Billy followed Sean out of the parish to a small gravel parking area. There was a gorgeous woman leaning against a black camper van. The van had seen a lot of younger years, the paint was peeling and rust was eating at the wheel wells.
The woman was younger than the van. She was wearing an Atlanta Braves hoodie and grey yoga pants that might as well have been painted on. She had blonde hair tied back into a pony tail that hung past her shoulders, sharp eyebrows and full lips.
Billy looked appreciatively, expecting the slight flush of testosterone and pleasure that come from viewing such a specimen. But as before, he felt nothing.
"So, who's the accomplice to murder?" Billy asked, trying to indicate the woman with a nod and realizing the pointlessness of the motion..
"That is my wife, Lindsey." he replied. "I'd introduce you, but there's really no point. She can't hear you the way I can."
Lindsey shrugged off the vehicle and made several deliberate motions with her hands, clearly sign language even to Billy, who knew nothing about it.
Billy watched amazed as Sean signed back, just as fluidly as the girl had.
"She's deaf?" Billy asked.
"No, I am."
"What?" Billy asked, confused. "What do you mean your deaf? You've been talking to me this whole time."
"Technically, we're not talking." Sean said. And this time, Billy understood the strange lisp and the overly loud volume Sean had always used. He couldn't hear himself talking, he was speaking from memory, and hoping the words came out intelligibly.
Sean went on. "I'm deaf and you're dead. I think that strains the definition of 'conversation'."
"So how is it you can hear me?"
"That is a long story which I will tell you once we get going."
Sean loped down the parish stairs and into the shotgun seat of the van. Billy floated behind, and daring to try something of his ghostly abilities, moved right through the side paneling into the back of the van. Cool he thought.
Lindsey climbed into the driver seat, signing something briefly at Sean before hitting the gas, spinning the tires on the gravel road.
"So she doesn't talk to you at all?" Billy asked, watching Lindsey with interest.
"She doesn't speak to anyone. She took a vow of silence the day I lost my hearing. She swore she'd never say another word unless I could hear it. That was nine years ago, and so far as I know, she's kept that vow.
" Mark, 7:31" Sean quoted, "Taking the deaf man aside from the crowd privately, Jesus put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, 'Be opened.' And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly."
Lindsey reached over and squeezed Sean's leg affectionately.
Billy groaned inwardly. "A vow of silence? You two make one hell of a fucked up couple. Wow."
Lindsey took one hand off the wheel to sign something. Sean signed back one quick motion with a smile.
"What did she say?" Billy asked.
"She said to stop talking about her. She doesn't like when I talk with people she cant see about her. You can imagine how crazy this must all be from her perspective."
Lindsey grinned, but flipped off Sean.
"So what's your story then?" Billy returned to his questions. "How did you lose your hearing? And when did you start hearing dead people?"
The van turned off the dirt road onto an only slightly more defined asphalt road. There were big cracks running the crossways, with plenty of potholes to be dodged. They passed a road sign that had been riddled through with bullets like swiss cheese, Billy couldn't make out the highway number.
"I was one of the early victims of the Coronavirus pandemic." Sean started, reclining his seat and kicking off his shoes. He put his feet up on the dash and went on. "In March of 2020, I was admitted into a COVID ward at Emory University Healthcare. The hospital, hell the whole nation, was vastly underprepared for the epidemic, and so when I reached the point I need to be on a respirator, there simply weren't any available. I stopped breathing for twelve minutes. For six of those minutes I was considered legally dead."
Lindsey took a hand off the wheel and reached out to hold Sean's tightly. Sean went on, "I'm pretty sure the being dead bit is responsible for my hearing you. As for my not hearing anything else, the doctors told me that was caused by the fever. I held at 108.2 degrees for three whole days. The fever cooked my brain and caused the permanent hearing loss."
"I think it damaged more than your hearing, you batshit crazy bastard." Billy said.
Sean surprised Billy by laughing. "Yeah, I thought I was crazy for a long time. But then I met Sam, and everything changed."
"And who is he?"
"Not so much a who, as a what. His name is Samhain. But since ancient Gaelic has fallen into disuse, he goes by Sam. He's a fallen angel."
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"Of course he is." Billy said, losing confidence in his companions with every word spoken. "And you, of course have no problems taking advice from a fallen angel."
"The afterworld is a lot less black and white, good and evil than you would think. There are lots of fallen angels that won't have anything to do with Lucifer. There are even a few demons that aren't all bad."
"And what did this Samhain say that convinced you you're not crazy?"
"He didn't say anything, I was already deaf by the time I met him. But, he wouldn't have had to say a word. What he showed me was enough."
"What did he show you?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But don't worry, you'll see for yourself. First thing we're doing, is going to see Sam. I don't care what any Santa Claus movie says, seeing is believing."
He continued on into a horrible rendition of Elvis Presley's 'Seeing is Believing'. Billy watched, feeling more pessimistic by the moment.
Sean finished his tone-deaf song and pulled a pillow from the rear of the camper van.
"Well this is goodnight. The last guy I tried saving wouldn't let me sleep at all that first night. But since I've already had such a long day," he nodded down the road back the way they had come, "I hope you could be courteous enough to shut up for a few hours? Thanks."
With that, he put the pillow over his face, and as far as Billy could tell, fell immediately asleep.
Billy 'sat' there, not sure at all what to think of these two people he was stuck with. They were an eccentric pair, at the very least, and quite possibly unhinged. He knew he needed Sean, there hadn't been another person who could even feel his presence in the last 8 years, if Sean was telling the truth. He didn't trust either of them, but anything had to better than that crushing nothingness he'd been pulled out of.
He slipped in and out of awareness, each time he looked at the clock, chunks of time had dropped away.
1:47
2:42
3:27
When the clock read 4:20, Lindsey pulled of the road into a Texaco. She got the pump running then went inside. Billy looked around, trying to spy any landmark he might recognize that would give him a clue of where they were.
The road was devoid of cars, still too early for any but the earliest of early birds. He could make out Lindsey through the big glass panes of the gas station, there was a bored looking man behind the counter, his attention on a soccer match playing on a small television. Looking down the road however, Billy noticed a figure walking their way.
At first, Billy thought it was an emo teenager. The person had a small, thin frame, clad entirely in black, like they listened to a lot of Black Veil Brides. The stranger had a black hoodie pulled high, and walked with a morose shuffle, not looking at anything in particular.
But as the figure closed in on the bright glare from the fluorescents of the gas station, more details came into view. Whatever this thing was, it had no face. The hood, which was directly facing into the lights now, was empty, or rather it was empty of a head. It seemed to be filled with smoke, black wisps trailed now and then from the edges.
It's movement wasn't quite right for a human either. From the road it had looked unassuming enough, but close up, its motions were jerky and short. The joints seemed to be in the wrong places. A little too low at the knee, too high at the elbow.
It was passing the bright gas station, gently jerking and twitching its way down the road. Billy, curious, was about to float through the side of the van and take a closer look, but the thing scared him.
"Sean." he prompted, trying to wake him gently.
Sean rolled over and pulled the pillow tighter to his head.
"Sean, there's something out there."
Sean moved the pillow an inch to peer with one eye out the window. When he saw the figure, he bolted upright in his seat.
"Fuck. Where are you?" he asked, whispering.
"I'm right next to you, where I've always been."
"You haven't been outside? And I mean at all?"
"No."
Sean looked around and saw that his wife was missing. "Where's Lindsey?"
"She's inside. What's wrong? What is that thing?"
"That is a reaper."
"As in..." Billy couldn't say the word.
"Yes. As in grim reaper. Angel of death. La Muerta. Joe Black. Shinigami-sama. Get my drift?"
"Is it dangerous?"
Sean was peering into the store's windows, looking anxious. Lindsey was at the checkout counter now, placing snacks and soda out to be rung up.
"Not usually." Sean replied, "They have a job to do, you know, and they usually just go about doing it. If it smells you though, we're all dead. I'm rather perplexed why I have to keep telling you this, but you aren't supposed to be here."
"It can smell me?" Billy asked, not sure what he could do to muffle his scent when he didn't have a body.
"Like a shark smells blood in the water."
"Well what the fuck do we do?"
"Just stay put. It'll pass on soon enough."
The two watched the reaper as it continued on its way. It passed beyond the light of the gas station and was indistinguishable from an average human once again. Just then, Lindsey, who had finished paying for her groceries, opened the door to the store. The reaper stiffened, straightening up and tilting the hood up, as if it were sniffing at the air.
"Shit." Sean was suddenly scrambling into the back of the van. He tossed piles of dirty laundry this way and that, digging for something. "I think it can smell you on her."
Billy, who had been watching Sean, turned back to look at the reaper. In the brief second he'd looked away, it had moved closer by a good hundred yards. It had been blocks down the road, now it was standing still, in the lot with them, just at the edge of the light. As Billy watched, the dark smoke that filled the hood parted, and an inhuman skull seemed to emerge from within the smoke. The parched white bone was from some animal he couldn't identify, elongated and many teethed. Hands pulled from within the pockets, revealed vicious looking talons. Red embers seemed to burn within the smoke, deep in the empty eye sockets.
"Lindsey!" Sean yelled, though the call did not carry outside the enclosed van. Billy was shocked to see that Sean had pulled out a large caliber hunting rifle.
"Can you kill it?" he asked.
"Not the reaper, I can't."
Lindsey, oblivious to any danger, sauntered slowly toward the parked van. With a blink, the reaper was beside her, breathing deep the scent. A shiver ran the length of its form, and the reaper seemed to melt into a choking fog. Black smoke spread and consumed Lindsey within.
BLAM!
Alaringly loud, Sean fired a single shot. The smoke instantly cleared, revealing Lindsey, startled and pale, but unharmed.
"Run, Lindsey!" Sean shouted, throwing open the driver side door. The door's window had a single bullet hole in it.
Billy twisted this way and that, searching the shadows but seeing no sign of the reaper. He looked back to the clerk, to see what his reaction would be, and felt a fresh wave of horror.
The front pane window of the store had a perfect round hole in the center, the same as the van window. Beyond it, the counter was empty, no sign of the store clerk remained, save for a spray of blood and brains. Whisps of black smoke stirred slightly in the gentle breeze of the air conditioning.
Lindsey sprinted to the van and cranked the ignition, sobbing hysterically.
"What the fuck did you just do?" Billy demanded.
"It was a reaper, babe." Sean was saying to Lindsey, ignoring Billy. "It nearly had you. I had to. You know I didn't want to. I had to.
She took both hands off the wheel to sign something at Sean. The van rolled onto the curb, and she hastily corrected, swerving.
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO?" Billy repeated, making himself as loud as he could.
"It was us or him." he said to Billy, then to Lindsey, "Drive fast. We've got an hour, if we're lucky, before there is an all-points-bulletin out for this van."
The black panel van sped through the thinning dark, sunrise threatened with a faint glow far to the east.
Billy watched the gas station lights disappear out the rear window, and he couldn't help but run a tally in his mind.
Body count in his thirty-nine years alive: 0
Body count in one night dead: 2