Page 27 of Finders Reapers

Someone was not happy about my presence.

No-one turned to follow Maddox.

“What work?” I asked as I kicked the covers from my bed.

My shirt was rumbled, and my trousers had ridden down, so I took a moment to adjust my clothes. The action did nothing; I still looked homeless.

Fletcher shrugged. Jamal shook his head.

Rome reached into his pocket and checked the time on his phone. “We’re going to be late.” He warned. “Doorway in five minutes, or we leave without you.”

There was nothing to wear in the closet apart from designer men’s clothing—the like of which I couldn’t imagine belonging to any of the men in the other rooms, save for possibly Jamal. The shirts in the closet were YSL and Ralph Lauren, but definitely not my size.

I shrugged on one of the smaller shirts, though it came down to the knees of my new body’s short stature. I found a belt that I fixed at the waist and kept the same utilitarian boots that had come with the skin.

I ran to the living room with a minute to spare, flattening my fine red hair as I stepped over the threshold and skidded to a stop—not wanting to appear too eager for whatever Reaper mission we were going on as a group.

The others waited at the bar. Fletcher forwent a stool and decided to sit in the center of the pool table with his legs criss-cross apple sauce. Jamal leaned against the bar, his phone in his hand as he scrolled and didn’t bother to look up.

Rome was drinking a bottle of bud, and Maddox was pacing as if he was going to come out of his skin at any moment.

Until I was confronted with the closet in the bedroom, I hadn’t given too much thought to the style that each of my new team wore. Except for Fletcher, but that was because his Neon Pokemon trainer getup kind of slapped you in the face.

Jamal wore a black shirt and tailored trousers. His shoes had red soles.

Rome looked like he belonged at a rock concert, with ripped skinny jeans and a torn Ramones T-shirt. His hair needed a hairbrush, and he had a cigarette behind his ear. His aviator sunglasses hung from the collar of his shirt even though it was dark outside.

Maddox, still pacing, turned to face me. His face was a mask of steel, grit, and restrained rage. It took a moment for him to speak, but when he did, it took a deep breath for him to collect himself before he addressed me.

I took that pause as an opportunity to study him—Maddox. Unknown. Frightening. The only man out of the four that I hadn’t actually said a single word to me that wasn’t a growl.

He dressed like someone who had never been able to afford more than Walmart or goodwill—and that wasn’t an insult. My early childhood years had been the same.

Basic t-shirt, no logo or slogan, and well-worn jeans that looked soft and threadbare in places but fitted him like a glove even though he was the largest man I had ever seen.

“Done staring?” Maddox’s voice held a hint of a Texas twang.

I blinked, taken aback, but didn’t answer his question. Instead, I glanced back to the bedroom I had slept in.

“Who’s room is that?” I asked.

Maddox’s face blanked.

Jamal put his phone in his pocket and stepped forward. “Time to go. It's going to get gory.”

“Gory?” I paled. “You mean like blood and stuff?”

“By stuff, do you mean vomit, visible bones, and human excrement?” Fletcher slanted a smirk my way. “Because yes. To all those things.”

“Ew.” My nose wrinkled. “Where are we going anyway?”

“Asylum,” Maddox grunted. “The doorway is going to close in a few minutes, and if we don’t get our asses to that club, we’re going to cause a lot of people a lot of pain.”

“Asylum? The club on Charleston?” I bounced on my heels as a smile grew across my face. “I know that place; I’ve been there tons.”

Rome took the cigarette from behind his ear. Maddox slapped it out of his hand without missing a step as he approached the door I had just gone through.

Confused, I watched as Maddox reached into his pocket and withdrew a diabetes blood sticker of all things. He pressed the tiny needle to the pad of his index finger before he stepped up to the closed doorframe and began to draw a line with three circles surrounding it.

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