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My mother sat, pale and silent, as I relayed the account of today’s events and I knew she wasn’t pleased. The thin lips pressed together, the hard stare, the pale skin marred by pink blotches were all signs of her discontent but this time I didn’t know if the anger was directed at me or just at the world in general.
“I knew I should have insisted that you come to church with me.”
“You really think being in church would have made a difference?”
“Yes, then you wouldn’t have gone through that.”
“Come on, Mom. If we had gone to church with you and that reaper showed up there, it would have been a disaster. Besides, if anyone else dies that isn’t on the list, Fate’s going to be looking for me and I really don’t want to see her again.”
“What do you mean, see her again?” The sharpness in her tone rang through the room and I bit my lip. I hadn’t told her about Fate’s little visit.
“Fate delivered an ultimatum last night. She wasn’t very happy that all those people died, and she blames me.” The words rushed out like the air out of a cut balloon.
Her eyes narrowed. “You sure you weren’t dreaming?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” I glanced at Julia and nodded, returning my gaze to my mother. If she knew Julia was in my room in the middle of the night, I’d be in a boatload more trouble than I was right now. She’d eventually forgive me for not telling her about the visit with the elusive deity, but my girlfriend in my bedroom – that would warrant being grounded until summertime and I wanted to avoid that like the plague.
“Fate can’t hurt you,” Mom said.
“Yes she can, Mom. She can wipe out entire civilizations, and if I can’t stop the reapers, that’s exactly what she’s going to do.”
“She wouldn’t dare.”
“Who’s going to stop her?”
“Your fa...” she stopped and snapped her mouth closed, glancing away from me.
“He’s not around to stop her. Besides, he works for her. It’s her list he’s reaping.”
The mood in the room shifted from dismal to downright dark and I sighed. “Everything is going to be fine, Mom. Once I fix the mess I got us into, I’ll go get my father.”
Her gaze snapped to mine and I knew what she was thinking. I knew from the paleness of her cheeks that she had already lost enough. If she lost me that would throw her into a downward spiral that she was afraid she’d never recover from, which was just as undesirable as letting the rogue reapers declare all out war.
“Julia didn’t have any messages,” I said, changing the subject. “Should we call the police?”
Mom blinked and turned her attention to Julia. “That’s not a bad idea. Did you want me to call for you?”
Julia nodded. “Thank you, Mrs. Ramsay.”
My mother stood and left the room, leaving me alone with Julia again. “Thanks for not saying anything about last night,” I whispered.
“I didn’t want to get in trouble,” she whispered back, watching the kitchen entrance for any sign of my mother.
“I have to figure out what to do with the knife tomorrow – I have a feeling I’m going to need it in school and I doubt my mother’s going to let me bring it. I know if the school finds out I’m carrying a weapon, I’ll get suspended.” I ran my hand through my hair. “But I can’t leave it here.”
“Why not?”
“What if they know I have it? Wouldn’t this be the first place you’d look?”
Julia glanced out the window toward her house and raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know. What if we can’t get back into your house?”
“Well, what other option do you have?”
I had a lot of options, like attaching it to my ankle and wearing army boots and jeans to cover it up, or taping it to my stomach and wearing a sweatshirt, but I didn’t think either would fly if my mother found out. “I’ll figure it out,” I said, not wanting to drag Julia into this further just in case I got caught.
“You’ll figure what out?” my mother asked as she came back in the room.
I stared at her, my mind going blank and my palms breaking out in sweat. No answer came and I turned toward Julia, silently pleading for her to intervene with something plausible and unsuspecting.
“We were trying to figure out what’s going to happen with school this week,” she said.
“We have Nick’s grandmother’s funeral, so I was going to keep him home for the wake and funeral.”
With all the crazy things happening, I hadn’t had time to deal with my grandmother’s death and the mention of the funeral yanked the air out of my lungs like a sucker punch. And I sank into the chair.
“And we have to help plan Julia’s parents’ funeral, so she’ll be here for the majority of the week, as well.”
“What did the police say?” Julia asked, pulling me out of my own somber misery and I took her hand, giving it a little squeeze before my mother answered.
“They identified the license plate, but until we called, they didn’t know if anyone in the family survived. Now that they have the information, they can add your parents to the list of the missing people identified. They’ll want to take a DNA sample from you to validate against the DNA samples they have to confirm your parents were indeed killed.” She paused and glanced in my direction. “As far as what will happen from here, they’ll send over a representative from social services and I’m not sure where it will go from there.”
“Does that mean I’ll have to leave York?” Julia said and her hand clamped down on mine like a vice.
“I don’t know. It depends on your family and what they want.”
“Can I stay here?”
“We’ll see what happens. I can’t promise you anything right now, honey.”
Julia’s eyes filled with tears and the pressure on my chest increased. The burn of my own tears blurred my vision and I pulled her into my arms so she wouldn’t see me lose it. Silently, I cursed God and everything in between heaven and hell.