“You always summon me for the tough ones. Why is that? Hmmmm? Cause your girlfriend likes me so you’re getting back at me?” Gee grumbled as she strutted into the hospital room.
“This isn’t about you Gee. It’s about the kid. Take his soul now. He doesn’t need to see the rest. He needs to go on up.”
Gee glanced down at the mother weeping over the body that had once housed the soul. Her sobs were getting more intense and the nurses began rushing into the room shouting. Immediately Gee took the soul’s hand and left without another word. She might be a pain in my ass but she wasn’t heartless. That’s why I always sent for her when it was a death like this one. With one last glance back at the grieving mother I left the room. She’d love her grandson one day and hold him close to her as she told him all about his uncle. The soul might not remember that life but he’d know what a fighter his uncle had been and that the life he’d only experienced for a short time would never be forgotten. His next life he’d grow old with his own grandchildren to tell stories to.
Chapter Three
“Hey,” Pagan murmured in her soft, sexy, sweet tone that meant she missed me. Normally I didn’t leave during the day to take souls. Only the tough ones or ones I’d made a connection with. I didn’t have to be there for a body to die. I just had to be there to take the soul attached to it away from the body. So, although people died every second of every day I wasn’t always there at that moment. It’s why people often saw the “ghost” of their loved ones hours after their death. The soul stayed with the body until I came for it. Then there were the souls who refused to go. The ones who wouldn’t leave. The ones who became lost souls and wandered the earth for all eternity confused.
“You look...sad,” she pointed, out wrapping her arms around my waist.
“Just thinking,” I assured her, pulling her tightly against my chest.
“You just took a soul, didn’t you?” she replied, studying me.
I nodded.
“A kid?”
I nodded again, “a boy.”
She understood. We’d talked about this before. There were so many things she’d wanted to know and I was helpless where she was concerned. I couldn’t manage to tell the girl no.
“When will he come back?”
“In six years.”
“Who took him?”
“Gee.”
“Oh, good. He’ll like her.”
I grinned. Gee wasn’t the most likable being I’d ever met but for some strange reason Pagan liked her. Even when she’d thought Gee was a teenage girl who suffered from schizophrenia.
She laid her head against my chest and sighed. Death wasn’t something Pagan dealt with well but she was learning to understand it more.
Pagan
The tree wasn’t so big. Stupid Wyatt didn’t know nothing. Just because I was a girl didn’t mean I couldn’t climb it too. I’d show him. By the time he got here I’d be all the way at the top. See if he thinks girls can’t do things boys can do. HA! We can do them better. Cause we’re just cooler.
Glancing back to see if Mom was watching from the kitchen window and finding it all clear I grabbed a hold of the rough bark. It was warm and sticky. Once I had both arms and legs wrapped firmly around it I began inching myself up higher. I just wouldn’t look down. I’d keep making my way until I was at the tippy top. No reason to look down. That would just mess me up. A sliver of wood cut into my hand and I yelped pulling it back to see if I was bleeding. There was a small splinter poking out of my hand and I pressed my palm against my mouth and used my teeth to pull it out. Smiling with satisfaction once the small painful bark was firmly between my teeth I jerked it out and spit the offending object out.
See, I was as tough as any boy. Wyatt and his dumb mouth saying I was weak. Whatever! I continued my upward climb. Maybe once he saw how much cooler I was than him because I could climb higher he’d let me into his new treehouse. That “boys only” sign looked just plain stupid anyway. Mom said I needed to ignore them and let the boys have their special hideout but I couldn’t do that. It just wasn’t fair when I was the one who came up with the treehouse idea in the first place. Besides, all Miranda wanted to do was put on makeup and paint our nails. Who wanted to waste time doing that stuff? Not me! That’s who.
My foot slipped and I tightened my hold on the trunk trying not to panic. I could do this. My hands began to sweat and my firm grasp had weakened. This wasn’t good. I moved my arm so I could find something to hold onto other than the tree trunk when my other foot slipped and I went into a free fall backwards. I tried to scream but nothing came out. Closing my eyes tightly I waited for the ground to slam into my back. It was going to hurt.
“Umph, got you,” a familiar voice said and I opened my eyes to see a boy staring down at me. He was holding me. Odd. Shaking my head I stared up at the tree I’d just fallen from and tried to remember how I knew this boy. Had I hit my head and he picked me up?
“Uh,” I replied still confused. I’d been falling. Then... this boy was holding me and talking.
“What were you doing up there? That was too high.”
I turned my gaze back to his, “Um, I uh... did you catch me?” I asked incredulously.
He grinned and the baby blue color of his eyes appeared to darken. “Yeah. Why else do you think you’re not lying on the ground with a few broken bones?”