“No, she’s just standing there and watching me,” I said.
“You could ask me a question. Then I’d have something to say, perhaps,” the blue girl spoke, and my heart leapt into my throat. I nearly jumped but felt Raphael’s hand firmly set on my thigh—it was enough to keep me anchored and still, because the last thing I wanted was to scare her off.
“Holy moly, you can talk,” I gasped.
“What? Wait… What is she saying?” Raphael asked.
“Where are we?” I asked her, my brain switching gears, all of them clunky and heavy after watching all these creatures and wondering about my sanity.
The girl shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“What planet?” I replied, while the rest of the crew waited silently for me to relay her responses. I was too busy focusing on her, though.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“You’re not helping,” I complained, slightly frustrated.
“It’s not my fault. I just woke up here!”
“So, you just follow people around and say nothing and let them think they’re going nuts?” I croaked.
“I wasn’t sure if you could be trusted. Also, I found it weird that you’re the only one who can see me,” she replied.
I couldn’t help but scoff. “Yeah, you and me both.”
My gaze dropped to Raphael’s hand, still on my thigh. Next to it, the scythe’s blade gave off a delicate glint. Like a giant boulder let loose from the top of a mountain, the realization hit me. A string of expletives trickled from my lips, as my stomach sank—lead on the bottom. “You’ve got to be friggin’ kidding me. And I’m supposed to be a prodigy genius or whatever,” I managed.
“What is it, Amelia?” Lumi asked, this time, while Raphael watched me carefully.
I brought the scythe up. “I think it’s this. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it until now.”
“What’s that?” the girl asked curiously. We were as strange to her as she was to us, and I was in no position to judge her for her choice to stay silent. She didn’t know us, and she seemed old enough to have already been taught that not all strangers are good. The poor creature was just being cautious, and, if my scythe-related theory proved to be correct, she was also dead…
“Hold this,” I said to Raphael and handed him the scythe.
He hesitated for a moment, but as soon as his fingers wrapped around the ivory handle, his expression changed. His eyes bulged when he saw the blue girl—whom I could no longer see.
“Oh… dear…” he whispered. I shot to my feet, grinning victoriously.
“Hah!” I cackled. “I figured it out.”
Needless to say, Lumi, Eira, and Taeral were still waiting for an answer, understandably befuddled by what they were witnessing.
“I can… I can see her,” Raphael said, then grunted. “And she doesn’t like me very much. She wants to talk to you, not me.”
He gave me the scythe back, and she became visible to me once more—arms crossed and pouting. Her face lit up when she realized I could see her again. “Don’t leave me with him again,” she insisted.
I laughed. Not so much because of her immediate disdain of Raphael, but because I now knew for a fact that I wasn’t going cuckoo.
“I’m confused,” Eira said.
“For good reason!” I replied, then glanced at the scythe. “It’s this. It’s the scythe. It belongs to a Reaper, and it seems to have at least one ability that comes with touching it. It shows you ghosts.”
Silence settled over our group as the fact sank in properly. My heart was rushing. Raphael had an eyebrow up—he probably didn’t like that my blue ghost girl didn’t immediately fawn over him, like most females would. Like I already was, even though I’d done my best not to show him.
“Reapers walk the fine line between the world of the dead and that of the living, which is where ghosts reside, as well,” I added. “Spirits that have yet to move on. That’s what the girl is. That’s what all the people I’ve been seeing are.”
“You didn’t see any on Hellym, though,” Taeral replied.
I had an answer for that, too. “It’s been a long time since its inhabitants died,” I said. “They were likely all reaped. If any of them were left behind, what were the odds I’d see them, right there, where we had our incident with Yamani?”
“Minimal, I suppose,” Taeral mused. “Fair enough. So, the scythe lets you see dead people.”
I turned to look at the girl, offering an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry… I mean, I’m sorry you died.”
“It’s not like it’s your fault.” She sighed.
“You knew that you were dead, then,” I concluded.
She shrugged. “I figured that much. Maybe I should be more alarmed by this, but… I think I’ve been like this for a while now.”
“Maybe you’ve had time to adjust,” I said.
I had no idea how a person would react upon hearing they’re dead, that they’re going to leave this world and move on. Ben’s and Lucas’s accounts had painted a rich picture, yes, but even so, I had no emotional state of my own to compare it to. All I had was a fear of dying, complete with heart palpitations and burning heat soaring through me—something I’d recently experienced with Yamani, back on Hellym.
Therefore, I didn’t know how this blue-skinned girl felt, only that I was sorry for her. Deeply sorry. She’d obviously died too young, unable to reach her potential in this life. That was tragic, and it pained me to see her like this.
“Maybe. But I still don’t know where I am,” she said. “I was hoping you’d know, but when I heard you all wonder, I realized you’re as lost as I am.”
