Chapter 3 - (no name yet)

Leigh took out her key and was ready to unlock the door to her home when she realised that the door was already open.

“That irresponsible useless piece of crap,” she muttered. “He could at least have had the decency to close the door properly when he left.”

When she got into the bedroom, Rick was there, reading one of her magazines.

“Do I want bigger boobs? Yes please,” he said, grinning, taking up a pen and marking her magazine.

“What are you still doing here?” Leigh demanded. “And why is the bed still unmade?”

“Well, you said that I should make the bed before I leave. And technically, I never left. So...does that explain the mystery of the messy bed?”

“Leave. Now.”

“But I’m so comfortable.” He put down her magazine.

“Get up.”

He smirked. “If you insist.” He threw the covers off the bed, swung off the bed and stood up.

Leigh yelped and looked away. “You—what—God!” she picked up a pillow and threw it at him, and he dutifully used it to cover up his…area. “Go get dressed now. I mean it.”

“Why don’t you dress me?”

“Put on your freaking clothes now!”

“Okay, okay, jeez.” He walked off to the bathroom, dropping the pillow and picking up his clothes along the way.

When Rick came out of the bathroom, Leigh slapped him across the face.

“Hey!” He yelped. “What the hell was that for?”

“You,” she threw another pillow at him, “didn’t tell me that I was going to be working with a grim reaper for a sylph!”

“I told you that you were going to be working in a different environment.”

“Different? Different? That’s the understatement of the freaking millennium!”

He caught another pillow and put it down on the bed calmly. “Well, how are you taking it?”

“Not very well.” Leigh sat down on her bed, sighing. “Lorelei—my boss—told me that I wasn’t human. At least, not completely.”

Rick grinned. “I knew you didn’t smell as bad.”

“That’s what I said. But…what the hell can I be?” She looked up. “Wait a minute, what the hell are you?”

“I’m part of the jury.”

“The jury? What’s the jury?”

“They decide whether the people go to Heaven or the Underworld.”

“So…is there a judge?”

“No. Just the jury. It’s just like a jury in the jury court.”

“But who are you to decide whether each and every person deserves to go to Heaven or not?”

“We don’t. At least, not each and every one of them. There are some cases when the person—well, the soul’s level of goodness and badness or too…balanced.”

“…how does that work?”

“Well, for example, let’s say that Bob’s life started at twenty-three and on that day he killed a man, but died an hour later trying to save a woman. Well, killing a person and saving another were the only two things he had ever done in his life. Is he good or bad? Of course, in real life the souls who face the jury have done a lot more things.”

This intrigued Leigh. “Tell me the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make as part of the jury.”

He shook his head. “Sorry. These things are strictly confidential.”

Leigh sighed. “I thought so. I’m really curious though. If I’m not human, what am I?”

Ricky leaned close and inhaled, breathing in her scent. “You still smell kind of human. Just not entirely. Maybe you’re half human.”

“How is that supposed to make me feel any better?”

He shrugged. “You never asked me to make you feel better.” He smirked. “I certainly have a few ideas on how to do that, though. All you have to do is ask.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She stood up and looked down at him. “Rick, you’re going to have to leave now. I was more than kind when I let you stay last night, and you weren’t even drunk!”

“Well, I don’t remember you having any complaints on what we were doing,” he said, still smirking and raising an eyebrow.

“A poor lapse in my judgement. Rick, you need to leave. Please.”

“Why can’t I stay?”

“Why? Why?” Leigh resisted the urge to slap him across the face again. “Because we’re not together anymore.”

“A minor detail that can easily be fixed,” he said hopefully.

She pointed at her bedroom door. “Out. Now.”

“Babe…”

“No, no, no. You don’t get to babe me, Rick. Out.”

He stood up, running his hand through his tousled blonde hair. “I understand that, I guess. But can you please let me crash at your place? I’ll sleep on your couch and your couch only. I promise.”

“What? Why?”

He smiled weakly. “It’s nothing. I just…can’t go back to my place.”

“Why not?”

He looked at her pleadingly. “It’s nothing. Please, Leigh.”

She looked at him suspiciously, but finally gave in to his adorable puppy dog eyes. Rick had beautiful chocolate-coloured eyes. “Fine,” she grumbled. “But you’re going to have to do the chores.”

“No problem.”

“And you’re going to have to pay half the rent.”

“Of course.”

So he wasn’t broke. Leigh shrugged. Before, she would’ve offered to help out, but he wasn’t her problem now. “You’re sleeping on the couch,” she reminded him before heading for a shower.

♦

Rick came in when she was in the middle of her shower.

“What the hell are you doing?” she screamed at him, grabbing for a towel.

He waved away her question. “Please. As if I haven’t seen them all just this morning.”

She pursed her lips. “Rick. I’m going to say this once and once only. Get out.”

“I want to take a shower.”

“You’ve had a million chances for a shower. How about when I was at work this morning? You could’ve taken a shower then.”

“Let me rephrase my sentence. I want to take a shower with you.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen anytime soon, buddy, so go away.”

He sat down in the middle of her bathroom floor and lit up a cigarette.

“Rick! No smoking!”

“Jeez. What can I do?”

“Uh, leave?”

“Except for that.”

“Well, not much, really.” She finished off her shower and wrapped her towel around her. “The shower’s free now,” she said before leaving the bathroom and abruptly slamming the door shut in his face.

She sat down in her bed, groaning as she buried her head in her hands. Her life was not at its best right now. An ex-boyfriend who won’t stop pestering her, a job with immortals and the fact that she probably wasn’t human herself.

The fact that she wasn’t human was kind of cool. But it worried her that she didn’t know what she was. What if she was half vampire and actually had a secret lust for blood?

“You’re not a vampire,” Rick said, coming out of the bathroom.

“What—”

“I can read minds. It’s quite useful really. And I can tell you that you’re not a vampire.”

“Why not?”

“If you were a half vampire, you’d burn down from the inside out slowly and die at the early age of seventy.”

“Ew. Why?”

“Well, if you were half vampire, the vampire part of you would try to devour the human part of you, if you know what I mean. If you’re lucky, you become a full vampire, if you’re not, you die. Chances are that, well, you die.”

Leigh grimaced. “How do you know that I’m not a half vampire? I could be burning down from the inside out right now.”

“No, you couldn’t, because if you were, you’d be suffering from major heart problems.”

“I pity the half vampires.”

Rick shrugged. “Not many vampires and humans mate anyway. Well, actually, they do, but most of the humans are killed in the process.”

“I’m assuming that this is called rape. No human with a straight mind would possibly want to die during sex.”

“It would be quite a…erotic death. The human wouldn’t suffer.”

She went into the kitchen and opened up the fridge to see what she could have for dinner.

“Oh, by the way,” Rick called from inside her room. “You’re going to have to restock the fridge.”

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