Chapter 19: Chapter 19

S Ø R E N

WHEN BEING HELD at nailed-baseball-bat point, it is best not to make any sudden movements; so as to not agitate the wielder of said nailed baseball bat. Because if one does, no Fury can possibly conceive the amount of Hell that will break loose.

Thankfully for Søren and Savannah, the woman holding a nailed baseball bat did appear to be posing much of a threat. In fact, she looked miserably weak and her movements were rather disjointed, as though she did not want to be here any more than they wanted her here.

“…Put the bat down,” Søren said calmly, lowering one of his hands to be in front of him, and the other to be across Savannah who had wisely taken a step backwards. “And no one gets hurt.”

The woman snorted bitterly. “No one gets hurt?” she echoed, shaking her head and furrowing her eyebrows. “Are they still shoving the same lies down Reapers’ throats after all this time?”

Søren then frowned as well, and slowly straightened up. “…Lies?” he repeated, concerned that he had heard her correctly.

“How long have you been a Reaper?” the boy then asked, which seemed to irk the woman more than anything.

Søren admittedly hesitated. “…Just under a couple of hundred years,” he answered cautiously. “Why?”

The two Detached shared a look and appeared to wordlessly reach a consensus of some kind. The woman turned back to look at Søren, before lowering her baseball bat wearily. “…You wouldn’t know, but a few decades before you Turned there was an outright war within the organisation.” She then paused, making sure they were paying attention. “Kronos, the Titan of Time, threatened Hades and Death and the organisation because he couldn’t believe they were recruiting Grim Reapers from eras as far back as Heracles. So, when the gods refused to fire some employees, Kronos took it into his own hands and stormed the Underworld before going for the mundane world. Hades couldn’t stop him without the help of the other Olympian gods —but for some reason, they refused to help. They indirectly let half of the organisation get slaughtered —”

“Well, it was more like disintegrated,” the boy interrupted. “Anyone he touched would break up into ash, and then blow away in the wind.”

“Let me finish, idiot,” the woman snapped, shooting him a glare. Søren smirked, wholly relating to their dynamic.

“The point is, Kronos nearly destroyed the whole organisation. Humans weren’t reaped for months afterwards, and the Underworld was bursting at its seams. Eventually Hades and Death were forced to retreat to the Underworld to clean up the mess they had created, but the Reapers Organisation was never the same again. The bosses became hard, tyrannical and cold —vowing that it was the only way to make sure that nothing like that ever happened again.”

There was an uncomfortable silence after she wrapped up the history lesson, but while everyone else was feeling either nostalgic or sympathetic, Søren was not so easily won over. He still had questions to ask, and tears were not going to exempt anyone from spilling information.

“Why did you come here?” he asked in a purposefully gentle voice. “And why would you steal reaping lists?”

“Reaping lists?” the woman narrowed her eyes. “What in the gods’ names would I do with those?”

“Well, they were reported miss —” Savannah started talking, but Søren quickly clapped a hand over her mouth to shut her up. She glared at him and pulled his hand away, mumbling something under her breath along the lines of, “You could have just told me to be quiet.”

Søren ignored it and turned back to the intruders.

“Answer my other question first.”

The woman then seemed to flush out of embarrassment, and the boy averted his gaze and scratched the back of his neck. “…If we were to be completely honest, we only came in here for the shelter the library would provide,” the woman started. “We’ve been hiding in an abandoned warehouse for the past year and it’s been hell, so I thought since no one usually comes in here, we could hide in the many twists and turns.”

Søren studied their faces and noticed several cuts and bruises, and their rat’s-nest-hair certainly drove in their point. “…What are your names?”

The boy opened his mouth to answer but the woman took on a horrified expression at the request. “I’m Lewis!” he said a little excitedly. “And this is my older sister, Nadine.”

“Great,” Nadine hissed, glaring at him, “So much for secrecy. Now we’ll definitely get turned in!”

Søren turned to Savannah and she returned his scheming look. He could tell by the mischievous smile of her face that she was thinking something similar to what he was thinking. He then turned back to Lewis and Nadine, who were engaged in a feeble slap fight.

“Maybe we could reach some kind of agreement,” Søren suggested, causing the siblings to pause and show some interest. “You need to stay undetected, and I’d like to know a bit more about your…situation.”

“In exchange for shelter, you can help us clean this giant and ancient forsaken dustbin,” Savannah added. Søren looked at her sideways and glared, trying to be as stern as possible; silently daring her to say anything more and to see where it would get her.

“We will keep our mouths shut if you cooperate with answering my questions,” he reiterated, before they could become confused by Savannah’s request. But the redhead then gave a little cough.

She was not going to let it go. So, Søren compromised. “…And occasionally lend a hand to this lazy maid, here.”

Savannah slapped his arm. “Hey. Who are you calling lazy? You’re probably setting up an interrogation just to get out of the punishment.”

“What…?” he scoffed timorously, as though that were not the case at all.

“Asshole,” she clicked her tongue.

“Name call me again, I dare you,” he hissed through his teeth.

Savannah opened her mouth to do just that but was interrupted by Nadine’s loud coughing. The Reapers both turned to face her, glaring in annoyance.

“I can tell you two aren’t really getting along right now, but I still need some kind of reassurance that you’ll keep your word and won’t turn us in,” she said, sticking her nose in the air. Then she paused, causing Savannah and Søren to turn away from each other and grumble out apologies. “…What’s in it for you guys anyway?” she asked, regaining the Trainer’s attention.

“Why, that’s easy,” he scoffed, shrugging, “I ask questions and you answer them. I want to know more about what it’s like to be a Detached and you two are just the ones to help me do it.”

Søren smiled, pointing at them knowingly.

Nadine looked at her brother uncertainly. The Trainer then watched and waited as she slowly stood to her feet and walked over to him, coming up to just a few inches short, but being twice his age. She looked up at him sceptically, holding her bat to her side and making him slightly nervous.

From this distance, he could see the light outline of her irises, which made her pearl eyes only marginally less creepy. She lifted up her arm —her free one —and held out a grubby and chipping green fingernail-painted hand. Søren looked at it, before involuntarily leaning away.

“Well,” she frowned and shifted her weight. “Do we have a deal or not?”

He was pleasantly surprised, and immediately reached out to return the gesture —before he flinched just before their skin could make contact and very tactfully hesitated, flexing his fingers. Savannah sighed next to him, but she could not understand. She was not the one who had to shake a possibly one-hundred-and-ninety-eight-year-old hand. Nadine decided for him and grabbed his hand, causing him to let out a yelp.

Savannah snickered, while Søren tried not to squirm as Nadine’s hand shook his in an amused fashion.

“Cool,” she chuckled, mercifully withdrawing.

Søren gave her a grimace as he whimpered softly and mourned the violation of sanitation of his right hand but covered it up with a cough; before turning to his trainee, who abruptly shut up at the sight of his hardened expression.

He then shivered, feeling a tingle run down his spine and a sick feeling settle in his stomach region. “…Back to work,” he sighed, tilting his head to the side and smiling slightly to show just a little compassion. “We’re not allowed to leave until the whole place is spotless, remember?”

“Really?” Lewis asked, standing up and dusting his trousers off onto the floor —to Søren’s absolute irritation. “How come?”

“It’s a long, boring story,” he said before Savannah had the chance to accidently answer the question and reveal too much.

“Oh, we’ve got an eternity,” Nadine snorted, not buying his excuse for a second. “Because that’s how long you’ll be in here.”

Søren paused before refusing again, and letting her words sink in. It seemed to suddenly dawn on him and his trainee that this punishment was doomed from the start, and…might just be an excuse for the Boss keeping his half-sister out of the way. The Trainer frowned at that thought, but honestly it did not surprise him as much as it could have.

“I killed my ex-boyfriend,” Savannah suddenly blurted out.

Søren looked at her in disbelief, but she only offered a shrug in response. Maybe now she wanted everyone to know.

“Wow, that’s pretty hardcore,” Nadine turned to her and smirked in admiration. “…Wait, did you kill him before or after you Turned?” she then asked in a serious tone, her dark eyebrows furrowing.

Savannah dithered, allowing Søren to fold his arms and up the ante on her slip up; now thoroughly enjoying himself.

“…After,” the redhead mumbled.

Lewis and Nadine’s eyes widened in unison and they gasped. Søren shook his head in disappointment. “You could have kept your mouth shut.”

“I couldn’t help it,” Savannah whined. “They’d find out sooner or later if they’re going to be associated with us.”

“Nobody said we were going to be associated,” Nadine’s and Søren’s voices overlapped as they snapped the same sentence. They shared a wary look, but left it there. The Trainer noticed the similarities between them, but it was not wise to become friendly with an outlaw —or her brother.

It could spell disaster.

“…But why the maid outfit?” Lewis went on. “You kind of look like our old maid, Paulina.”

Nadine face palmed and looked on disapprovingly. “Trust you to focus on the least important detail, Lew.”

“It wasn’t my choice,” Savannah grumbled in response to Lewis. “You can thank the Boss’ obvious kinks for this.”

She gestured downwards at herself.

Nadine snorted before laughing outright, causing everyone to stare. “…What?” she asked, still chortling. “It’s funny. He never struck me as a man who had that type of kink, you know. By the way, it doesn’t exactly look like you put up much of a fight.”

“I did protest —but I also value my life, so…” Savannah murmured, turning her head away.

Growing tired of the tomfoolery, Søren clapped his hands and informed everyone of what they would be doing for the rest of the day. Nadine was going to sit down and talk to him, while Lewis and Savannah cracked on with book dusting and organising duty.

“This list is so bloody long and complicated,” Savannah complained, unrolling the scroll from which she was referencing. “There’s no way we can manage to organise this entire place.”

“Not with that attitude, you won’t,” Søren pointed out. Then he pushed them towards the shelves. “Now let the grown-ups talk.”

Both teenagers shot him highly offended glares but did not put up a fight. Nadine chuffed in amusement.

“I’m impressed,” she said, nodding at Lewis vigorously dusting three books, “—I can never get him to do as I say.”

✠

“So,” Søren started, glancing over the notes he had made thus far; because of his prudency, he always carried a pencil with him. “You came from a noble home and died in an ambush during a storm? Do you know specifically what happened to your parents. Were they perhaps targeted?”

Nadine averted her gaze and looked crestfallen, which then worried Søren that maybe he was onto something, and she was not going to feel comfortable enough to share it. “…They were killed,” she then mumbled, sighing quietly. “In the ambush. The men who ambushed us told us who they were before they killed us. They…they had worked for my parents’ business and trade partner. Apparently, he had wanted out, but my father wouldn’t let him. So…” she struggled at the end and hung her head.

“So, he had them killed?” Søren finished, in a tactful and soft voice. She paused, and then nodded slowly. She did not go on, but there was no need for her to, either. “Let’s talk about the war instead,” he suggested. “You know, what happened before and afterwards?”

She noticeably perked up before looking back at him with those ghostly white eyes. “…Well, it was just a month after Lewis and I had Turned and come off our training. We were both around thirty reaped souls —not too bad for a couple of newbies, right?” she laughed softly, though the strain in her voice was evident. “…Anyway, after a week or so everyone received a warning to stop reaping until further notice. So, we stayed put for a couple of days; just lounging around and doing nothing. It was super boring, and Lewis wouldn’t stop playing with a paddle ball —”

“—Paddle ball?” Søren interrupted, quirking an eyebrow.

Nadine smirked, understanding his amusement. “Yeah. You don’t know how annoying it is hearing the sound of a rubber ball smacking against a wooden paddle for twenty-four hours straight.”

“I can imagine though,” he chuckled, glancing at Savannah and hoping she would never discover the sin that are paddle balls.

She then sneezed loudly at that precise moment a few feet away from them, making him chuckle.

“…Hey, Lover Boy,” Nadine said, suddenly snapping her fingers in Søren’s face, “Eyes over here.”

It took him a few seconds to realise what she had called him, after which he stared at her blankly. She raised an eyebrow quizzically, inviting him to respond. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“What, does being in love make you speechless too?” she quipped.

This time something did come out of Søren’s mouth. Short, sharp words that made Nadine raise both eyebrows in surprise.

“Okay, okay,” she murmured, folding her arms. “You could have just said that you weren’t a thing —and I was just messing with you, lighten up.”

Søren grumbled and got back to his list, wanting nothing more than to resume their previous conversation.