Page 68 of Finders Reapers

I settled for following on his heels until we came to the final bay of beds on the ward, the last room at the end of a very long corridor.

It wasn’t even midday, and the sun shone through the paper curtains in filtered lines, but there was hushed darkness over the ward.

Four beds, each two in pairs facing each other.

The curtains pulled as the low rasp of a breathing machine echoed through the silence.

Maddox didn’t need to touch the curtain to go through it. The space simply folded around him as if he was made of smoke. I followed, and soon we were both standing at the bottom of a hospital bed.

She couldn’t have been more than twelve.

The machine on the wall showed a heart rate. Brain waves. Everything on the machines indicated that she was still alive. She was bald, with a feeding tube in her nose.

No-one turned to Maddox and me. We were invisible guests to the group surrounding the bed. A family. Grandparents, mother, father, even a younger boy who looked about four, who was doing everything he could not to make a sound as tears rolled down his face.

I saw her immediately. The soul.

Her body was still alive, but she was gone.

It hit a little bit differently after Fletcher had told me about his childhood and his death.

The little girl looked more cognizant than I had seen from any other soul. She glanced up at Maddox, and a smile broke over her face. “Have you come to take me home?”

Maddox inhaled sharply but did not meet her smile with more than a lip tilt.

“I’m here to take you somewhere fun, Raya.” He said softly. “Your mom said it's okay.”

Raya glanced at her mother and worried her lip. “Mom can’t hear me.”

Maddox waited.

With a show of presence and maturity that I wouldn’t have expected of someone barely out of childhood, Raya stood with regal precision and stepped through the bed.

She held out her hand, and Maddox reached for it.

The machines stopped beeping.

Life support was gone.

Head down, Raya, Maddox, and I made out way back down the corridor to the supply closet—and then to HQ.

Chapter 9

After dropping Raya off with Charon, Maddox and I made our way through reception in silence, the air heavy with grief that I did not fully understand.

All I knew was that death did not discriminate based on age, and Ihatedit. I felt rage like a hot metal spoon on my tongue, but it quickly washed away when Maddox had directed Raya to another room down the hall. One that did not belong to the ‘welcome to hell’ seminar.

My stomach growled as I rocked on my heels, and Maddox’s eyes flicked down my body to the source of the sound.

I debated asking that we go back to Denny’s to finish our breakfast, but it had undoubtedly been thrown in the trash by now.

“Door dash?” Maddox suggested as he placed his hand on the small of my back and led us towards one of the other doors, off-shooting the reception.

I’d had Taco Bell the day before, but what the heck—I was dead. If there was ever a time to eat junk food and not worry about calories, it was now.

I stared at the door, waiting for Maddox to do his thing, but he stopped and turned to me.

“I wanted to apologize.” Maddox faced me, meeting my eyes. “I wasn’t ready for someone else to join our Grim so soon. Richard had only just passed, and it’s difficult to come to terms with him being gone. I didn’t want to admit it. Your presence means that Richard isn’t coming back.”