Look really hard? Where do I look? Ever twisted about in mid air, trying to see something, anything resembling a soul. Were they hiding in the clouds? On the beach? Coming out of the sea? Wait, there was someone there. Amongst the surging waves pushing towards the shore, it was barely a wink. However, it was shooting straight up, faster and faster. From this distance, it looked like a gray, translucent seagull.
He floated forward, keeping his eye on the soul, projecting the point of intersection between them. The soul seemed to notice him, as it veered from its vertical trajectory, curving slightly towards him. Ever held out the scythe in the air like it was a "STOP" sign.
“Whooooooaaaa!” the soul yelped. She abruptly changed direction as if pinging on an invisible surface a few feet away from Ever. She kept a distance, warily staring at the scythe. “Are you Death?”
“I’m his apprentice, Ever. You are?”
The ghost looked at him appraisingly, hair whipping about her bespectacled face. “I’m Sally.” She spun around, as if realizing that she had forgotten something. “Ah!” She spotted the helicopter hovering in the distance, took her mark and zoomed off towards it.
“Hey!” Ever took off in hot pursuit, holding the scythe flat against his body, the blade inches away from his face. If it was true metal, he would have been able to see his own face in it.
Sally looked back at him. “Come on, faster! We might be able to get there before the next person jumps.”
“Jumps?” Ever shouted.
“Yeah!” She amped up her speed, leaving Ever behind. The apprentice reaper watched as she reached the red helicopter first. She didn’t go into the wide open passenger door of the chopper, floating above the blurring rotors then dropping through the top into the cabin, pinching her nose like she was holding her breath, going under water.
Ever floated in through the passenger door soon after, unable to avoid passing through some people standing in the way.
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“You made it just on time!” Sally said, crouching behind them. “She’s about to jump.”
Ever watched the direction that the soul gestured in. A woman was harnessed directly to a man behind her, standing a couple feet away from the entrance of the door. The whir of the rotors was deafening.
“I can’t do it!” The woman wailed, shaking her head incessantly.
“Yes you can,” the instructor yelled, his voice loud but reassuring. “You’ve come all this way to face your fear. You’ve got me, you’ll be safe. We’ll pull the chute together.”
“That’s right!” Sally said, clenching her see-through fist. “You can do it! I’ll jump with you too!”
It dawned on Ever: he must have collided into Sally, on her way down the first time.
“You ever jumped out of a helicopter while you were alive?” Ever asked her.
The ghost shook her head. “I was too chicken, but now that I’m dead, I follow these guys who take people every single day to do it.”
Ever couldn’t help but smile to himself. “What if I could give you the real feeling of falling out of the helicopter?”
Sally’s eyes were magnified behind her glasses. “How?” If possible, her eyes became even wider as the scythe flashed to life in Ever’s hand:
SENSES
—--
—--
Touch
—--
—--
Ever had barely chosen the only option available before the scythe broke off into dozens of ribbons of light, wrapping themselves around Sally.
“I feel… real.” She looked at her hands, sheathed in faint light. “Am I alive again?”
“Ready or not,” the skydiving instructor shouted, “let’s gooooo!” The woman's wailed in abject horror as they fell out of the helicopter.
“Go, go, go!” Ever urged Sally.
“O-OK!” She hesitated at the edge of the helicopter, looking back at him. “Will you come with me?”
Ever smiled. “Sure thing.” Without so much as a second thought, he surged out of the door, half tackling, half embracing the soul. Together, they tumbled out into the wild, blue yonder, their delighted screams heard only by each other.
