Chapter 4 Grim #2
None of us knew quite how long Cedric had lived—only that, somewhere along the way, he’d tampered with the wrong kind of magic.
Immortality was a slippery slope. Maybe I’d chosen to dabble in its waters, too.
But, for me, the alternative of being bound for the Black Basin made such an arrangement necessary.
Cedric’s missteps weren’t my problem, though. His delusional machinations weren’t my responsibility, either. So he could pine to occupy these robes and wield my scythe all he wanted. I wasn’t relinquishing my post ever. Not for anything or anyone. Least of all that arrogant slime bucket.
Point blank, I wasn’t going into that Basin.
So an eternity of scything it was.
“There you are, Grim,” came Johann’s familiar voice, which had me pivoting to find him scuttling toward me, Pluto perched on his shoulder. “I don’t know if you heard, but there was a mix-up with a presumed-missing soul.”
“Mix-up,” I repeated. And presumed?
“Yes,” said Johann as he shuffled past me, leaving me to glance behind, down the long straight hallway within which stood no one else. “But I told Sir White the mishap wasn’t on our end.”
“Not us,” said Pluto. “Not you. This slipup belongs to The Few.”
Sir White. So that was the member of The Few who had come looking for the librarian.
That made sense, didn’t it? Not that I knew where the White Basin, let alone any of the others, went.
But then, the souls relinquished to the white vat always leaped to join those hazy waters.
Didn’t their pale iridescence and happy springtime colors suggest some measure of serenity, too?
I hadn’t had a chance to view the librarian’s soul directly given that I hadn’t taken it, but there’d been a lightness to her spirit. A heaviness, too. But no darkness. At least, none that I’d been able to detect.
With a long stride, I reclaimed the distance Johann had gained and peered down at the old man, who, tonight, wore sapphire robes and the pointed blue star-and-moon-speckled hat with Mickey Mouse ears that Flora had brought him from Disney World.
Had he really worn that while addressing Sir White? Probably he’d forgotten the ridiculous thing was on his head.
“Grim Grim,” said Pluto, fluffing his wings like I made him nervous. “Grim is grim.”
“What did you tell him?” I probed.
“What else would I tell him?” asked Johann.
“More than usual,” said Pluto. “Grim, I mean.”
I glowered at the bird. Because when did he become so fucking perceptive?
“I reminded Sir White that we’ve never had a missing soul,” Johann continued, paying no mind to the bird. “Neither you nor Flora miss collecting them, and I never miss accounting for them. We are each impeccable in our work. So, I told him this was a him problem, and not an us problem.”
“Take that, Sir White,” added Pluto.
Johann actually said that to White? And didn’t shit himself in the process?
Those words were beyond bold ones to give to one of The Few.
And I might have been impressed by his gall, but between the four of us who resided in the Hallowed Halls—five if you counted the damn bird—Johann had the most experience with the grander forces of the hereafter.
Aside from that, he had earned my respect long before now.
Not that he needed to know.
“And you’re saying White just left… and that’s it?”
“Of course,” said Johann, like I was an idiot for even asking.
“Granted, he wasn’t very happy. He said that, at the end of the day, the issue is moot since the missing soul is a Fated.
He said you or Flora would be sure to capture it in the next day or so.
He promised to return for another inquiry if it did show up via your delivery or hers, but I assured him the soul was in his realm.
Rather insulting, really, for White to jump to conclusions and insinuate an oversight on our part. ”
“Nervy,” said Pluto. “Topsy-turvy. Try to make us feel unworthy.”
I went silent as we reentered the main chamber that housed the Basins, the murky essence of my spirit gathering behind my sternum before congealing into a vortex.
Johann must have noticed the shift in my demeanor, because he paused to glance up at me again, a weathered hand going to brace that absurd hat.
“It is, isn’t it?” Johann asked.
“What?”
“Insulting,” he repeated. “For White to suggest any of us would be so careless as to miss a soul? Especially a Fated.”
“I didn’t miss a soul, if that’s what you’re asking,” I snapped before turning away to trudge for my statue. And that wasn’t technically a lie. I hadn’t missed a soul. I’d just… salvaged it.
“That’s good,” said Johann. “Because if it shows up on our end, White will be back.”
“Scary Sir White,” added Pluto in a singsong voice. “Red eyes. No face. Disappeared without a trace.”
That description—too accurate—ratcheted my anxiety to ten.
Still, I played it off.
“Return to your desk, old man,” I said, collecting my scythe. “Or we’ll be short names tomorrow.”
Johann didn’t say anything else. But I couldn’t fight the needling inkling that he now suspected me.
I had bigger problems, though. He’d just revealed how Sir White knew the missing soul was among the Fated.
Something I’d suspected since I’d been drawn to the site of her demise before it could occur.
That was always a sign of a preordained death.
Part of me had been hoping that, despite getting the call for her, she might, by some stroke of luck, not be a Fated.
The fact that she was complicated the situation further because it meant her soul had somewhere else to be. Something else to do.
Whatever that something was, I had disrupted it.
Worse, I still couldn’t seem to understand why.
But the why—that didn’t matter anyway. Only the how. As in how I was going to rectify this… issue.
Since I’d never missed a soul before—on purpose or on accident—I hadn’t known until now what would happen if I did. Apparently, I’d get the call for the librarian again.
“Grim Grim, Grim is grim,” sang Pluto as I descended the spiral stairs, heading once more into the gloom of my quarters, the solution to this entire quandary seeming simple.
Collect her soul when the time comes and deliver it to the White Basin.
Except then Sir White would know one of us had missed a soul.
Since I would never let Flora or Johann take the fall for my indiscretion, I would have to admit to what I’d done.
But saving the life of a Fated and thus tampering with the fabric of the universe as a whole…
If that wasn’t grounds for dismissal… what was?
A flash of the murk of the Black Basin lashing my arm had those bones resonating with the remembered sensation.
Cedric’s words from earlier came back to haunt me, too.
That Basin. Clearly, if I was dismissed, that was where my soul would go.
I knew better than to think its waters led anywhere good. Or even tolerable.
Which meant that, when I was summoned back to the librarian to again collect her—and I would be—I was going to have to do something drastic. Even more drastic than before.
Until I could figure out a way to smuggle her soul, undetected, into the beyond, I was going to have to save her.
Again.