There was nothing I could do but watch the reaper retrace his steps to Parker. Tears of pain slid down my cheeks but they slowly turned to fear when the reaper reached Parker.

His presence only confirmed what I had suspected. The gray aura was a sign that Parker was dying. The reaper was here for him. I had no idea why the reaper had singled me out or put the symbol on me. My main concern was Parker.

The reaper stopped when he reached Parker. I held my breath and watched helplessly as the reaper touched his scythe to Parker’s forehead. The spirit of Parker stepped out of his body and his body didn’t move.

I cried, tears slid down my face as the realization of what was happening and the full impact of what it meant.

When his spirit completely detached from his body, he stopped to look over his shoulder at me. Our eyes held for a moment and there was a whisper of a smile. Like he was trying to comfort me in some way. My heart ached for the boy who I had bonded with in a matter of days and the tears flowed.

The moment ended when he looked away and followed behind the reaper into the darkness, it wrapped around them and then began dissipate.

It was only when the darkness completely disappeared did time speed up and I was able to move. Parker’s body dropped to the ground. Everyone around him rushed to him but I knew there was no point. He was already gone. I swayed where I stood.

There was shouting and someone screamed but I couldn’t move. I was still held in place by the storm of emotions I was fighting my way through.

The pain on my arm was nothing compared to the pain in my chest. I had just watched a friend die and there had been nothing I had been able to do. It was the first time I had ever witnessed something like this. It was one thing seeing ghosts but to watch someone die had been a whole different thing.

It was chaos as teachers rushed to where Parker lay. There was a sound of sirens in the distance.

I couldn’t move any closer. I couldn’t see him like that, I needed to remember him alive. The last moments of when he looked back at me would stay with me far longer than the sight of his body being surrounded by people trying to save him.

I don’t know how long I stood there but it felt like hours. The paramedics arrived and worked tirelessly on Parker trying to save him. They loaded him into the ambulance and rushed him away but I knew they wouldn’t be able to bring him back.

In a daze, I walked home. My mind was frazzled, my emotions numb. I don’t know what time I finally walked into my house and dropped my bag to the floor. The house was empty, my grandmother was probably out but I couldn’t take anything in other than what I had just witnessed. It was like my mind was trying to make sense of it but I just couldn’t.

I opened the door to my room and stopped.

Damien stood beside my bed.

“Damien?” I whispered.

He frowned, and I realized he was looked at the throbbing wound on my arm. He moved closer to take hold of my arm and to study the symbol.

“I…Parker…” But I couldn’t string a sentence together. There was so much to tell him but I didn’t know where to start. And I had so many questions of my own. Like where had he been for the last week.

“Fuck,” he swore. He dropped my arm and began to pace.

It was only then I realized he had touched me. He had held my arm.

“How?” I asked.

He stopped pacing. “How what?”

“How…could you…touch me?”

He remained silent and I couldn’t take it.

“Answer me Damien. No more secrets,” I told him, starting to feel some sort of strength return. He wasn’t going to keep things from me, I was determined to learn the truth no matter the consequences.

There was a part of me that totally believed that if I had known for definite what was going to happen to Parker I would have been able to change it. I would have been able to save him.

“You were right.”

I moved to sit down, still feeling shaking on my legs. My feet hurt from the walking but I didn’t removed my shoes.

“I was your guardian angel.”

It was mind blowing.

“How…why…?” I let out an emotional breath, feeling the build up of emotion.

“The more important question is how you got that?” he pointed to the symbol.

I looked down to the symbol. It held all the images of Parker and the pain of losing him. It also held the fear I had experience. I shivered.

“What happened Tessa?” Damien asked, more forcefully. He was closer, I hadn’t heard him at all.

“I…Parker.” This time when I spoke his name out loud I felt the lump in my throat and I swallowed. My eyes began to water.

“What happened?” Damien repeated. “I need to know.”

I brushed the tears away and took a shaky breath, trying to get myself together so I could tell him what happened.

“It’s Parker. He was just standing there. Then it went dark. And then there was …the reaper.” I took a slow breath trying to fight the grief I felt for losing Parker.

“The reaper was there?” Damien asked.

I nodded. “He was going for Parker but then he saw me. He came over and…touched me. He burned the symbol into my skin.”

“Fuck.” Damien was pacing again but this time he was more agitated than before.

“What Damien?” I asked, trying to figure out whey he seemed to be freaking out over it. “What does it mean?”

I wasn’t naive to believe that it meant nothing but I wasn’t sure I was ready to find out what it meant. My mind and emotions were still focussed on Parker. Reliving what happened over and over again in my mind.

He stopped. “It’s the touch of death.”

I frowned.

“Your aura is grey, like Parker’s was.”

Then it dawned on me, the reaper would return to collect my soul. I would follow in the same steps as Parker.

I didn’t know what to say to that. “But…why? I don’t understand.”

“You died Tessa. You don’t belong here. Death radiates from you and the reaper could see it as clear as day on you. That’s why I wanted you to stay far away from Parker. He will be back for you.”

It was a lot to take in.

“How long?”

“I don’t know. There is no way to know for sure.”

My first thought when to my grandmother. This would kill her. She wouldn’t survive it.

“Is there any way to stop it?” It was crazy I was asking him the question when he had spent the last seven years trying to take me back.

His eyes held mine before he shook his head slowly. “I don’t know.”

It hit me straight in the chest. I was going to die and there was no way to change it.

“Well,” I sighed. “You’re going to get what you want.”

I felt defeated and tired. My shoulders slumped, my gaze dropped to the floor. I couldn’t look at him right now. It was too hard.

“It was what I wanted.” His was talking in the past tense. My eyes lifted to meet his. “Before I knew the truth.”

“And that is?” I asked, my heart still heavy.

“That I was your guardian angel.”

I felt his words in every moment where he had saved me despite knowing he had wanted to return me to the death where I belonged.

“Where were you?” I asked. Why had he just disappeared for a week without a word of warning?

“Trying to find the truth of what happened.”

His eyes held mine. There was no more hatred. There was something different now. He was Damien but different.

“And did you find it?”

I was raw and vulnerable, and not sure if I could take anymore surprises but I had to know what had happened.

He nodded slowly. I was torn between wanting the truth and unsure if I could handle it in the state I was.