“Life isn't fair. Isabella will never see another sunrise, she'll never experience another birthday, she won't experience a first kiss, she will never dream of a boyfriend, and she'll never get married. She'll forever be four. It's tragic.” Edon wasn't minimizing the situation; he was being brutally honest. “I don't like it either, kid, but it's part of life, dying.”
“Don't call me kid.” Leila felt tears prick her eyes, and she bit down on the tip of her tongue, hoping to stop the impending flood.
“Of course, Leila.” Edon leaned against the fence where the horse was tied.
The little girl stood and skipped through the grass. The nearby church bells chimed. It was five o'clock. She hadn't died. She was spinning in circles and laughing, falling to the ground. She stood up and did it all over again. Isabella gathered her flowers and skipped through the market. Giggling, she stopped at each booth, handing out a tiny bouquet and giving hugs and kisses to the patrons.
Leila walked toward the edge of the market. “She's alive.” The faintest bit of hope strummed at the strings of her heart.
“She made her appointment. You have to keep yours,” Edon said.
“Or what?” Leila threw her arms up in the air. “What's the worst that could happen? I've already dug up a dead guy, because his soul was still in his body. She's alive!”
Isabella dropped the last flower, stumbling toward her father. Her skin was pale, her cheeks flushed. “I don't feel so good.”
“See!” Edon scolded Leila.
Isabella’s father quickly spoke to a vendor beside his booth. Then, he lifted his daughter into his arms and carried her home.
“We have to follow them,” Edon said.
“Great.” Leila walked with Edon several paces behind Isabella and her father. “What am I supposed to do? She's not dead and her appointment passed.” Leila couldn't believe Edon.
“She's dying. I don't know why,” Edon said, “but something's wrong. You have to take her soul before it's too late.”
Leila didn't have anything to say. What could she do? She'd screwed up twice. Although in her defense, Isabella was a child, and that wasn't exactly playing fair. How was she expected to reap a child? It felt unnatural. Children should outlive their parents, not the other way around.
Isabella's father carried the young girl into a small cottage. He kicked the door behind him closed. “Now what?” Leila asked.
“Give it time.” Edon waited.
Leila stood with Edon a few feet outside the home. When nothing happened after several long minutes, she sat against the bark of a tree, making herself comfortable. “What's going to happen?”
Edon stood watch, waiting for it. He counted down in his head, and finally the front door opened. The father returned to the market, while Isabella's mother cared for her. “Five minutes, then I'll go to the door. You'll sneak in around back.”
“You want me to break in? I'll scare the girl to death!” Leila was against the idea entirely. Although anything involving taking the child's soul seemed repellant.
“In case you've forgotten, you are taking her soul.”
“Or what? What is the absolute worst case scenario? She's still alive.” Leila pushed herself off the ground and dusted the dirt off her clothes.
Edon shot Leila a look. “It may already be happening.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Leila asked. When Edon didn't answer, she knocked his arm with her fist. “You can't just say something like that and not answer me.” She was getting frustrated with him.
“Don't hit me again.”
“Sorry,” she muttered, only half-meaning it. She hadn't even hit him that hard. She was infuriated that she wasn't getting a real answer and that Edon was making her do this. “Why can't you go in and reap her soul?”
“Sorry, Leila. The scroll chose you. For whatever reason, she's your reap.”
“Well, that sucks.” Leila chewed her bottom lip. “If I don't do it?”
Edon hesitated before he said, “Her soul will rot inside her body. Do you have any idea what that’s like? She'll be a living corpse, a shell of a person. She won't feel anything, including love. We as reapers, the undead, feel more than she ever will alive.”
Leila swallowed the lump in her throat. “How do you know that?”
“Because I've seen what it does to a person,” Edon said. “Only those that die from an external influence have a guaranteed time of death. She missed her appointment, because you weren’t there in time. These kinds of mistakes can cause a ripple effect. That little girl deserves better. So does her family.”
Leila silently nodded. Edon walked up to the front door and gave a swift knock while Leila snuck into Isabella's room through the window.
“Hi,” Leila said. The little girl stared back at her with wide eyes. The smile from Isabella's face was gone. A sheen of sweat coated the little girl's forehead. “How do you feel?” Leila asked.
Isabella hugged a cloth doll tight to her chest. “Sick.”
“Close your eyes,” Leila insisted. “I can make it all better.”
Isabella watched Leila for a moment before the little girl shut her eyes. Leila reached down and brushed a gentle hand across the child's forehead. Her body grew limp, unresponsive, as she died in her sleep. Leila watched as the soul of Isabella stood beside her. She reached for Isabella's hand. Leila climbed through the window, taking Isabella's soul with her.
“I don't understand,” Isabella said.
“Me either.” How could Isabella understand, when Leila didn't fully know what was going on around her. “Do you feel better?” Leila asked, hoping that Isabella no longer felt sick.
Isabella nodded. Leila walked with the ghost of a girl beside her, a shadow of this life, her soul, before traveling into the next. “Can I go?” Isabella asked. “I always wanted to go to the circus!”
Leila saw a shimmer of lights, but couldn't make out what was behind them. It wasn't for her to see. “Of course.” She smiled at the young girl as she skipped off toward her circus.
Edon walked up behind Leila and patted her on the shoulder. “I fear what she's brought.”
“What do you mean?” Leila spun around on her feet to face Edon, now that Isabella was gone.
“Her mother was telling me how Isabella and her father travel to different cities, as traders. That wasn't the worst of it. After you slipped out of the room, I examined her daughter, pretending to be a doctor. Obviously, I couldn't revive her, but what I found was unsettling. Her fingers were black.”
“Why were they black?” Leila asked.
“She contracted a disease, probably during her travels,” Edon said. “My concern is that we took her soul too late, and it had time to spread.”
Leila walked toward the horse and saddled up. “Maybe you're wrong.” She was going home. The scroll hadn't given her another assignment.
“Let's hope so.”
Swiftly, Leila rode home. As she arrived back at the house, she was surprised to see three additional horses tied up alongside Emblyn's. She climbed down and secured Violetta's horse before walking inside. Candles lit up the living room. She was surprised to see Jasper and Wynter joining Emblyn and Violetta.
“You must have made a big mess,” Violetta said, the moment Leila stepped inside.
“I cleaned it up. Why's that?”
Jasper stood up and opened his scroll, showing it to Leila. “Look at my assignment.” In three days’ time, he had twenty reaps to perform at approximately the same time. No more could fit on the scroll.
Leila cleared her throat. “Has this ever happened before?”
“Not to this extent, no,” Jasper said. He walked back toward the couch, sitting with Emblyn. Wynter sat on the floor and Violetta took her favorite chair across from the sofa.
“Do you all have excessive assignments?” Leila asked, hoping it was a one-off thing. Maybe Jasper was being given overtime or something.
“Don't you?” Violetta asked. “Let me see your scroll.”
Leila hesitated before she finally reached for her scroll, removing it from her stocking. Unrolling the scroll, Leila revealed that it was blank.
“They don't trust her,” Jasper said. “She's on probation. It's the only explanation.”
Leila snatched her scroll back and held it in her hands. She sat down on the floor beside Wynter. “Who doesn't trust me?”
Wynter pulled out his scroll and unraveled it, revealing his too was empty. “Whoever gives out the reaping assignments. No one knows, except for maybe Edon, but he's not saying. I've been in some hot water over the past few decades, so it's not a surprise they didn't hand me a massive assignment.”
“Well, I'm new,” Leila said. “Maybe they're waiting to make sure I know what I'm doing?”
Emblyn showed Leila her scroll. “Violetta, Jasper and I each have a scroll filled from top to bottom. It can't hold any more names. We're worried that once we reap the first person on the scroll, another will follow in its place.”
Wynter shrugged. “Hopefully, you're wrong. Maybe it's just sixty unfortunate souls in a boating accident.”
Jasper shot Wynter a look. “You know it's not that.”
“No,” Wynter said, “I don't know what it is. That's why we came over. Well, that and we brought Leila a horse. We figured she'd need one.”
“How much do I owe you?” Leila asked, a frown on her lips. She still didn't have any money.
“It's on the house,” Wynter said. “I assure you, she won't be missed.”
“So you stole her?” Leila asked. She was already in trouble; she didn't need to be riding on it.
Wynter didn't answer her.
Jasper stood. “I'm heading home. This week is going to be brutal. I may as well relax and sleep while I can.”
Leila waited until Jasper left and shut the door, before she turned to Wynter. “Is it possible for reapers to get sick?”
“What do you mean, like catch a cold?” he asked.
Leila sighed. She didn't want them judging her for the mistake she'd made, again. “I had to reap a little girl.”
“Children are always the hardest,” Emblyn said.
Leila stared down at the floor. She didn't want to talk about Isabella. “She may have died of a disease. Her fingers were black. Edon was concerned that she might have caused the spread of the infection to other people in Lyra.”
Violetta stood up. “Were you late reaping the girl?”
Leila refused to look up at Violetta. She stared down at her hands in her lap. “I was.”
“Then you're probably the reason we have to take on extra work. Thanks a lot!” Violetta snapped and headed to her bedroom. She slammed the door behind her.
Wynter rested a gentle hand on Leila's arm. “You couldn't have known.”
Emblyn stretched and stood up. “I'm heading to bed. Jasper was right. We're going to have a busy week. We should rest while we have the chance. I just don't get why you aren't being held responsible.” Emblyn stalked off toward her room. She didn't slam the door, but she wasn't quiet about it either.
The candle light flickered. Leila glanced up at Wynter. “They hate me.” She was surprised he hadn't left yet.
“You have to see it from their side,” he said. “You're the new girl and you just gave them a lot more work to do.”
“You don't know that this is my fault.” Leila wanted to believe she wasn't responsible for those who were scheduled to die in Lyra. It all seemed so morbid.
Wynter stood up. “You're right. We don't. They shouldn't blame you, but you also should be more careful to follow the rules.”
“She was four years old,” Leila said. “Was I just supposed to reap her and be done with it? I wasn't all right with letting her die.”
“It's not our choice to make.” Wynter leaned in and gave her a hug. “Call it a hunch, but I think we'll have our own assignment while they're in Lyra.”
“You do?” Leila didn't know what that meant.
“Try and get some rest.” He walked to the door and glanced back at Leila. “Don't forget to blow out the candles.
“Goodnight, Wynter.”
“Night, Leila.”
The Execution
Chapter 5
Violetta and Emblyn slammed doors in the house, as they rushed to get ready and head out for Lyra. Today, they had at least twenty reaps each and she had none. Leila wanted to be grateful, but she felt hung over from reaping little Isabella. She hid in her room, not wanting to face the world. Some memories would haunt her for eternity. Behind the closed window and curtains, Leila heard the horses’ hooves; they pounded against the hard terrain and faded into the distance.
“Finally, I can sleep in,” Leila said. Her eyes shut, and she willed herself to fall back to sleep. She was exhausted.
Not ten minutes later, Leila heard an insistent knocking against her bedroom door. “Go away!” she shouted. Weren't Violetta and Emblyn gone? She didn't know who it could be and didn't care. She wanted to be left alone.
“Leila.” Wynter's voice carried through the bedroom door. He'd let himself into their cottage. “I got my reap for today, and I think you should see it.”
“Ugh!” Leila was not in the mood. She pushed the covers down and rubbed at the sleep in her eyes. “Come in.” It seemed he wasn't going to leave without showing her whatever it was he wanted her to see.
Wynter walked to the side of Leila's bed and unraveled his scroll. He slowly turned it around, showing it to her.
“No.” Leila’s breath caught in her throat as she read the name.
Larkin Alis.
She didn't have to finish reading the scroll to know what it meant—the man she loved was going to die.
“He's your friend. The one you were with when you died?”
Leila nodded faintly. “How did you know?”
“Edon may have mentioned it this morning.”
Leila gently pushed Wynter away from the edge of her bed. “What do you mean?”
Wynter turned his back, letting Leila climb out of bed and grab a robe. He waited until she came around to face him before he said, “He stopped by. Edon wanted to make sure I wouldn't screw the job up. I have a knack for getting myself into trouble. Seeing as how you've broken two rules lately, he made it clear that this reap had to be done by the book.”
“You're going to kill my boyfriend.” Leila’s chest tightened, making it difficult to breathe.
Wynter reached for Leila's arm and gently guided her back onto the bed to sit. “We've discussed this before. Our job as reapers isn't to kill. People die every day, with or without us. It's better if we're there to help accompany them onward.”