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FOR MY FIRST SOLO MISSION, I decide to work with Sam at Asylum Seventeen. I'll eventually have to manage my own Asylum, but until it's been assigned to me, I'm free to work wherever I want to work. This morning, I got a list of missions on my LightTab, and of course I chose the Asylum Seventeen one. If I can talk to Sam for a little while, it won't feel like I'm so alone.
I really will be totally alone on this mission. I have no partner, no help, and no one to monitor my progress. I'll get a mission report at the end of the day, but for the most part, I won't have any contact with anyone.
I meet Sam at Asylum Seventeen's entrance, where he tells me, “Congratulations on officially becoming a Helper... and on winning the heart of a certain Archangel.”
I want to knock him on the head for saying that. He knows I've been on a date with Azrael, but I've hardly won his heart! If anything, my relationship with Azrael has hit a wall. Rather than lecture Sam, I dive into the mission. “So... there will be a reunion at Asylum Seventeen today?”
“Yeah. One of our residents, a young lady named May, is reuniting with her father today. She parted from her parents more than thirty years ago, so it should be an interesting one.”
I've already done my homework on this mission. May was eleven years old when she lost her life in a car accident. Her parents were in their thirties when she died, and now they're seventy-something. May chose to halt the aging process at age eleven, so when they meet her, it will look like she hasn't aged a day.
“Are you sure you're ready for this, Lucy?” Sam asks.
The truth is, I'm not. The idea of doing this alone has always been intimidating, but if Azrael thinks I can handle it, I have to try. “Yeah. I'm totally ready,” I lie.
“Alright then,” Sam says. “Send me a message after Claude dies. We'll need a few minutes to get ready for the reunion.”
I give Sam a firm nod, hoping it makes me look confident. I don't feel very confident, but at least I can try to look confident. I've hardly mastered warping, but I make it to Southcrest Medical, the hospital where Claude Lacont is hanging on to the last few hours—or minutes—of his life. I find him in Room 404. He's completely unconscious, but his wife is still at his side, gripping one of his pale hands. She's surrounded by crumpled tissues, and her cheeks are slick with tears. I wonder how long she's been crying?
I sit in the corner of the room, watching Bernadette Lacont as she quietly cries. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a partner after you've been with them for so long. It must be crushing.
I really wish Azrael was here. It feels weird for him not to be here. He always tried to cheer up his charges with comforting words, so I try the same thing with Bernadette.
“You'll see him again one day. I know it hurts now, but it'll be okay.”
My “comforting words” sound way lamer than anything Azrael used to say. Oh well. At least I tried, right?
“Yours is the kind of love I wish I had,” I tell her. “You and Claude are lucky to have each other. We should all be that lucky! I can't imagine being with someone for as many years as you've been with Claude. Losing him will be the hardest thing you've ever lived through, but you're a strong lady. I can tell.”
Bernadette's tears stop, so maybe my speech had an effect on her?
It feels like I'm sitting in the hospital for hours, but only forty minutes pass. His heart monitor suddenly flatlines, and even though the hospital staff hurries in to check on him, it's already too late. Claude is standing outside of his body.
I pop out of my chair as soon as I see him. “Hello!” I exclaim—and in my mind, I immediately lecture myself for sounding too cheerful. No one wants to hear a cheerful voice right after they die, do they?
It takes him a moment to respond. “Hel... lo?”
“I'm Luciana Alvarez, one of your spirit guides.” I thrust out a hand, but he seems reluctant to take it. “I'm here to take you Home.”
“Home?” His eyelashes flutter at the word. “You mean... heaven?”
“Yeah, some people call it that.” As we're shaking hands, a doctor pronounces him dead, and his wife shatters with a sob. She strokes her dead husband's hair and cries on his shoulder, gasping for air as she wails.
“Poor Bernadette,” I whisper. I suddenly remember that I'm supposed to send a text to Sam, so I type a quick one.
Claude died. Taking him Home soon.
Claude tries to touch his wife, but his hand passes through her. “Do I have to leave her?”
“Unfortunately... yes,” I answer with a wince. “But it's not all bad news. I'm going to reunite you with your daughter, May.”
In my mind, I criticize every word that comes out of my mouth. I'm sure Azrael would have made everything sound a lot more smooth.
“May...” Tears twinkle in Claude's eyes as he whispers the name of his long-lost daughter. “May's alive?”
“Well, there's been some debate about what the word alive means, but yeah... in my world, May's still alive, and she's been missing you. She'd really like to see you. She—”
The lights flicker and buzz, halting my reply. I thought I caught a glimpse of a shadow near the door, but it might've been my imagination. I hope it was my imagination.
“I've missed May with all my heart. Her death almost destroyed us,” Claude says. “Take me to her. I want to see my little girl again.”
Claude doesn't seem concerned about the flickering lights, but then again, he didn't see the shadow moving behind him. The question in my mind is a sickening one.
What if this hospital has demons?
I don't wait around to find out. I would have given Claude a few more minutes to be with his wife, but I need to get him out of here. I take his wrist and try to warp us to Asylum Seventeen.
But I can't. Either I'm so rattled that I've forgotten how to warp, or something is interfering with my abilities.
Claude looks at me like I'm crazy, shakes his wrist free, and tries to touch his wife's hair. He's probably giving her chills with all that touching, but I don't stop him.
I hear a demonic hiss, and it's way too close for comfort. I've only encountered a demon once, with Larry, on my fourth mission as a spirit school student. I remember that hissing sound all too well. It's the kind of sound that could make a spine shiver like crazy.
My first instinct is to contact Azrael and tell him what's going on, but I don't want him to think I failed my first mission. At this point in my afterlife career, it would be way too embarrassing to admit I couldn't warp. When Larry and I encountered our demon, he had to summon an Archangel with his LightTab—so that's what I do. I pull up a special screen and make a request.
While I'm typing, a spider-shaped shadow drips down from the ceiling and lands on the floor with a plop.
“What's that?” Claude shrieks—and I feel really sorry for him. This is a terrible first experience as a spirit.
“Claude, we have to get out of here.” I tug on his sleeve, but he doesn't budge. “I'm serious. We have to get out of here fast.”
“What is that?” he asks again.
The spider lunges at him with a clawed leg, restoring Claude's ability to move. We both bolt to the door, screaming as the spider chases us.
“Uh... unfortunately, that's a demon.” How am I supposed to sound calm when I'm totally, completely, utterly freaked out myself?
“A demon?” Claude stops in the hall, a few paces from his hospital room. “Maybe I shouldn't leave my wife with that thing? Maybe I should—”
The spider catches up to him and lashes his leg. I hear a grotesque sizzling noise as the claw burns its way through Claude's flesh. I don't let his screaming distract me, and as the spider advances again, I shout, “Get back!”
I don't know how, but a stream of silver light suddenly bursts from my hands, knocking back the demon. I grab Claude's arm and drag him along, forcing him to limp to the elevator.
“Shit, that hurt!” Claude cries. I can't bring myself to look at his leg, but I can imagine what it looks like. It's probably black and charred.
The elevator doors open with a ding, and I shove him inside as fast as I can. I've already made a mess of this mission, haven't I? With trembling hands, I check my LightTab's screen. My request for an Archangel is still active, but no one's responded yet. Should I try to contact Azrael directly? If he knew I was in trouble, would he come faster? If he finds out I'm failing, is he going to fire me again? I have so many questions in my mind, my head hurts.
I try to reassure Claude, even though I desperately need someone to reassure me too. “By the way, don't worry about your wife too much. The demons can hurt us, but they can't cause a human any physical harm. They can effect a human's mood... they can make them angry or sad... but it can't hurt Bernadette.”
“That's... good to know.”
Why does this hospital have demons? Were they tempted by the depression here? Larry said they're drawn to rage and sorrow, and a hospital is probably teeming with those emotions. Or... maybe they've come to feed on the fear of death?
I try to warp two more times, but we're stuck here until the elevator opens. Another demon is waiting for us on the other side of the sliding doors. This one is even more hellish than the last. It's a smoky black mass, roughly the size of a toddler, and it screams when it sees us.
An Archangel appears behind us, pushes us out of the way, and skewers the demon with a thrust of his sword. I don't recognize him, but he's really handsome. He has a boyish face, big eyes, and honey-colored curls.
As soon as the demon is down, the Archangel whirls around and sticks out a hand. “Sandalphon,” he introduces himself. “And you don't need to tell me why I was summoned. I think the answer's obvious. There are demons here?”
I reply, “Yeah. That's the second one we've encountered. There's another one on the fourth floor... it's some kind of spider thing.”
“Thanks for letting me know. It will be impossible to do a full sweep of a building as big as this. I think I'll check some key areas and come back with a few more Archangels.”
I don't know if I'm supposed to follow Sandalphon, but I do, and so does Claude. My poor charge looks very confused right now, and he still has a limp. For Claude's sake, I almost ask Sandalphon to take us back home, but I would have to admit that my warping powers are broken, and I can't bring myself to do that.
“Stay close to me,” Sandalphon says. “We're going to check the nursery first. Children and babies... they're in more danger from demons than most.”
“Why's that?” I ask.
“Sometimes, if the child is young enough, it can actually see the demon. It can be a traumatizing experience,” Sandalphon explains. “Besides that, children have more energy, and the demon will feed on as much as it can.”
I still wish Azrael was here. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Sandalphon showed up, but I wanted my Archangel.
Okay... to be fair, Azrael is hardly mine, but it would be nice to have him at my side again.
“You and Azrael are close, right?”
I groan at Sandalphon's question. I keep forgetting to be careful with my thoughts when there's an angel around. I almost launch into a speech about how Azrael and I aren't as close as I want to be, but the sight of six demons milling around the nursery eclipses all other thoughts. They're weaving between cribs, hissing and gurgling.
I'm probably stating the obvious when I say, “That... is awful.”
“Indeed it is,” Sandalphon agrees. “Stay out here while I take care of the demons. Whatever you do... don't go inside.”
Behind a wall of glass, Claude and I watch the Archangel rush into the nursery and carve into one of the demons. When a demon with really long arms tries to grab him from behind, I clap a hand over my mouth. Spindly, smoky fingers clamp down on Sandalphon's shoulder. He spins around, handling the situation before any real damage is done—although I do see a slight black burn on his neck.
“I assume this isn't typical?” Claude asks.
“Nope,” I reply. “There's nothing typical about this. You haven't had any of the good experiences of crossing over and... I'm sorry about that.”
Does this mean I've failed my first mission as a Helper? Looking at Claude's scorched leg, it certainly feels like a failure. There's also the fact that I can't seem to warp anymore. At this point, I wouldn't blame Azrael if he wanted to strip away my Helper status.
My eyes snap up when I hear a creaking noise. Four of the long-armed demons are heading down the hall, but I don't think they've spotted us yet. I try to bang on the wall to get Sandalphon's attention, but my fist just passes through the glass.
“Sandalphon!” I scream his name, but he's still busy with the demons inside the nursery. “Sandalphon!”
Sandalphon doesn't hear my shouting, but the demons definitely do. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do, so I give Claude a shove and yell, “Run!”
Claude can't run very fast on his injured leg, and I don't want to get too far ahead of him, so I try to keep his pace. That's a bad idea, because at this rate, the demons will catch up to us. Discouraging questions race through my mind. How much damage can a demon do? Can it leave me disfigured? Can they destroy my soul? If I'm attacked, how much will it hurt?
Fortunately, I never have to find out.
Archangel Azrael appears behind us. He swings his massive sword, unleashing a burning red shock wave that rips through all four demons at once. It looks a lot more effective than anything Sandalphon can do.
I'm tempted to throw my arms around Azrael, crush my face against his chest, and express my gratitude in kisses, but I don't do any of that. All I can say is, “Thanks.”
I guess that's not enough for Azrael.
He wraps his arms around me and whispers, “I'm never leaving you again.”