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I roll my eyes and snort. “In your dreams, Aiden Kim, would I want your grumpy ass.”

He winks. “No, Ms. Parker. Not my dreams. But apparently in yours.”

I ignore him and finally finish my hair. I look at the time on my phone. With ten minutes left to spare, we still have time to stop by the lounge to get coffee. No mimosa for me today. It’s game time. I need my mind to be on point for my opening statement.

I walk into the bedroom, grabbing my tote bag from the bedside table.

“Let’s go,” I say. Not waiting for him, I walk through the apartment and out to the elevator. We would’ve teleported to save time, but Aiden’s teleportation abilities are still suspended. I hear his footsteps trailing behind me. When we reach the elevator, I jab a finger on the down button and cross my arms, tapping my feet impatiently. Neither of us says a word.

The ding signals the elevator has arrived. We step inside and turn to face forward. I run through my opening statement in my head again. Lawyers are allowed to read their opening statement off a laptop or notepad, but I find that lazy. By memorizing it, I can move around the room and make eye contact. I can put on a performance.

When we reach level seven, the Reaper’s Court floor, we step out of the elevator. We dart straight for the lounge and quickly collect our coffees. With five minutes before court is in session, we walk into the courtroom. I settle into my seat and take out my notepad and pen.

The opposing counsel, Chris, walks in and gets comfortable at his table. He is wearing a navy-blue suit with his dark hair fixed to perfection. Not a single hair out of place.

As soon as court is over today, I am kidnapping Yirah for some drinks. I am exhausted. I think I got less than four hours of sleep. That is not nearly enough. If Aiden didn’t wake me up the time he did, we would’ve been embarrassingly late.

Chris is presenting his case first, which gives me time to get my shit together. I told Aiden he could trust me with this case and I meant it. The more time I spend with him, the more I understand how important this job is to him. It doesn’t hurt to keep in mind that his fate also determines mine.

Yirah is sitting in the gallery directly behind us. She aggressively whispers my name, and I turn to glance at her, my eyebrow raised. She gives me an excited thumbs up. “You got this!” she loudly whispers. I smile at her and turn back around. She’s right, I got this. But for some reason my brain cannot get with the program.

“All rise for the honorable Judge Hobbs. Reaper’s Court is now in session,” the bailiff announces. Everyone stands, watching as the judge makes his way into the courtroom. He settles into his seat, organizing the contents on his bench.

“Please take your seats,” he commands. The judge clears his throat and says, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Calling the case of Eden versus Kim. Are both sides ready?”

“Ready, your honor,” Chris confirms.

“Ready for the defense, your honor,” I also confirm. Chris stands and walks to the center of the courtroom, his notepad in his hand. He angles his body to ensure both the judge and the audience can see him.

He clears his throat, looks down at his notepad, then begins, “Your honor. This is a case about a soul that was wrongfully assigned death by a reaper. When we all become reapers, we swear an oath to promise to uphold the Reaper’s Code of Conduct. Those who fail to do so must be held accountable. Aiden Kim should be held responsible for his actions. We will present evidence to show that his carelessness caused a soul to wrongfully lose their life too soon. Thank you for your time.” He moves to his seat.

I take a deep breath and stand. Like Chris, I move to the center of the room. Internally, I am freaking out. It is not like I haven’t done a trial before. But this time, it is in the afterlife and my client is a Grim Reaper. The game has totally changed. New rules and new competition. I hope I am ready for it.

I look at Aiden. He winks and mouths, 'You got this'. I straighten my shoulders and clear my throat. “If it pleases the court,” I request. The judge nods his head in approval.

I take that as a sign to continue. “Your honor. This is not a case of whether a soul was incorrectly assigned death. We all know that happened. This is a case of whether my client,” I point towards Aiden. Everyone turns to look at him briefly, then back to me. “Mr. Aiden Kim—intentionally, knowingly, or negligently did it. The evidence and testimony you will hear during this trial will show that Aiden most definitely did not intend to assign the wrong death, nor did he know his actions would cause a soul to lose their life too soon. It will also show that his actions do not amount to negligence. This was a mistake not negligently done, but rather as a result of a system that is in dire need of change. This could’ve happened to any reaper. Unfortunately, it happened to my client. We hope to show you that with more safeguards in place, something like this would not have occurred. Defense is asking for these charges to be dropped. Thank you.”

Judge Hobbs waits until I am seated to say, “The prosecution may call its first witness.”

And so, it begins.

The first witness is going to be no other than Alex Cole. It’s the most obvious choice. She is the reason why we are here today. Chris requested special permission to have the Heaven reapers bring her to Reaper’s Court. This also makes trials different for me. In the living world, a victim who loses their life cannot come to the stand. Because, you know, they are dead. But now we get to hear firsthand accounts from the victim.

“Your honor, we call Mrs. Alex Cole to the stand.” The door to the courtroom opens and Mrs. Cole walks in, with a sad, distant look on her face. She keeps her eyes to the ground as she walks past everyone directly to the witness stand.

“Raise your right hand. Do you promise that the testimony you shall give in the case before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, Reaper?”

“I do,” she replies.

“Please take a seat,” the judge commands. Once she is settled, Chris jumps into his questions.

“Please state your name for the record.”

“I am Alex Cole.”

“Can you tell us why we are here today?”

I stand and announce, “Objection! Narrative.” It’s my second favorite objection. It stops a witness from telling a story of their whole life, since it can lead to irrelevant and even inadmissible information. My first favorite is relevance.