Grim

Chapter Five (Extended)

When I got to headquarters later that morning, I decided to avoid Kellen. I don't know how I can avoid sleeping, but I intend to avoid looking into his past any more than I already have. I went to my office, got my agenda and left. I spent a large portion of the day trying to track down my client. A 43-year-old male that died 2 days after a motorcycle accident took his left leg.

When I got back to my apartment I stood at the door's entrance and closed my eyes, imagining I was on the inside, hoping to jump. When I opened my eyes, I was still outside. I had to figure out how to jump. My immediate thought was to ask Kellen about it, as he was my only friend. I wondered, would he even care that I'd had strange dreams about his past?

I sighed. I would care if someone was interfering with my past. I looked over at the clock. 8:42, late enough to go to sleep. I crossed my fingers and wished with all my might that I wouldn't end up in Kellen's past tonight. As I laid down I tried to clear my mind. I tossed and turned for a few minutes before I opened my eyes and found myself outside Kellen's house.

Sighing, I stood and knocked on the front door. "Vea? What brings you here at this hour?" He stood in the doorway wearing sweats, his hair wet and ruffled.

"I'm sorry, I was in bed and then suddenly I was here." His jaw dropped, and his eyes widened.

"You jumped all the way here from your bedroom? Vea that's impressive, even for me." He looked me over, which made me realize I was in sleep attire. I quickly pulled my shirt down to hide my incredibly short shorts and let out a nervous chuckle. "Why don't you come inside?"

"Please, thank you." I stepped inside, out of the view of the public. He laughed awkwardly after closing the door. "What's so funny?" I asked defensively, sitting and pulling my shirt to my knees.

"Nothing, sorry. You're kind of cute when you're nervous." He smiled and stood in the kitchen, drying dishes. I felt my face turn hot and imagined, given my fair skin, it was probably as red as a tomato.

"Uh... thanks." I looked toward the ground as I tried to think of a way to change the topic. "So, this jumping that I keep doing, why is it that I keep ending up at your house?" His smile grew wider and he laughed under his breath. "What? What is it?" There I go blushing again. He really did fluster me.

"When you're learning to jump, it's said you should think of your greatest desires. Do you desire me, Vea?" At this point I stood, forgetting my attire.

"No of course not! Don't be ridiculous..." How dare he be so up front! The nerve. "And even if I did, it's involuntary." I sat back down and crossed my arms, looking away from him. I could hear him laughing quietly from the kitchen, then making his way over to where I sat.

"In all seriousness I can teach you how to jump, but I have a question for you." I looked at him, waiting for his question. "What do you dream about?" Oh no, did he know?

"Why does it matter what I dream about? Isn't that sort of personal?"

"There are two types of reapers. Those that dream of the future, and those that dream of the past. If you're dreaming of the future it will be easy to teach you. Almost all reapers dream of the future. If you dream of the past, I can't help you."

"I uh... dream of the past." I muttered it quietly, afraid of his reaction. He cupped his hand to his ear, indicating that I needed to speak louder. "I dream of the past. But believe me I wish I didn't it's terrifying. What about you?" This time I spoke quickly, rushed. Hoping that if I finished with a question I could avoid comments, Kellen fell silent.

"What do you dream about, Vea." He stood, his face as serious as I'd ever seen it. I looked up at him, not saying anything. "Answer me, Vea! What do you dream about?" Startled by his raised voice, I leaned away from him. Should I lie?

"I dream about a family. A woman, her husband, and their child." He seemed to calm down. Nodding, he sat back down and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Kellen?" He looked over at me. "I think I've been dreaming about you." He nodded once more then jumped up and slammed his fist down on a nearby shelf.

"I think you should go." I thought of how I'd gotten there in the first place and then looked down at what I was wearing. How did he expect me to get home? I lived on the other side of the city. "I'm sorry, I'll give you a ride." I thanked him, and we went outside to his car.

Upon arriving at my apartment, I immediately went into the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. I didn't plan on sleeping tonight, or any other night for that matter. I intended to stay up as long as I possibly could.

***

It had been 4 hours since Kellen dropped me off at home. Just 4 and a half more hours to go and it would be time to get up. I decided to look more into Ladell's life. There was nothing I could find that could be my unfinished business. Not that finding it would accomplish anything, I wasn't Ladell anymore.

Since I had time to kill, I decided to go to headquarters early to do some research on Reaper dreams. When I got to the archives I went straight to the statistics on the two types of Reapers. The archives described them a little differently than Kellen had. The blessed and the cursed.

I was cursed? I gathered every file, every book I could on cursed Reapers and began my research. For a reaper to be cursed, they must have broken Death's first rule. One may never cause the death of a human at any point in their life.

Cause the death? I've never killed anyone! This must have been a mistake. I looked through more books to see if perhaps it was a metaphor or preferably a myth. But the more digging I did, the clearer it was to me. At some point in my life, I'm going to cause the death of a human. I'm going to kill someone.