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An energy I’d never felt before seemed to draw me forward, pulling me toward this dying soul. It was another reaper power; I was sure of it. It had to be how reapers found their assignments. My bones seemed to buzz with the intuitive need to get to this child. I had to be there for her when she passed, to help her to the other side.
I let the ethereal tether lead me down the hall, until I floated through a doorway and into a hospital room. A young girl around eight years old lay on the bed, surrounded by doctors. A man and a woman, who I assumed were her parents, stood at her bedside. The little girl had no hair, and her skin had paled so much that I could barely make out her lips. Leto completely fell from my mind as I took in the sick girl. My heart broke for her.
“It’s too soon,” the woman pleaded with the doctors.
“Leukemia operates on its own timeline,” one of the doctors replied kindly.
“It’s okay, Mama,” the little girl said weakly.
She turned slightly when she spoke, and her gaze fell upon me. No one should’ve been able to see me, but she looked right at me.
Something shimmered around her form. It took me a moment to realize it was her spirit. It was as if she was trying to leave her body, but didn’t know how to let go.
Of course she could see me. She was dying. She already had one foot on the astral plane.
Her mother knelt beside her bed, squeezing her hand. “Oh, Nora. Mommy loves you so, so much.”
I barely heard what else her mother said, because I was so entranced by Nora. It seemed I was seeing double—her physical, ill features beneath her brave spiritual face. Nora was ready to go. She just needed someone to help her cross over.
I stepped closer to her bedside. “Nora, my name is Lucas.”
I know who you are, she said in my mind. Her spirit was speaking to me, though her lips didn’t move. She looked so weak, I wasn’t sure she could say anything more, even if she tried. I don’t want to go.
I knelt beside her and placed my hand in her palm. She didn’t quite feel solid, but I could feel her spirit struggling to reach the astral plane. “It’s okay to be scared.”
I don’t want Mama to be sad.
“Sometimes it’s okay for people to be sad, and that’s not your fault,” I told her. “Sadness is how we remember the people we love. Your parents can take care of themselves, and they’ll always remember you. But you’ve had a long hard fight, and it’s time for you to rest now.”
How can you know that for sure? she asked.
Even though I was in spirit, my chest twisted, and my voice cracked. “My brother died a few years ago. I was sad for a long time—still am. But he needed to go his own way, and I needed to go mine. I promise you, Nora, all your parents want is a chance to say goodbye.”
Tears brimmed her eyes, and she turned back to her parents one last time. Weakly, she whispered. “I love you, Mama and Papa.”
Her father ran his fingers over the side of her face. “We love you, too, pumpkin.”
“We will always love you,” her mother said.
“I’ll be waiting for you. Goodbye,” Nora whispered.
Then her spiritual fingers curled around mine, and she became completely solid to me. I pulled her upright, straight out of her body. The broken corpse she’d left behind sagged into the bed, and her parents broke out into heavy sobs. But their cries seemed distant, because Nora’s last thought stole my attention as it played in my mind.
I’m glad Lucas was here.
My heart swelled, and it took everything I had not to break down into sobs in front of this child.
Nora floated over to her mother. She touched her spiritual fingers to her mother’s heart. Her mom gasped, like she could feel the coolness of her daughter’s touch.
“It’s going to be all right, Mama,” Nora said. “I feel much better now.”
Nora turned toward me. “She’ll get better, too, won’t she?”
I nodded. “Yeah. She will.”
A portal bloomed in the corner of the room, filling the hospital room with blinding light. No one noticed, and they didn’t see us cross the room toward it.
“All you have to do is step through,” I told her, guiding her forward.
