Call Me Grim by Elizabeth Holloway Page A

alive as you are.”
    Something slinks through the tall grass at the edge of the woods. I follow the light emanating from the small animal until it disappears in the underbrush. Geesh. Even raccoons glow now.
    “Okay, what’s the deal with the glowing people? Everyone looks like they drank radioactive Kool-Aid or something. Even that raccoon.” I point into the underbrush where the shape of the animal glows through the leaves. “And you’re the brightest of everyone. I almost need sunglasses to look at you.”
    I look up into his faded blue eyes. Good Lord, he’s cute. He’s also scary and weird, but if I had met him at school—well, if I’d met him at school the normal way—Haley and I would have drooled over him. Maybe it’s the “tall, dark, and dangerous” thing.
    “The glow you’re seeing is the soul,” he says patiently.
    “You collect the souls of animals too?”
    “No. I don’t know what happens to them. I can’t touch their souls.” He shakes his head dismissively and switches back to teacher mode. “For a Reaper, the brightness of the human soul is a gauge, like a measure. The intensity of that light tells us approximately how much time a person has left before their scheduled death. The brighter the soul, the more time. Does that make sense?”
    His words drift on the air between us. Slowly, I nod. It makes perfect sense.
    “I’m not as bright as everyone else. Actually, I’m not bright at all.” I’m speaking more to myself than to Aaron, but he nods in agreement. “My time is out, isn’t it? That’s why Max is so much brighter than me. I was supposed to die today. I was supposed to be squashed by Jason’s truck.”
    “That’s right.” He beams as if I figured out a complex calculus problem he didn’t think I’d ever understand. “You would be dead right now if I hadn’t stepped in. Your death has been rescheduled to tomorrow, exactly twenty-four hours from when you were supposed to die today.”
    “What?” I stagger back a step. “I’m scheduled to die tomorrow?” I thought when he saved my life today that was it. I didn’t think I’d have to worry about tomorrow.
    “Yes.” He bends and plucks a long blade of grass growing between the ties of the tracks. “I don’t know how it will happen—it depends on where you are and what you’re doing—but it will come.” He looks up at me, and he must see the panic in my eyes because he smiles and says, “Don’t worry. I’ll be there to stop it.”
    “Why?” It’s a stupid question to ask. He’s offering to save my life. Again. And I’m scared as hell to hear his answer, but I have to know. “Why didn’t you let that truck pulverize me today, Aaron? Why did you save my life? And why would you save it again tomorrow?”
    “You’re a smart girl. I thought you’d have figured it out by now.”
    “Maybe I want to hear you say it.” I give him the scorching glare Kyle calls my “no-bullshit stare.”
    Aaron twists the grass around his finger and sighs. “I need a replacement. There’s something I need to do that I can’t do without a replacement, and I thought you might want the job.”
    “Why would you think that?” I ask. It’s not like I’m emo. I don’t need an entire drawer dedicated to my various shades of black lipstick.
    “It’s just good timing.” He shrugs.
    “Good timing? That’s it?” I cross my arms and glare at him. “Maybe I don’t want your job. What if I say you can shove it up your—”
    “If that’s your decision,” he cuts me off. “Then tomorrow, at 3:12 p.m., you’ll die and there will be nothing I can do about it.”
    My legs jiggle under me, and I almost collapse at his feet. I lock my knees before I topple over onto the tracks like a melodramatic damsel in distress.
    “Are you okay?” Aaron grips my shoulder. “You look like you’re gonna puke.”
    “Yeah,” I mumble. “I’m fine. Let go of me.” I shrug him off, but his eyes bore into me.
    I don’t want