Together, they worked to loosen and unfurl me into spirit form, something I battled with every ounce of willpower I possessed.
That willpower lasted only long enough for me to give Cedric one skeletal middle finger.
And then, just like that, the Basin took me, and the reaper at last became the reaped.
45HELENA
I wore a champagne-hued belted dress with tulip sleeves, but Grim never came to pick me up for our date.
At first, I waited for him on the couch with Maui, expecting him to materialize somewhere in my vicinity. At twenty minutes past eight, I went to stand at the window, where I peered out over the parking lot to see if he might be waiting next to The Judge.
“Where is he?” I asked Maui, grabbing the pineapple and hugging her close.
After an hour, I turned on the TV.
After two, I gave up, washed up, and went to bed.
Not that I got much sleep.
All over again, my mind went rampant. This time, instead of thinking the worst about him, I fretted that the worst had indeed happened to him.
He said he loved me. And that tattoo… Didn’t it prove he held deeper feelings for me?
Grim didn’t have a phone for me to call, and his family lived in a realm I couldn’t reach on my own or communicate with.
Sunday crawled by, and I did a fair amount of pacing in my apartment. I couldn’t even bring myself to make the grocery trip Idesperately needed in case Grimdidcome looking for me—in case anyone from the Hallowed Halls did.
When Monday morning arrived, however, I had to leave for work.
I took The Judge to the library, where I hoped my anxiety would lessen. But work proved less of a time-passing distraction than a set of tasks I couldn’t seem to focus on.
Something was wrong. It had to be.
But… what couldIdo about it?
When noon arrived, I gathered the day’s selection of books and headed to the storytime corner, the area already packed with day care kids and afternoon regulars—moms and dads with their toddlers, grandparents with their grandkids.
Flustered, beside myself with worry, I sat down on my stool and tried to get a grip.
Today marked the first time I’d ever had to force a smile when faced with so many shining eyes and upturned and curious faces.
The kids, ranging in age from three to six, sat on brightly colored round cushions and, farther back, on carpeted risers. Behind them, a mural depicting storybook scenes and characters like Rapunzel in her tower and Anansi in his web provided a colorful backdrop.
Its cheer and whimsy couldn’t spread to me today, and neither could the joy or the rapt attention of the children during our welcome song, which I strummed out on my ukelele while everyone followed along with the sign language I’d taught them.
Still, I kept my grin in place as I revealed our first book of the day—a classic and a personal favorite:There’s a Nightmare in My Closetby Mercer Mayer.
The moment the nightmare creature started to cry, though, I found myself fighting tears, too.
Ramsey, one of my tried-and-true regulars, raised his hand. Blinking away the tears, I called on him, glad for the reprieve.
Maybe I shouldn’t have picked out all monster books this morning…
Or brought my ukelele.
“Miss Hart,” said the six-year-old, tilting his head while he blinked dark eyes at me. “Are you afraid of the monster?”
That. Well, that got a laugh out of me, which made my young patron smile.
