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I lay in bed and stared into the darkness, my head pounding in time with my heartbeat and I wondered how Julia was sleeping. She cut me off after my disastrous explanation this afternoon and I didn’t broach the subject again. Dinner was excruciating, with only the scraping of silverware against the dishes as conversation, and Julia headed to the guest room right after we ate.
Isabel hadn’t returned from wherever she disappeared to, so I was left channel surfing while my mother consoled Julia. And now I couldn’t sleep.
“Nick, are you awake?” Julia’s voice penetrated the dark and the creak of my door followed.
“Yeah.”
“I can’t sleep.” The door clicked closed and I heard her shuffling in the dark toward the bed.
“Neither can I,” I said and waited. When the bed creaked with her weight, I sat up and reached in the dark. My hand landed on her arm and I pulled her closer. I knew if my mother caught us together, we’d get in trouble, but at the moment, I really didn’t care.
Julia scooted next to me and snuggled into my shoulder as we leaned against the headboard. “I’m sorry I freaked out on you earlier.
“Don’t worry about it.” I planted a kiss on her forehead. “You’ve had a bad day.”
She chuckled. “Ya think?”
I could almost see her sarcastic smile in the dark. This was one of the reasons I loved Julia, her sense of humor was epic. Twisted, but epic.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to me now.”
“You can stay with us,” I said, not knowing if that really was the case, but at least she could stay until they figured out what to do. Her only relative lived far enough away to make me not want to even consider the alternative.
“I’m not sure I can. It depends on whether my aunt will want me with her in Florida or not.”
I didn’t acknowledge her statement but my stomach plunged at the thought and I tightened my grip around her.
“I don’t want to leave either.”
Silence settled between us and I couldn’t help thinking about Fate. Was this part of her game? Smashing my future just because I made a mistake? If it was, I’d have a word or two to say to that fickle bitch.
“And what would those words be?”
My muscles contracted and Julia stiffened in my arms. I reached and flipped on my light, the sight before us pulled a gasp from both our lips.
A woman, more beautiful than any supermodel I’ve ever seen, stood at the end of the bed dressed in a blood red gown that seemed to be flowing in a perpetual breeze. Her eyes looked like golden saucers, sparkling with a humorless glow.
Julia pushed into me trying to get as close as possible. If she could have jumped in to my skin, I think she would have. “Who is that?” she whispered.
“That is Fate,” I answered and received a nod from the apparition.
“And you called me a bitch.”
I allowed a smile and a shrug. In the context of my thoughts, it was entirely appropriate.
“I don’t like being called a bitch for no reason, especially from the brat that started this mess.
“I didn’t know this would happen.” A lame excuse if I’ve ever heard one, but true nonetheless.
“Where is your father?”
I stared at her and clamped down on my thoughts on instinct. “You don’t know?”
“Don’t toy with me, where is he?”
She didn’t know and that realization gave me the unwelcomed sensation of being skinned alive. I swallowed and weighed my options. Julia still clung to me, shifting to use me as a buffer between her and the crazy lady at the end of my bed, I didn’t know what the truth would spawn, but maybe it would put Fate on our side.
“The reapers that caused the highway explosion kidnapped my father.”
The perpetual wind calmed and Fate raised her eyebrows. “So, you’re telling me he isn’t behind this slight?”
“No, he’s not.”
Fate moved closer and took a seat on the end of my bed. Instinctively, both Julia and I pulled our legs up. I peered over my knees at the confusion on Fate’s face, her scrunched eyebrows smoothed and the muscles in her jaw tensed, she swung her blazing gaze in my direction. “There’s nothing I hate more than reapers gone rogue.”
I couldn’t disagree with her, but her tone held me accountable and I shifted, wondering if testing her with a glib response was a smart thing. I clamped my lips closed against any retort and glanced at Julia. “They killed her parents.”
“I’m aware of who died today,” she snapped. “But this was not planned and you need to stop it. Now. Before I lose my patience.”
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder because if any more unplanned deaths occur, I’m holding you responsible.” With that, she stood and dissolved in a swirl of red steam.
“Fate’s a real person?”
Julia’s question pushed a button deep in my soul and I started to chuckle. I couldn’t help it, the lunacy of the entire situation struck me and the chortle transitioned into a full out belly laugh.
“Nick, shush, your mother is going to hear you.”
She was right of course, but I couldn’t stop, even when the muscles in my belly protested. I clamped my hands over my mouth to muffle the noise and through tear-blurred eyes, I met Julia’s gaze. At least she was smiling, but underneath the dimples, I saw the sorrow filling her. It was sobering and my laughter wound down. “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help it,” I whispered when I had control of all my faculties. “Looks like Fate is as real as Death.”
Julia sighed and nodded. She dropped her gaze to her hands and started picking at a hangnail. “So, someday you’ll be Death?”
“Yeah, that seems to be the plan unless the world ends.”
“What if I don’t want you to?”
I thought about my father and the choice that was made for him. “It doesn’t matter what you want or what I want. It’s just the way it has to be.”
“Why?”
“Because if I choose not to take the job, everything we know and love will be destroyed.” That was the only way I knew how to get her to understand. There was no choice for me. There only was a choice for her. “So the choice really is yours. I know we’re only thirteen and who knows if we’ll even be together when I turn twenty-five, but right now, I can’t see me trusting anyone else with this. And as I said earlier, you deserve to know what you’re getting into if you stay.” I held my breath, praying she wouldn’t opt out, but if I was in her shoes, I’d be running as far away as I could from this freaky situation.
But Julia wasn’t me, and she straightened her back and her chin jutted out in that stubborn resolve. “I’m not going anywhere. I want to see those reapers that killed my parents destroyed.”