Free Don't Fear the Reaper by Michelle Muto

all they can think to do is come to the county morgue instead of going to a funeral home or the hospital morgue. It’s a closure kind of thing. Then, there are some who figure deceased relatives might meet up with them here once they get the news.”
    “And you think we’ll find Jordan here?” Finally, a glimmer of hope in this awful place. Daniel’s words about closure hit home, too. My body was here. Would I be allowed to see it? My corpse was all that I had left, the last tie to my former life.
    “Hard to say if she has or hasn’t been here,” Daniel said. “Since we don’t exactly have photos and you two are twins, we can use you to ask if anyone fitting your description has been here—and left. But, unless I miss my guess, your sister will show up to take a sentimental gander at your corpse. If she hasn’t already.”
    The sound of air drills blared from the auto repair shop and several men were talking to each other outside one of the bays. A lanky mechanic with sallow cheeks turned his head our direction as we walked past. After a moment, he went back to listening to the other men’s conversation.
    “Now he didn’t like demons,” Daniel said.
    “How do you know? Maybe he just happened to notice fellow ghosts.”
    Daniel smiled and shook his head. “No, he’s used to seeing earthbounds heading for the morgue. Besides, I know the look. I get it a lot, especially here. Earthbounds don’t much care for us demons. Neither do reapers or angels. Can’t say I blame them.”
    I didn’t want to ask why Daniel frequented the morgue.
    “You said reapers hunt down people in purgatory?”
    “Yeah. Sometimes. Purgatory’s troublemakers. Demons, mostly. But, I guess the occasional problematic earthbound, too,” he said with a shrug. Another couple of people gave us unsavory glances.
    “Reapers sound…”
    “Bad-ass? Yeah,” Daniel agreed. “You only saw the nice side of Banning. When he has to collect a soul and send it packing to hell in a hurry, he can be downright brutal.”
    I straightened, trying not to think of Banning as anything other than kind. Parental. Thinking of Banning as some wild-west marshal with a scythe unnerved me.
    We passed a short-haired woman fidgeting with her wedding ring. She smiled demurely as we passed, keeping her eyes more on Daniel than me. Earthbound. Definitely. A man heading the opposite direction stepped aside, allowing us to pass. I looked over my shoulder and we exchanged glances. He seemed more self-assured than the woman. Was he earthbound? Or demon? I guess everyone here sort of figured out who was who after a while.
    Demons weren’t what I thought they’d be, that is, if they were all like Daniel. I recalled what he said about earthbounds and how they shouldn’t tick off a demon. I made a quick mental note to keep Daniel close, at least until we got back with Banning. It was that whole the devil you know is better than the one you don’t sort of thing.
    We made our way to the front of the morgue. People shuffled aside, making room for us as we approached the doors. All except three teens—two boys and a girl, each wearing jeans and hoodies, with baseball caps under them. The girl wore more hardware on her face than anyone I’d ever seen. All that metal made it hard to tell if she had once been pretty or not.
    Metal Girl’s sidekicks weren’t much better in the eye candy department—poorly done tattoos covered much of their faces, and they looked like they’d both had their noses broken.
    I used to hang with a crowd who thought they hid their drugs and alcohol use pretty well. We didn’t try to stick out. We didn’t go looking for attention. A chance to escape is all we wanted. But these three were attention seekers.
    Daniel raised an eyebrow at them. They had no plans to step aside to let us pass.
    “You mind?” Daniel said, although he didn’t say it like it was a real question.
    The three glared at us. I wasn’t feeling the love.
    “I said step