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on the ground floor. As I walked in, I knew exactly where I'd find Cass.
    " Olá . Posso ajudá - lo?" the receptionist, a dark-haired woman in her late thirties, asked with a smile.
    Even though I understood her Portuguese perfectly well, I shook my head and muttered in a fake French accent, " Não falo português ." I shot her an apologetic smile and walked past, knowing all too well she wouldn't follow me and make a fuss. It would be too much of a hassle arguing with a huge guy like me. In a few long strides, I reached the double doors leading to the emergency department and walked into what I assumed to be the busiest area of the building.
    Drama and suffering was palpable in the air. Doctors and nurses in blood stained uniforms hurried up and down the narrow corridor, paying me no attention. I strolled down the hall, hoping to blend in so I wouldn't need to use my shape shifting abilities. A young nurse shot me an interested look, but she didn't stop me as I walked past.
    I followed Cass's trail—a thin thread of black fog that characterized all reapers—to one of the ER rooms where two patients lay on their hospital beds, hooked up to various whirring machines that wouldn't keep them alive for much longer. I knew where to find Cass because a reaper like her would always hover around a person that was more dead than alive.
    She stood near one of the beds, back pressed against the white wall, her still emerald green eyes shining unnaturally as they soaked up the pain wafting from the dying mortals. In this stadium, Cass’s body had left the physical realm and relocated into one of the Otherworld dimensions where no mortal eyes could see her. But some could feel her presence.
    "Cass?" I touched her shoulder. She barely raised her gaze from one of the two humans. For a moment, I saw her shoulders slump in defeat, her expression haunted by grief and sadness, and then her ecstasy returned. Soaking up the pain of others relieved her own, only to come back full force within a few hours, turning her more and more into this thing that couldn't stay away from death. I shuddered. Having known Cass for a long time, I knew she never wanted any of this. I felt pity for her.
    "Cass, I know you can hear me." I shook her arm lightly. Her skin, black as coal, felt colder than before and her green gaze darkened. In this in-between state of the physical and spiritual realm, where her body morphed into a reaper, her skin couldn't keep warm. She raised her chin a notch, black eyes glinting unnaturally. Her lips peeled back, revealing a string of white teeth. I didn't know whether she was laughing or in pain, but it sure creeped me out.
    The left patient on the bed stirred in his sleep, drawing his breath several times before his heart stopped beating, and the little ECG machine next to him started beeping. Cass sucked in her breath, relishing the moment when the man's life force waned. She inched closer and pushed her hands inside his ribcage. Only then did I notice the razor sharp claws she had been hiding behind her back that now tore through the man's astral body as he rose to hover over his body.
    "Time to go." Cass's voice was surprisingly calm and composed. With a snap of her fingers she ripped the silver thread that held the man's astral body attached to his physical carcass. And then she disappeared with him, leaving me behind to look at the whirring machines and the deceased who had just passed away in his sleep. I sighed and walked out of the building, then sat down on a nearby bench as I prepared for the half hour wait. Cass would be back soon with a refreshed mind that would be free of the usual pain for a few hours. I grabbed a newspaper and let my mind switch off for a while, but my thoughts kept circling back to the girl with the dyed jet-black hair. For some reason, I couldn't forget the way she had looked at me, curious yet cool and composed. She was mortal, I wasn't, so getting up close and personal with her wasn't an