Erica steps out of a door that has just appeared in the wall. She looks around her at the infinite rows of server stacks and sighs. She closes her eyes. Ah, yes, there. Two life forms over there at the central office, and there over on the far side of the hall, another door has just opened and deposited three more beings into this realm. If she's quick she'll get to Jeremiah and Rianna before the other three. With a quick roll of the spine and a change of footwear, she sets off at a sprint down the aisle in front of her.
It doesn't take long. A few zigs and a couple of zags and she pulls up short just as Jeremiah turns to brandish his flaming sword at her.
“Oh, put that out, you great idiot! You can't go throwing flames around here!” she hisses as she touches a finger to his sword and the flames sputter out.
Jeremiah blinks slowly. His mouth falls open a little bit.
“How did you do that? You're not supposed to be able to do that!” he sputters.
“What, put out a fire? It's hardly rocket science. And besides holy flame can be extinguished by any celestial, you clot. Now listen up, we don't have much time. The others will be here soon and they want to put you back in your bottle.”
“Well, yes, I know.” Jeremiah looks bored.
Rianna, who has been sitting in the office, pops her head out of the door.
“Hello Erica, just a quick question: what on earth do you think you're doing?”
“The unexpected.”
“What does that mean? We had a plan, didn't we?”
“Yes, but plans change and for once I want everyone to shut up and listen to me instead of everyone telling me what I should do!”
“Allright, allright, keep your hair on!” Jeremiah interjects
Erica is just about to come up with a scathing reply when Stacey, Lucy and Albert appear behind Jeremiah.
“Ah good, you've kept him busy long enough for us to get here and smite the blighter!” Albert says, looking proud.
“Erica!” says Stacey, “Where have you been? And why do you look so… Deathy?”
“I got my mojo back” Erica says, grinning and twirling her skull topped cane around one hand.
“Wait, but does that mean…?”
“No, it's not all over yet. I just realised that I was still me. Whatever that means. No time to explain right now. We've got to get this mess sorted out.”
“Precisely, so let's smite the bastard!” Albert cries and starts forward towards Jerry.
“Stop, Albert! No!” the force of Erica's voice pushes everyone back a few steps.
They all look at her, shocked. Lucy recovers first and smiles.
“Well, well, looks like our little reaper found some new skills. No matter. It doesn't change the fact that Jeremiah either has to go back in his hole. It's the only way we can reverse the damage and get everything back to the way it was before.”
“Is it though?” Erica replies, “What if there was another way?”
“But I want to smite him!” Albert complains.
“Shush! That might be an interim solution, but what does it really accomplish? Okay, so we put him back, what then? For how long? What happens the next time he gets out?”
“Ahem, I'm standing right here you know?” Jeremiah clears his throat.
“Well go on then, what happens if we put you back in the hole?”
“I'll just keep trying to find a way out and do this all over again.”
Erica points at him and he falls back into a chair.
“Exactly!” she scans the others’ faces, “Do you want to go through all of this again in another couple of millenia?”
“Well, no, obviously, but what else are we going to do. This is the way we always do it. Find bad guy, trap bad guy, put bad guy in hole. It's a tried and trusted method as old as time!” Albert says.
“Well, I have another idea.”
“Go on then,” says Stacey, a little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
“Make him human.”
“What? No, you must be kidding,” Jeremiah laughs.
“I'm not. Think about it. You were on your own in that place for millenia. You've done your time, but there's no place upstairs for you anymore. Your old job is gone. You can't have mine, and Lucy doesn't want you downstairs, am I right?”
“That is correct,” Lucy nods.
“So you've got three choices here, my friend. One, we put you back in your hole to stew over all the slights you think others have done you. Bit self-indulgent if you ask me. Door number two, Albert smites, erm, I mean, deletes you from the system and you cease to exist. Bit harsh, and you don't strike me as the type to go quietly. You'd probably end up infecting the system like some weird ghost in the wires. And then there's door number three: I put your soul back in your body and you go and have a human life. The one thing you have never experienced. Be one of your father's favoured beings. Bask in the glow, yada yada yada. And then one day, when you pop your clogs, I'll take you off to your afterlife, which is entirely based on your human life and will not be influenced by anything that has happened up to this point. I'm offering you a second chance at your very own happily ever after. So, what do you say?”
“Hang on a minute, what about all the damage he's done today?” Rianna asks, “All those people he brought back? All the distress he caused?”
“Well, technically he didn't actually kill or maim anyone. He just made today an absolute nightmare. It's been, what, about six hours since he got out? I'm pretty sure that once everything goes back to normal, about ninety-nine point nine percent of the humans will think there was some kind of weird gas leak that gave them all a really bad hallucination. The others will start forums about the great conspiracy. They'll get over it. They always do,” Stacey says, winking at Erica and smiling.
“He killed Nawn!” Rianna cries.
“No, he didn't. Nawn is fate, Riri. You can't kill fate. Just like you can't kill the concept of life or death,” Lucy lays a hand on Rianna’s shoulder.
“Exactly, and Nawn was very much up and about when I left them only a short while ago,” Erica adds.
She turns back to Jeremiah who is rubbing his chin and thinking. He looks up at her and she sees his eyes soften ever so slightly.
“A second chance, huh? You know, I think I can make that work,” he says quietly, “but can I keep the sword?”
“No, sorry mate. But to be honest, humans have a lot more terrifying weapons than that thing, so if you choose that path, I'm sure you'll find something more to your liking,” Erica says.
“But preferably don't do that,” interjects Lucy, “Or you'll end up with me after all, and, well, neither of us want that, now do we?”
“Hmm, perhaps not,” Jerry stands and hands Erica his sword, “Allright then, have at it.”
“Any requests on where you'd like to live?” Erica asks.
“Hmm, well, I've always been partial to Italian food. So, yes, Italy seems like a good spot.”
“Italy it is.”
Erica places a hand on the machine beside her and closes her eyes. A ball of light folds around her fingers. She pulls the light from the machine and pushes it into Jeremiah's head.
“Oh wow! That feels -”
Jeremish vanishes. As he does, there is a slight increase in the sound of the server cooling fans all around them, as all across the world the dead souls find themselves returned to their afterlives. Lucy disappears and reappears a few moments later.
“Ah good, they're all back. Nicely done, reaper girl. Nicely done!” she applauds Erica softly and is gone.
Albert harrumphs and disappears into the office cubicle muttering something about running diagnostics. Rianna rushes over, gives Erica an impulsive hug, then hugs Stacey and starts heading for the elevator.
“At least I can go back to winning the dice rolls again! Thanks Stacey, thanks Erica.”
“Well,” Stacey says, turning back to Erica, “Looks like I might make that quilting bee after all. Care to join me?”
“Ah, well, that's very tempting but…”
Stacey laughs, “Don't worry, it's not for everyone. No hard feelings. I guess this is it then. We can all go home. Job well done, and all that.”
“Oh but, no, I would like to see you again…I mean, uhm, if you would like to… oh shoot, I'm really no good at this.”
“What? People?” Stacey laughs softly, and takes Erica's hand, “It's okay, I understand.”
“Maybe we could get some coffee sometime? I know this great little place in Glasgow,” Erica says, looking down at her feet and blushing furiously.
“That sounds like a plan. A very good plan,” Stacey answers, “You've got my number. Call me anytime.”
And with that, Stacey leaves Erica on her own with Albert.
He is sitting at his desk and clicking on things in a way that suggests he is not really working at all. Erica stands in the doorway and looks at him intently.
“So, you're my father?”
“Yes. When did you figure that out?”
“When I remembered who I was..again. It's difficult to explain. Did my mother know about you? What you are?”
“No, she never did, and I never had the heart to tell her, or you when she passed. I'm sorry about that.”
“Well, it seems we have plenty of time to make up for that. Do you get lunch breaks? Do you eat dinner?”
“Occasionally.”
“Would you like to have dinner sometime and tell me all about her?”
“Yes, that would be nice.”
“Good, then let's leave it at that for now. I'd best be off. Probably have quite the backlog to see to after today.”
Erica turns away from the door.
“Erica,” Albert stops her.
“Yes?”
“You're wrong, you know?”
“About what?”
“Not being good at this people thing.”
Erica smiles. She waves him goodbye and heads towards the elevator. She's got a mountain of things to add to her to-do list for tomorrow, but before she does anything, she's just going to make a quick stop in Venice. A little baby boy has just been born with a rather old soul, and she just wants to make sure he's gone to a good home. Just in case.
THE END
This is the final chapter of this novella. It's been a bit of a marathon to get it out and has changed many times over the years, some if it as recently as the day I actually hit publish on an episode. If nothing else, turning this story into episodes has taught me a lot more about writing than I had learned from any book!
If you made it this far, I thank you from the bottom of my inkwell and hope you will enjoy my next little adventure into serialised fiction.