Bows and Eros

Chapter 7: Helena

Three days, or what felt like three days had passed without my phone buzzing. In an effort to do something other than making out like maniacs, a pastime I was beginning to richly enjoy, Gabe and I had been visiting the world. We spent a day teleporting around the pyramids and another day in New York, watching Broadway shows under the cloak of invisibility. I'd actually begun to enjoy being invisible, since I wasn't alone. I worried sometimes that Gabe would be leaving me soon. He still wore his ring, so that meant he was a guardian still. Wouldn't he need to leave soon, go protect some other fragile soul?

"You seem pensive," he said as we exited Legally Blonde, the musical.

"I've been thinking," I said, my voice sounding hollow.

"What about, sunshine?"

He held my hand and I smiled. I still got flustered around Gabe, now that he was in his true form again. I knew he was disguising his scars, but I still found him impossibly attractive. Perhaps he wasn't classically handsome like an Abercrombie model, but he had the tall, dark, and handsome thing going for him. He was wearing his twelfth century tunic and sword from the first crusade, and I had my frilly pink dress on. It's a good thing we were invisible, because we were quite a sight to be seen.

"It's just, won't you have to go work for Hera again?"

"No," Gabe said. "Since your death was a glitch, I have the next fifty or so years off. It's an anomaly, but it will have to suffice."

"So in forty years, you'll leave me..."

"Let's just live in the here and now," Gabe said. "I mean, I'm sure we'll work it out."

"I'm sure," I said, looking away.

Somewhere in the distance was a woman, watching us. I did a double take, because who would watch two ghosts? She flipped her black hair over her shoulder and flashed me a furious gaze, watching us.

"Gabe, do you see that girl in the leather jacket?" I pointed at her.

"Shit," Gabe replied. "We should go, now."

"Who is she Gabe? What is she doing here?"

"Let's go, ok? This is not good," Gabe said, pulling me.

We were back in the garden, my breath catching from the sudden transport.

"Why did you do that?" I yelled. "Who was that?"

"It doesn't matter," Gabe said. "We're safe here."

"Who-was-she?" I said, my voice grounding out the words.

"She's a reaper," Gabe replied. "She is, well, she was your reaper. She put your soul in purgatory."

"No, Zed put me here," I said. "He did all of it."

"No, Macy, he didn't" Gabe said. "Sit down, we need to talk."

"I'm fine standing," I said. "Just tell me the truth."

"It's a very long story," Gabe said. "And I am afraid, you won't like me very much at the end of it."

"Gabe, you just had an undead panic attack over some reaper. What is happening?"

"Ok," Gabe said. "Here it goes. When I was alive, I never loved and I never had a kiss. But, in those days, marriages were arranged. And this woman, Helena, she was my betrothed. It was an arranged marriage, and we never so much as touched. We had one conversation before I went off to war, and I agreed to marry her if I didn't die."

"Was that reaper Helena your fiance?" I asked.

"Yes." Gabe replied shortly.

"How did she become a reaper?"