Grim Business

Chapter Twenty-Three

Phoebe squared her shoulders, taking a deep breath to give herself some strength. She’d broken one of the biggest rules of Grim Inc. by saving Alaina. There were going to be consequences for it, she knew. And she was going to accept them; she just hoped that they weren’t consequences that would be suffered by the whole world. A rip in the space-time continuum or something came to mind when she thought about cosmic consequences of disrupting the balance. But really, was one life so important that the entire world would be out of balance?

“Go on in, dear,” Georgia said, smiling at her sympathetically.

Phoebe returned the smile, feeling as if she were going in to meet the executioner. Well, they did call him Mr. Death…what if the consequence for saving a life would be losing hers in order to restore the balance? What if he cut her thread the second she walked in? Would it hurt? The others hadn’t seemed to feel any pain, but what if..

Phoebe didn’t have time to worry about it. She had to go and meet her fate, whatever that was. She pushed open the door to Mr. Odin’s office and closed it softly behind her.

Both Hel and Mr. Odin were standing side-by-side behind the central desk, looking at her with matching expressions of sternness. Here goes…

“Look, I know what I did was—“

“Silence.” Mr. Odin’s voice cut through her thin veil of bravery, and Phoebe felt all the defiance leak out of her. “Sit.” Phoebe slumped down in the chair without arguing, fiddling with her hands in her lap.

“Have you any idea what you have done?” Mr. Odin asked after a long moment of making her sweat. His voice was ice and daggers, sending shivers of fear straight down Phoebe’s spine. She’d never been so afraid of someone’s voice before, but something about Mr. Death was definitely on the terrifying side. That was probably why he was the boss.

“The balance between life and death is thin, Phoebe,” Hel said, and her voice wasn’t much different. She’d make a good boss one day, Phoebe thought. “Each unbalancing act drives us closer and closer to being obliterated. Do you understand what I mean? A lack of balance in the universe  could lead to obliteration. And yet you purposefully upset that very balance by your actions last night. What do you have to say for yourself?”

            “Can I talk now?” Phoebe asked, directing her question to Mr. Odin. He nodded once. Phoebe stood; her legs were still shaking and weak, but she had a right to defend herself and she was going to act on it. “I did what I thought was right, what any person would do when they see someone about to commit suicide. She was throwing her life away, all because she was afraid of being who she was. Do you understand where I’m coming from? She would have died, never having gotten to live her life the way she ought to, as the person that she truly is. I gave her a second chance, an opportunity to be who she was meant to be. That girl now gets to live and it’s because of me. If that means I have to die, or some other consequence, then I am willing to pay it. Only promise me that you’ll still save my father.”

Neither of them said anything at first. They just pinned her with a stare, their faces giving away nothing of their feelings. Any minute now, Phoebe thought, they were going to strike her down where she stood. They were going to kill her. She closed her eyes, waiting for the blow. It didn’t come.

Hesitantly, she opened one eye, then the other. Slowly, a small smile formed on Hel’s lips. “I’m glad to hear you say that, Phoebe.”

“As am I. You have passed the test,” Mr. Odin said with surprising pride in his voice.

Phoebe blinked. “Test? What test?”

“We wanted to see if you would stand by your decision despite what we said. We wanted to know that you were able to make your own call and stand by it with confidence. You exceeded our expectations,” Hel added.

“But that stuff you said! About balance and…and obliteration! Was that all just a joke?”

“No, of course not,” Hel said, repositioning her spectacles. “Maintaining the balance between life and death is and always has been our greatest mission. But so is mercy—we are allowed to make a call. But only every once in a while. Suicide in particular can be meddled with—because they are taking their life into their own hands and deciding to end it, rather than Fate conspiring to end it. You saved a life yesterday, Phoebe. Had she died, the balance would not have been disrupted. But neither would it be disrupted by you saving her. Some deaths are fixed; others, there is some flexibility. It is up to you to decide which cases are so. One wrong call, however, and that stuff I said about obliteration would become very real indeed. So you must exercise caution in your dealings.”

Phoebe exhaled in relief. “You know, this job is all kinds of messed up,” she said.

“But somebody has to do it,” Mr. Odin said. “And one of those somebodies is you. You bear a great deal of responsibility, as all employees of Grim Inc. do. It may not be fair, but there you have it.”

“So, I’m alright?” Phoebe asked. “You’re not going to smite me?”

Hel blinked in confusion. “Smite you? You thought we were going to smite you?”

“Well, it seemed like a realistic expectation to me!”

Hel laughed. “Well, that is not the kind of thing we do.”

“Often,” Mr. Odin amended, and Phoebe gulped. “Now be off, both of you. I think you’ve a great deal to discuss and prepare for.”

“What does he mean?” Phoebe said.

“There’s been a break in your father’s case. Come, we’ll discuss it together in private.”

Phoebe followed Hel out of the office and waved at Georgia as they passed, then made their way to one of the private offices on the floor. It belonged to Hel, but she almost never spent time in there. It was quiet and out of the way, though, so Phoebe figured it was as good a spot as any. All of her fear from earlier was gone, replaced by a sense of excitement. This could be it, they might find her dad…

“Please, have a seat.” Hel motioned for one of the empty chairs in the room, then began rustling around in one of her drawers.

Phoebe did as she asked, but she couldn’t relax. Her foot beat restlessly against the floor, her fingers ceaselessly fiddling with one another in her lap. “What did you find?” Phoebe asked.

“One moment…” Hel said, and then, finally, she stood, holding a file. She passed it across the desk to Phoebe, who nearly ripped it open in her haste to see inside.

“What am I looking at?” Phoebe asked, flipping through the sheets inside.

“Most of it is useless,” Hel said, “But we’ve had one of our specialists profile the kind of spirit that would want to hurt your dad, but not kill him, and each of those involves a spirit that might have a grudge. It’s not much, but perhaps you’ll be able to narrow down the list of suspects some, as you and your father were close. It also has information about some possible whereabouts. We haven’t been able to verify any of it yet, but we’ll narrow it down soon enough.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Phoebe said, closing the file and looking up at Hel. “Thank you.”

“No time for thanks, my dear. We’ve a great deal of work to do. More Field Training. Lucky for you, today is about capturing rogue spirits and not taking new ones.”

“Oh, thank god,” Phoebe said, tucking the file away in her bag. “Where do we start?”

“The Hub.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s the brain of our little operation. We have people there tracking down reports of spirit activity. A lot of it is nonsense, of course, but every now and then, we get something really good. We’ll start with the weaker spirits, since it’s your first time—“

“Not really,” Phoebe said. “I mean, it’ll be my first time with a scythe in my hand, but I had to fight my brother’s spirit.”

“Right. Of course. I had forgotten that.” Hel smiled a bit and reached out to place a hand on her shoulder. “Well, none of these will be so emotionally scarring as that, so you have nothing to fear. Come along.”

Phoebe nodded and followed her out of the door, eager to start.