Page 102 of Grim

“Rue,” I interject. “Apologies, ma’am,” I say to Claire. Then I mumble to Rue across the table, “The worst thing you can give a lost soul is hope.” Then, louder, “Let’s pay our tab and head back to the house, shall we?”

Rue’s face takes on a hard edge. “We can always cling to hope, Grim. Not you or anyone else can take that from a single soul. Living or lost.”

“I do miss my Jean,” Claire says wistfully.

“There is no guarantee that you would see him, even if you could go to the OtherWorld now.” I inject some reality into this fantastical conversation.

How long do I allow this to continue? Sure, Claire seems calm enough—a peaceful lost soul. But they don’t stay that way forever. Eventually, they turn angry, vengeful. And I don’t need Rue to be what sets this soul off.

“Nothing can last forever, Claire,” Rue states, seeming to ignore me. “Do you see that now?”

“And that is perfectly okay,” Claire states warmly.

“Yes,” Rue sings back, a simple call-and-response between them.

“I do. See that now. And that even in my fear of passing to the unknown, I was not able to keep my place in this world. Not in a way that has any real meaning.”

“All you can do is observe now, huh?”

“A watcher in a doer’s world,” Claire hums forlornly.

“It must have been so hard to see all you built and all you loved be taken from you.”

“You have no idea, child.”

“I have more of an idea than you might think, Claire.”

“Mmm,” she moans, a note of wisdom. “I’ll bet you just might.”

“I know what you’ve been going through, watching the world pass you by while you’re stuck, it must be painful. You deserve some peace.”

“You think so?” Claire says softly and Rue nods.

“I do. I think Simone’s has done fantastic and will continue to do so.”

“I would love to feel some peace.” Claire trails off and I furrow my brow. What is happening? Feel peace? Her time for choosing peace is over.

A sensation I have not felt in hundreds of years overcomes me as I swear I can feel my skin warm. The aura in the room around us seems to glow.

Rue’s voice breaks the silence, calm and honest. “I hope you find the peace out there that’s waiting for you.”

My focus turns to the woman in the chiffon dress still hovering next to our table, and I notice that she seems to be going out of focus. Claire’s form begins to blur, softening at the edges, like fog rising off a lake. Her eyes close as her features stretch, shimmer, and dissolve. The space around her hums and buzzes. It’s a sound and sensation I’ve never borne witness to before. Claire releases a single sound, like the sustained final note of a mournful ballad. And then she disappears.

No portal, no reaper, no summons or rules—just gone.

My chair scrapes backward as I rise, voice trapped in my throat, disbelief rippling through every cell that remains fused to this form. I stare at the space she left behind, half expecting it to rewind. For the veil to close. For reality to reassert itself.

But it doesn’t.

She’s gone—andRuedid it.

Not a reaper. Not a Sister. Not Big D. A girl.

A mortal.

I can’t make sense of it, not even in the quiet spiral of my mind that has held truths from a thousand dying mouths. It defies everything I know—everything Iam.

My fingers twitch at my sides, some deep instinct screaming to take control, to restore the order I’ve lived inside for longer than most names have lasted. But there’s no control here. There’s only her.