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For all her careful prep work, Toni had not been prepared for this storm. The case was over, naturally, but now she was in the open, not even a tree in sight to huddle under, as the rain poured down so hard her boots sank into the mud nearly an inch every time she took a step. If she could just get to the house… but that was half a mile off, and in the meantime, even with her jacket off and wrapped over her head, she was soaked and blinded by the rain.
There was nothing for it, though. If she stopped, she likely wouldn’t be able to start again until the rain let up, and who knew how long that would be? There were certainly no breaks in the clouds as far as she could see. She took another few steps, peering around her again. No one and nothing but rain, once again. She couldn’t even get signal on her phone, even with magic.
Another plodding step, and the next thing she knew, she was lying on the ground with her face covered in mud. Wonderful. Just what she’d needed. She tried to push herself back up, but as soon as she put weight on her left foot, she realized why she’d gone down in the first place. Delightful. Now she was soaked, alone, shivering, and injured. What was next? She took a hesitant step and shook her head. There was no way she’d be able to walk through this mud on that ankle. May as well sit down and curl up, conserve what body heat she could, until the storm was over and she could at least see where she was going.
There was no way to keep track of time, so she had no idea how long she’d been there mentally reviewing the next cases she’d been assigned when she felt someone taking her hand. “Hello, Antonia.”
“Toni. Please. Antonia was my mother, and we didn’t get on.” Toni looked up, head tilted as she studied the woman beside her. The woman who seemed miraculously dry and un-muddy. Where had she even come from? “Who are you?”
“My name is Tessa. Your son sent me, in a manner of speaking.” Tessa squeezed Toni’s hand. “I’m here to offer you a choice that you are not going to like.”
“If I’m not going to like it, why offer me the choice?” Toni had to ask.
Tessa gave her a sad smile, reaching around to take Toni’s other hand in hers. “Because you’ll find both options unacceptable, but there isn’t a third, and you should be the one to decide between the two.” She waited for Toni to nod. “You’re going to die if you don’t get help. I can only help if you agree to it, but you need to know the cost.”
Toni quickly assessed her situation. She was alone, freezing, injured, and she was not surprised to learn she’d reached fatal levels of hypothermia. This Tessa had appeared out of nowhere looking perfect; she wasn’t a fellow lost traveler. She had to be some sort of supernatural creature, and one with power over life and death beyond simply killing things. A Reaper, most likely. She’d also said Toni’s son sent her. Some of the Men of Letters theoriezed that Reapers were a form of angels, that angels of death wasn’t just a metaphor, Angels were known to make deals on occasion, similar to their demonic counterparts. If Toni’s son had made a deal of some sort with this Reaper, she would be allowed to save Toni’s life. “What will happen to my son if I accept your help, Reaper?”
“He’ll be taken to Heaven, for a project that some of the higher ranked angels are starting with a nephilim. I can’t tell you what will happen, because it’s been so long no one remembers exactly how this works. If it works the way we hope it will, your son will become an angel. If it fails, there’s no knowing what will happen to him.” Tessa let her eyes drop. “Technically, we don’t need your consent. But he’s a child, so I thought that as his parent you should be the one to make the choice.”
The mother in her warred with the Man of Letters. The Old Man would say that her survival was paramount, that a child could be replaced, and it might be worth it to have an angel who remembered them and might feel obligated to Toni in some way. The mother in her screamed that nothing mattered more than her son’s life, and anyone who thought a child was replaceable had clearly never been a parent. Allowing her son to sacrifice himself for her was all wrong. The Men of Letters would take him in, give him the training he needed to survive, and the natural order of things would be preserved. And all it would cost would be her dying alone because she failed to prepare for rain.
“Can you stay?” Toni asked, hating how her voice quivered. “Keep holding my hands until it’s time to lift the soul out and take it onward?”
Tessa nodded and adjusted her position, making herself and Toni more comfortable. “It won’t be long. I promise, this will be over soon.”
Toni frowned. That didn’t sound right. “It’s not that cold, is it? It can’t be, or this rain would be snow instead.”
“No, but this isn’t a natural storm,” Tessa said. Toni’s frown deepened as she tried to think that through. If it wasn’t natural, where had it come from? Was it some sort of booby trap left by the creature she’d taken out? A trap she’d triggered? Something someone else had done that she’d been the unintentional target of? A somewhat manic giggle escaped as she let herself wonder if it had been the angels, trying to get her son to make this deal. If so, the joke was on them, the Reaper sent to handle matters had a strong moral compass.
Tessa stood up, helping Toni to her feet. It only took a second for Toni to realize she must have died, as her ankle didn’t bother her, and neither did the mud as they walked toward the light hand in hand. “Do you know where I’ll end up?” Toni asked, courage momentarily failing her. If it was going to be Hell, it was going to be Hell; knowing wouldn’t make any difference.
Tessa smiled at her. “No, I don’t. They don’t let us know, so we can’t warn people and have them try to run and become ghosts. Good luck.”
Toni nodded, set her face, and headed for the light. Tessa held her hand the whole way, only letting go when Toni was starting to disappear. “Goodbye, and thank you, Tessa. If I had to die, I’m glad you were there with me.”