Chapter Three

Archie and Irene

Archie Parthenia

I sat, perched at the dinner table with my legs plopped onto the counter. Rocking back on my chair, I took another swig of tea listening closely to the running water and yelps from the kitchen — where Helen and Yudai were washing the dishes.

"So you're telling me you were an assassin before you died?" gaped the new girl. Like a puppy, she sat upright on the couch, cross-legged listening intently to Medina's stories. It was surprising to find someone so collected and unafraid…so interested in our world.

Well, everyone's interested. The question is whether or not they're scared. Irene was not.

Medina, however, was scared out of his mind. I watched him stutter a quiet 'yes' before avoiding eye contact. Unable to separate himself from her, the girl continued, "And do you still kill people in Grim?"

"N-not-not exactly, we just exterminate Aether creatures."

"Oh! Like those ghouls you all mentioned earlier right?"

Medina nodded, finally gaining an ounce of confidence. As they spoke I whistled for Nellie, the half-breed drakon that strutted around the apartment with enough sass to rival Helen.

"I've read about ghouls before."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, "Where."

"In some Japanese comics where they eat humans to survive. Do ghouls do that here?"

To her disappointment, Medina shook his head. She pouted but moved on just as quickly.

"Oh, it's that not-cat!" gawked the weirdo. "Is this an Aether creature too? Does it have any weird powers? Does it have elastic skin? Maybe it tastes like mochi?"

Mochi?

Yudai's cackles could be heard as I paused, caught by surprise at the childish stupidity of the newcomer. Helen's whisper didn't go unnoticed. "Kids and their pop references."

I stood, maneuvering my legs with ease to scoop the Aether beast into my arms. Walking towards the duo seated on the couch, I let Nellie loose to torture the forsaken genius who obviously watched too many outlandish shows or read too many fantastical books. Not that it was a bad thing. They served as a good distraction back when I was alive.

As Nellie curled up on the girl's abdomen, I spoke, "You're weird."

She smiled back, a weird excitement in her voice, "And you're dead."

"Ouch," I muttered, sitting beside her.

Nuzzling at her side, Nellie yawned in comfort as her fur was stroked lightly. Nimble fingers caressed the drakon that hummed quietly, each sound resonated with our hearts as a result of its magical capabilities. Almost as if the cat was an incarnation of sirens, except less hostile and all the more infuriating.

I asked, "Does the weirdo have a name?"

She smiled genuinely, and with her same enthusiasm spoke sweetly, "Irene."

Irene.

For some reason unknown to me, I played that name over in my head. I liked the way it rolled off her tongue, I liked the way she spoke it. It was a fitting name, for a bundle of vibrant innocence and childish mannerisms. And whatever else she was hiding.

It reminded me of life.

I watched again as she ran a soft, pale hand lazily through Nellie's soft fur. The still image was so perfect, with the lighting enhancing Irene's glow. Irene acted as if she'd been here for years, fitting right in as if it was the obvious choice. Making it look so easy, so normal.

There was nothing normal about this situation. She was alive and they were not. She had a future and they did not. She had a life. The sad truth was she didn't belong here.

So why did it hurt every time I tried to open my mouth and communicate the bare minimum?

Go back to Earth. That's where you belong.

"What's it like, in Grim?" Pondered Irene aloud. I choked on my words, swallowing them for another time. This picture of bliss was something I didn't feel like breaking any time soon. This illusion of comfort that we longed for for a long time.

I crossed my arms behind my head, nonchalantly leaning back as I suggested, "It'd be better just to show you."

A thunderous clank clamoured from the kitchen and emerged an outraged Helen. Her blonde hair slicked back into a ponytail. It was amusing seeing her flustered… or in this case furious.

Her eyes were trained on me with such icy hostility and shock. "Out? Are you out of your bloody mind? Moon save me if you actually think this is smart."

I whistled as I hoisted Irene up, my hand entwined with hers as she stood, clearly confused. Peering down, I sent a blank stare toward Helen and even met Yudai's curious gaze behind her.

"We'll be back by eleven-thirty at the latest."

"Are you just going to ignore me? Was your earlier meeting not en—"

"I said," I raised my voice barely by a decibel, cutting Helen's sentence off with a crisp undertone of a threat, "we'll be back by eleven-thirty at the latest."

She bristled before obeying my unheard command and with a harsh tug dragged Yudai back to the kitchen. It wasn't out of proportion for Helen to freak out, but neither was a harmless stroll through Atlantis; the unsleeping city.

Strapping my scarlet scarf around Irene's pale neck, I chucked over a spare coat. Soon after tying our shoes, Irene waltzed out the apartment door. For dramatic flair, I made sure to shut the door with a solid thud.

I took one look at Irene's smiling face and off we went.

---

I remembered when I first saw the world speckled underneath a special blanket of darkness. I had arrived like a lost puppy, so confused and afraid. I hadn't so much spawned in the city but rather the outskirts on a bridge before a large castle, grey towers jutted from all over. Although beautifully illuminated the huge palace wasn't what caught my eye. But rather the red aurora that streaked a carnival of colour upon the black canvas that was the sky. Among them were flickering stars shining a different spectacle of colour — fading in and out bleeding in together. The start was nowhere to be seen.

It was that same sky Irene looked up to right now, breathless.

A small grin crawled onto my face. "Beautiful isn't it?"

We stood on the roof of the apartment complex, leaning against the wired fence instead of walking the polluted streets (as I subtly suggested to Helen). A view was a view no matter the place.

Helen would have stabbed me three times had she known I messed with her. Gotta love your friends.

"I've never seen anything like it." In the cold, her breath took shape momentarily before dissipating into the air.

I rubbed my gloved hands together and shed my coat, willing to feel the cool breeze ruffle my loose clothes. Climbing onto the dangerously thin fence, I balanced with my arms outstretched as the wind approached me. Just for a moment, I wanted to feel like I was flying.

Surrounding us were buildings as far as the eye could see, in the city of Atlantis roads were bustling at the dead of night. Lights flickered on one by one as residents concluded or started their day. Grim was a city like none in the waking world. Here people paraded around as if night were day and danced around as if music came with the moonlight. It was a routine everyone was fond of.

I looked down where Irene watched me, and a hint of worry sparkled in her eyes. I laughed at her and offered an arm up. She politely declined.

What she said next had me beat.

"What would happen if I pushed you off, especially since you're dead and all," she taunted, "for educational purposes of course."

My insides clenched as I chuckled slightly, shaking my head as I observed the girl more closely. Like black ink her hair shimmered, pooling like a sea at night. Her eyes shared its same darkness however sparkled with the curious intent of a child, eager to absorb the answers to this new reality.

I dropped back down next to Irene, whose cheeky expression surprised me. "Since you asked so nicely, I regret to inform you that although I wouldn't die my soul would suffer immense damage. A few cracked bones if you will."

She blinked confused, "Your soul?"

I continued as I put on my navy coat. "Grim doesn't house the bodies of the dead, simply their souls. Where my physical body becomes tree food on earth, my soul stays confined to this world. Taking the shape of what we remember to be our bodies."

Lost in deep thought another question popped into her brilliant mind. Before she could ask I finished, "Your body and soul, however, are right next to me."

Watching as her shiny hair blindingly sparked, reflecting the stars, Irene pursed her lips together deep in thought. Such pretty youth was wasted in this world. This cage.

"If I'm not dead then what am I?"

"Alive," I stated.

And wrong, I almost bespoke. Grim — the only place where being alive was the odd thing, and treated like a parasite that people feared. I never feared the living, I was once alive. We were all once alive.

"It's not that we don't want you to stay," I leaned my back against the fence as I took another long look at the red blossoms of the sky, "It's just that you're different, you're alive. We'd prefer it to stay that way."

By the sadness on her face, I see she didn't take the news well.

"Earth is your home, and Grim is ours. We cannot change that."

"You can't decide that for me."

"It's not a choice to decide, it's the truth. You don't belong here."

She raised her arms frustrated, "Don't you dare start on that as well. I'm not even on Earth and I'm still hearing the same things."

"It's dangerous here."

"Oh please, what's there to be afraid of?" She shook her head in disbelief. "You?"

"Yes!" I attested, "Me, the ghouls, the bloody fork you use to eat, everything here is a threat to someone like you."

"Someone like me" she parroted angrily. "What am I? Some fragile stray dog that's too sick to survive?"

"You will be if you keep this up."

"So what, I'm supposed to leave this place like nothing happened like I didn't just so happen to fall into the literal land of the dead? Do we even know why I'm here?"

I began shaking my head. "It's better you forget this happened completely."

The silence that befell us was agonizing and bitter. I hadn't meant to address the situation this way let alone this poorly. What was with me today?

Hell, what was with her!? She just fell into the pool of bloody corpses and decided this place would be great for her picnic trip, what outrageous thinking.

"You know my mother always said I didn't belong with the family—"

"You are not gonna turn this around with a sob story."

"— and when I finally found the place I belonged I was ostracised and isolated—"

"Please stop."

"All I'm trying to say is," she said exasperated, "think it over. Give it the night, take all the time you need, just let me stay here. I'll be good, I won't make a mess, I'll be quiet. I'll behave. I'll do whatever I need to do, just don't leave me alone again."

I hadn't realized how close we were until I felt her hands shakingly cling to my arms. I was taller than her, not by much but enough to look down at her with guilt and pity. In her simple brown eyes, I saw the same sadness I found in myself. Reluctantly I gave in, her stubbornness getting the better of me. Conversation was never really my strong suit. I should have left the talking to Helen.

"Fine, I'll let you stay the night to…think it over. Also," I add, " I'm sorry."

With the jab of my hand, I knocked her out once more.