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Then three.

He looks at me curiously. “I’m surprised you are silent. You usually have—"

I cut him off when I choke out an unrecognizable noise. Laughter follows and my stomach begins to cramp. Tears are coming out my eyes. This man is merciless. It’s my own fault at this point. My mistake began with me going to law school in the first place. I could even argue it began when I was born, but I didn’t really have a choice in that, did I? If I lose the case, I go back to my Hell time loop. Forever. How fun.

After about two minutes of hysterical laughing, I wipe the tears from my face. Still smiling, I hold my hand out in front of me for him to shake. “When do I begin?”

Reluctantly, he shakes my hand. “Tomorrow.”

“How does this work? Do I get paid? Is money even a thing here?” I question eagerly.

He sighs in annoyance. “Do you always talk this much?”

I shrug one shoulder. “I’m a lawyer. We love to hear ourselves talk.”

He gives me a look. “No, you don’t get paid. You’re dead. What do you need a paycheck for? Your paycheck is being able to go to Heaven.”

“Do you get paid?”

He squints his eyes at me. “Not exactly. All reapers have cards with unlimited funds to use.”

“Can you quit being a reaper at any point?”

“No. Everyone who becomes a reaper is required to do fifty years.”

Interesting. “So, it’s essentially slavery?”

He glares at me. “No. It is not slavery. Without us, Eden wouldn’t function.”

I arch a brow. “You don’t get paid and are forced to work, but that’s not slavery? Some would say your rationale of ‘Eden wouldn’t function without reapers’ is similar to those who argued ‘the country won’t run without slaves’.” I shrug. “But if you like it…well then you like it.”

He whispers to himself. Well, not really to himself, since I can hear him. “Honest to God, if it was up to me, you’d go to Hell.”

I gasp.

Not at his comment of sending me to Hell, but the other word he said.

God.

It makes me realize the most important question to exist. Something I’ve waited my whole life for.

I lean in and squint my eyes. Inhaling a deep breath, I finally ask what every human to ever live has wanted to know.

“Is God real?”

With zero hesitation, he replies, “No.”

I deflate in my chair. Damn. The religious people on Earth are going to lose their minds once they get here. Despite having the answer to one of the most controversial questions to exist, I still have a lot of questions about the universe.

I perk up once again. “Are there aliens or are humans the only species—”

“For the love of God, please stop.”

6

FIRST DAY AT WORK (AGAIN)

It is my first day of work in the afterlife. I am following behind Aiden as we walk through the lobby to get to his office. He walks at a fast pace, which is aggravating considering he is way taller than I am. My legs can only take me so far.