Chapter 30 Sebbie
Sebbie
Crow cawed, and I heard the flapping of her wings. I felt like I was in the dark somewhere, but Corbin’s hand was warm on mine. Crow cawed again, and I opened my eyes.
We were sitting in the living room at Corbin’s house, which was sort of like pack headquarters now. Corbin had his arm around me, and he was talking to Wilder.
Wow. Deja vu.
Only Wilder had an odd look on his face, and he’d stopped talking. He was staring at us weirdly. I wondered if he’d heard something about the sheriff, and then I remembered that Paul was going to be fine.
“Oh, hey, you guys?” I called out, turning a bit on the couch. “The sheriff is fine. You can, like, call off the Scooby Gang or whatever.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked over at us.
The phone rang. Dexter answered it, and apparently Jude was on the other end.
There was some chatter as Jude told Dexter (who told everyone else) that some guy had pulled a knife on the sheriff, but he’d avoided getting stabbed, and the guy had actually ended up hitting his head and suffering an aneurism or something.
Paul had performed CPR (because of course he had—he would totally try to save someone who was trying to kill him), but Jude didn’t think the guy was gonna make it.
Apparently EMTs hadn’t gotten there yet.
Which made sense, since that all just happened. Or was still happening? Whatever. I gave a mental shrug. I turned to look at Corbin, who gave me a soft peck on the lips.
“Love you, little reaper,” he whispered.
“Love you, too,” I whispered back.
Wilder, who had walked over to respond to Jude on the phone, came back. He looked at both of us. “You went somewhere, even though you didn’t,” he finally said.
Corbin nodded his head, then he said, “Sebbie is tired, and we’re going to head home.”
Aww. Warm Fuzzies. He’d called my place home. I turned and smiled at him again, then I yawned. Huh. I did feel kind of tired, actually.
Wilder asked, “Has the danger passed?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said without thought. “Paul is totally fine. No worries there.”
Wilder nodded once, walking back to talk to the others. I got some more warm fuzzies thinking about how much he trusted me. How much they all trusted me. Scooby Gang or whatever this crew was, they were mine now, and that was pretty freaking awesome.
Corbin sort of pushed me up and got up behind me, calling out to everyone that we were heading out. I think Corbin thought that would be it, because he started walking toward the door.
Silly man. That was not a proper bestie goodbye.
Of course, I had to give everyone hugs, joke with Q about coffee, and tease Toby about this all ending up in a book.
Josh hugged me long and hard, and I hugged him back, grateful to have him in my life.
Aiden got a hug, too, although I had no clue what to do with Fluffy-slash-Atlas.
It felt weird to hug a dog, but I didn’t want him to feel left out, so I finally settled on a loose hug around his neck and a pat to his massive shoulders.
I mean, the dog—or Atlas, whatever—was huge. How had I never wondered what kind of breed he was?
Life was just full of mysteries.
Corbin and I eventually made it out of the house, and he drove us back to my place.
He kept looking over at me, putting a hand on my knee, and rubbing my arm.
I felt like he was worried about me, but I wasn’t quite sure why.
He didn’t say anything on the ride back, and I was content to sit and relax, letting my mind stay pleasantly blank as I looked out the window.
I really was tired.
We made it home, and Corbin let us both in. He dragged me straight to the bedroom, pulling off my clothes and pushing me onto the bed.
“Just need skin contact,” he murmured, pulling off his own clothes and following me. When we were settled into a nice cuddle position with me laying on his chest, the covers over us, he asked me, “What do you remember?”
It was like his words were a switch in my brain, because suddenly I did remember. “Oh,” I said. “We saved the sheriff.” I looked up at him. “I’m not sure how, though.”
“Yes, for me, too,” he admitted. “I don’t remember much of it. Little pieces. I remember you told me that we wouldn’t remember.”
“Yeah,” I murmured. “I think when you break the laws of the universe, it’s probably better not to think too much about it.”
Corbin chuckled, pulling me tightly against him and kissing the top of my head. “You did a good thing, little reaper. You know that, right? You did a good thing, and I’m really proud of you.”
I smiled and cuddled against his chest. I hadn’t known I’d needed to hear those words, but I had.
I really didn’t remember the details. I couldn’t tell you how we’d saved the sheriff.
I just knew that we had, and that someone else would be waiting at the river.
A sort of trade. It wasn’t something I should really be doing—it kind of was breaking the laws of the universe, or at least bending them quite a bit—but Corbin’s assurance that I’d done a good thing made me feel settled.
“I guess I have to deal with that other soul,” I muttered.
Corbin shook his head against me. “No, baby. We have to go deal with that other soul. You don't ever have to do it alone again. I’ll always come with you.”
Joy filled me at that, and the task ahead didn’t seem daunting at all anymore. Yes, of course Corbin would come with me. I’d known that. But hearing him take responsibility for what had to be done—it was… nice. I wasn’t the only one responsible anymore.
We’d go to the river. We’d have to. And besides, I really did like it there. It was home. First, I just wanted a little more cuddle time with my mate.
I was standing at the river again.
I looked over at Corbin, who was, of course, right next to me. He smiled and grabbed my hand.
“Sorry about that. I think I dozed off,” I admitted.
He stepped over to give me a peck on the lips. “Don’t ever be sorry. You go where you go, and I go with you.”
I smiled, and then I sighed. “I guess we should get it over with.”
Corbin nodded his head against me, and then he was a hellhound standing next to me.
We walked across the field to the man who was waiting.
The man who had tried to stab the sheriff.
He was an awful man. Maybe he hadn’t been bound for hell before he tried stabbing the sheriff, but if he had succeeded…
“You are not welcome on my boat,” I told the man.
He noticed my presence—he’d sort of been staring off into nothing—and he sneered at me.
Then he went to lunge for me, but Hellhound Corbin met him halfway, clamping his fiery jaws onto the man’s arm.
It was over very quickly, and I breathed deeply, feeling like the air was cleaner now that he was gone.
I still had questions, though. And I thought, perhaps, it was time to finally get answers.
Maybe it was time to face my past. I looked down at Corbin, who was lolling his tongue at me and giving a hellhound grin.
He was my future, and maybe I needed to deal with my past so we could go on to live that future together with less of a burden.
I sensed a presence, as if I had conjured him, and I turned to see the man in black sitting on the dock. Crow cawed from the sky, coming down to land on Corbin’s back. We all walked over to the dock together, although I noticed Hellhound Corbin baring his teeth a little as we got closer.
The man in black turned, but he only smiled at Corbin’s hostility.
“You chose well, old friend,” he said to me.
I sat down next to him on the dock, our feet dangling down toward the water. I knew it couldn't hurt the man in black, and it couldn’t hurt me, either. It was, after all, my river.
“How do these stories always start? Is it ‘Once upon a time’?” the man asked.
I looked at him, and his name came to me. Luce. The man in black was Luce. At least, that’s what I had called him in another lifetime.
“It wasn’t once upon a time, though, was it? It was before time began,” I said, not sure how I knew that.
Luce nodded, and we both looked out across the water.
“Our story does not start at the beginning, though.
At the beginning, everyone was satisfied with what they did.
Afterlifers were destined to love their jobs, and so it was.
You loved your job. You ferried souls to the afterlife.
You cherished them, and you took joy in the journey.
“But times changed, and people’s vision of the afterlife is what shapes their experiences. Fewer and fewer people needed or wanted to take the journey. You were being used less and less. You would sit here in your boat by the river, waiting. Always waiting.”
“Always alone,” I said, a tear slipping from my eye. I didn’t remember, not really, but it was a feeling I had. A heaviness of heart.
“Yes. I visited when I could, but I saw that you grew more sad and depressed as the decades passed. Things in the afterlife began to change. That is a long story for another day, but I saw that perhaps there was something I could do to bring joy to a very old friend.”
“You asked me,” I stated, suddenly very sure of that fact.
“Yes. I gave you an option. I offered to give you a new life. I offered to make your existence more than just the river. You didn’t even care to hear the details. You wanted that,” Luce told me.
“How did you do it?” I asked. Maybe old me hadn’t wanted to hear the details, but new me kind of wanted my origin story.
“I thought that I could cross a mortal soul with your soul, thus giving you a life on the mortal plane. I had the perfect soul for it, too—one so very full of light and joy that I knew it would be a perfect match for you.” Luce paused, looking across the water.
He hadn’t just crossed the ferryman and the human, though. “Why the reaper?” I asked.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this part, old friend.
To give you a mortal soul meant that you would be able to ferry souls across the river, but your mortal soul would not be able to return.
That was the way of things. You needed to have some control over life and death. Some way to move safely between planes.
“There are many reapers in the world. They were…
anathema to you. You cherished human souls, providing safe passage to their loved ones on the other side.
You were a beginning, and you saw reapers as an ending.
But it was all that I could do. You needed a way to have safe passage, and a reaper soul would provide that.
“I found one who was also growing weary, and they were happy to try out a new existence. I combined the three souls, and you were born.” Luce turned and smiled at me.
“You were, even as a child, so exuberant and filled with joy. I could see traces of my old friend in you, and your new happiness made everything worth it. I knew you hadn’t embraced your reaper side.
It lay sleeping, in a way, and I thought perhaps it always would.
But”—Luce shrugged—“we cannot hide parts of ourselves away.”
“I don’t remember anything from before,” I admit.
Luce nodded. “That was what Charon wanted.”
“Was I that miserable?” I ask.
“You were… heavy-hearted. Sometimes memories can bring us joy, sometimes they can bring us pain, and sometimes they can stretch out so long that they seem to bring nothing at all. You were weary of your memories. You wanted to be free of them.”
“I was lonely,” I admitted.
“Yes,” Luce agreed. “And now you will never be lonely again. You have a mate, and where you go, he goes.”
“I shouldn’t be able to bring people back,” I stated. I knew that was the case. “I can’t even remember how I did it, though.”
Luce looked at me. “Yes, old friend, you surprised even me with that trick. I thought that the mortal part of you was there solely to live on the mortal plane. I thought all your power would come from the reaper and the ferryman. I forgot the most important detail, though.”
“What?” I asked.
“Free will,” Luce replied. “Mortals have free will, and they can make decisions that afterlifers cannot.”
We just sat then, looking out across the river.
Luce was on one side of me, and Hellhound Corbin and Crow were on the other, and I felt a sense of peace.
Perhaps I had given up something when I had made that deal with Luce, but I had gained so much more from it.
Still, I was sorry that Luce had lost his friend.
“I’m sorry my memories of you are gone,” I murmured.
Luce looked at me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t be, Sebbie. You brought joy and peace back to an old friend, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
“Thank you,” I stated.
“You’re welcome, old friend. You are always welcome.”