NIKO STOOD OUTSIDE ARIANNE’S DRIVEWAY the next morning, eager to take her to school, but the house held emptiness only ghost towns exhibited. Ringing the bell only magnified the hollowness of the home’s insides. He’d called her the night she saved him from Darla’s clutches, but her phone went straight to voicemail. He had thought nothing of it. Calls went to voicemail all the time. Normal. But distress and dread stood beside him now as he stared at the lifeless façade once calling itself a home. What’s going on?
He got into his car and hurried to school, the tires leaving rubber on the pavement. He made it to the parking lot but not into a slot. His need to find Ben had him leaving the Mustang unlocked. He swam the sea of students slamming into him. They might as well have been mosquitoes dying on a windshield. He didn’t feel them, didn’t hear their muffled curses, until someone slapped him on the shoulder.
“Is it true that Arianne outed Darla?” Desmond asked with a cheeky expression.
Niko kept walking, scanning the crowd for someone tall in a baseball cap. “You’re my friend again?”
Desmond matched him step for step. “Ouch! Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to abandon you like that. But Darla’s reign of terror is over. No one has to run scared anymore. It explains a lot though. Her obsession with Arianne and why she dogged Patty all the time. I called that one so wrong. I owe Patty twenty greens. Hey, are you even listening to me?” Desmond grabbed Niko’s shoulder.
Niko flicked his gaze at him. “Have you seen Ben?”
“Nah.” Desmond shrugged. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Darla or Arianne either.”
“Thanks, Des.” Niko moved away. “Catch you later?”
“Don’t be a stranger now!” Then Desmond began to sing, “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” at the top of his lungs.
The other students with them joined in the chorus of the song. Their glee reverberated through the halls of Blackwood.
Ignoring the impromptu celebration, Niko passed by the office and found out the reason why Arianne and Ben weren’t in school. Mrs. Whistle, polishing her horn rimmed glasses, gossiped with Mr. Todd.
What Niko heard rooted him in place. Only the bell managed to snap him out of his shock. Instead of heading for class, he ran for the parking lot. He drove home gripping the steering wheel so hard he thought it would come off.
Not bothering to park his car in the garage, Niko rushed into his domain straight for his study.
At his desk, he rummaged through the enforced Death Certificates and found the one that changed everything. On it, printed in bold letters, was a name that robbed him of life sustaining breath. It shredded his insides then twisted the mangled ribbons into tight knots.
In a brief moment of clarity beyond the emotional pain, Niko trashed his study with unmitigated abandon.
The sun wore a gray shawl of clouds around it that day, muted in its brilliance despite the early afternoon. Niko sought solace in the company of a stately oak, about fifty yards from the gathering. Its branches stretched out in all directions, providing shade to anyone who sheltered under her loving embrace. He rested his hand on its bark, feeling its life force like every beat of his heart. Five days had passed since his world shattered, and every hour away from Arianne had been like a red hot poker into his spirit.
Stoic outside yet troubled inside, he watched mourners drop daisies into an open grave. The casket had been lowered not five minutes before. The ceremony had concluded and those gathered were invited to pay their final respects. The family huddled together, a pack united against those who approached to give their sympathy. Arianne hid her face under a wide-brimmed hat and large sunglasses. Despite the distance, Niko noticed that she’d lost weight, the black dress she wore hanging loosely over her shoulders. His fingers dug deep gouges into the rough bark. He wanted to gather her close and never let go. Ben stood behind her, expressionless. Only the redness of his nose betrayed his real emotions.
In minutes, only a few mourners remained with the family. Niko contemplated the prudence of paying his respects. But before he could finish making a decision, he came face to face with a charging Arianne, Ben hot on her trail. The purpose in her steps spoke volumes.
“You took her from me!” she hissed as she lunged toward him, claws out. Ben grabbed her arms from behind and held her back. “And right after I told you that I loved you. I can’t believe I’ve liked you all these years! I can’t believe I wasted my time on you when I could have spent it with Carrie!” The rest of her words came out as keening shrills, agony crumpling her already gaunt face.
“Ari…” Niko took a step forward, which sent Arianne into a cussing frenzy. The viciousness of the words she hurled at him had Niko retreating slightly. It felt like staring at an aggressive dog which was barking incessantly while lunging on its hind legs, only held back by a tight leash, ready and willing to take a chunk of flesh if permitted.
Ben whirled Arianne around and gathered her in the cove of his arms, where his suit jacket soaked up all her torment and sorrow. Niko shoved away the jealousy that threatened to consume him, knowing that to lose his cool meant hurting Arianne even more.
“I didn’t take her from you,” he said in as calm a voice as he could muster.
“How can you say that when she saw you taking Carrie’s…?” Ben choked. Then he rasped out, “You’re Death.”
Each sob that shook Arianne shoulders hollowed out Niko’s insides. “I’m not. But my master is.”
“Then what are you?” Arianne asked Ben’s chest between labored breaths.
“A Reaper.” Without really thinking about it, Niko’s arm reached out, his hand about to make contact with Arianne’s shoulder. Only Ben’s head shake of “no” had Niko dropping his arm. “I didn’t kill Carrie, Ari. You have to believe me.”
“Take me home, Ben.” She looked up at her best friend. “I don’t have anything else to say to someone who no longer exists to me.”
Ben dried her tears with his thumbs before turning around and tucking Arianne under his arm. They walked away in slow yet determined steps. It took all of Niko’s will power not to teleport Arianne and himself to the In Between and make her listen to reason. His fingers curled into tight fists until his hands hurt. He let them go. He had to. But at what price?
From his seat at the table, Niko gave the proceedings less than ten percent of his attention. Earlier, when the summons had arrived, he’d considered skipping the RUSA meeting all together, but Sickleton wouldn’t let him. Not that the Caretaker had any real control over his decision making. Niko just couldn’t stand how fussy the specter had been lately.
“Master, I worry for you,” Sickleton said one day in the newly refurbished study while Niko read in a corner by massive windows. “I had not seen Ms. Ari—”
Niko lifted his hand and wiped away his Caretaker’s lips. “You need to stop mothering me,” he said.
Sickleton dissolved then reappeared, lips intact. “But, Master, you are not performing your duties.”
“I escort the souls—”
“But you let the minions reap them. They are here to assist you only, not do your duties for you.”
“Are you lecturing me?” Niko stood from his reading chair and approached Sickleton.
“I would never presume such a thing, Master.” The coward disappeared.
Niko stared at the empty space his Caretaker had left behind until the sunlight coming into the room changed from yellow to orange.
Now, among his peers, he did the same thing. He picked a corner of a gilded frame hanging on the wall opposite him and stared at it, shutting himself away from everyone else. Arianne’s words of hate echoed through the emptiness inside. He’d watched her from afar since that day at the cemetery. He couldn’t bring himself to leave her alone. He needed to make sure nothing happened to her.
Arianne didn’t come to school. Instead, she’d take long walks around their neighborhood without a real purpose. She wandered aimlessly, the dark crescents under her eyes a stark contrast to her ever paling skin. The tangled nest her hair had become slapped him black and blue. He remembered how soft those strands felt between his fingers.
Some nights, Arianne would sit on a park bench after hours of walking and fall asleep. Niko would then carry her home, using his gifts to keep her from waking. And every time her father or mother opened the door to let them in, their worried expressions eased somewhat.
“Thank you for looking out for her,” her father whispered to him the fifth time Niko brought Arianne home. Tears welled within the older man’s eyes.
Niko nodded at him, not saying a word, and left after settling Arianne in her bed and pulling the sheets around her. Nothing could keep him away from her for long. Not even his duties. She needed him too much, even if she didn’t know it.
“Nikolas,” his master’s cool tone returned his thoughts to the meeting, “have you anything to report?”
They all observed him. Some bored. Some attentive. Others curious. Only Tomas’s face wore concern.
Niko’s sigh came from a place deeper than the Mariana Trench. “Steady as she goes in Georgia. All Certificates have been and will be continually enforced. End of report.”
“Well—” Death tapped a rhythm on his chair’s armrest “—that was certainly…”
“I think the word you’re looking for, Master, is uninspired,” Janika purred, chin on fist. “If you’ve noticed, our dear Reaper of Georgia hasn’t been paying attention to the little gathering we have here.”
“Bite me,” Niko snarled under his breath, which he knew everyone still clearly heard.
“You see what I mean?” Janika shook her head without lifting her chin from her fist. “He doesn’t even have a decent comeback anymore.”
Niko had Janika pinned against the wall with her neck nearly crushed between his fingers before anyone could react. “Has anyone ever told you that you get on their nerves?” he said in a deadly whisper.
Janika presented him with her teeth. “All the time,” she rasped.
Tomas and Travis separated the two and shoved them into their respective seats.
“Do I need to change my very packed, very busy schedule just to scold you two?” Death asked.
No one dared speak. Not even Tomas.
An electric charge pinched every surface of exposed flesh on Niko’s body: his hands, neck, and face. And he had no doubt everyone else felt it too. “I apologize for my lapse in manners, Master. It will not happen again.”
The cowl turned to him, the darkness within complete and limitless. “I just took you off of probation. Today, I wonder if I have been mistaken in my decision.” He regarded Janika as well.
She had her head bowed when she said, “No, Master. We will behave.”
“You do that,” said Death.
As if on cue, the next Reaper began his report.
A hand caught Niko by the collar of his jacket as he filed out of the room with the other Reapers. Before he could spin around to punch the jerk with no manners, the scenery changed to his bedroom. He breathed in through his nose and exhaled through his mouth in an attempt to clear away the nausea that rose from not closing his eyes during the sudden teleportation. The hand that held him in place like an unruly kitten let him go. He turned, fist at the ready. When he recognized the dark suit with a light gray pin-stripe, he stepped back and dropped his hand to his side.
“You could have at least given me some warning, Tomas,” Niko said, his head bowed in shame for ever raising a hand against his mentor.
“What’s happened to you, Nikolas? Are you slipping back into—”
“I’m not depressed!”
Tomas came closer, resting his hand on Niko’s shoulder. “Then what it is?”
Niko shrugged off his touch and moved to the other side of his room. “Arianne hates me.”
“How could she—”
“I reaped her sister without knowing it.”
“You’ve got to stop interrupting me.” Tomas sighed like a father speaking to a troubled teen. “Last time I checked, conversations involve two or more participants.”
Appearing before his mentor, Niko lifted Tomas’s hand and pressed its knuckles to his forehead. “I apologize. I’m more on edge than depressed.” He returned to his previous position across the room. “I should have looked at the Certificates before enforcing them.”
“And what would that have done?” Tomas leaned on one of the posts of Niko’s bed. “Would you have stopped the reaping?”
Frustration manifested as Niko bared his teeth. “I could have prepared her, at least. She didn’t have to find out that I was a Reaper through the death of her sister. She thinks I killed Carrie.” He punched a hole through the wall. Flecks of plaster rained down from the ceiling.
Dusting off his shoulders, Tomas said, “It’s a common misconception that we’re killers since deaths do happen whenever we are near.”
“Are you lecturing me, Tomas?” Niko extricated his fist from the wall he’d injured.
“I am your teacher after all.” He raised both hands in a sign of surrender. “But I wouldn’t be that presumptuous.” He waited until Niko took several calming breaths before he continued. “I told you, first love can be fleeting. I think you’ve just reached the expiration date of yours. Let her go before you do something you would regret.”
Deaf to Tomas’s words, Niko stabbed him with a heated glare before disappearing.
Niko arrived at his destination behind a large shrub across the street just as Arianne pulled the front door shut. The once perfect pair of jeans that hugged her curves now hung baggily over her legs. The gray hoodie she zipped up engulfed the whole upper half of her body. She didn’t bother to look around, just scampered down the five porch steps to the lawn and took off at a brisk pace, hunched over with hands in the front pockets of her jeans.
“What are you doing to yourself, Ari?” Niko asked no one. He pushed away the urge to shake some sense into her by setting his jaw and following Arianne at a stalker’s distance. Not that he worried she’d see him. In his experience, not once did Arianne bother to be aware of her surroundings. She just walked and walked and walked. She only stopped at the park to sit on a random bench and fall asleep.
Niko hadn’t followed Arianne long when a red Honda came careening down the street. He paid no attention to the car until it crossed over to the opposite lane. It sped up as it approached Arianne. Heart at the pit of his stomach, Niko didn’t think.