Chapter Seven
"No, don't cry!" I tried to stop her, but it wasn't working. "I'm not crazy! Don't be afraid."
She looked at me. It didn't seem like any tears had emerged yet. Phew!
"I'm not going to cry," the girl promised me. "I can't cry. I'm a ghost."
Of course she is. So, if it wasn't because she saw me talking to myself, then why did she look so sad?
The girl pointed at the Spencer and Julie, then at me and Fez. "Do you all really think reapers are that bad?" She asked.
"Well-" I began, but Spencer cut me off.
"It's not that we think they're bad, it's just..." he trailed off.
"I'm a reaper," the girl surprised me. "My name is Haley." I suddenly felt warmth inside, like all my troubles had disappeared. "I know that... most of you ghosts, fear us reapers, but I hope you don't fear me."
"I'm terribly sorry," Spencer apologized. "I've heard of you. You are the reaper that brings happiness. I can feel your power..." he gazed upward at the clouds.
I walked over and bent down by Haley. "I'm sorry, it's just the other reaper I met only made me feel scared."
"Amanda?" Haley smiled. "She does that a lot." She giggled, as if she had never been sad to begin with.
I gave a sigh of relief, then stood up. "You're pretty young."
"I'm five. I'm also the youngest reaper!" She seemed pretty proud of herself. Haley reached out and took my hand, pulling me back in the direction that I had came. "I want to talk to you. I think it's the most awesomest thing that you can see us ghosts!" She was walking backward now, still tugging on my hand. Fez was following me, but the other two stayed where they were.
"Where are we going?" I asked her.
"To the- woah!" she slipped and fell backwards, releasing my hand.
I gasped. "Are you okay?" I bent over to help her up. She was laughing, and couldn't help myself from chuckling a bit with her. She got up and skipped in front of me. I watched her as we followed her. She seemed to be having fun, and it made me smile. I reflected her happiness. It felt nice to be flooded with a wonderful feeling than with a truck load of fear.
"Hey, did you know that I know what you're looking for?" She cheerfully asked.
I shook my head. "No. I didn't."
"Well I do! I even know the boys name!"
I stopped. Haley realized that I wasn't following her anymore and spun around to see why. Fez stared down at me, but I wasn't paying attention to him. I was looking right into the girls blue eyes.
Haley brushed a few strands of her red hair out of her face and smiled at me. "Is something wrong?"
"You know who I'm looking for," I stated the obvious.
"Yep!"
"Then could you please tell me who it is?"
She thought about it, then replied with a "Nope!"
My hope shrunk. "Why not?" I whined.
"Because that would be against the rules silly!" She skipped over to me, swinging her arms back and forth without a care in the world.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You were punished for not dying. I can't just help you get out of your punishment."
"But but but, it wasn't my fault! It was his." I pointed at the idiot above me.
"You're the one who lost her balance," Fez retorted.
"I might have survived!"
"You would have been maimed."
"It's better than going on this wild goose chase looking for some boy who could be anywhere in the whole world!"
"You wouldn't have been able to hang out with your friends like you did the other day!"
"I would have eventually!"
"Stop arguing!" Haley commanded, putting her hands on her ears and falling foreward onto her knees.
"Haley I-" I was cut off.
"You shouldn't fight! You have to deal with each other now so get over everything you hate about the other. You were saved," She pointed at me.
"My name is Angelina," I informed her.
"Please stop fighting! You are alive whether you like it or not Angelina, so get used to it and take advantage of it! Who cares if you're immortal! If you want to die, then he can kill you!" She now pointed at Fez. The happiness and warmth escaped me as Haley got depressed.
"I'm sorry!" I finally made out. "It's not like I hate him or anything. It just seems like I'm destined to fight with him for the rest of my life!" I threw my arm out and accidentally hit Fez's leg. "Whoops."
"Stretching out your arm there?" Fez asked, a wee bit annoyed.
"Oh, yeah just stretching my arm." I stretched out the word 'stretching' while reaching outward, aiming for his face. It's too bad I couldn't reach it, since he was in the air and I was standing on the ground.
Getting back to the original conversation now. "We fight, but it's more for fun than for hate," I explained to her after that demo of our fights.
"Does that mean you'll consider me a friend?" Fez got his hopes up.
"Hey, I don't think I'm going to go that far," I warned him.
Haley smiled and picked herself back up off the ground. "I don't think I could change the way you act towards each other even if I tried," She half-laughed.
I smiled, feeling her happiness return. Then I remembered. "Wait, please tell me the name of the person that I'm looking for!" I pleaded
"I can't, sorry."
"Please! It would make my life so much easier!"
"I really can't Angelina!"
"You can call me Angie."
"Okay!" She smiled gleefully.
"Hey wait! Why does she get to call you by your nickname but I can't?" Fez complained.
"Ugh, because you're the reason I'm stuck in this mess, duh!" I stated with obvious annoyance in my voice.
"Hmf!" Fez folded his arms and turned away from me.
"Don't 'hmf' at me! I'm only answering your question."
Fez just ignored me.
Anyway, back to my begging. "Please tell me!" I begged Haley.
"I'm not allowed to tell you anything! No one except the reapers are allowed to know!" Haley did her best to make that clear.
I wasn't going to give up that easily. "If you won't tell me, then I'll just go find a different reaper and make them tell me."
"None of them will tell you either."
"I bet one of them has it in their hearts to help out a poor, immortal girl like me." I acted all theatrical and sniffed to make it look like I was going to cry.
"I am the reaper of happiness. There isn't a single one nicer than me. Except maybe one of them." She looked at the ground. "Why do you really need to know anyway. Why can't you just live your life normally as an immortal?" She looked up at me.
"Because! I don't want to be stuck at age fourteen for the rest of my life. I want to grow and change just like anyone else would. How am I supposed to fall in love one day and have a family and all of that other normal stuff if I can't even age?"
Haley studied me, then gave a sigh of defeat. "If I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone else? You can't even tell them that you know anything about him."
I raised my right hand. 'I promise."
"Alright then." She hesitated, still unsure of whether or not she should tell me. "hsnmesavy." She said so fast that it just sounded like a bunch of sounds put together.
"I'm sorry, didn't quite catch."
"His name is," she paused, then took a deep breath.
"Yeah?" I tried to get her to continue.
"Avery. His name is Avery."