Grim Crush (Grimly Ever After) (6 page)

“What
is
all this stuff, Granna?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t being rude.

“My spiritual objects,” she replied, lowering herself into a fluffy armchair. She leaned her cane against the side of it. “They help me connect with death.”

I had no idea what that meant, unless it included what was happening right now, between her and me. “Do you know why you and Shilah can see me?”

“We got the ability from our ancestors. We have Grim Sight, which means we can see beyond. Not only reapers, but dead spirits too.”

“Grim Sight? So how many people have that?”

“Only Shilah and I that I know of, and I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones. Grim Sight was more common among our people many centuries ago.”

“Why do your people have Grim Sight?”

“My ancestors had a hand in establishing the first grim reapers. Thousands of years ago.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Really?”

“Yes. Does Shilah know what you are?”

I shook my head. “He thinks I’m Italian.”

Granna laughed. “You must be having a hard time keeping your secret.”

“
That’s
an understatement. Your grandson asks too many questions.”

“He gets his curiosity from my son, his father. I think you should tell him you’re a grim reaper.”

I blinked in confusion. “Tell Shilah’s father?”

“No, tell
Shilah
.”

“Oh. I don’t know about that…”

“Trust me, he should know. Ya’ll are friends, aren’t you?”

“Sort of…”

“Then go ahead. He’ll be able to handle the truth. I talk about reapers all the time, though Shilah thinks I’m a senile old fool when I do.” Granna chuckled.

I smiled. “I’ll think about it. But I might not be able to stay friends with him for long.”

“Why, because of Rule Two?”

This woman still hadn’t seized to amaze me. “You know the Rules of Reaping?”

“Yes. I think it’s a bunch of gibberish. Rule One, even if it could be broken, would not bring about the end of the world. Death himself would stop that from happening.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“The world still hasn’t ended, has it?”

“That’s because no reaper has broken the Rules.”

“I highly doubt that. Rules are meant to be broken.” It sounded like she was speaking from experience.

“Well…it isn’t my fault Shilah can see me, so I haven’t broken Rule Three. And as for Rule Two, I don’t think I’ll become emotionally involved with him.”

Granna gave me an emphatic look. “Xia, I believe you already are.”

Chapter 7

I got the dreaded Summons later that evening after reaping the soul of a cancer patient. I knew I was about to receive my punishment from my superiors.

I was ready. I had explored every possible thing they could do to me. I would accept my punishment without complaint. And I
might
consider being a better reaper. Hey, I wasn’t perfect.

Jayza came with me to my sentencing. She waited behind me while I stood in front of our three superiors. They stood on raised podiums, staring down at me. They all wore their official black robes.

“We have come to our decision,” said Waiser, standing in the middle of the trio. The one to his left was a caramel-skinned woman named Dajila, and the one to his right was my archenemy, Aquil.

She spoke next. “You need discipline, Xia. Maybe it would help if you have someone with you while you’re reaping.”

My heart sank. They were going to give me a babysitter. Ah well, I could handle that.

Dajila continued then, speaking in her rich voice, “At the same time, there is someone who needs a mentor. So we can accomplish two things at once. We are pairing you up with a grim-in-training.”

“
What
?” I cried. No way. They were making
me
into a babysitter? Okay, so there
was
something I hadn’t considered, and this was the worst possible punishment ever.

“Her name is Ziri. She’s fourteen and has graduated from her reaping classes, but she has horrible behavior, like you. We need you to take her around and teach her as she helps you reap souls.”

“But only the older reapers get trainees! I’m only seventeen, I don’t have enough experience to train someone!” So much for not complaining.

“On the contrary, you handle your souls like you’ve been doing this for decades,” Aquil said. “So you’ll be an excellent teacher.” She smirked, and I wanted to yank out every strand of her white hair.

“Ziri, you may appear now,” summoned Waiser. Out of the air in front of me, a brown-skinned girl teleported into view. She wore a lace-sleeved shirt, which only came down to above her belly button, and her skirt was too short, barely concealing her big booty. She also wore tall boots and had cropped black hair. She stood with a stance that made her look like she wanted to
snatch
a person’s soul out.

“Ziri, this is your trainer, Xia,” Waiser introduced.

Ziri studied me up and down, about five times. She pursed her lips as though figuring out if she approved of me or not.

I already knew she’d be trouble. “Can you
please
reconsider my punishment?” I pleaded to my superiors.

“I think you and Ziri will have fun together,” Aquil said, an amused expression on her face.

I glowered at her. I knew she was taunting me because if she thought I’d have even the
slightest
bit of fun, she would never have allowed it to be my punishment.

“It’s only for one year, till she turns fifteen and gets her own scythe,” Dajila said, almost looking sorry for me.

One year! I wondered if they’d send me to Hell instead if I asked.

Ziri smiled and skipped forward, looping her arm around mine. “Don’t worry, Xia and I will get along great.”

I glanced at Jayza with a pleading look, and she only stared at me with sympathy. Of course, there was nothing
she
could do.

Our superiors nodded their approval at Ziri’s enthusiasm. Aquil gave me a meaningful look and said, “We’ll be checking in to see how Ziri’s training is going.”

“I’m sure you will,” I mumbled.

Then, one by one, our superiors teleported away.

As soon as they were gone, Ziri pulled away from me and stood with her hands on her hips, giving me an evil eye.

“Listen,” she said, “you need to know a few things about me if we’re going to be working together. First, I don’t do more than twenty deaths a day. If there are more, you can handle them by yourself. I also don’t do hospital work. Those places disgust me. I don’t like to work between midnight and three a.m. either. And besides reaping, I don’t want to be around you. Got it?”

No she didn’t.
I should’ve known her innocent enthusiasm in front of our superiors was all an act. “Girl, you are a trainee. I’m supposed to tell
you
what to do.”

Ziri humphed. “As if
that’s
going to happen. I’m not taking orders from a rookie.”

“Rookie! Who are you calling a rookie, you little–”

Jayza stepped between me and Ziri. “O-kay, I can see you two have some issues to work out.”

“And who are
you
?” Ziri asked, staring at my friend as if she was a squished insect on the bottom of her boot.

“I’m Jayza, Xia’s best friend. I can be yours too, if you want.”

Ziri laughed. “Yeah, right. Anyway,” she turned back to me, “you just stay out of my way, and I won’t give you any trouble. Remember, I don’t have to like you. I’m just dealing with you until I get my scythe.”

She
was dealing with
me
? It’s a good thing she wasn’t living, because I would’ve strangled her.

I took a deep breath and exhaled. I wasn’t about to let her get to me, so I smiled. “Okay, Ziri. I look forward to being your trainer.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Since we don’t have a death scheduled for another hour and a half, I’m out.” She disappeared.

I put my hands on my head and grasped my braids. “This girl is going to make me rip my hair out.”

Jayza gigged. “I’m glad I’m not you.”

I sighed and dropped my hands to my sides. “This is just great. It’s not like I don’t have enough to deal with.”

“This will give you less free time. What are you going to do about Shilah?”

“I might have to tell him the truth.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

“Well…” I told Jayza about meeting Granna.

“Wow. Another reaper-seer. Fine, go ahead and tell Shilah if you want. But
when
are you going to talk to our superiors about him?”

I clenched my teeth. “Maybe never.” I was still fuming over the fact that they’d given me a grim-in-training.

“But Xia–”

“Anyway, Granna thinks it’s okay to see Shilah, and she’s older than our superiors. She knows more about reapers than they do. I trust her opinion.”

Jayza threw up her hands. “I give up. You never do what you’re supposed to. That’s how you got Ziri in the first place. Maybe I should go tell our superiors myself.”

“You won’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re my best friend and I’m going to beg you not to.
Please
don’t tell them?” I grabbed Jayza’s hand and gave her my best pleading expression.

Jayza narrowed her eyes at me and pursed her lips. After a moment, she sighed. “I’m going to regret this. I just know it.”

“Yay!” I threw my arms around her.

Jayza stood stiffly. “Uh, Xia, what are you doing?”

“This is called a hug,” I told her, still squeezing her around her neck.

“I
know
that, but…reapers don’t hug.”

I pulled away from her. “Well, I think we should start. I like hugging.”

Jayza crossed her arms. “Shilah taught you that, didn’t he?”

“Maybe…”

“If you start going around acting human, our superiors will be suspicious.”

I grimaced. “Oh. I didn’t think about that.”

“You never think. That’s what you have me for.” She grinned and winked, teleporting out of view before I could give a smart reply back.

I hated when she did that.

* * *

Ziri and I leaned against opposite walls, eyeing each other as we waited in the staircase of an office building. I loved working alone, and having her here was a nuisance. At least she wasn’t giving me attitude like earlier. Yet.

“Do you always come to these things early?” Ziri asked, gazing up the stairs.

“We are required to,” I answered.

“But you’ve broken our code before.”

“Yeah, and look where that got me. I try to take as few chances as possible.”

“Hm. Since you’re a troublemaker like me, I guess that doesn’t make you as lame as I thought you were.”

I rolled my eyes. Ziri had a way with compliments.

She cocked her head, scrutinizing me. “I like your hair. But what race are you? You
almost
look white, but your skin has a sort of golden tone…you aren’t black like me, are you?”

“How should I know? I’m probably mixed. But I’m a reaper, so race doesn’t matter. We’re all children of Death.”

“Yeah, but don’t you ever wonder who our human mothers were? For all we know, we could’ve been in the womb of a celebrity before we died.”

“I never think about those things.” Or I didn’t until I met Shilah. “Why do you?”

“I don’t think about it all the time, but sometimes I see how much fun humans have. They don’t have to be available for work 24/7. They don’t have to see death their whole life. They get to go to parties and swim in the ocean and have sex–”

I held up a hand. “Whoa. I don’t want to even
know
how you found out about sex. So you don’t like being a reaper?”

“Of course I do! I wouldn’t want to be human even if I could. They get injured and sometimes have disgusting deaths. They even have to
pay
to get clothes and shoes and get their hair done. That must suck for them.”

Oh, brother.
I glanced up the stairs. I was so ready to get this death over with so I wouldn’t have to hear Ziri’s chatter.

“I’ve tried doing human things in my free time,” she went on, “but it’s not the same since you can’t interact with the people around you. Wouldn’t it be cool if humans could see us? Living humans, I mean?”

“Yeah, that would be cool.” I looked at the floor. There was no way I was telling Ziri about Shilah and Granna. Selfishly, I kind of wanted to keep them to myself. I didn’t want them talking to other reapers.

“What do you do in
your
free time?”

I shrugged. “I like to…well, I like testing the boundaries between life and death. Like standing on the edge of a cliff and leaning out as far as I can. It’s fun because I know I can’t die.”

Ziri was staring at me with the same look Shilah loved to give me. “That sounds…insane.”

“You won’t understand the adrenaline you get from doing it until you try it.” I glanced at the clock on the wall behind Ziri. “Almost time. You want to handle this death? You’ve practiced opening the portal to Purgatory, haven’t you?”

“
Yes
. I’m not an idiot. Hey, can I see your scythe?”

I hesitated, then willed the weapon to appear in my hand. Ziri eyed the curved blade like a human would ogle at a pile of diamonds.

“That’s
awesome
.” She reached out her hand, and I pulled my scythe back.

“I’ll let you hold this if I approve of your reaping,” I told her.

Ziri scowled. Then, in the corner of my eye, I saw a dark-skinned, snazzy-dressed woman appear at the top of the staircase. She was staring from some papers in her hand to a mobile device she was typing on. She seemed to forget there were stairs right in front of her as she strode forward.

Down she went, screaming at the top of her lungs. Her body thudded down the staircase, and the papers and phone in her hands scattered over the steps. When she reached the bottom, her head slammed against the wall, snapping her neck.

Ziri cringed and stared down at the still body, shaking her head. “Texting while walking. It should be banned.”

I nodded in agreement. I was familiar with the human trend of texting because it was the cause of many fatal car accidents I had responded to.

I watched as the woman’s spirit rose from her body. Then I motioned for Ziri to do her thing.

“Welcome to the afterlife,” Ziri told the dead soul, who was staring down at her corpse with a wild look in her eyes. “I’m Ziri, and this is Xia. We are your grim reapers, and we’re here to guide you.”

The spirit looked at her. “Put me back.”

Ziri blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Put me back into my body! I have an important presentation Monday, and I can’t miss it! It’s my chance to get promoted. Put me back!”

Ziri glanced at me for help. I shook my head. She needed to know all spirits acted differently. She would have to deal with stuff like this when she went solo, so she might as well learn how to handle it now.

Ziri sighed. “Woman, you are dead. There ain’t no going back.”

I frowned in disapproval. Ziri hadn’t even remembered the spirit’s name.