“I just don’t think this is proper.” Kaah sat opposite the Mayor’s desk. He had walked over to her office, hoping they would give him her home phone number so he could make an appointment to see her, but she was there. Not working officially, but working none the less.

“Proper or not, this is what she wanted.”

Kaah had never seen Liz this weary before, her face was sunken, and she looked like she had lost a lot of weight suddenly. He watched as she played with the pen in her hand, she was shaking and obviously not handling the death of her mother well. Kaah wasn’t a touchy-feely reaper, he had no idea how to handle this, so he did the only thing he did know.

“I will make it happen,” he said.

“Yes?” Liz’s eyes lit up with a soft sparkle as she recognized that she was going to make her mother’s final wish come true.

“Absolutely, I give you my word.”

Liz’s eyes misted as the tears ran freely down the curve of her cheeks. “Thank you, Kaah,” she whispered sincerely.

“Don’t thank me yet, this is… unusual to say the least.”

“Just do your best.”

Kaah stood, pausing as he went to open the door. “And if this gets me fired?”

“The Mayor’s office will always have a job waiting for you.” Liz’s laugh was soft and forced, but Kaah felt a weird satisfaction that he had caused it.

“See you for the preview tomorrow afternoon.”

 

The click of the door signaled to Kaah that his workload had just hit an unobtainable level. Lucky for him he was the reaper, and the impossible was his specialty. Kaah looked at the notes and thought the first place he really needed to go was the library. He knew of the people Liz had mentioned, but not enough to be confident of forming an event based on them. He needed to research them, get the basic details, and then build around that structure. A skeleton for which he could flesh out. He laughed at his own analogy, even though he was the only one listening to his inner monologue, he still knew he was funny.

 

He walked the few blocks to the library as the Boneknapper was still being loved by Jay. Walking in, the smell of books assaulted his senses with a lack of delicacy. It was something Kaah always enjoyed. Kaah had always been a reader, what else was there to do when it wasn’t work hours, right? However, having your own library smelt different to a public one. There was something very unique about the mixture of the scent trails left by humans, it intrigued Kaah and also helped keep his tracking abilities sharp. At night the scythe did most of the work, but in his millennia of work, there had been more than a handful of times that he had to rely on his own skills.

“What are you doing here?”

Kaah jumped slightly as he had been lost in the aroma that was Deadend’s public library. Looking over, he saw Chris Keeper; the flame-red hair of his neighbor was only dulled by the disgust in his eyes at having the reaper in his space.

Chris and Kasey Keeper, library owners, Kaah’s neighbors, and a brother-sister team entrusted with the safe guarding of a portal with a direct link to Hell itself. Oh, and Chris loathed Kaah with every fiber of his body.

“Hey, Chris, buddy, how are you?”

“What do you want?”

“Um, let me see, I’m in a library,” Kaah looked around before returning his gaze solely back to Chris, “maybe a book?”

“Chris?” Kasey’s voice suddenly drove between the two of them, “I think there is a spill down near historical fiction. Kids and a bottle of water, can you go clean it up?”

“What?” Chris’s eyes flared wider as his books were now in peril danger from an attack of the moisture monster. “Stupid kids, we really should ban them.”

“Ban kids from learning?” Kaah nodded, “I like it, not sure it will float with the education department though.”

Chris glared at him before grabbing the paper towels and taking off to where Kasey had said there was a water spill.

“You really shouldn’t goad him.” Turning back to look at Kaah, Kasey shook her head lightly.

“But it’s so much fun.”

“Not for him,” she replied. “Now, what can I get for you, Kaah?”

“Books on 80’s glam rock?”

“You don’t have enough hair to pull off that look.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind,” Kasey chuckled as she tilted her head. “Follow me.”

 

Kaah followed Kasey as she walked silently down the middle aisle, amazing him with her observation skills. He could see her scanning each aisle she walked past, not because she didn’t know where the books Kaah wanted were, no, she was looking for people who were breaking the rules or in need of her help.

Kasey turned to her left, lifting a hand, she ran her fingertips lightly down the second shelf until she hit the book she wanted. “Here, this is where they start. There are a few books there, hope you find what you want.”

“Thanks, Kasey.” Kaah nodded as he was left to his own devices. Looking along the books, he grabbed four that seemed relevant and went to take a seat at the tables. Normally he would take them home, but time wasn’t allowing that today. He grabbed some blank paper that they provided on the tables and started jotting notes.

 

An hour and a half later, Kaah looked at his watch and realized he needed to get back to the office, run some ideas past Tracy, and get to Jay’s before she closed. Gathering his copious notes, he put the books back on the shelf where he had gotten them from, and walked out.

 

“Do any of these stores sell tacos?”

 

Kaah froze as he heard a voice he knew. A voice he assumed would have been staying within the safe and inconspicuous space of his home. Scrunching his face, he looked up. Across the road, he saw his trusted friend and assistant walking with his obnoxious apprentice. Inwardly groaning, Kaah walked over with a brief glance left and right to see what the odds of being seen were.

 

“Just felt like some fresh air, did we?” Kaah growled as he got closer. “I was under the impression that when you asked if he could come and stay with us, that he would stay in the house.”

“He’s not a pet to be kept in the backyard, Kaah.”

Kaah looked over, seeing the kid with his head tilted up and mumbling about how warm the sun actually is against his skin. “You sure about that?” He raised a doubtful eyebrow.

“We need to educate him, smooth out the rough edges.”

“Whasssup,” Sibs shoulder nudged Kaah and grinned, “nice little town you chose here, are the human’s fun to play with?”

“What?” Kaah’s eyebrows shot up. “Play? We don’t play with them. This is their town, we adapt and become a part of.”

He scratched his head. “But they are humans…”

He didn’t get a chance to finish before Kaah had stepped forward and into his personal space. Kaah towered over him, and when he puffed his chest up, looked like an impenetrable brick wall of muscle. “While living in this town, so are you. You are now part of their town, and if you do anything to expose or jeopardize our existence here, not only will the Order come down on you, but I will make you wish you were mortal.”

“Kaah.”

He swung around to Rork, his anger flaring more at being interrupted. “This was your idea, if he wrecks this for me you will be reminded that you are mortal as I end you next.”

Rork recoiled from the lash out of his bosses’ anger. He was rarely ever on the receiving end of it and right now understood why he tried to avoid it. Kaah could terminate him without repercussions, he knew it, and so did Rork.

“He won’t.”

“Make sure he doesn’t.” Kaah looked at the kid who was still standing there with a look of dumbfounded confusion on his face, shook his head with disgust, and walked off.

“I have information…” Rork went to say.

“At home.” And with those two words, the conversation was ended, and Kaah was on his way back to work.

 

“He is the worst boss ever.” Sibs pouted.

“He is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and if you had half a brain, you’d see it too and do everything in your power to make him proud.”

“I ain’t no butt kisser.” He shrugged.

“Then pack your bags and go back to the cesspool he pulled you out of. You had no future, no past, no reason for existing bar swimming the black, inky, muck of wasted human emotions.”

“Wasn’t that bad.” Sibs picked his chin up slightly in defiance.

“Great, I’ll make a call.” Rork pulled out his cell phone and started to dial, he wasn’t going to lay his life on the line for this kid. If he wouldn’t help himself and adapt to his new environment, back he goes.

“Wait,” Sibs said quickly.

With a shake of his head, Rork pressed the green button. “I’ll work my way down the list of demons, finding a replacement with a better disposition and work ethic shouldn’t be that difficult.”

“Let’s talk about this.”

Rork pressed the stop button before looking up. “I’ve done all the talking I wish to do with you. You’ve now become a life and death issue for me, and I wish to keep mine. If you have something to say, say it now, other than that, you’re gone within the hour.”

“I want to stay.”

“Why?”

Sibs’ head lowered as he turned and sat on the curb. The rise and fall of his chest was one of confusion.

Rork sat down next to him. “Talk to me, kid.”

“This is the first time I’ve ever been needed. I’ve always hidden away in the dark, shadowed corners of the pool, it’s a really dark place.” He looked at Rork, his eyes full of fear.

It was now that Rork saw the problem with having gotten a demon to take on a reaper apprenticeship. Kaah had warned back when Rork first suggested it, that there was only ever one Reaper, and that’s the way it should be. Rork had pleaded his case that with the right training and scrutinous selection process, that he firmly believed that a demon could be trained up to take the ‘easy’ marks and in turn, give Kaah some space to breathe and maintain the new life-work balance he craved.

The problem that Rork hadn’t anticipated, and ignored when Kaah had brought it up, was that demons in fact had emotions. They knew what hunger, anger, passion, and jealousy felt like, and sometimes they used or fed off these energies for their own selfish needs. Reapers were vastly different, these were emotions that Kaah didn’t know, and only now could identify through living with the humans, day in, day out. Controlling a demon was proving harder than teaching a reaper.

“What happened there?”

“Dark things.” Sibs’ head tilted further down, his eyes fluttered with shame as his mind journeyed back to the pool. “I am small, weak. They took advantage of me.” A small tic in his neck popped up as the pain was obvious. “Please don’t send me back,” he whispered.

“Will you obey the rules?”

He nodded.

“Listen to Kaah?”

He nodded again.

“Learn how to be a reaper in all ways?”

“Yes, just don’t send me back.”

Rork looked at him for a few beats. He seemed sincere and was showing a true fear of being sent back. Was taking a risk on this kid worth risking his life on?

“If you get me killed…” he trailed off with a shake of his head.

“I won’t, promise.”

“Okay, well, let’s go and get something to eat at Kris-teas, and you can have your first taste of human life,” Rork said. He stopped suddenly remembering how literal demons can be, he added, “No eating humans, in fact no referring to them as humans, this is Deadend, and we are all townsfolk.”

“If they ask who I am?”

“You are Kaah’s cousin from out of town.”

“One last thing,” Sibs said.

“Mm?” Rork was sliding his cell back in his pocket.

“Do they serve tacos?”

“You and your tacos.” Rork laughed lightly as they walked off toward the café. Rork felt like he had just made progress with the demon-come-reaper, now if he could just make some headway with Kaah.