"Nice place you got here," Mr. Dunningham said, looking around as if he'd never been in our home before.
I knew he was lying. Our house looked like a rabbit hole in comparison to where he lived. I loved our home, though. We were all seated in the living room on black velvet couches. The fireplace was ablaze because it was always a little chilly in Nowhere. The reflection of the orange flames bounced off the gray marble walls.
Mr. Dunningham wore an expensive-looking black suit, a black tie, and a black dress shirt underneath. He kept his head shaved completely bald. His slate-colored beard and mustache stayed perfectly trimmed. He looked his part— the Lord of Death. I didn't think much of Dunningham. He'd gotten his position by luck. Being born to the previous Lord of Death, who had retired years ago, gave him his power.
Mr. Dunningham's assistant placed his briefcase on our stone coffee table. She looked to be about twenty, with short black hair and a much-too-tight black lace dress. Bram stared at the ceiling, probably trying to make it blatantly obvious that he wasn't ogling the girl. She took a seat in an armchair in the corner. Mr. Dunningham sat in Father's reading chair—the one that no one was allowed to sit in except for him. Mother and Father sat on the loveseat. My brothers and I sat across from Mr. Dunningham on the sofa in the order of our age.
"Well, Nox, I have some very good news for you and your family," Mr. Dunningham began. We all breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing those words.
"Really?" Father said, sitting forward.
"Yes. I know you have all been working very hard. Following the rules." He glanced at Bram. "And being good citizens. I just want you to know your efforts haven't gone unnoticed."
"Thank you, Mr. Dunningham,” Father said, smiling broadly.
I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Father was the strongest person I knew, and it killed me to see him grovel to this man, but I guessed greed would make a man do anything.
"With that being said, I think I have a project that would be perfect for your children. I need several teenaged Grims."
My parents looked at each other and grinned. "What for?" Mother asked.
"Eleanor, this job would put your family on the map."
Father beamed. That only meant one thing—a mass killing. We'd known a few families who had once lived in Farrington and had been blessed with the privilege of collecting from a massive death scene. It was a fast ticket to the Upper Estates.
"One hundred and forty-eight lives," Mr. Dunningham said.
Bram sat forward. "One hundred and forty-eight? We've never done anything close to that before."
Mr. Dunningham gave a half smile. "That's because I reserve those types of jobs for my special, most trusted Grims, so consider yourselves lucky."
"We do, we do," Mother said.
"I'm sorry. What's going to happen to claim one hundred and forty-eight lives?" I asked.
Mr. Dunningham sat back in the seat, stroking his beard. "Six bombs and a shooting spree."
"In a school?" I asked. My family shot me angry glances. Bram elbowed me in my side. I shouldn’t have been questioning this. I should have been thanking Mr. Dunningham for the opportunity, but I was curious.
"Yes, in a school."
There were no schools in Nowhere. When we weren’t on assignment, Grims studied at home with their parents. My only experience with schools was when I had to follow one of the Fated around. They seemed like zoos, but I knew bombs and shootings weren't normal.
"Is everything okay?" Mr. Dunningham asked, eyeing me skeptically.
"Yes, everything's fine," I answered.
Mr. Dunningham continued to stare at me. I shifted uncomfortably between my brothers. He rubbed his chin with his thumb and index fingers. "This one gets attached, doesn't she?"
Father gave a phony chuckle. "Naomi? She’s a little sensitive, but she'll be fine."
"Naomi. What do you expect from a Grim with a name like that?" Mr. Dunningham commented, not hiding his disapproval.
My family hadn't followed the norm when it came to my name. Everyone in Nowhere gave their children names that meant darkness or death. For example, my best friend's name is Keira, which meant dark-skinned. Dorian's name came from the character in a morbid story I didn't remember, and Bram was named after the author of Dracula. My name meant pleasant. Father's friends had advised him against it, but he had insisted. There was some reason he wanted to break tradition and name me Naomi, but he would never tell.
"I like my name," I said softly, as if it mattered what I liked.
Ignoring me, Mr. Dunningham snapped his fingers, and his eager assistant handed him an electronic tablet. I imagined it had to be a miserable job working for a dictatorial narcissist who snapped his fingers at you.
Mr. Dunningham punched in his four-digit code, then swiped the screen with his finger. "Ah, here we are, Family 16747. Brametheus Grim."
I heard my brother draw in a breath and waited for him to tell Dunningham how he hated to be called by his full name, but he said nothing.
Mr. Dunningham continued. "Three infractions. One for fighting in public with a brother Grim. Another for physical affection—kissing a female Grim at age sixteen.” That had been my best friend, Keira. Her father had flipped. “And the third for knocking over a bookshelf at the Documents Library. A total of seventy-five years have been deleted." Mr. Dunningham looked at Bram, who looked down at his hands. "You seem to have a bad temper and a problem with authority, young Grim."
"No, sir," Bram mumbled. But that was a lie. I remembered each and every one of those infractions. Bram had fought with a boy named Harken because Harken had stepped on his shoe and refused to apologize. The Documents Library was a sacred place where information on every Grim and every death was documented. It was treated as a church. Bram had knocked over a bookshelf because he was angry that all the work stations were taken, and he needed to do some research. Yes, Bram had anger issues.
But Mr. Dunningham wasn't done. He moved to the next screen. "Naomi Grim, the only daughter of Nox and Eleanor. Two infractions—twenty-five years lost."
I sank in my seat. I knew my crimes. My family knew my crimes. Why was he making us revisit them?
Mr. Dunningham continued on with his tirade. "Infraction number one, making yourself visible to a Fated."
Yes, that had happened, but I didn't see how it could have been avoided. I’d been following twenty-eight-year-old Jennifer Grey. She had a three-year-old son named Ryder. While she was busy in the kitchen cooking, Ryder was playing in the backyard. Jennifer had been watching from the window, but I guess, for a few moments, she forgot. Ryder went through an open fence on the side of the house with his red rubber ball. The ball rolled into the street and, being the three-year-old he was, Ryder ran after it, right in front of an oncoming pick-up truck.
There was no glow around Ryder. It wasn't his time. I jumped in and moved him from in front of the truck just in time. I didn't see the harm. He wasn't the one I’d been sent to collect. Jennifer came out and saw me holding her son. She had wrapped both me and her son in her arms as she cried hysterically. Since Jennifer was a Fated, she was the only one who could see me and everyone thought she was crazy. Still, Ryder was still alive. I never regretted my decision.
I took a lot of flak from my parents and Mr. Dunningham when I got back. The only reason my punishment hadn’t been more severe was because Ryder wasn't the person I had been sent to follow. Bram told me what I had done was stupid. That Ryder's lifestone would have been a bonus.
Mr. Dunningham watched me for a reaction. I didn't know what he was expecting. Maybe an apology, a teary outburst? Well, he wasn't going to get it. I was at peace with my decision, however I had no intention of going through the year-subtraction process again. Having years deducted from my life had literally been torture.
Both times I'd had to go to the Mill, the sacred building where lifestones were kept, where they'd strapped me to a mechanical chair. I could still feel the leathe
r squeezing my wrists and chest. Dunningham always flipped the switch himself with demented satisfaction. I would never forget the shocks of electricity surging through my body, causing me to twitch involuntarily as drool ran from my mouth. Anyone who went through the process was sick for days afterward. I had vomited for five days straight. It made me so weak I could barely walk.
"Infraction number two—going to Litropolis with Keira Grim, which every Grim in Farrington and the Upper Estates knows is strictly forbidden."
Yes. There was a perfectly good reason for that, too. We wanted to know what Litropolis was like, so we went. Because the older Grims always painted Litropolis as this foreign dangerous place, I wanted to see it for myself. One of the Watchers turned us in. You couldn't get away with anything in Nowhere. I looked at my parents, who hung their heads in shame.
"Now the youngest, Dorian Grim. Son, you have only been an operating Grim for a year and you already have an infraction. That's not a good sign."
Dorian's shoulders slumped and I felt sorry for him. In my opinion, his infraction was worse than Bram’s and mine put together.
He had been assigned to follow an old woman. It was his first assignment. In his eagerness, he didn't wait for the glow and took the woman's husband instead. It wasn't his time. It was against the Grim Covenant to interfere with death. We were only the collectors.
Dunningham narrowed his eyes at Dorian. "When you break the Covenant, you make our entire colony lose credibility. I mean, that's the first rule of collecting—we only take the Fated."
Dorian nodded. "It was a terrible mistake that I'll never make again."
Mr. Dunningham eyed Dorian for another moment as if wondering whether or not he should accept his statement. He laid his tablet on the coffee table. "I said all that to say this—I like you, Nox. I think you're a wonderful leader and will make a great asset to the Upper Estates. Because of that, I'm willing to overlook your children's numerous sins."
Father's head bobbed in appreciation. "Thank you so much, Mr. Dunningham. You are a kind, fair man."
So that was Mr. Dunningham's game. He would make my father even more indebted to him by giving his unworthy family such a life-changing assignment.
"We really appreciate this, Mr. Dunningham," Mother said, grabbing Father's hand and squeezing it.
"I'm sure you do, dear." Dunningham turned to my brothers and me. "So do you want this job?"
"Of course they do," Father answered for us. "And they'll do great. Thank you so much, Mr. Dunningham. They won't let you down."
Mr. Dunningham stood, and his assistant followed suit. "This is a big job, so I'll be enlisting a couple other Grims. This assignment begins in a week. I need them to study and become familiar with high school culture. You won't be invisible to them. You'll actually be living in their world as regular students, so it's very important that you blend in. I'll drop in every now and then to see how things are going. Young Grims, you will have no other assignments for the time being. I need you to focus on this."
My parents walked Mr. Dunningham and his assistant to the door. Father watched through the peephole until they drove away. Then he turned to us. "Woo-hoo!"
Bram stood and high-fived Father. "This is it! Upper Estates, here we come!"
"Son, this is going to set us up for life!"
Dorian stood and joined them, a boy in desperate need of being accepted like his big brother. "Father, I know we're going to do a great job."
Father removed Dorian's hood and tousled his black hair. Dorian looked like a satisfied puppy who'd been begging for a belly rub. Dorian was more concerned with his science studies than he was with power and money. I think he was beginning to realize that was the reason Father favored Bram over him.
Mother smiled from the loveseat, but she wasn't as excited as Father.
"What's the matter, Mother?" I asked. I could always tell when something was wrong. The boys got quiet.
Mother shrugged. "I'm just a little worried. Where you're going is so much different from what you're used to. I don't want you all to get into any trouble."
"Eleanor, don't worry. They'll be properly trained, and Bram will be there to make sure nothing goes wrong." Father patted Bram's chest. "Right, son?"
"Of course," Bram answered. Mother seemed to relax a little. Bram was many things, but he was very protective of Dorian and me.
Just then, Father's cell rang and he answered it. "Emery!" Emery was Keira's father and my father's good friend. Father was silent for a moment before he hooted again. I wasn't thrilled about this assignment, but it was nice to see my father so happy. "Emery, we need to celebrate. Meet me at Morton's." Morton's was the only bar in Farrington. "Kids, guess who's going to be joining you?" Father asked after he'd hung up.
I stood from the couch. "Keira and Josh?"
Father nodded. This made the situation a little better. Keira would be with me, and she always made everything okay. If I was moving to the Upper Estates, she would be too.
Father removed his cloak and handed it to Dorian to hang. "Children, I'll be back in a bit. We should get on your studies right away."
"Don't worry, guys," Bram said. "I know everything there is to know about today's American teenager."
I wasn't so sure about that. Sure, we went to their world a lot and got to observe them from time to time. Learning their ways and culture was part of our schooling. We studied four subjects: life collecting, other worlds, human studies, and languages. Human studies was the hardest to keep up with. The information changed often, and we had to keep up with the new trends and current events. I'd always felt comfortable with that, but this was different. We were going to actually have to live as one of them for an unspecified amount of time. This time we would be interacting with them. Mother's concern began to worry me. If there was any possible way to mess up this job, my brothers and I would find it.
Chapter 3