Page 33 of Death Trap

He pressed his lips into a straight line, as if he were debating whether or not to tell me.

“Out with it, Eli. What’s up?”

“I can’t fail again,” he said with an exasperated sigh and shoved a hand through his hair. It was the most human he had ever looked. “I…I can’t.”

“Is that what this is about?” I asked, a bit confused. Was his job on the line or something? I could relate to that. “All this bravado? You’re afraid of failing again?”

He turned to me again, his hazel-green gaze heavy with a tremendous amount of guilt and sorrow. And in that moment, I realized that he didn’t mean he’d failed a superior or a boss. He felt like he had failed me.

My chest squeezed with sympathy for him. Here he was, ready to lay down his eternal life for me, without even blinking, all while holding on to this regret and failure for who knows how long. He had already made up his mind without facing any danger yet. He was willing to die for me. That seemed like more than an apology to me.

I reached out and placed a hesitant hand on his shoulder. I patted him awkwardly, and his muscles twitched under my palm. I might have been forcing myself to have more interaction with people lately, but that didn’t make me any less weird about it.

“I’m not holding a grudge or anything,” I said. “Hey, I don’t even remember what you did or didn’t do.”

“I lost contact with you when you were placed into the reaper cycle,” Eli explained. “I didn’t know that was what happened to you at the time. I’d assumed you’d gone missing or worse. Losing you broke the number one rule in the Guardian Code. Not to mention it took me too long to find you again…”

Were all Guardians super into their pride and job detail? Losing contact with me for a year didn’t seem too extreme. I didn’t understand why he was making such a big deal about it.

“I was fine. Nothing too crazy happened,” I told him.

Even though I said it, I knew immediately that it was a lie. Specific examples of when I could have used an angel sidekick sprang up in my mind. Like when I had to chase down that shapeshifter, for example, who stole my identity to dodge being reaped. Or getting shot in the shoulder by Cole. Those were just two off the top of my head. There were many, many more.

Eli’s arched eyebrow told me he didn’t believe me either. I guess my record for getting into trouble stretched farther back than I knew.

An awkward silence stretched between us, and I cleared my throat. “You’re with me now. In a very shitty situation, too, I might add. So, let’s go, then. Time to throw ourselves to the wolves. You and me.”

Hope sparked in his eyes, and he nodded once, agreeing. Pulling his shoulders back, he strode ahead of me. His gaze swiped side to side, scanning the area for any coming danger.

Even though it was a long, slender hallway and any demons or Halflings would be coming at us head-on, it seemed like he wasn’t taking any chances. And I didn’t blame him. This was Hell after all. Who knew what could happen? Creatures could crawl out of the walls for all I knew.

The lights above us still flickered in a horror movie kind of way as we crept along at a snail’s pace. I tugged off my leather gloves and tucked them away. If it came to it, I’d use my light power to get us out of a sticky situation. Pain be damned.

The corridor opened up ahead, and shadows moved. Eli stopped short, holding his arm out to bring me to a halt, too.

“Stay here,” he commanded, and before I could argue, he was peering around the corner and waving me to his side.

I crept over carefully and peeked into the room. The space was full of people, all standing in a single-file line against the wall, so close to the person in front of them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they could smell the person’s BO. Everyone faced forward, zombie-like, almost as if they were unaware of their closeness or how long the line actually was. From the ceiling hung an LED sign with the number 182,433,689 flashing in red.

Suddenly, there was a buzzing sound, and the number changed to 182,433,690. At the same time, everyone stepped forward in unison. Another person materialized in the space in the back, making them the last one in line.

“Woah,” I whispered. “That’s freaky.”

Eli nodded. “I think we’re safe to pass,” he whispered and waved me on. “They don’t seem to have any sense of their surroundings besides their place in line.”

Even so, we stepped out cautiously. But it became clear fairly quickly that Eli was right. We were able to walk past the line without being noticed at all. No one glanced up at us. The length of the line seemed to go on forever.

The buzzing sound came on again, and the sign’s number increased by one. Everyone stepped forward.

“What is this anyway?” I asked, searching the many blank faces of men and women of all ages. “Are they waiting for something?”

“I don’t know. But it seems like they’re just rotating. Once they get to the front of the line, they reappear at the back, only to do it all again.”

“Shit. That definitely sounds like Hell to me.” We continued to follow the line as it curved around the wall.

“I don’t think this is Hell,” Eli said. “Not yet anyway.”

“Really?” Waiting in a line that barely moved with thousands of people, only to be thrown to the back of it once reaching the front forever and ever, seemed like Hell to me. “What could this possibly be, then?”

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