The Reaping (The Reapers Book 1) (2 page)

I turned up the volume on the radio and focused on the road before me, ignoring the twist in my gut that meant I was on the verge of completely freaking out. The last thing I needed in my life was a melancholy ghost.

As I drove us into the mountains, I felt myself relax and let go of all the tension I’d been holding onto at my Mom’s house. Almost home, to the only place that had ever really felt like home, and I was so ready to get back. Even Doug’s constant whining drone about his family and their lack of proper mourning couldn’t hamper my mood. I tuned him out and admired the scenery around us.

I still remembered the first time I had seen this place; three years ago, me a senior in high school. I’d insinuated myself into a ski trip with a girl, Elsa, who was little more than an acquaintance. She’d wanted to say no to me, but I’d done a good reading for her mother once, and she didn’t know how to say no. Even in a car with a brooding girl and her parents who’d only wanted to talk to me about ghosts, a happy peace had washed over me as we’d driven this road.

I’d forced myself on Elsa and her family because I was so desperate to get away from my mother and my life in Virginia Beach, but I’d never expected to love the place. I spent the week there looking for a job, for a way to stay in town, while Elsa skied and went on snow shoe hikes. When Elsa and her family left, I stayed, and I’ve never regretted that decision.

“Hello, Earth to Kelsey,” Doug said. “What are you thinking about so hard over there?”

“I’m just thinking about how much I love this place,” I said without really thinking. I don’t usually share personal information about myself, with ghosts or with the living. Growing up, everyone knew I could see and speak to the dead, but no one in Briarton knew and I wanted to keep it that way. The less I shared about myself, the less people wanted to know, I’d found.

Doug looked out the window like he was seeing it for the first time. “Makes me feel a bit claustrophobic myself. Surrounded by mountains. What’s so great about it?”

I continued to stare at the road. If Doug didn’t love it, I couldn’t make him see the beauty. “Look,” I said instead. “No one in Briarton knows I can see you or talk to you, so don’t harass me once we’re there, okay? I don’t want you attracting more ghosts to me or making me look like a crazy person.”

He huffed. “I suppose you want me to go away completely.”

“I’m not that lucky, or that persuasive. Just keep your distance when we’re in public, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” he said.

I didn’t believe him.

My hands shook slightly as I faced my boss, Landon. I didn’t like him and, more importantly, I didn’t trust him.

“Okay, Landon, I’d like to go over the work schedules with you.”

The office smelled of burnt matches and sticky, sweet marijuana smoke, and I hoped that was the only drug he’d ingested recently. He sat at his desk with a magazine open in front of him, demonstrating what he’d been doing while I’d been handling a rush of customers alone. Mountain Books was the only bookstore in Briarton and November usually proved a slow month for us, but a new mountaineering book had just come out and gotten rave reviews in the local paper.

He stared at me. “Go over what?”

I wanted to reach across the desk and shake him until his blank gaze focused on me. I could tell from his bloodshot eyes, slack expression, and greasy hair that he was high and probably had been for a couple days in a row. I should have given up and tried again another day, but I’d already put the conversation off for a week and my co-workers were talking about walking out. “The staff would like to be given their work schedules a week in advance.”

“Okay, okay, sure.” Landon nodded, his words bubbling out as if he were underwater. “Wait, don’t you make the schedule?”

“Yes, but you have to approve it and it often sits on your desk for at least a week before you sign it.” I should have just posted the schedule without his approval. “Listen, why don’t I work on this some more and see if I can come up with a solution? We can talk again tomorrow.” He rose with a smile. “Oh, and if you are going to insist on not hiring more people, we’d like a second break for the longer shifts.” He stared at me for a moment and began to shake his head. “I just wanted to let you know and give you a chance to think about it.”

He nodded. “You know I’m not as dumb as you think I am.”

“I don’t think you are dumb.”
Just stoned out of your mind
.

“Well, I’m not. If I were dumb, how is it that I run the only store in this town with a completely chick staff? You know there’s like a hundred dudes for every chick in this town.”

Actually, the ratio stood closer to five guys for every girl, but I didn’t bother to correct him.

“Not to mention that every one of you girls I’ve hired is phat, P. H. A. T. Bow wow wow.” Sadly, Landon’s slang remained stuck in the nineties. “I am way smarter than you or anyone else gives me credit for.”

I nodded and tried to move slowly toward the door.

“So, you don’t need to worry, ’kay. I’ll run this store and keep everyone hip-hip-happy.”

“I’m not worried, Landon,” I said as I turned to leave.

He walked around his desk and followed me to the door, listing slightly. “Are you staying?” He took a step in my direction and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Why don’t you close up and leave with me? We could have a few drinks. I’m sure we could have some fun.”

I tried not to shrink away from his touch but picked up his hand and dropped it from my shoulder. “I have a boyfriend, Landon,” I lied.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell him about us.” He wobbled and put his hand back on my shoulder. “If you don’t want to go with me, we could hang out right here. Have a drink, have some fun? We could make it a regular thing…give me something to look forward to in this crap job.”

I did my best not to grab the pen from his desk and stab him in the hand.
He is the owner’s nephew
, I reminded myself. “No, Landon, go home.”

He leaned over me, his foul breath on my ear, and tried to slide a hand over my shoulder and onto my right breast. “I could make it worth your while. Maybe double your salary? What will it take?”

I stood and pushed my chair back into him. He staggered and almost fell. “Landon, go home now and I won’t call the cops.”

He backed up, hands in the air. “Whoa, Ice Princess. I was just trying to teach you how to have fun. Guess it’s your loss.” He stepped out the door and started down the stairs to the store below. “And you can forget about a raise this year.”

I watched him walk out onto Ninth Street and hoped he’d get hit by a car. I was halfway through my third year as a part-time sales associate and making well above minimum wage. I didn’t want to have to find a new job and, as I walked through the store, moving a copy of
Wicked
from the end cap display back to the shelf where it belonged, I had to admit I liked working there too much to let Landon chase me away. From my first week in town, I had been drawn to the bookstore and when I’d finally applied, it had taken me seven months to get hired. Before Landon’s reign of horror, it had been a popular place to work.

The shop had become a haven for me, a place to go where everything slowed down and, until Landon, everything had been simpler. The customers who walked through the door, whether tourist or local, had questions that were easy to answer. What book would I recommend to keep them busy on the coldest days? Did I think the movie version of a popular book was worth seeing? At the shop, I didn’t have to be myself or anyone else; I could just be a person who loved books talking to other people who loved books.

I noticed that the window display was beginning to get dusty. It hadn’t been changed since Landon’s first days on staff. I removed the summer scene and replaced it with a simple winter display. I hung glass balls I found in the back room and littered the floor of the space with glitter and white confetti. In the middle, I placed an array of winter-themed books, from
Ethan Frome
to
Dr. Zhivago
.

I left the store after midnight, stepped outside and paused for a moment, taking a deep breath of mountain air. At 7,000 feet, the air felt lighter and purer than it had on the East Coast. The night felt surprisingly warm for November and I hoped the higher temperature didn’t mean a mild winter. About two inches of snow covered the grass and the roofs of the buildings, but the street and the sidewalk were clear. I was hoping for a really good snow in the next couple of weeks. The town was absolutely gorgeous in snow and a good snowfall would mean a deep enough base on the mountain for me to ski without worrying about rocks cutting up my skis.

An SUV rumbled by slowly on the dark, narrow Main Street, and I clasped my keys in my closed fist, a key protruding from between each pair of fingers, and hurried down the street to my apartment, the weather forgotten. Briarton wasn’t a dangerous town; in fact, most of the people I knew didn’t lock their cars or their homes, but the confrontation with Landon had scared me. I was pretty sure he was harmless, but I still didn’t want to run into him on the dark street. I almost wished Doug was with me, but he’d gone off to see his family again and hadn’t returned yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stayed away. He had to be about ready to cross over now that he’d accepted his wife moving on without him.

I was half a block from home when I heard a loud laugh that seemed to have come from nowhere. My heart raced and I sprinted for my place. I felt silly for running, but that didn’t slow me down. I swung open the street level door and raced up the stairs. I had the key ready in my hand and opened the door, let myself in, and shut and locked it behind me. Breathing heavily, I walked into the brightly lit apartment and smiled at Angelica on the couch.

Angelica sat up and stretched and I recognized from her droopy eyes and her mussed hair that she had been sleeping. In her drowsy state, she looked even more like a child than usual and I couldn’t help but smile. Her curly blonde hair stuck out from her head in all directions, and her tiny, upturned nose wrinkled when she yawned. “I recognized your feet, racing up here. You see some monsters in the shadows down there?”

I had never told Angelica about the ghosts, but she had sensed that I was a little different from “normal” people and I had admitted to an overactive imagination. She was obsessed with everything supernatural and unusual, though she had never experienced any such thing herself, and she would love it if she knew I talked to ghosts. Unfortunately for Angelica, I liked being ordinary too much to risk sharing my secret.

I walked over and curled up on the couch next to her, giving her a quick squeeze. It felt good to snuggle up to my best friend, the first best friend I’d ever had. “No monsters. I just couldn’t wait to see you.”

Angelica hugged me back. “I didn’t think so. I was meditating earlier tonight and I didn’t get any bad vibes from the surrounding area.” Her tone was only half joking. “So how was work tonight?”

“Okay, I guess. Landon is the worst manager ever. I had a talk with him, but I don’t think anything sunk in.”

“I don’t know why you keep trying with him. It only frustrates you. The dude’s a total douche.” She yawned. She worked at the bookstore with me but didn’t enjoy it. She wanted to get a job with ski patrol. “I’ve started doing this new thing where every time he talks to me I say ‘what?’ No matter what he says I just keep saying ‘what?’ It’s hilarious. He gets totally confused. You can’t take that dude seriously.”

“I know. I probably should let it go. Eventually, he will do something so stupid that even being the owner’s nephew won’t protect him. You know, tonight he totally hit on me.”

Angelica sat straight up. “What? Ewwww! He didn’t touch you, did he?”

“He tried a couple of times. You don’t think he would actually…you know…”

“What? Like force himself on you? I don’t know. Maybe you shouldn’t stay there alone with him anymore. Dude, seriously, if he ever did anything like that to you, I would kill him.”

The serious look on her cherubic face made me laugh.

“You don’t believe me? You’re my best friend, Kelsey, and you are so pure. If he sullied you, I would destroy him.” She looked a bit offended.

I was constantly amazed by her devotion to me, often feeling it was only a matter of time before she discovered something about me that would send her running out of my life. For that reason, I always tried to take her seriously, as difficult as it sometimes could be. “Thank you, but I don’t think it will come to that. I just won’t stay there alone with him anymore.”

“Why not find another job? You could work anywhere.”

“Because I don’t want to work anywhere else. I like working at the bookstore and I won’t let that wasted prick chase me away.” In my previous life, I would never have used a term like ‘wasted prick,’ but Angelica’s language had rubbed off on me and I liked the way using such words made me feel like a different person.

“Right on,” she said. “I don’t know why you like it there, but whatever. If you’re ever there alone with him again, just call me and I’ll come over and protect you.”

“Thanks, Ang. Now I think we both should go to bed.” I hugged her and stood, pulling her up with me.

“Okay.” We walked with our arms around each other to the back of the apartment. I led Angelica into her room and dropped her on the bed.

“Good night, sweetie.”

“Ga’ nigh’.” She yawned as she pulled back the duvet and snuggled in.

I walked back to my room, pulled off my jeans, and went right under the covers. I would worry about brushing my teeth and washing my face in the morning when I had the energy for it.

I stood alone on a crowded street in downtown Briarton, bumped and jostled by the constant flow of people, all in parkas and snow pants, carrying snowboards and skis. I tried to get out of the stream of pedestrian traffic and found my only option was to move with the people toward the mountain that rose above me. I walked to the center of Klondike Square at the base of the mountain. The nearby gondola was empty and unmoving and, suddenly, I was alone.