quota wasn’t up, and she’s gone.” Mason shook his head. “Betty had more balls then me. I could never do that, especially if piggybacking meant never being able to see you again.”
“Mason, I just know that if anything happened I’d lose you.”
“So you’d rather not take a risk and regret it for however long, then take the risk and live it for the same undetermined time?”
I shrugged. “I really don’t know anymore. You know how I feel, can we just leave it at that for a little while?”
“I guess so.”
He let me go, and continued driving. I actually felt a loss when he let go of me, and I wanted him to be hugging me again, but I knew we had work to get to.
I wondered why the hell we had to drive to the middle of butt fuck nowhere and collect a whole bunch of souls. Sometimes I swear reapers have intuition.
“I guess in Rube’s haste yesterday he didn’t give you any warning of what you were getting into,” Mason said.
“Rube never warns me about anything,” I told him.
“Well I think this is a situation you should be warned about, and to hell with Rube and his craziness!”
I had a feeling that whatever awaited us in butt-fuck nowhere was something I probably would not want to see. It was probably something I had read before in the paper, and never gave it a second thought. I was kind of glad that Mason had decided to give me warning, although I was pretty sure that all the warning in the world would not prepare me for what I might see when I go to wherever it was we were going.
“With the amount of souls that we have my guess would be an explosion or a cult. But since explosions don’t tend to kill in mass on a farm in the middle of ass fucking nowhere I would say it’s a safe bet that we are dealing with a cult who all commit suicide.”
“Peachy,” I mumbled. “Just peachy.”
“Well really it’s the better of the situations cause if you get an explosion and there’s no time to grab the souls it can be hard to find pieces big enough to get souls out of.”
Lovely visual, little chunks of human laying between debris. “Ah!”
“With a cult the thing that is the worst is that all the poor bastards look like they’re sleeping. Most of them take odd concoctions that makes you fall asleep and then you just don’t wake up.”
I couldn’t really think of much to say. “Ah!” I said. Maybe I could have said ‘I see.’
“The nice thing about cults who practice in the middle of nowhere is that it usually takes a few days for the cops to find out about them, so usually we can go in grab the souls and not have to worry about cops.
They tend not to like people pocking around while they are investigating crime scenes.”
“I’d imagine having a couple people around touch all their bodies may start to piss them off.”
“The other nice thing about cults is like half the souls believe so much in what it was they thought that they will see exactly what the crazy leader saw, and just go to it.”
“And the shitty part?”
“Well the crazy leader is usually an ass and half to deal with. You’d think that he’d believe like all his followers in his own hype, but no half of them think that they are Jesus and that they should be able to rise again. No one was around in the time of Jesus but from what I know what he did was totally against the rules. If we could do that then no one would really die, well except for those people who’s bodies are blown to bit.”
I nodded. “Well that makes sense.”
“I’m sorry Georgie I always forget what happened to you.”
“I think you’re the only one.”
He laughed. “Hey being toilet seat girl is better then being ‘that idiot that drilled a whole in the back of his head.’”
I smiled. “I guess so.”
“I admit now that it was a pretty stupid move, but when you’re that baked anything seems like a good idea to keep you that way. If only I had known that I would become undead and never be able to experience any sort of high to its maximum anymore.”
“So you mean with all that shit you do you don’t get that stoned?”
“I know how I should be acting on most drugs, so I act like that, but for the most part I’m not half as stoned as I make myself out to be.”
“So why don’t you stop?”
He shrugged. “Well I guess its just that I just got used to it, and it would be strange to stop now. If I really had the right incentive I would probably stop.”
“Well I guess that that’s a good thing.”
“So how did you manage to weasel out of work?”
“Told Delores that I had to go to a funeral.”
“I could never think of good excuses to get out of work.”
I shrugged. “I could never steal from the dead.”
“It’s a victimless crime, really, they’re dead, they’re not going to be using it. Stupid morals.”
I laughed. “You have a warped mind.”
He grinned at me. “I know, and that’s what you like about me.”
“I can’t deal with this, I need a nap.”
I feel asleep a few minutes later, I hadn’t been sleeping well since the whole situation had started, and now that it had been somewhat resolved I realized how sleep deprived I was. I woke up to Mason’s fingers gently stroking my face. I also noticed that my head was on his shoulder. I grumbled, and opened my eyes.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Almost there, I thought we’d get some food,” he answered.
“I see.”
“You know you’re the first person to fall asleep on my shoulder who didn’t drool all over me.”
“Good to know.”
We got out of the car and went into a diner. We were the type of town that you thought people made up for movies. There was even red and white checkered table clothes on all the tables. There was a sign that said “please seat yourself.” Within moments an older waitress, a little on the plump side with gray hair was in front of us.
“What can I get ‘ya’ll to drink?” she asked.
“Coffee,” we both muttered at the same time. After she took a few steps away from us I heard her say. “Rhonda you gotta hear these little love birds talkin’!”
“Great we’re a side show attraction,” I muttered.
Mason laughed. “You get used to people saying, please talk, you have the greatest accent when you emmigrate.”
I smiled at him, and looked at the menu. I couldn’t believe it the place actually made homemade meals!
They had a lot of great sounding choices too. Spaghetti with meatballs, lasagna, meatloaf (who goes and eats meatloaf?) and most of stuff was served with “fresh cut fries” or “salad like mom made it.”
“Does all this stuff sound great Georgie?” Mason asked me.
“It does, but I can’t deiced between the fries and the salad!”
“Well you get fries, and I’ll get salad and we’ll share!”
“Sounds good to me.”
Our waitress came back, and set down our coffees. She also placed a tiny jug with cream in it between us. I had never been to a place that didn’t serve creamers. “Have ’ya’ll decided what ’ya want?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Mason said. “I’ll have the meatloaf with a salad.”
“What kind of dressing would you like, Hun?”
“Ranch?” I nodded. “Ranch is good.”
“All right and for you Hun?”
“The spaghetti with meat sauce, please.”
“Good choice, with fries or salad.”
“Fries please.”
“All right then.”
“Did you want anything else to drink?”
“A butterscotch shake,” I answered.
“I’ll have one too,” Mason said.
“They’re pretty big, you sure you don’t wanna share and then see if you can handle another one?” she explained.
“All right,” Mason replied.
We ate, and she was right the one shake was more then enough for the both of us. After we paid the bill we got back in the car and went down the road about a half an hour more, and found the an old farm house far removed from civilization. When we got closer Mason took my hand, he picked the lock to the house, and we walked in. He was right, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. I was glad to have his hand in mine. There were bodies everywhere. There were bodies of everyone from babies, to pregnant ladies, to elderly.
“The quicker we get this over with the quicker we can take the stubborn souls to the next room,” Mason said, matter-of-factly.
I nodded, and the two of us just walked next to each other and both bent down to each body and grabbed souls. He was right about half of them saw their light show immediately, and the other half just kind of stood there shaking there heads looking at all the bodies.
When we were done Mason stood on the stairs. “All right, all you restless souls, how about we all go upstairs away from this, and we’ll explain to you what’s going on.”
We and about fifty souls went up the stairs where there were three bedrooms and a sitting room. The house was ancient, and I wondered why on earth anyone would have a sitting room on a upper floor. We all crowded in, and they all sat in front of Mason looking for direction.
“All right, well first off if you haven’t realized it yet, you are all dead. She and I are grim reapers, and will be sticking around until all of you have passed on.”
“How will we know when we are supposed to?”
“You’ll see something and you’ll just know.”
After Mason said that about a dozen souls moved on. Most of them talked among themselves and didn’t much bother with us. Mason explained to me that it would be the next day that would have to help people. When the sun went down we decided to go to bed, there were only about twenty souls left when we went up another flight of stairs to find rooms.
For whatever reason I ended up in the same bed as Mason, we didn’t do anything he just held me all night, and I needed it. Other then my first soul this had been the hardest thing I had dealt with since becoming a reaper.
“You can put this behind you in a few days Georgie,” he told me before I went to sleep. “When we’re done we’ll call the police and they’ll take the bodies away.”
He just had to say that, didn’t he? I had forgotten about the hundred or so bodies in the front room. It was going to be another sleepless night for this undead girl, Mason however slept like a baby.
Part Five
When I woke up I momentarily forgot where I was, I was also wondering what was on my breast. Once the morning fog lifted I remember that I was in a house with a hundred dead bodies two floors beneath me; and the thing of my breast was probably Mason’s hand. I went to move and he grumbled at me.
“Don’t go anywhere,” he mumbled.
“Mason we have shit to do today,” I told him, sitting up.
“I’m sure that we could think of better things to do this morning.”
“I’m sure we could but locked doors don’t keep wayward souls out.” I reminded him.
“Damn.”
“I thought you said you weren’t a breast man?”
“Huh?”
“That’s where your hands found their way last night.”
“Well, Georgie yours are different I guess, I like them, and so do my hands.” He went to grab them but I got up, leaving him face down in the mattress. “Oh! You tease!”
I gave him the finger and proceeded to find the washroom. I was still really worried that something would happen to fuck up whatever was going on between Mason and me. I was still expecting us to get back with Rube waiting for us, angry and ready to give a lecture about why reapers can’t see each other, or whatever.
There may not be electricity in this strange house, but there were proper toilets, and running water, even it was cold.
Did all of the cult people live here, or did they just come here for meetings and stuff? I was thinking a lot about the whole cult thing. The mind frame someone would have to be in to join a cult, and what would possess a person to believe that the guy preaching up front was doing such a good job you would be willing to take your life. Although judging by yesterday a lot of the people believed it with all their hearts, since they all saw the same thing before they died. I had finally started to realize that death was, or at least appeared to be whatever you wanted it to be. Who knew after you stepped into that light what you had seen could very well simply disappear and become something more heinous, but there are a lot of things that I’ll never know.
Thinking about that made me think of Betty. I realized that maybe the reason that piggybacking wasn’t an epidemic was that if you believed that what you saw in front of you was paradise, you would have to be absolutely sure that someone else’s paradise, was or was damn close to your own. Else what would be the point? You live all your live in the mould of a world that someone else had made, you would at least want control of your afterlife.
I brushed my teeth, and washed my hands and face, still thinking about Betty, and what I had seen the day before. I was pretty sure that today I would see some even stranger things. Mason had been right the crazy leader didn’t move on right away, and didn’t seem to be making any attempt to move on, and I doubted I’d go downstairs to find the souls we had left last night had all gone on on their own accord. I sighed, then the pounding on the door began.
“Hurry up in there Georgie! I need fucking piss!” Mason screamed.
“The door’s unlocked!” I yelled back.
He walked in and took a leak. “Thanks, now if you would get on with whatever it is you women do in the morning we have about ten restless souls downstairs.”
“I’m almost done, chill for a minute fuck!”
A few minutes later we walked downstairs to see who was left for us. The leader of the cult was in a corner, not talking barely moving, he probably didn’t want to face the few souls that realized that what he had said was bullshit. Almost immediately a disgruntled woman came up to Mason.
“Why haven’t I moved on yet?” she demanded.
“I don’t know, sometimes it takes a while, or you just may not be ready,” he explained.
“Well do something about it for fuck’s sake.”
“I just take souls, and try and help them when I can, I can’t make your lightshow appear.”
“Well why on earth not?” He began to fumble, but I knew that I wouldn’t have anything of use to add. I saw out of the corner of my eye a little girl, who was crying, she was no more then five. I walked over to her, and sat down next to her.
“Hi,” I said, “I’m George, what’s your name.”
“Maddie,” she whispered.
“Maddie, that’s a pretty name, what are you crying about?”
“My mommy and daddy left without me. They saw something I couldn’t and then they walked to and they went away. I don’t know where they went.”
“You don’t? I thought a smart girl like you would know where people went after they’re done living.”
“Mr. Giles said that we went to paradise, but I don’t know what that is.”
“Paradise is the best thing you can ever imagine! Some people call it heaven, and I bet that your mommy and daddy are waiting for you right now! Now you just think of the best thing in the world and when you see it go to it.”
Moments later a giant candy store appeared in front of Maddie, she walked into it, and then it disappeared. It was upsetting to see a little kid in a cult. She had no idea what she was doing, at least the adults chose to join it, but why involve kids that know no better, especially when they left her behind when they moved on. Poor kid, I hoped that whatever lay in front of her involved her parents or someone loving her. Mason was still arguing with the woman from before. I looked around trying to find someone else who needed some help. Just then a guy about my age walked up to me.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi, what the hell is going on?” he asked, confused.
“Well, there’s no way to sugar coating this. Your dead.”
“How?”
“Well whatever it was that your cult leader over there gave you, it killed you.”
“Just great! I joined this stupid thing cause my girlfriend wanted to, and now I died a virgin. This sucks!”
“It could be worse.”
“How, my girlfriend’s gone and I’m a virgin.”
“Well you could be an undead grim reaper.”
“At least if I was undead I could get laid.”
I rolled my eyes. “You never know what lies ahead.” Just then before him a group of Playboy bunnies appeared, and he walked toward them and disappeared. He must have been really heartbroken about his girlfriend. Just then Mason walked up behind me.
“Damn why do you get all the fun ones? She just saw a church or some shit.” He said after whistling at the bunnies. I smacked him. “You can’t get mad a guy for looking, Georgie.”
“No, I’m not mad at you for looking, I’m mad at you for whistling.”
He kissed me on the cheek. “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.”
“Well we better get back to this, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get home.” I nodded.
We split up and helped the remaining souls. Most of them just needed clarification as to what happened, and what they were supposed to do, and then they moved on. Some of them, even after all that time, and their fearless leader cowering in the corner still saw the paradise he had taught them, and went there. We both walked up to our friend the crazy leader to confront him, and to help him to go on.
“Are you God?” he asked Mason.
“No, do I look like god to you?” he asked.
“Are you God?” he asked me.
“Uh, no, we’re grim reapers,” I snapped.
“Oh, I thought God was supposed to come and take us to our final resting place.”
“We’re the step before god, when you see a lightshow that’s when you get to see god,” Mason explained.
“I’m not sure that I want to see god.”
“Did you do something wrong?”
“Well you saw the bodies down there.”
“If you really think you’re doing god’s work then you wont’ have a problem now will you?”
“I guess not, and I am doing God’s work, I saw him he told me.”
Just then a white light appeared and the guy walked right into it. I looked at Mason quizzically.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked.
“Who knew this bloke actually believed his own hype, all religious people see something like that, or gates,” Mason informed me.
I nodded. “Good to know. Now can we get out of here, this place is giving me the creeps.”
“You wait in the car, I have some stuff to do around here,” Mason explained.
I forgot who I was with, of course he would have to rifle through all their pockets. I went outside, and instead of getting in the car, I just looked at the sky. I hadn’t done that since I was kid, and where we were, everything was clear, there was nothing to get in the way. When you’re in the city when you’re in a park looking at the sky you can still see the buildings out of the corner of your eye.
Here there was nothing to catch your eye, expect the clear blue skies, interrupted by fluffy white clouds. Its really a nice world we live in, it’s a shame that most people never really appreciate it. I never did before I died, and now that I’m undead noticing the small things sometimes helps me to feel better about what I do. A little while later to arms wrapped around my waist, and I felt two lips on my neck.
“How about we go back to that little diner Georgie?” asked Mason.
“Only if you’re paying,” I told him.
“Religious types never trust banks, I love it.”
So we drove away from town, and stopped at the diner from the day before. The same waitress greeted us. We again ordered a shake to share, and shared the salad and fries that came with our meals. She kept smiling at us, and I heard her telling all her co-workers how cute we were. Before we left the town for good, Mason called the local police, and told them that we had run out of gas and went to the farmhouse and smelled something funny, that they may want to check it out to make sure that nothing was out of the ordinary. They didn’t even ask for our names, and we were on our way.
Sadly the clears skies from before did not stayed that way, and part of the way home there was a thunder and lightening storm. Mason seemed pretty stressed driving, and I was glad when we got to my apartment.
“If Daisy’s not home you can crash here for the night,” I offered.
“Thanks,” he said, putting his hand on my back as we went to my apartment.
When I opened the door to my surprise Daisy was not there. Mason climbed right into bed, and after changing I curled up next to him. He put his arm around me, and within moments I was asleep.
Back to the index
Back to the Dead Like Me Area