Grim Love - A Novella by Grae Lily

man she loved from a death he didn’t deserve. He deserved a
full and happy life without her in it.
    * * * *
    It wasn’t a surprise she ended up standing
outside Jasper’s apartment. She looked up at the window she'd once
looked out of, trying not to cry again for the man she missed
beyond words. Her eyes swelled with tears as if their separation
had just occurred. In the time that passed, Jasper had become more
of what he was meant to be. He thrived in his sobriety and new work
life. He'd begun to make friends and form bonds – even mending his
broken relationship with his grandfather.
    Following him would be difficult because he
could see her, but she’d do her best to stay out of sight. He
deserved to live after all the work he’d done to fix his life.
Dying because of her wouldn't have been right.
    “Death isn’t fair.” She hoped no one could
hear her talking to herself. “Life isn’t fair, and death isn’t, and
that’s something I need to learn to accept, but I love him. I can’t
just let him die, no matter what he and Lucius think. Maybe, it's
his time. Maybe there's no such thing as someone’s time and it’s
something we’ve made up to give us a reason for existing.” She
blinked away more tears. “I saved that drunk before and it was his
time. I mean, if it was, he wouldn’t have survived, something else
would have killed him moments later, so I don’t believe anyone has
a time.”
    “Neither did I.” Lucius stepped out of the
shadows. “That's when I'd been a young reaper, Evangeline, and I
still thought people could be saved. Sometimes they could. Jasper,
unless you leave him alone, can’t be, so standing here, right where
he might be able to see you, isn’t going to help him. He needs to
do this alone.” He surprised her by taking hold of her hand. “If
things had been different, the two of you would have been together
for the rest of eternity, but you met at the wrong time.”
    “Walking away from the man I love isn’t easy.
I've missed him more than I've missed living. To see him moving on
makes me love him more cause that's all I wanted for him, but why
does it hurt so much? It's not fair.”
    “Of course it isn’t, but he might survive
whatever it is that’s going to cause his death if he’s allowed to
miss you. You standing here watching him isn't going to help either
of you. Even though it’s the last thing I want to do, I'll lock you
away if you get in the way of his death. If it’s meant to happen,
we have to let it, no matter how much it hurts, no matter what you
think or feel because this is the way it works. We're reapers. We
take the souls of the dead to where they’re meant to be.”
    “You already knew about the drunk, didn’t
you?”
    “I did.” Lucius sighed. “When you’re new to
reaping it’s easy to make mistakes like that, so I’m not angry with
you and he seems to be doing okay now.”
    “Can I stay here tonight? I’ll leave in the
morning, get back to my job, but tonight I need to be able to say a
proper goodbye.”
    “I shouldn’t let you. It’s the wrong choice
to make and, if I didn’t know how hard this would be, I would tell
you to walk away now.” Lucius squeezed her hand. “Tonight only. If
I find you here again, I will lock you away. If I find out that
you’ve been following him again, I’ll lock you away. If I find out
that you’ve saved him,…”
    “Yeah, I get it, you’ll lock me away.”
Evangeline shrugged. “What will you do if you find me in the
library hunting for a way to get out of my contract?”
    “Laugh. You have no idea how many young
reapers I’ve seen in there doing the same thing. They all found out
for themselves, but I know you’re not going to believe me until you
see it for yourself.”

Chapter 6
    If she wanted to get technical, Evangeline
wasn’t following Jasper. Being there at the times she thought he’d
be in the most danger wasn’t following him, but she knew what
Lucius would say if he found