Grim Love - A Novella Read Online Free PDF

you find it,
Evangeline.”
    The grunt in her throat told him what she
thought of that answer, but she didn't push any further. Sighing,
Lucius crossed the threshold to monitor from his den. It wasn’t
until then he realized Evangeline hadn’t said anything about Jasper
being able to see her, which wasn’t a surprise to him, but he
figured it would be for her. Evangeline already knew she’d made one
mistake. She wasn’t going to say anything else that might make
things worse for her.
    Being in his position wasn’t exactly one
Lucius enjoyed. He knew, if it wasn’t for reapers, souls would
wander, wishing and hoping for a reprieve from their fruitless
journeys. Those like him, who were in positions of power, spent
centuries fulfilling their duties and had seen many times of
change, but had come to rely on the fact that not all changes
remained permanent.
    * * * *
    “Where did you go?” Evangeline remained
silent as Jasper spoke to her. “You can talk to me. I know no one
else here can see you, otherwise you would have been asked to leave
a long time ago. The only logical explanation for you being here is
that you're my guardian angel. Why else would you have come back?
So, I’m not going to die now?” Evangeline didn't want to tell him
Lucius said otherwise. “If I do die, how long will you be here?
Will I be able to see you the whole time?”
    More questions she couldn’t answer. She
turned to look out the window, hoping Jasper would leave her alone.
Lucius said Jasper would die, so it had to happen, but she did her
best not to sigh in such a way that he could hear. He didn’t look
like he would die anytime soon. It seemed like he might end up
going to prison instead, though. With his other crimes, his
circumstances, whatever they were, had been taken into
consideration, so she hoped they would be again, if he did
live.
    Evangeline turned to look at him, knowing
he'd been staring at her. Seeing hope in his eyes, didn’t help her
dilemma. He thought she'd been called there to help him. Evangeline
knew he wouldn't understand that she'd come to guide his spirit not
make him see the light of day.
    “Please talk to me. Standing there in silence
isn’t going to make me go away. I get the feeling you hope I
disappear. If you're my guardian angel, you know what I’ve been
through. I could use a friend right now.”
    Sighing,
Evangeline nodded. “I don’t know everything. I’ve just been
assigned to you, but I know you haven’t been in a good place,
Jasper.” Might as well go with the guardian angel thing, she thought . Telling him she'd been there to collect his soul
wasn’t going to do any good. “If you need to, you can talk to me.
It'd be better if you didn’t do it where other people can see you.”
She smiled at him. “We don’t want anyone to think you're
crazy.”
    Jasper nodded before starting, “They’ve
talked about that before.” He blinked, trying to stop himself from
crying. “My life...well, I’ve done nothing with it. I just
exist.”
    “You live. Your still worthwhile.” She walked
over to his bed and took hold of his hand. “No matter what people
say to you or about you, you still matter. You’ve just got to find
the path you want to take and you’re not going to be able to do
that if you keep doing dangerous things.”
    “I wasn’t trying to kill myself.”
    “That time. I know you have before, Jasper,
and it needs to stop.” She had no idea why she’d said that, but she
thought guardian angels said that sort of thing. “You need to live
a different life.”
    “How? I don’t have a job. I live in my
grandfather's place. I don't have anything to call my own except my
car.” Smirking, he continued, “I don't have that anymore either,
now. Plus, I'm sure they're going to lock me up for this.” He shook
his head. “You don’t know what it’s like to be me.”
    “No, I don’t, but I do know what it felt like
to be me and I would have ended up like you if I hadn’t