Page 86 of Till Death

He kept walking with his attention focused ahead. “All questions in due time. How do you feel? Any nausea? Headache? I see you’re still in one piece after your big battle. Not even third-degree burns.”

Outside of a throbbing in my temples I was pretty fine.

“I’m not sure why you’re concerned with my wellbeing right now. How about we get to answering those questions before I—”

“We’re beyond your threats at this point. You’re here because of all you’ve accomplished. Everything I didn’t have it in me to do and yet you…I’m in awe of you,” he said.

“High praise coming from you.” I squirmed. Praise I didn’t deserve.

What was going on? My heartbeat continued to thunder like a horse out of the gate at a race. None of this felt right.

I stopped to stare up at the velvety night sky with too many diamond-bright stars and a strangely blue full moon. I used to hate the sameness of this artificial paradise. The monotony of the beautiful, perfect Earth days.

Now it made me sad.

“People are going to write books about you and your altruism, Jade. You did the universe the highest service possible.” Hank shifted his face to the sky and drew in a long, deep breath. “Trust me when I say there will be plenty of interesting reads out there. Mark my words.”

My squirming increased tenfold. “I really don’t care about any of that. I didn’t do what I did for any kind of accolades.”All for a certain man I’ll never see again. “And please don’t tell me I’m going back to reaping. Seriously, that sounds like the worst thing in the world right now.”

The neighborhood around us shifted once again. The afterlife for supernaturals mirrored the world of the living, and although the houses on this quiet street looked familiar on some level, I had a hard time placing it. Large trees, towering up toward the night sky. Green lawns, old fences. Charming houses with the kind of gingerbread trim you saw in the movies.

I could feel his gaze on my face, studying me as we walked down the street. He was smiling the entire time, but I didn’t know why. This all felt too surreal to me to be actually happening.

“Is this really the afterlife?” I asked.

“It is.”

Thing was, I wasn’t sure I believed him.

“Short staffed over at Styx Corp?” I joked as I tried to get more information out of him.

“You’re not going back to reaping,” he replied with. The jovial nature to his tone was gone, replaced with something more formal and business like. “The old systems are snapping back into place as we speak and there are several new souls who are coming into their own at Styx. That is part of what I’d like to speak to you about today.”

Oh, wait. So this was real?

For some reason, I didn’t feel dead in a real sense. I blinked at Hank. My chest rose and fell evenly. My emotions were raging and out of control. Those were all the human habits the dead no longer needed, yet there I was about an inch away from hyperventilating and having a bit of a nervous breakdown.

“About going straight back to work with no paid time off? Got it.”

“Not exactly.”

“Then do you care to explain?”

“I would like to give you something,” he replied, gesturing to a house on our right. “Something you deserve after everything you’ve done.”

Like a gift? “Uh…”

“Look.”

Confused, I peer across the wooden fence and overgrown lawn to a Victorian-styled house in some serious need of paint and new shingles on the roof. Compared to the perfection of the homes around it, it stuck out like a sore thumb, but its faults gave it a kind of charm the others didn’t have.

He was giving me a run-down, old house?

Was he gunning for Oprah’s job now?

I stared at the large porch and the tall arched windows of the living room.

The sunroom was made of all glass, off to the side.

---