Parallel Lines- *RAYOR*

Chapter 3

"I don't like it. I tolerate it."

I can tell that Nicco's angry. It's always been a thing with us. Even when he's laughing and bubbly I can tell but I don't mention it's something drilled deep into my brain. Nicco is always right.

But I've begun to doubt it. Feels like I'm the only one growing up.

"Levy!"

I jump. Something hardwired in my brain makes me look up. Nicco's face is inches from mine.

"It's time to go reaping," he says.

"You have horrible morning breath," I say, but it's not true. I can tell he's had breakfast, because there's the smell of jam on his breath. Nicco and I are the only ones who eat breakfast now because Aster and Mum don't need to eat. Neither do we, but we like to.

Nicco scoffs and gave me a look. "No, I don't," he says assertively. "Get up and get dressed."

"You're punctual," I say.

"Aster wanted me to wake you," says Nicco. "I didn't remember." The words that I know were in his head sting even though he hasn't said them aloud. I didn't want to.

"Okay," I say, and drag myself out of bed. When I raise my head, he's disappeared.

I sigh and look round the room. Get dressed. Brush my teeth. The room has a single bed, one of a twin pair. Nicco and I used to sleep in the same room, but after a huge fight, he insisted to sleep in a different one. After the fight was over he wanted to move back but we were all too lazy to move the bed. I still hate it. I hate fighting with Nicco and not knowing that he is in the same room as me. It's scary.

Sometimes I climb into his bed in the middle of the night if I get nightmares. I've heard the worst nightmares leave you paralysed in fear. The first night it didn't happen to me, though I did wake up screaming. I could move, but I was too scared to go to him. I knew he had woken up, he was such a light sleeper. Knew he had heard me, but he didn't mention it.

The second night, cold fingers grabbed at my ankles, scarlet eyes loomed out of the darkness, and I woke up, chilled to the bone. I had kicked off the duvet in my sleep and curled into a ball hugging my pillow, but I was too scared to go get them. Even if I wasn't, I could move, I just couldn't. I lay there for a full five minutes, shivering.

Then a small shape appeared in the doorway. I wasn't scared. It was this thing; I could sense it. I could sense when Nicco was near. He came, stooping to drag the blanket with him, and got in bed, covering me in the blanket. I clutched at him, curling next to him, craving his warmth.

"Ow, you're freezing," he grumbled, but I could hear the flavour of love behind the gruffness of it all.

I smiled, and there were no more nightmares that night.

I walk downstairs, still in a daze, and see Gabriel. He looks tired- well, not tired. What was the word in English? Weak. His skin was paler than usual, almost translucent.

"Hey, do you want some toast?" I ask.

"No," he says shortly.

Awkwardly I butter some toast and crunch into it. "How's Death?"

"Tired," says Gabriel. "More people are dying. There's a new pandemic. Everyone's in lockdown. Which I suppose would make it easier to reap... because it won't be out in the streets- but the hospitals make me sick."

"Oh no," I say, and hastily finish my toast. "Uh, Gabriel, you do have to do some reaping today."

His face turns blank. "I won't."

"You have to," I say.

"Why?" asks Gabriel.

"Because it's your duty," I say. "You're Death's son."

"I can't. And you don't mind. You really don't. You like reaping."

"I don't like it. I tolerate it." I know that Nicco will get even more mad if Gabriel doesn't reap today, and am about to say so when Nicco comes down.

"Hello," he says. "Where's Blake?"

Gabriel scoffs. "I don't know. Gallivanting off with Aster. Death knows she doesn't care to inform me."

I didn't understand. Nicco and I were shaky right now but we were always aware of each other, and asked about and for each other. Not knowing where the other was- our other half- was unfathomable. How could Gabriel be so blasé about it?

We travel to England. A stuffy hospital that smells of cheap sanitizer awaits us, and Nicco and I do our reapings. These are quite easy as the people are weak and were all too fine with joining the other side. I feel a little guilty, but it's not too hard because none of the people are children and that makes it easier with me. I don't know why Death arranges for reaper children to be given other children to reap- it's creepy.

It is Gabriel's turn then. I can see his anxiety. "I can't do it," he says.

"You have to!" says Nicco angrily. He's angrier these days. I feel different too. I feel like I'm changing. "You can't chicken out!"

"I'm not chickening out!" Gabriel looks angry. This makes him even paler, until he looks positively ghostly. "I don't like- I don't like hospitals," he says, and I can tell it lies in some memory. "I don't like dying children. Or adults." He looks down at the frail woman, in a comatose state. A doctor consults a machine hooked up to her that shows squiggly lines.

"You know, she may survive yet," he says to a family waiting by her. They look hopeful. A young boy- four by the look of him- holds her hand. I get the sense she is his mother, by the possessive way his eyes linger on her, the similar coppery hair, though hers is so fine that it seems almost transparent and his is thick and curly. In the blue eyes, the similarly cool skintone though hers is papery from sickness.

"Mama," he says. "Please don't go."

Gabriel's eyes fill with pain.

Okay, now I understand to some degree. But- "You did it before. With Blake," I say. His face hardens.

"That was different," he says.

"How?"

He seems to be whispering to someone. His lips move and he cocks his head slightly, as if listening to someone speak back to him. It was then that I realise how personal my question was.

"Sorry," I say, but Nicco's angry. He definitely would have asked that question regardless of how personal it was.

"How's it different?" he demands. Gabriel looks- well, not frightened, but uncomfortable.

"I don't know," he says.

Nicco exhales sharply. "No, it's not different," he says. "You have NO IDEA what you're getting yourself into! THIS IS YOUR JOB! IT'S NOT FAIR!"

"Nicco, calm down," I say.

Nicco glares at me, breathing heavily. But his outburst was short- like usual, because he doesn't really go on shouting. Instead, he lets it out quick and fast. But that's if I'm lucky. If I've really upset him, he goes quiet. Every word that comes out of his mouth after that is pure poison- quiet but sharp, ugly words that clung to me like glue.

Gabriel looks down. Aster has told me about him before, when he knew him better. He was a good friend. He doesn't ask for much.

"I'll do it," I say.

"You can't," says Nicco in a small voice. "It's not fair."

Gabriel looks torn. He's really upset. I know this isn't because he's lazy or anything. He's too nice.

I ignore Nicco and go through Gabriel's reapings. It takes less than an hour because they're all in this hospital. By that time, I was hot with embarrassment, shame, and felt the burning sensation that meant Nicco was glaring at me.

When we got home, he didn't say anything. He locked himself in his room.

For some reason, I didn't feel bad. I felt like I was doing the right thing- easing Gabriel's conscious, practicing my reaping, breaking free of the invisible bonds that forced me to always, always ask Nicco for his opinion on something before I did it. Sometimes I felt like I was just his shadow. But I guess not anymore.