Page 37 of Grim

I continue to stare in shock. There is a boy in my kitchen. Not just dishes flying everywhere, but an actual boy.

“Can …” His voice is small with a thick English accent. “Can you see me?”

I nod dumbly, minutely aware that Kane is now beside me.

“So, Big D was right. This certainly ups the stakes,” Kane mutters seriously.

“Who can? What now?”

“Never mind about that. Right now, we need to ensure your safety.”

“From this little”—I eye the young person standing before me—“boy,” I manage weakly. This … this can’t be happening. “No, no, no, no …” I shake my head back and forth before leaving the kitchen, storming down the hallway and out the front door.

“Mayday! Wait!” Kane calls after me, but I don’t listen.

I continue walking down the drive, passing by the gnarly old trees with Spanish moss draped from them.

“Hey!” Kane appears in front of me, blocking my path. “Where are you going?”

“There is a child in my house!” I shout. I don’t know why I am unable to control the volume of my voice.

“The soul of a child, but yes. You knew that already. So, again, where are you going?”

“No.” I laugh as I begin pacing. “No. No. There was aghostin my house. It didn’t have an identity, a face, anything. But now I find out there is aboyin there. A boy! A ghost boy! Oh my, I can see ghosts. I can see ghosts; I have a reaper stalking me—”

“That’s a bit dramatic—”

“I’m dying in nine days, and now I see dead people!” I bend over at the waist, placing my palms on my knees to try to catch my breath.

Kane stands there, staring at me with a blank expression. “Eight days now, I’m afraid.”

“Ya know, now would be a great time to comfort someone. Rub their back, tell them it’s all going to be okay—somethingbesides standing there like some statue.”

“I’m not rubbing you, and you are not okay. Would you rather I lie?”

“YES!” I scream while grabbing a rock off the ground and hurling it at him. It goes straight through his body and bounces off a tree behind him.

“Good throw. How was that lie?” he asks.

I want to yell at him, I want to scream and hit him, I want to run away. But I don’t. Instead, my bottom lip—in a betrayal so deep that I may cut it off later for the act—begins to wobble as my eyes start to burn and fill with tears. Before I can stop them, liquid falls from my eyes.

“Fuck,” I whimper on a sob.

Kane’s eyes grow big, and his expression shifts from smug bastard to full-blown panic. “W-what are you doing?”

“Surely, you’ve seen someone cry before,” I snap as another sob wracks through my body.

“Yes, but why are you crying?! Stop it!”

I glare at him through my watery gaze.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do!” I shout out, my voice shaking from the adrenaline. “In a day, I’ve died and been brought back, only to be told I’m dying again in eight days. I have a reaper following me around and tying me to the bed, and now I can see ghosts?! I can fucking seeghosts,Kane! And then I can hit you with my hand,but I throw a rock, and you’re like a hologram! None of this makes sense! And it isn’t fair! What about what I want? Just once, I want someone to ask me about what I want to achieve in my life—”

“Mayday, what do you want to ach—”

“Shut up!” I scream out. “The man who is about to kill me doesn’t get to ask me that.”

“Hey!” he barks out while stalking over to me. “We have been over this already. I amnotkilling you. Your heart is doing that. And that is terribly unfortunate. You’re young and attractive, and you seem relatively intelligent. Why you have to die while the man across town who lives on fast food and never calls his kids gets to live into his nineties makes no sense. But it’s just the way it is, Rue. You will find that ineverylife, fairness never factors.”