This was weird.
When it came to the Fated, though, things sometimes got weird.
Case in point:Helena.
I unfurled and reemerged on the other side of the ICU door, in the waiting room populated with people waiting—fretting.
Though I expected to have to track down Old Man Bare Ass, I found him seated in one of the chairs, his back to me, though he twisted around to address me.
“Over here.”
Though it was rare for the living to see me, the dead almost always did. Ghosts at least.
Which was, technically speaking, what he currently was.
I stepped toward him, curious, because even the dead, those with enough sense to perceive me, feared me.
Unlike Flora, I didn’t exactly give off comforting vibes.
This man only smiled at me before gesturing up at the TV with one weathered hand. “Have you seen this show before?”
Internally, I scowled, only offering the screen a short glance before returning my hooded stare to him.
The flat screen portrayed some kind of sitcom with a corny laugh track.
“I’ve seen this episode before,” said the man, “but… I love it. When I was young, I wanted to be in pictures. Make people laugh like these two actors. Like them, I had a talent for it.”
“You can’t stay,” I told him, my monster’s voice rolling out of me, cold and inflectionless.
“Time to go, you mean,” said the man, even as he gripped the armrests of the chair, the first sign of his fear showing.
“I’m not trying to rush you,” I admitted. “It’s just… you have somewhere to be.”
“Somewhere to be,” he echoed, that death grip on the armrests easing a bit. “Somewhere good?” he probed, hopeful.
“We’d both know by now if it was somewhere… not good,” I allowed.
I’d meant to calm his fears but worry knit his brow as he glanced up at the TV again.
“You’re not sure,” he grunted after a beat, reading into my reply.
“Honestly,” I said, “I wish I did know.”
“Look,” he said, still not tearing his gaze away from the TV, “I know you must be busy. Probably one of the busiest beings around. But… can you just… give me a few minutes? Long enough for this episode to end? It’s almost over.”
I deliberated, my hand flexing on the scythe that I wouldn’t need in this situation. His spirit had wandered off from its vessel, his body, so like the shipwrecked souls floating in the ocean, I could just grab him.
When… he was ready.
“Why not,” I said, taking a few steps toward him before settling into the seat next to his.
“Th-thanks,” he said, like he really hadn’t expected me to agree.
Lucky for him, I had my own reasons for wanting to procrastinate.
The sooner I got done here, the sooner I had to go back to grabbing other souls. And the sooner I got done with that, the sooner I had to return to the Hallowed Halls. Reentering the Hallowed Halls meant facing facts. And, like this guy, for the moment, I preferred to prolong the fantasy that, sooner or later, I wasn’t going into a Basin.
“The chemistry between these two,” he said, pointing at the TV, “is…otherworldly. Their characters—they really love each other.”
