"…And you really don't want to keep staring. It's not as bad as it looks…well I mean it is bad, you're dead but that's not such a horrible thing…" Glen stammered, trying to calm down Spencer and Madison's new assignment as the small group finally approached him and the girl.
"Oh, for crying out loud, Glen, all you're doing is freaking her out worse." Madison snapped pushing the blonde guy away from the brunette. Turning to the distressed girl, Madison flashed her a huge smile. Spencer barely kept herself from rolling her eyes at the obvious fakeness of it and knew her equally fake "friendly" voice was about to make an appearance.
"Hi, I'm Madison. I know this all must be terribly confusing for you but don't worry, I'm here to help you through this." Aiden loudly cleared his throat behind the feisty girl. "Ok, fine, these two can help if you really want them to, not that you'll need it if you stick with me…"
"Madison…" Aiden warned, he stepped in front of the newly deceased girl, blocking her view of her former body.
"Oh, whatever, Aiden. Fine, do it your way." Madison flipped her hair off her shoulder while scowling at the taller guy in front of her.
"Gee, thanks, Madison." Aiden turned his attention back to the upset girl in front of him. Her sobs seemed to have subsided for the most part at their arrival. Mainly due to curiosity.
"Hi, I'm Aiden, please excuse Madison and Glen, they mean well and I'm sure you have a lot of questions but why don't we get away from here first? This isn't the most pleasant thing for you to be watching right now." He smiled broadly while holding out his hand.
"I'm not going anywhere with any of you until I get some answers. What the hell is going on here?" The short brunette looked at all of them, her eyes finally settling on the least threatening out of all of them in her opinion. Out of the four people, were they considered people, she briefly wondered. Regardless, out of the four surrounding her, the blonde girl seemed a lot more harmless than the others, besides, she had a sense of peacefulness about her that made Ashley feel more at ease.
"Ashley Davies, this is your death!" Glen exclaimed in cheesy game show host voice. He threw his arms open as if gesturing around them.
Seeing the freaked out look on Ashley's face from Glen's poor attempt at lightening the mood, Spence let out a sigh. Sometimes her brother really could be a tool of the highest order. "Really not helping, Glen." She quietly said. Aiden pushed the overly cheerful guy, shaking his head at him distastefully. Madison just rolled her eyes, she had learned long ago never to expect Glen to take anything seriously.
Taking a couple steps forward Spencer placed her hand on Ashley's upper arm, pleasantly surprised when Ashley didn't back away from her touch. Speaking in a low, calming voice like one would with a scared animal she attempted to comfort the upset girl. "I'm really sorry about all this. I'm not going to say I know what you're going through because it's different for everyone but I do know it must be a lot to take in all at once."
Ashley found her panic subsiding as the blonde talked to her. Her blue eyes pulled Ashley in, surrounding her with a blissful peace and reassurance that everything was going to be ok. She briefly wondered if she was about to be told to go into the light because she felt as if she could get lost in the intense light that was in Spencer's eyes.
"I'm Spencer, I was sent to help you with whatever I can and to make this transition as smooth as possible." Suddenly the panic reached a fevered pitch as Ashley registered what had been said.
"Wait, transition? What's going on? Who are all of you? Are you Angels?" A thousand and one different questions rushed through Ashley's head too fast to voice them all. She took a couple small steps back from the blonde. Maybe she wasn't so harmless after all.
Madison snorted, "Angels? Hardly, like those goody two shoes could be bothered with just one soul, to busy with more important things, or so they claim."
"Madison, you better show some respect…" Aiden gently chided.
Spencer shot the other two an annoyed look then turned back to Ashley, a gentle smile on her face. "No, we're not Angels, I'm a Fate, and by transition I just meant from the life you were use to on the Mortal Plane to your new existence here on The In Between."
"Fates? So you're all Fates? And what's The In Between?" For a few moments Ashley was able to forget about her broken and battered body laying a few feet away on the pavement. She thought either this was all a really weird dream or she was being Punk'd. I probably shouldn't have eaten that burrito before bed last night.
"Hardly, we're Fates," Madison gestured towards her, Aiden and Spencer, "Glen's just a Reaper." Her lowly opinion she held for Glen's position clearly showing in her voice.
"Hey, you know, I am so sick of you Fates and the way you look down on Reapers! We provide a very important service. Who else is going to help the newly departed onto the next chapter? We do all the grunt work and get none of the recognition. If it wasn't for us, The In Between would be over run with lost and confused Souls with no idea where to go or what to do." Glen's generally cheery face was red with anger, even the usually unflappable Aiden was shocked speechless by the outburst.
"Glen, not all Fates look down on Reapers, hello. You can't lump us all together, just because a few narrow minded ones seem to think they're better than others." Spencer gave a pointed look in Madison's direction. The Latina acted as if she could careless what Spencer or Glen thought about her, which was in fact the truth. Things where how they were, deal with it and move on was her only opinion on the matter.
"Yeah, Glen, I hang out with Reapers all the time, some of my best friends are Reapers, you included." Aiden added, patting the shorter guy on the back.
"I'm sorry, it's just we really do get looked down on and it gets to me sometimes…" Glen grinned at his sister and Aiden though anger still shown in his dark blue eyes.
"OK, as touching as all this surely is, to you at least, can we please get back to me and what is going on?" Spencer had to stop the amused grin that threatened to overtake her face at the sight of Ashley cutely pouting.
'Wait did I just think her pout was cute? Look at her eyes, I don't think I've ever seen that shade of brown before, it looks like she has little flecks of pure gold in them… Ok, seriously, Spencer, get a grip and stop looking at her like that. Yes, she is hot and incredibly adorable all at once she's just an assignment, nothing more.' Spencer was still staring into Ashley's eyes but had missed the question the girl had directed at her, deeply lost in her own thoughts.
'Uhh, Spence?" Aiden gently nudged her, shaking her out of her thoughts. She felt her cheeks grow a light red as she realized everyone was staring at her.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" She nervously shuffled her foot on the pavement, no longer able to look Ashley in the eyes until she had composed herself. She was sure if she was to look into those brown eyes right then, the other girl would be able to read her thoughts as easily as if she had blurted them out.
"I was asking you what exactly Fates are? I kind of get what a Reaper is." Ashley desperately wanted to catch the blonde's eyes again because they were the only thing keeping her grounded and calm at the moment but it seemed as if Spencer was looking everywhere but at her.
"That's a pretty long discussion but could we maybe all go somewhere else? I promise we'll answer your questions, I just don't think this is the best place to have this conversation." Spencer looked around as people where still rushing all over the scene of the accident. The police had arrived and taped off the area, it was only a matter of time before they removed the mangled air conditioner and Spencer did not want Ashley to see what she looked like underneath it. A little ways down the block, the boy Ashley had saved was sitting on his mothers lap, still crying as a paramedic looked him over.
Ashley followed Spencer gaze, a small smile on her face as she watched the small child. "I saved him, I did something good."
"Yeah, Ashley, you did real good. He's alive thanks to you." Spencer once again gently placed her hand on Ashley's toned upper arm.
Ashley looked over towards her own broken body, sadness clouding her face. "Too bad I couldn't save myself… I was having such a good hair day… I was supposed to be meeting my sister… Oh God, Kyla! She's going to be devastated…"
"Spencer, we really need to get going." Aiden whispered urgently as he saw a few policemen come over to remove the Air Conditioner.
"Hey, Ashley, we really need to go somewhere else, so take my hand, okay? We're going back to The In Between; we can all sit down and talk about this, okay?" Spencer spoke soothingly to Ashley, noticing the brunette was ready to start sobbing again.
Ashley was sad, confused and filled with regrets for the things she wouldn't get to say to her sister or any of her loved ones that she could only nod as she felt the warmth of Spencer's hand firmly holding her own.
"Geez, chicks are so emotional…" Glen muttered as they all shifted from the Mortal Plane to The In Between.
Ashley felt a slight tugging, then a tingling sensation that lasted all of a few seconds. She took in her surroundings. It looked very much like where they had just been, except all the people that had been surrounding then seemed like faint transparent images. Almost ghost like. There were less people around that looked solid and the buildings appeared to be the same except for a few subtle differences. The next thing she noticed was the smell, the air had a freshness to it that she had never experienced her whole life in Los Angeles. Colors seemed brighter and it was overall cleaner than any LA street corner she had ever seen.
"Where are we?" She asked as she continued to stare around her, feeling weird when faint transparent people would walk through her.
"You learn to just ignore it after awhile until you don't even really notice them unless they're an assignment." Aiden told her when he saw surprise on her face as yet another person walk through her.
"This," Madison said as she spread out her arms and turned around like a Price is Right girl modeling the Show Case Showdown, "is The In Between."
"In Between what?" Ashley asked, still taking in all her surroundings. Spencer quietly observed the girl, watching for any signs that she ready to break down into a sobbing mess again.
"The In Between is the place between the Mortal Realm and The Higher Plane." Glen replied. "And as fun as this has been, I have another assignment. Death is a business that never ends. See ya all later. Good luck with everything, Ashley."
Ashley just stared at the curly haired guy, not sure if she should thank him for what ever part he had played in her death. Had he made it better? Worse? She still wasn't even remotely sure of how anything worked where ever it was she had ended up. "Uh, yeah, see ya, Glen."
She watched as Glen jogged over to a black Vespa, jumped on and drove off down the street.
"Finally, he's gone. I swear he thinks that hanging around me makes him somehow less of a bottom feeder." Madison remarked, oblivious to the incredulous looks Spencer and Aiden were giving her.
"Yeah, that's my brother, just basking in your greatness, hoping for a just a tiny scrap to rub off on him." Spencer's sarcasm was lost on Madison as she just nodded in agreement which caused Spencer only to roll her eyes at the self absorbed girl.
"I don't know about greatness, but I'm sure he's hoping for some type of rubbing." Aiden quipped.
"Ewww!" Madison and Spencer exclaimed in stereo. Spencer pushed Aiden while Madison hit him in the chest. He just laughed, sometimes it was to easy teasing the girls.
"Come on, Ashley, there's a café just up the street where we all can sit down and talk." Spencer grabbed Ashley's hand and started pulling her towards the mentioned café, desperate to change the topic of her brother and Madison doing anything together. The thought alone made her shudder with disgust.
Ashley didn't object as she felt the warmth once again flood through her body at the blonde's touch. She didn't know if it was because of what Spencer was, or just Spencer herself but she had a way of calming her like she had never felt before.
"Do we really have to go there? There's a perfectly good Starbucks only two blocks away." Madison complained, not wanting to go to Spencer's choice of café's. Partly because she found it boring but mostly because she didn't want the blonde girl to think she was calling the shots.
"Oh, suck it up, Madison, it's neutral ground." Aiden said as he dragged the protesting Latina with him.
"Neutral ground?" Ashley questioned Spencer. She really had no idea what was going on, it felt like they were speaking a foreign language to her most of the short time they had been together.
"Yeah, neutral ground meaning it's not a light or dark place… I'll explain when we sit down." Spencer gave the brunette's hand a light squeeze as they walked through the door of the café.
Behind them Madison's eyes narrowed as she noticed Spencer still hadn't let go of the other girl's hand. "Hey, Spencer, we already shifted, I'm sure Ashley doesn't need you to hold her hand just to sit down."
Aiden sighed; this was going to be along day dealing with those two plus a total newbie.