Disclaimer: "Dead Like Me" and all related subjects, places, characters and names are copyrighted by MGM. I do not own Dead Like Me or anything related to it. All the Characters used in this are fiction, any and all similarities with reality is a pure coincidence. Also if you want to use any characters in your own story/stories please tell me before you publish the story.

Dead Like Me: The Days After Life

"Wait! It gets worse!"

I sat there holding my head in my hands, I couldn't cry, I couldn't be happy. I looked at these so called reapers, what were they? Why were they? And why in gods name did they take me! twenty-one years, only a few more years in college. I wondered if any dead person could cry or laugh, cause I just lost everything and yet I couldn't cry, I realized that it couldn't be any worse and yet I couldn't smile.

A bloody bookcase shook wildly and dropped all its books on me, and all I could do is scream as they came crashing down. I never felt any land though, I never felt any book hit me. you would think the Lord of the Rings would leave an impression on you, but you wouldn't really think it would be on your forehead.

Yes I am Mary Jane, M.J. if you will. And this sucks big time, I was invisible to the world and I was told there should be a light, a bright blue light. Where the hell was my light! "I'm sorry, miss, would you like something to drink?" the bartender suddenly asked. I looked up from my hands and looked at him questioning, was he talking to me? I wasn't invisible? I wasn't dead?

"Me?" I asked just to be sure, he just nodded with a questioning look on his face, "I…" I looked at the reapers, staring was more the word. "I would like a whiskey" I said, the others looked as surprised as me. "What is going on?" the only guy there asked, his name was Frank he told me. Frank, it just didn't seem to fit the guy.

"I have no freaking clue" that was his girlfriend, or at least I thought she was. I crashed at her place last night, Faith was her name, and having Faith like her, now that was something else. She was dead as well, so is Frank and so is Chloë. We're all dead but still alive, they call it undead, but that sounded so cliché, so Dracula. Faith seemed to be the one either having a shit load of fun or really covering up how shitty she felt with fun. Nobody could really tell.

"She's one of us" there was the important guy again, Sir Alex Grey, well actually I could call him Alex but the sir part fit him better, I mean he thought he was important so he looked important. "Fine replacement for Chief isn't she" he said with both a smile on his face and a cynic tone in his voice. The bartender placed the whiskey in front of me "Now that would seem like a orange juice girl to me Chloë" Alex said, I looked at him raising one eyebrow.

"Never mind, Chloë you're taking rookie, here" Alex said to Chloë handing her three square white papers, "Jesus, three, who's the sicko behind this?" that was all I heard her say, she added something in thought. Three, three deaths isn't that much in a city like this, "there's one real nasty one in there, be sure to pop the soul before E.T.D. there might not be much left afterwards, and give one to M.J., get her into the groove ASAP" Alex didn't even to bother answering the question, he was a weird guy. He also seemed to be the oldest, I guessed him around thirty, give or take a year, or two.

"Come on, try to keep up" it was Chloë, she really wanted to go, so I slammed the whiskey down the hatch and followed her, strange, I felt a bit woozie at first but then it suddenly cleared up. The whiskey seemed to have little effect. "what's the rush?" I asked her pacing very fast to be able to keep up. I looked over my shoulder one more time and saw Alex give two more memo notes to Frank and another two to Faith. It seemed that they had a tough day today. While Chloë grabbed my hand and started walking pulling me to the exit I saw that Alex was still left with two more deaths.

She was the strong silent type of girl, not the kind of girl you would dare talk to in a bar but still, something in her eyes made you wonder, was she really like this. "The first isn't far away, just around the corner" she said to me, she flashed the top note to me, it had a name, a location and a time, "initials, last name, location and estimated time of death" she explained to me without even waiting for me to ask the question.

Around the corner was a paper stand, seemed harmless enough. Some kids, a busy street off course. Try and walk across the corner and not see a busy street in New York. "look for risk factors" Chloë told me, what would she mean by that, I just started summing up "The streets, speeding cars, window washer" I looked up to see if there was any there, "sorry scratch that last one"

"The paper stand" Chloë said and walked up to it, the two kids looked interested in some kids magazine, but while the one was bugging the salesman the other nicked a package of cigarettes. The thief put the smokes in his pocket and elbowed the decoy to notify him, "come on Rob" he said. Oh no, Rob, R. A. Bennings. Chloë realized this as well and read the note again, she was having a hard time with this, "He's just a boy!" I wanted to shout but I kept my voice down, I shouted with a whisper. "You can't do this, We can't do this!" Chloë just looked down at the pavement, she needed to gather some strength or something.

"There is nothing we can do about it, we just follow orders, such is life" Chloë seemed so sober about this, perhaps that was needed in this line of work, distance. But he was just a boy! Just before the two ran of Chloë touched the shoulder of R. A. Bennings, a golden glow ran down his back as his soul was freed. Last thing I heard him say was "no I can't, please Theo, I am asthmatic" he was probably forced into smoking a fag. His soul appeared next to us as we heard a chocking cough in the alleyway.

Chloë put her right arm around the boy, "It's ok" that's all she said. The thief, apparently his name was Theo, freaked out and ran out of the alleyway, some friend that was. I looked back at Chloë, wondering if I should stop him from running. Chloë just shook her head, it was no use she knew that and deep inside I knew that to.

Rob got his lights, whatever it was it was beautiful. Bright blue and beautiful. As he ran off into those lights and slowly disappeared. I got a disgusting taste in my mouth, this sucked, and I got the feeling my day was getting a lot worse. I looked at Chloë again as she turned the memo into a small ball of white, nothing important, piece of paper. She looked at it one last time and then threw it away. From her right eye rolled a tear, she cried, Chloë cried. I was right, it was an act to protect herself in this line of work.

I felt like I had to pad her shoulder but something stopped me while I was lifting my hand. I don't know what it was, perhaps I realized that she didn't need it, that she never needed it. Quickly she snapped back to her senses "such is life" she repeated and walked off, she didn't say anything to me.

She kept walking for some time, then came to a standstill, in front of a big office building. She turned to me "it's never easy" she said, her eyes were still red, the boy must have stirred something in her, and it wasn't just his age. I looked at my watch and remembered the E.T.D. on this one, we had some spare time. "So tell me, how old were you?" I asked hoping that she would understand what I asked.

"Twenty-three, and a half actually" she said. She was calm again, back to her normal self, she wasn't over Rob yet, she just put it away somewhere, in a dark hole where everything else went. "I deserved it though" she added with a grin, it seemed that she was over her own death. "I was a drug addict, shot trying to get away from the big boss, we never thought he would realize we took some for ourselves, but he did" Chloë a drug addict, she wasn't the drug addict type, she probably stopped using it after death.

"wow, well at least you have a story to tell your grandchildren" I said ending with a grin, a joke about somebody's death is never funny. Chloë smiled, it wasn't meant but I guess she wanted me to feel in place or something. "so what did you do wrong?" Chloë asked me, she probably knew it was the books that killed me.

"Well apart from stealing cookies from the jar, nothing, at least not what I could think of" I answered her, she really made me think, "unfair isn't it?" she said as she sat down with her back against the office building, "a boy, worst crime he did was probably steal some gum, died at the age of ten" Chloë was starting to open up or something, "a girl, stealing a cookie from a jar, slipping on the chair she used to climb up, died at the age of nine" she shook her head. "it's unfair, but you could realize that it could always be worse, we should be glad we don't have the real shitty jobs" she said, real shitty jobs, now what could be worse then death.

"Chief never gave us the real gross and disgusting murders, he said that those things weren't for us" who was this chief guy they all talked about? "now Alex seems to think the same way" she shook her head again "it's eating him away, I can see it" Chloë sighed, she looked at me with a reassuring smile, "time to fly" she said. "This one is yours" she said as we walked in the lobby of the office, she handed me the little white paper.

L. S. M. Rafael, probably a rich boy or girl, three names. Who would give their son or daughter three names? Chloë had walked on to the reception, she had already read the name. I quickly followed her. "we are looking for mister or misses Rafael" the receptionist raised an eyebrow and made half a turn to point at the sign behind her, it said "Rafael Incorporated"

"oh shit" I said a bit to loud perhaps. "do you have an appointment?" the receptionist asked after turning back in the right position behind her desk. Chloë didn't know what to say for a second, "ehm… no but Rafael does" she didn't know how good this would work "I was told to ask for a L. S. M. Rafael" she added. "how late were you expected?" the receptionist asked. "we weren't really expected" Chloë said, she looked at the clock, the E.T.D. was coming closer and she really wanted to pop the soul before it happened, that always seemed more honorable.

"Sorry ma'am but L. S. M. Rafael asked not to be disturbed" the receptionist asked, Chloë was on the edge of getting really pissed, "That's because he's supposed to be seeing us!" she said to the somewhat agitated receptionist. "Third floor, second door on your right" she sighed. "Finally…" Chloë said being relieved "…thanks" you could just hear that she didn't really meant that.

We stepped inside the elevator, as the doors closed I looked at Chloë again, "I hate family businesses" she said to me with a grin, "come on, cheer up, you don't want to be like me" there, that was the proof, she was being so quiet and unhappy on purpose, it was her way of coping with this. I curled up the right corner of my mouth, "Death is my business…" I said raising both my eyebrows "…And business is good". The lift stopped at the third floor.

We walked silently into the second room to the right. Before Chloë opened it she whispered "it's your soul, you have to pop it" at the moment I didn't know what she meant but it became clear to me soon enough, I realized I had to touch the guy to set his soul free right before he bit the dust.

A short bald man behind a desk, probably wondering what two young girls were doing in his office. He didn't have an appointment with us, but we did have one with him. He stood from his chair and reached out, Chloë shook his hand unhesitant. I walked up to him and did the same, but the shake was different. A glow emanated from his hand crawling up his arm. I was done, it was done.

I didn't at all catch the conversation they had, Laurence and Chloë. But all of a sudden Chloë grabbed me by my hand and drew me outside the door, "try no to stay for to long, things we do might interfere with death's plan" she said as we waited two minutes. The E.T.D. went by but we heard nothing, shouldn't we make sure he was dead? How would we know if he was dead?

Three minutes later Chloë made up her mind and opened the door, she screamed, quite loud. Then she looked over her shoulder and gave me a wink "remember we are bystanders" she whispered to me. Mister Rafael's soul walked towards us, he looked with an expression on his face I couldn't really place. Perhaps he realized he died but didn't know how to feel.

"So what now?" he asked us, "now we bring you to the light" Chloë said. She took him by his hand and walked towards the elevator. "how do we know where the light is?" I asked her, "we don't" she said raising her shoulders. The doors to the elevator opened and there is was, a bright blue light. So this is what it was supposed to be, this is what I missed.

"Why didn't I get a light?" I asked Chloë, I really wanted to know what was wrong with me, or what was right. If it was anything, if it had anything to do with me. "Call it destiny or fate, you are a reaper, we don't get lights" she explained, and although she actually didn't explain anything I felt comfortable knowing that at least somebody thought there was a big plan in all this.

"I am really sorry you have to see this one" Chloë said as she reaped to soul of the last memo note. After the office building we walked a short while but after that we had taken a taxi, walking took to long. Central park, man this was a big place. Especially when you where just looking for one unfortunate man or woman. Luckily we knew it was going to be around Harlem Meer, that narrowed it down somewhat.

It was only a short distance from where we were, now the lake was a bit big but it shouldn't be really hard to find P. R. de Vries, would it? There were two men on the bench, both wearing black and sunglasses, although one seemed genuine in his evilness the other looked a lot like a undercover cop or something. And seeing the look on the other man's face I think he saw it too.

Now somehow we had to get to those men, because if there was any risk factor around this lake, not counting the lake itself off course, it was a undercover cop and a criminal. As we got closer we heard the men talking, "de Vries?" I heard the genuine crook ask, "yeah my family is from the Netherlands, originally off course" the other man responded, ow that man was so going to kick the bucket.

Chloë and I walked by them as if we were enjoying the park, what would the odds be that there was another de Vries around here, I looked at Chloë and she seemed to think the same as me, slim to none. Chloë tapped de Vries on his shoulder and asked for the time, "almost four o'clock" he answered. We nodded and just walked on, "move it" she whispered to me, "you don't want to be caught in the crossfire"

We walked to a safe distance, and then turned around, the man had been found out and the real bastard had him by the throat. A black van pulled up next to the two men, de Vries was pulled in the van, and after some sounds of something hitting bone we heard three loud shots, one of them was a shotgun. The mutilated body was tied to a jack of the van and they threw it in the lake.

I almost puked when I saw this, I could barely hold it in. the spirit of the recent deceased walked up to the two girls, as if drawn to them. "It was to be expected" he said, "I put my nose in places it didn't belong" he shrugged. "well at least you'll never have to be undercover again" Chloë said to him placing a hand on his shoulder, was it me or did she always do that.

A big blue light shone from the lake, "I know what to do now, walk towards the light, right?" Chloë and I just nodded, and he waved. He seemed to be contend, he had no questions wasn't angry, not anything, he just walked into the light. I looked at Chloë and she looked back, she raised her shoulders and took me by the hand, only this time she didn't pull me somewhere, she just held my hand, to support me or something.

"let's get back to the bar" she said to me, she seemed to have lit up around me, she wasn't as dark or doomish as before. "let's take the bus" she said to me while walking off a bit putting some tension on our arms, I looked back to the lake one last time and shook my head. Side by side we walked to the bus stop, let's hope our luck would keep up, let's hope there were still some empty seats in the bus.

We walked into the bar, the bar that seemed to be the only place all the reapers felt comfortable. Chloë had held my hand the entire way there but when we walked into the bar she let go, left my warm hand alone. I wouldn't know what it really meant but it felt good to know that there was at least somebody holding my hand in this new life.

Everybody else was there, wait not everybody, Alex wasn't there yet. I wasn't even sure he came back after his reaps, it seemed that he was only there beforehand to give us our memo notes. Faith and Frank were awfully close together, "hey lovebirds" Chloë shouted across the bar, they looked over their shoulders. Both with a smile on their face "we aren't love birds" Frank said, "we never laid a hand on one another"

"Then what is that arm doing there" I asked pointing at Frank's arm around Faith's lower waist. He quickly redrew his arm and smiled nervously. "Now I like the rookie" Chloë said with a big smile on her face, "and I don't" Frank answered giving her a wink, he didn't mean that, at least I hope he didn't.

"So why are you in such a foul mood Chloë" Faith asked her mirroring the smile on her face. "can't a girl be happy?" she asked not letting any energy fall from her smile. "Now I want a whiskey" Chloë said in general but the bartender picked up a glass and started to pour it. "then I'll take a orange juice this time" I said with the same tone.

We sat for a while talking about the souls today when Alex walked in with a blood stained shirt, we all looked at him and Faith opened her mouth, probably to ask what the hell had happened. "Don't Ask" he told us with a firm voice. He sat on the empty barstool right of me and smiled when he saw our drinks, "see I told you so"