A middle aged woman came over and handed them menus. Her brown and grey hair was pulled up in a messy bun with a pencil sticking out. She looked like she had just walked off the set of an old 50's movie complete with the red and white checkered apron and prerequisite one piece shirt and skirt jumper.
"Spencer, Aiden, Madison, it's good to see you all again, how are you? I see you brought a new friend with you. Hi, I'm Maude, nice to meet you." Maude's thick southern accent and kind face finally did what the others had failed to do, put a genuine smile on Ashley's face.
"Hi, I'm Ashley Davies, nice to meet you as well." Maude sat down in the large booth next to Ashley.
"Well, I know everybody here, so you must be new. It's all a little strange at first but you have three of the finest Fates around to help you out, so you just listen to them and you'll be right as rain." Maude pulled out her order pad and the pencil that was stuck in her hair.
"Thanks, Maude, I wouldn't say the best but thank you all the same." Spencer modestly replied,fidgeting with her menu.
"Speak for yourself, Pollyanna, I am the best Dark Fate around, so thank you for recognizing brilliance when you see it." Madison smiled brightly at Maude. Aiden pretend to be deeply engrossed in his menu so Madison couldn't see his smirk.
"Ha ha, that's my Maddy, not a modest bone in her." Maude laughed like a proud parent as she stood back at the head of the table. "So what can I get for you all?"
"I'll just have milk, please." Spencer ordered. She handed her menu back to Maude.
"I'll take a double cheeseburger with fries, a chocolate shake, oh and mozzarella sticks." Aiden handed his menu to the woman as well.
"Good thing you can't gain weight, Aiden, otherwise you'd be the as big as an elephant. I'll have a diet coke and a side salad, Maude." Madison barely looked at the woman as she handed back her menu, she was too busy texting on her phone.
"And what about you, darling?" Maude asked looking at Ashley.
"Um, I don't think I have any money…" Ashley looked down at the short, tight, black skirt she was wearing; of course it didn't have any pockets and neither did the red baby tee she was wearing. She had thought it was a great outfit when she had put it on that morning, it showed off her toned abs and perfect curves. She was starting to have doubts now that she thought she'd have to spend an eternity in it.
"Aww, ain't she just the cutest thing. You don't need money here sweetie." Maude kindly explained.
"Oh, really? Ah, I'm not really hungry, can I just have some coffee, please?" Ashley couldn't comprehend an existence without money, how did anyone get anything? Did she need anything? She really hoped for her sanity someone would start talking and answering some of the thousands of questions she had.
"No problem. I'll be back in a jiffy with your drinks." With that Maude walked back into what Ashley assumed to be the kitchen.
"Ok, I have an appointment in two hours, so can we get this thing going?" Madison snapped more than asked. "Here's the cliff notes version. Ashley, you're dead, but for whatever reason upper management has decided that you're not going to be reincarnated or sent to the higher plane. You've been assigned to The In Between as a Fate. You following so far?" Madison paused when she saw the blank look on Ashley's face. Rolling her eyes and sighing again she wondered of the girl was slow or something, she didn't have time to explain things over and over, she had places to be, people to corrupt.
"Wait, Madison, let me try." Aiden cut in, seeing that Madison was getting frustrated. "Alright, you know that the place you're in is The In Between, it's the Plane of Existence between the Mortal Realm, where you just where and the Higher Plane, where we all hope to go one day. The In Between is made up of basically what you would call middle management, we're the go betweens for the Mortal Realm and The Higher Plane." Aiden stopped to make sure Ashley was following as Maude brought their drinks to the table.
"Ok, so I'm dead there but not here?" Ashley asked, trying to wrap her head around everything so far. When she woke up this morning the only thing she thought she had to worry about was being late to meet her sister for brunch. Now she had to learn about a whole new way of life, if that's what this was even called.
"Yeah," Spencer cut in, "Your Mortal Body died there but your soul, your, um, essence was reborn here. That's why everything here is solid but everything on the Mortal Realm is like a mist for you. You've shifted from one Plane of Existence to another. You've moved up." Spencer took a drink of her milk.
"Exactly, Spence. Now, Ashley, everyone in The In Between has a job to do, your job is a Fate." Aiden added between slurps of his shake. Madison shook her head in mild irritation, as cute as he was, he could be majorly annoying.
"Alright, so what exactly is a Fate?" She inquired, she knew this was probably one of the most important things to understand right now, seeing as it was suppose to be her job.
"First, there's three different types of Fates, Light, Dark and Gray. Spencer's a Light Fate, Madison's a Dark Fate and I'm a Gray Fate." Aiden took another loud slurp of his shake as Maude brought over his food. Madison nudged him none to gently, finally annoyed beyond belief at his boorish table manners.
"So is that like, good, bad and in between?" Ashley shifted in her seat, she could have guessed what kind of Fates each of them where after learning there where three different kinds. There was no way that Spencer could be anything but good and Madison just seemed like a major bitch, thought not exactly evil.
"Kind of, the job of a Fate is to help guide humans with life altering decisions. Light Fates try to guide people on the path of good and right, where as Dark Fates try to guide people down the path of bad and wrong. Gray Fates can go either way but their main job is to make sure the balance is maintained between Light and Dark. They're also the only type that gets to directly interact with their human assignments." They all stared at Ashley after Spencer had stopped talking to see if she still understood.
"Um…how?" Ashley was far from dumb but she was having trouble wrapping her head around what she was being told. She wondered if she had just smacked her head and all of this was a crazy coma induced dream.
"Maybe if I gave you an example… Ok let's say a mortal is about to cheat on their spouse, I'm that little voice in their head telling them how wrong it is and not to do it…" Spencer explained.
"Where as I'm the voice in their head telling them to go for it, to follow their base desires…" Madison cut in with a smirk, that was one of her favorite type of assignments.
"I, on the other hand can take physical form on the Mortal Plane. I can be that stranger that either tempts them to cheat or I could do something to remind them of their spouse. And I also make sure that Light and Dark are both represented equally, if not, I take the side that isn't at the time. But mostly Gray Fates are there to make sure Light and Dark follow the rules and do their jobs." Aiden finished as he inhaled all of his mozzarella sticks.
"Wait so every decision that mortals make, you're there to help them?" That sounded like a lot of work to Ashley, she wasn't very fond of work.
"No, just choices that are life altering for either the good or the bad." Spencer quickly clarified. She felt her insides melt at the look of deep concentration on Ashley's face. More than once since they had sat down she's found herself trying to calm the pounding of her heart that seemed to be caused by being in such close proximity to the recently deceased girl. She chalked it up to nerves, this being the biggest assignment she[d ever had since being on The In Between.
"Yeah, I really don't care if you wear your hooker boots or not, unless if by wearing your hooker boots it'll cause you to fall, break your ankle which will cause you to develop a dependency on pain killers that will lead you down the path of addiction, which will lead to other harder drugs, which will lead to you stealing or prostituting yourself out for money and so on…You know what I mean?" Madison explained with joy, she really loved her job.
"But while you're on that path, you always have choices that can change i. Life is full of little choices that don't appear to matter at the time, but sometimes the littlest things can have the biggest impacts. We try to guide the mortals on the path we want them to take." Spencer pushed a stray strand of blonde hair behind her ear absentmindedly as she spoke. The simple act made Ashley's stomach flip.
"It does sound confusing but once you get into it, it's really not." Aiden said while polishing off his fries.
"How do you get them to do what you want? How are you that little voice in their heads?" It was starting to sound interesting but still overwhelming; she was going to be helping people make life altering choices? She'd had a hard enough time with her life, let alone with how many others she would be working with now. She thought there had to be some mistake, she was hardly a decisive person. It took her over an hour just to decide what to wear most days.
"By talking to them." Madison said as if Ashley was incredibly stupid for not knowing.
Spencer glared at the Dark Fate, "We get our assignments on our phones, I have a Whiteberry, Dark Fates get Blackberry's and Gray Fates have Motorola Q's." Spencer softly laughed at the confusion on Ashley's face. "I guess Upper Management thought it was redundant to have a Grayberry." Spencer shrugged not really knowing the reasoning behind a lot of the decisions that they were told to follow. "They can't see us, only hear us but they think it's their own thoughts."
"I'll take these over the old paper files any day…" Remembering the days of carrying around at least 30 different files a day, Aiden grimaced.
"I'm guessing assignments are what you call mortals but what's in the files?" Ashley felt pride as Spencer and Aiden smiled at her correct guess.
"With each assignment we get a name, time, place and the possible outcomes depending on whatever choice the person is making at that time. We also get a life file on the person, what their past choices have been, which path they're leaning towards… Essentially, their life up to that point and what could happen after that." Ashley thought she could listen to anything Spencer said in that soft, slightly husky voice of hers. Madison had stayed mostly silent while they were explaining things to Ashley, to busy texting her other Dark Fates to really care about this part. She knew Spencer and Aiden would handle it.
"So then what kind of Fate am I? You said I was a Fate, right?" The other three exchanged a look that Ashley couldn't read.
"You are but we don't know what kind yet." Aiden said carefully. "We've got 90 days to work with you and then after that you'll go to a meeting at the Council where you tell them what kind of Fate you want to be."
"It's a big decision, which is why you'll get to spend time with all of us, to see what we do and which way appeals to you more." Spencer reached under the table and gave Ashley's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Yeah, you better choose wisely because that's the job you're stuck with for however long the Council keeps you here…" Madison remarked, not bothering to look up from her Blackberry.
"How long have you been in your jobs?" Ashley was curious, how long was she going to be here in The In Between.
"I've been a Gray Fate for um, about 220 years." Aiden mused, doing the math in his head; it'd been decades since anyone had asked him. Ashley's eyes went wide. That was way longer than she could even comprehend. "But before that I was a Reaper for about 50 years."
Spencer laughed, "Aiden's the old guy, most Gray Fates are but not always. I've been a Light Fate for 112 years."
'Damn, she looks good for being that old,' Ashley thought with a grin. They looked over at Madison who hadn't replied yet and was still deeply engrossed with whatever she was doing on her Blackberry. She was really just playing a game of Tetris, but to her that was more interesting than anything the others were talking about. She found anyone who wasn't a Dark Fate or higher being incredibly boring.
"Since she's not paying attention, Madison's been a Dark Fate for 87 years, right, Mads?" Aiden kicked the inattentive Latina under the table.
"Shit, Aiden, do you mind?" Madison glared at the dark haired guy. She groaned as she missed the straight piece she needed to clear five rows at once. He was really, really annoying.
"I'm sorry, are we keeping you from more important things than, you know, helping a new Fate?" Aiden glared right back. Sometimes Madison could be the most self absorbed person he had ever met in all his years on The In Between.
"Actually, you are. Look, I got to go. I think we've explained enough to keep Ashley's little mind reeling for awhile. Are you coming, Ashley?" Madison finally turned her attention to the brunette for the first time in over an hour.
"Going? With you? Where?" Ashley started to feel the panic from earlier starting to build again. She still had a lot of questions and she knew the last person who would answer them for her would be Madison. She wanted to stay with Spencer, she was the only one she felt completely comfortable with, Aiden would even be a much better choice than the impatient, sarcastic Dark Fate, who, she was pretty sure, had just insulted her.
"You don't have to go with her if you don't want to, Ashley. It's your choice; you're welcome to go with any of us for the first 30 days. The first 30 days is really just a time to get you use to The In Between and the way life is here. After that you'll have assigned times to spend with each of us, but the first 30 is yours." Aiden quickly explained seeing the panic in the girl's eyes at the thought of leaving with Madison. But really, he couldn't blame her. He'd be panicked at the thought of being forced to spend 30 days with the abrasive girl.
"Do I have to spend the whole 30 days with who ever I choose now?" While Ashley did want to learn from Spencer, she seeming to be the nicest and most patient out of all of them, what if they didn't get along? What if the Blonde couldn't stand her after a few days?
"No, not at all, you can spend time with all of us during that time, it's just after that, you'll have assigned time to make sure you spend equal time with all of us during assignments." Spencer rushed to assure the girl.
"Oh, ok, in that case, can I go with you, Spencer? I mean, if that's okay with you…" Ashley shyly asked, looking down at the table, not wanting to see the anger in the Dark Fate's eye she knew would be there for not been chosen but also afraid to meet the Light Fate's eyes incase she saw disappointment for being chosen. She wasn't ready to let go of the only sort of comfort she'd found in this strange new place.
"Of course that's fine, Ashley. I'd be honored to show you around for as long as you want." Spencer answered not quite able to keep the excitement out of her voice for being chosen.
"Whatever." Madison huffed, "When you're bored to tears with Ms. Goody Two Shoes over there, I'll be around." Madison grabbed her purse and stormed out of the café without so much as a backwards glance or good bye to any of them.
"Good bye to you too!" Aiden yelled after her. Spencer could have sworn the guy was sulking a bit.
"Don't worry about her, Aid, you know how she gets." Spencer put a supportive hand on his shoulder. Not for the first time she wondered what exactly was going on between the two Fates.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter." Aiden waved a dismissive hand towards where the Latina had stormed out moments ago.
"Um, where do I live? Like, do I have a home or something?" Ashley couldn't imagine spending possibly hundreds of years just hanging out in café's and street corners.
"Oh, yeah, I'll call and get a dorm for you in my building." Spencer pulled out her Whiteberry.
"Thanks." Ashley took another drink of her coffee, it was the best coffee she'd ever had.
"Well, I'll let you get Ashley settled in. I have a meeting to get to on the other side of town. I'll check up on both of you later tonight." Aiden smiled at both girls as he got up to leave. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Ashley. Don't worry; you couldn't have picked a better person to help you get acquainted with everything."
"Thanks, Aiden, it is a lot to wrap my head around." Ashley said in what could be the biggest understatement of her existence.
Aiden chuckled, "Yeah, it is but you'll be fine. See you later." He gave Spencer, who was talking to someone on the phone, a quick hug and waved to Ashley as he left the café.
Ashley sat there thinking about everything she had learned over the last few hours. It was hard to believe it had only been about three hours since she had seen her body a broken, lifeless mess on the sidewalk. She had never tried to think too much about what would happen to her after she died but never in her wildest dreams would she had thought it would be anything like this.
"Alright, I just got off the phone with the Dorm Manager. It'll take a day or two but they'll have a dorm ready for you in my building. Do you mind staying with me until than?" Spencer didn't want to make the girl feel uncomfortable but at the same time, a part of her was pleased she'd be sharing a living space with the brown eyed girl, even if only for a day or two.
"No, that's fine, probably better, I'm not sure I want to be alone anyways." Ashley shyly answered. She silently told her heartbeat to slowdown, that she shouldn't be this excited about spending time alone with the blonde Fate, that she had more than enough to think about but she heart refused to listen.
"Ok, so we have some time, why don't I show you around? We can go shopping, get you some clothes and whatever else you'll need to feel at home." Ashley's eyes lit up and a huge smile graced her face, making her nose crinkle at the mention of shopping. Spencer felt like a colony of butterflies had been let lose in her stomach at the sight. She had seen millions of smiles in her existence but none had ever been as beautiful or caused the flood of emotions she was feeling as Ashley's just had.
'Oh, no, this is not good, not good at all. I can not fall for Ashley.' Spencer sternly told herself, too bad her emotions or body hadn't received the memo.
"You mean I get to shop for a new wardrobe?" Regardless of what they called this place, to Ashley it suddenly felt like Heaven, not only did she get to be with the most attractive girl she'd ever seen but she got to shop as well. If that wasn't Heaven, she didn't know what was.
"Yeah, we can't have you walking around in the same clothes everyday, they would get pretty crusty after awhile." Spencer joked as they both got up from the booth. Calling out a good bye to Maude the two girls made their way outside and onto a day of shopping.
'Maybe being dead won't be so bad after all.' Ashley thought as she climbed into Spencer's car. Watching the blonde out of the corner of her eye she had to admit there was worse ways to spend the day of your death, or at least she thought there was.