“Due to budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.”

I glanced at the sign as two of the three people in front of me argued, I had tuned out about five minutes ago after they started the same argument for the third time.

“You might want to pay attention,” the man standing next to me said helpfully and I turned to the three across the desk from me.

“Have you talked to him?  Is he here?” the young woman, the daughter of the man next to me demanded and the young man, her brother, huffed and rolled his eyes.

“She’s full of shit, Danielle, she can’t talk to or see dad, she’s a charleton,” he snapped before I could even open my mouth and I held back a sigh.

“Shut up David,” her voice nearly reached screeching levels and I flinched.

“Both of you shut up,” the older woman said, her voice sharp and though no louder than conversational tones, both of her children's mouths snapped closed.

“Would you believe me if I told you my heart gave up just to get away from them?” Stephen DuCard asked and I snorted.

“Did he say something?” Danielle asked, eyes trained on me, mascara running down her cheeks and a white handkerchief clutched in her hand.

“Tell them there is a will, but my lawyer has the key and location."

I relayed the information and both brother and sister were up and out of the room before I was even finished speaking.

Samantha DuCard stood now, slowly and more dignified than both of her children put together, and held out a hand.

"Thank you Ms. Davis," she said and I stood and quickly shook it.

"You're welcome, I hope I was able to help," I replied and she gave me a tight smile.

"You were.  Goodbye," she said then took one look, straight at Mr. DuCard and her smile became more genuine for a moment before she turned and left.

"Too bad they didn't stick around to hear that neither of them get anything," the older man said and I snorted again before moving to the old hutch crammed into the corner of my small office. 

"There's a reason I put in a "you can't blame me for info I give from the dead" clause in every contract that is signed."

"Smart," he said and I reached in for a box on the top shelf. 

"Plus," I went on pulling two coins out of the box, "once they left the building, they'll never be able to find it again." Mr. DuCard raised an eyebrow. "Memory charm, as well as a forgetfulness potion in the tea."

"Very smart," was the reply and I flashed him a quick grin.

"Take these," I said pressing the two coins into his palm, "they'll get you across on the ferry." 

Mr. DuCard stared at them for a long time before glancing at my sign, reality sinking in.

"No light at the end of the tunnel, huh?"

"Don't know," I said with a shrug, "haven't been past the river, just to the edge." I put the box back in its place and turned as I heard the man gasp. 

Next to him stood a tall man, thin as a reed and pale as if he'd never seen the sun one day in his life. He wasn't wearing a cowl, and neither was he holding a sickle, but the effect was the same.

"Mr. DuCard, this is Bruce, he'll guide you to the other side."

"Hiya," Bruce said with a grin and I could tell the recently deceased man was a bit put off. Bruce did that to people. Not many Reapers were happy, in all reality, I think Bruce was the only one with a sunny disposition. 

Probably why we worked well together.

"All set?" Bruce asked and Mr. DuCard gave me a look.

"Don't worry, he's good at his job, he'll get you there," I assured him.

As they turned to go, Mr. DuCard turned back.

"Tell my wife I did love her?" I blinked, not having expected that. From what I could tell, their relationship had been ugly, on the verge of an even uglier divorce before he died of a sudden heart attack. There are rumors that she had something to do with it, but since it's only been two days, I'm intrigued to find out what will come of it.

"I will," I promised and he nodded before turning and following Bruce and they both disappeared.

Once they were gone, I picked up the two teacups that Daniel and David had used, pleased to see that they were empty before reaching for Mrs. DuCards and stopped. Her teacup was full and thinking back I couldn't remember seeing her taking a drink at all. 

Sighing, I stacked the two and picked up the full cup and took them into the small break room and set them in the sink to wash later. Glancing at the full cup once more, hoping that wouldn't come back and bite me in the ass, I made my way into the front of my small shop.

"How did it go?" Annie, my assistant asked from behind the counter.

"Same as always," I replied and picked up a stack of spell books waiting to be stocked.

"That's why we ask for the money up front," she replied with a grin.

"The wife didn't drink the tea," I told her as I started fitting the books onto the shelf. A second later Annie was next to me, eyes wide and worried. 

"Do I need to find her?" she asked, her usually green eyes turning violet, her translucent wings out and fluttering.

"I think we'll be alright," I assured her and her wings tucked themselves away, slowly. "The memory charm should have done its job as she left, the tea is just a secondary precaution."

"True," she agreed, "we just don't need her coming back like that one time." She wants to go on, dragging up the one incident that had made us create the precautions in the first place but the bell above the door rang.

"Customers!" she cried happily clapping her hands together and turned on her heel, forgetting what she was going to say, much to my relief.

Blowing out a breath, I finished putting the spell books on the shelf before heading to the front to help.

-----------------

"See you tomorrow," Annie called as she left, and I closed the door behind her after telling her goodnight and locked it before switching the sign to "Closed" and turning off the lights

I made my way back to my office and sat down with a sigh before leaning my head back with my eyes closed.

A flicker of something on the edge of my awareness had me sitting up and looking around.

"Hello?" I called, it wouldn't be the first time I had an unexpected visitor show up, that's usually how they found me. 

I stood as I felt the presence leave the room and followed it back into the shop.

"Hello," I called again and jumped nearly a foot when an image flickered in and back out. "Ok, hold on," I instructed but felt it leave the area, heading back towards my office.  "Stop," I called, racing after it and hit the doorway as the image flickered into sight again. 

It was a man with dark hair and gray eyes looking around him in confusion. He was taller than me and maybe a little older, wearing slacks and a white shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"Hey, excuse me," I said, walking into the room and his eyes focused on me for a moment before he flickered out again. "Damn it," I muttered, he hadn't gone anywhere, he was in the room, but he was still invisible.

"Ok I need you to concentrate," I told him, "focus on my voice and think about being here, in this room." I waited for a long moment and watched as he flickered in and out a few times until he finally stood solidly in front of me.

"- are you talking about?" the man demanded, glaring at me as he seemed to notice me for the first time.

"Hi, I'm Birdie," I introduced and the man blinked, turning from surveying the room, an eyebrow cocked.

"Birdie?" he asked, his voice dripping with disdain. I got that a lot.

"It's a nickname," I explained, reminding myself that he was most likely suffering from the shock of being dead and it wasn't nice to banish those who were confused. "Names hold power," I explained when he continued to stare, "and I don't give mine out without reason."

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"Oh, so you're one of them," he said and walked past me out of the room. 

"Hey," I cried, following him and feeling a bit insulted, "where do you think you're going?"

"I'm getting out of here," he said, reaching for the door handle, only to have his hand pass through it. "What is this?" he demanded, rounding on me.

"Welcome to being dead," I said, spreading my hands out. The man blinked and then blinked again before he threw his head back and laughed. This wasn't the first time that had happened either, some had a hard time accepting their new reality.

"I'm not dead," he said, folding his arms across his chest and glaring at me. I cursed under my breath, I had a date with my bathtub and then an early night followed by a long sleep in. 

"Care to explain how your hand passed through the doorknob then?"

"Must be a trick of the light," he said glaring at the doorknob as if it was the problem.

"I'm sorry," I said tamping down on my annoyance, trying to remind myself that the man was in shock, "but you are dead."

"I don't have time to be dead," he said stubbornly and I pinched the bridge of my nose and held in a sigh.

"Where are you from?" I decided to try a new tactic.

"New York," he said like I was stupid and I smiled tightly at him.

"Care to explain how you ended up in a small town in (need to find a town/make one up)?"

"Impossible," he denied with a shake of his head and I refrained from rolling my eyes. Barely. I pulled out my phone and used the GPS to locate my shop.

"There you go," I said turning the screen towards him, the screen showed Wishes and Warlocks, in (enter town name here).

"This has to be some sort of trick," he still tried to deny, but he was sounding less sure of himself, and I felt bad.

"What is the last thing you remember?"  His eyebrows drew together as he tried to think back.

"I was driving home, on the phone with my wife and…" he trailed off and then suddenly blinked out. 

"Hey!" I cried, looking around in a panic, I had wards to stop that from happening but they weren't working for some reason.

"Why does that keep happening?" he asked from behind me and I turned.

"Good question, just do me a favor and concentrate on staying here," I instructed and he nodded once. "Great," I muttered, "stay here," I instructed as I moved into my office and grabbed my coin box.

"What are you doing?" the man asked, appearing behind me and I yelped, nearly dropping the box.

"Son of a bitch!" I cried, clutching a hand to my chest, "don't do that!"

"Sorry," he replied but didn't look sorry in the least.

"Here," I said, pulling out two coins and turned back towards him.

"What are those?" he asked, eyeing them with distrust and this time, I did roll my eyes.

"They'll help you move on," I explained and held them out but he didn't take them.

"I don't want to "move on"," he said using air quotes, "I'm not dead."

"Right," I shot back, seriously annoyed now, "because living people can teleport from one room to the next."

"Maybe I gained super powers," he said snidely and a dozen ways to get rid of him ran through my head, none of them nice.

"Bruce," I called and the man in front of me looked confused.

"Who is Bruce? My name is-"

"Howdy," Bruce said as he appeared near the door and the dead man jumped.

"Does this happen a lot?" the man demanded, staring at Bruce in shock.

"He's a Reaper," I explained off handedly before turning to said Reaper.  "Can you do something about him," I said, jabbing my finger in the man's direction, realizing I had no idea what his name was.

"About who?" Bruce asked looking around the room, his eyes sliding over the man as if he didn't see him.

"Him!" I said again and Bruce looked in his direction but didn't seem to see him.

"I have a name," the man said flatly, "it's Alec."

"Of course it is," I said, shooting him a dirty look before turning back to Bruce. "Alec here, is having an issue accepting he's dead and my bed is calling my name, please deal with him."

"Birdie, are you feeling alright? There isn't anyone here." 

"Take these," I said, thrusting the coins at Alec, thinking maybe that Bruce couldn't see him unless he was holding them, though he should have been able to see anyone who has passed.

"I'm not taking them," Alec said with a shake of the head.

"Well, you're not staying here," I shot back and he had the gall to smirk at me.  "Please," I said, tired and feeling a migraine coming on. "Once you get to the other side, they'll figure out what happened. You can't stay here, not just here in my shop, but here on this plane. You have three days to reach the other side, if not, you'll be stuck here and eventually you will lose any sense of who you once were. Once that happens you'll become angry and resentful and want to hurt the living. It's not something you want, I've seen it and it's not pretty."

We stared at each other for a long time before he sighed and held out his hand.

"Thank you," I said sincerely and placed the coins in his palm.

Only for the coins to promptly fall through and clatter to the floor. We both started down at them in confusion. That had never happened before.

"You're tossing around coins now?" Bruce asked and I turned back to him.

"You still can't see him?"

"Birdie, the only person I see, is you."

"Where did you die?" I rounded on Alec and he blinked a couple of times.

"I was on my way home from work," he said slowly, as if trying to remember. "I was on the phone with Jennifer, my wife. I had taken a shortcut home, one I didn't normally take, and there was a strange white light, then nothing."

"Great, you were abducted by aliens," I replied shortly. "Where in New York?"

*Somewhere upstate*

"Will you do me a favor?" I asked turning back to Bruce.

"Sure," he said with a shrug.

"Will you check the archives for car crashes in upstate New York in the last four days?"

"Do you know how many car crashes there have been in that amount of time, not to mention in New York alone?"

"I know Bruce, but I'm telling you, there is a dead guy-"

"Alec," he reminded me.

"A dead guy here that you can't see, and as far as I know, that shouldn't be possible."

"True," Bruce agreed, "alright, I'll take a look but I'm not promising anything." I thanked him and he left, leaving me alone with Alec.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Good question." I replied. I'd never come across this problem and I've been a Necromancer my whole life, dealing with the dead was something I did.

"Look it's been a long day, stay here, we'll figure it out tomorrow."

"You want me to just hang out here, and do what?" he demanded and I shrugged.

"No idea, at least you can't touch anything," I said, glad that I wouldn't come downstairs tomorrow to find the place trashed.

"You can't just leave me here," he protested.

"I think you'll find, I can," I replied and turned to go upstairs to my apartment, ignoring his protests.

My apartment was a decent size, two small bedrooms a front room and a decent sized kitchen. The bathroom had a large, claw foot tub that I made use of often and especially after a day of meeting with clients. It had an internal entrance I could access from the shop and an external that anyone visiting could access from outside. The thing I loved about it the most was that it was heavily warded against anything supernatural, meaning Alec wouldn't be able to follow.

My cat, Fiona, greeted me as soon as I entered, rubbing herself against my calf and I bent to pick her up while heading into the kitchen. Cats were the guardians of the underworld, and Fiona usually spent the day with me in the shop but with clients coming in, I liked to keep her separate.

I set her down on the counter and pulled out a can of food for her and set it in her dish before I gave her another pet and then headed for the bathroom.

I realized I felt a bit bad about leaving Alec downstairs, but even if I wanted him to, he wouldn't have been able to follow me up here. Which I didn't, so there was no point in feeling bad. That's at least what I told myself anyway.

I turned on the tap to fill the tub as I got undressed and slipped into my robe before heading back into the bathroom.  I poured some scented salts into the tub just before I shut off the tap and stood to remove my robe, looking forward to this bath, it really had been a long day.

"Is this where you live?" a voice said behind me and I screamed and spun, clutching my robe around me to find Alec standing there, looking around.

"How the hell did you get up here?" I demanded and Alec looked at me as if I were stupid.

"I thought of being where you were, and "poof", here I am." he said with a grin and arms held out, and I could only think he was mocking me from earlier.

"You can't be here," I complained and checked my wards, but found nothing amiss.

"Well I am, so what are you going to do?" 

The dozen ideas from earlier ran through my head once again, and a few more joined them.

"You don't want to know," I told him darkly and pointed at the door. "Go. And if you're thinking of just blinking out and watching I will send you across the world."

"I'm going, I'm going," he replied and left with his hands in the air.

Growling under my breath I took my robe off and slid into the bath.  I found myself unable to relax like I had wanted to though, with the knowledge that someone was in my apartment. My senses could tell he was staying out of the bathroom, but because my senses were on alert, I couldn't relax how I wanted to.

Standing after only ten minutes, I climbed out and reached for a towel and my robe.

I opened the door and looked out for Alec and stepped out when I didn't see him. Dashing across the hall, I slipped into my room and closed the door. Slipping into sleep pants and a top, I poked my head out and looked again but didn't see or hear him, but I could sense him.

Walking down the hall, I made my way towards the kitchen to make my tea and finally saw him.  He was sitting in the family room, staring at the dark TV and looked at me when I walked past him.  I walked past him and into the kitchen before setting my teapot to boil.  Once done, I moved around the counter to where I could see him and leaned back against the counter.

"Beyond the white light, what do you remember?" I asked and he turned to watch me for a long moment.

"Just that, I was driving, there was a white light and then I was here."

"Was there a truck behind that white light, could you have been hit? Did you feel any pain, hear anything that might sound like a crash?"

"No, just the white lights and then I was here," he explained looking frustrated.

I hummed in thought and went back around the counter when the teapot started to whistle.

I made my tea and added a splash of milk and honey before joining him in the room and taking a seat in the plush armchair. 

"So either you were abducted by aliens or you were struck by a truck."

"I don't believe in aliens," Alec said shortly and I snorted into my tea.

"You didn't believe in teleportation until an hour ago." He glowered at me and I flashed him a quick grin before taking another sip of my tea.

"I'm not dead, at least according to you," I nodded in agreement, "so what am I?"

Several not-nice words went through my mind but I kept my tongue and took another sip, ignoring his glare.

"We'll figure it out tomorrow," I told him as I stood and took my cup into the kitchen.  "I'm going to bed."

"What am I supposed to do until then?" he demanded so I walked back into the room, picked up the remote and turned on the TV.  It was already turned to a shopping channel so I left it there and grinned at him.

"Have fun, maybe try to sleep, maybe you'll be back in your body by morning." I said not hiding the hope in my voice

"This is worse than an infomercial," he called after me but I ignored him and entered my room.  I quickly got ready for bed before climbing in and contemplated picking up my book, but felt too tired, so I clicked off the lamp and turned over.