"Just wait," Jack gaze was fixed on the ground beneath the tombstone. Willow's confusion deepened, and she shivered involuntarily wondering why they was in some cemetery the gods know where staring at the tombstone of a Caleb Miller. Then, to her astonishment, the ground beneath the tombstone began to shift and stir. Her eyes widened in disbelief as a pallid hand emerged from the soil, and she instinctively took a step back.
In a matter of seconds, a half decaying body clawed its way out of the ground, uttering guttural noises and spewing dirt as it struggled to free itself.
"What the fuck!" Willow squealed, moving closer to Jack, taking a tight grip of his arm.
"Full-blood demon," Jack explained, his focus still on the emerging creature.
Willow had read that full bloods usually possessed someone when leaving Hell, but she has expected it to be a living body.
"Ew thats gross." Daisy commented nonchalantly, suddenly appearing out of thin air.
"What are you doing here?" Jack frowned, as Daisy walked over to them, not taking his eyes if the hall emerged demon.
"I was bored. And I got my hair fixed, and I wanted to show it off." She flipped her hair with a grin.
"Yeah okay, pretty, lovely, can I do my job now?" Jack grumbled, walking closer to the emerging demon, which now had pitch-black eyes that seemed to absorb all light.
"Rude much," Daisy grunted, crossing her arms. "What do you think, Willow?"
Willow couldn't help but stare at the gruesome sight. The corpse of an older man, now partially out of the ground, was adjusting its disheveled tie. The creature's decaying appearance sent shivers down her spine, but she managed to tear her gaze away momentarily.
"It is... uh, lovely," she stammered, finding it difficult to form coherent words while watching the bizarre scene unfolding before her.
"Thank you, Willow." Daisy exclaimed, her voice deliberately loud enough for Jack to hear. Jack continued to interact with the demon, seemingly unfazed by Daisy's comments. "Now, I know we don't know each other Willow, but I gotta ask. Why are you dressed like a panda?"
Willow looked down at herself, pulling the jacket around her to hide the fact that she was, in fact, wearing a panda bodysuit that Jack had somehow managed to get his hands on after she lost a bet.
"I lost a bet," she mumbled, tugging at the hood with panda ears on it. Turning her head to Jack she wondered what a full-blood had to tell Jack. Usually Ian was the one who dealt with Lucifer and his messengers, who from what she had heard usually was half-bloods as they weren't as unpredictable as full-bloods. From what she read in the book about demonology was half-bloods once human, tortured souls. Full-bloods on the other hand, was born from Lucifer's hatred and the fire of Hell. "Do you know why we are meeting a full-blood on some sketchy cemetery?"
Daisy shrugged nonchalantly, inspecting her nails as if the situation was entirely ordinary.
"The dark lord wants some info Lucifer willingly would not give, a lot has changed in Hell in the last years. And Lucifer is...Well he's still hot, but he has changed too." She turned her eyes towards the demon who didn't pay them any mind, which made Willow guess they were in the veil, which would explain the male soul wandering around, mumbling to himself.
Limbo was a part of the veil, and where some human souls will forever stay instead of going to Hell and Heaven for reasons the book wasn't specific about, some reapers just leave them in limbo. They will forever be trapped, though many souls or ghosts as they are called are deemed important due to where they died can make deals with Heaven or Hell to get out. Not knowing it isn't their decision to let them leave, it's Death's, and he has only let 12 souls ever leave limbo.
Those who make deals are usually those who died when their ship sank, as a ghost usually can't leave the place they died, but they have some leniency due to dying on a ship. They can't leave their ship, but they can travel the sea on their ghost ship, and from what the book said it is used by supernaturals to get around. Those souls who are working for Lucifer or God's have the mark of Avóc on their cheek, which from the picture in the book should look like a valknut with two lines sticking out of the triangle holding the other two together. It should symbolize the three realms, Heaven, Earth and Hell, and the two lines symbolize the two they could have ended in. Plus the Viking era was where the first souls got trapped in limbo.
"Why are ghosts eyes almost translucent?" Willow whispered to Daisy. The ghost looked their way, as if it heard Willow talk about it, it's sickly pale nearly translucent blue eyes bored through her before he went back to his mumbling. Only those that could see through the veil could see the ghosts if they don't have the Avóc, making Willow wonder if she had seen people who were actually dead without knowing through her life. Some ghosts though can become strong enough to mess with the real word, which is where humans got the word poltergeist from. Though Jack said its usually demons messing around instead of ghosts.
Jack had said that the reason she probably hadn't gone around going crazy by seeing people nobody else could see was that the brain sometimes hid the info from itself to protect it and she probably didn't realize most when she did see them that nobody else could.
Daisy glanced over at him as he walked away.
"It's their soul that becomes translucent, watery so to speak, that's what you can see through their eyes, due to them being dead." She shrugged, looking at Willow out of the corner of her eyes. "First time seeing one?"
Willow nodded, looking at the road the ghost had disappeared down.
"Daisy, can you take Willow back? I need to go to Dauði," Jack said as he headed over to them as the demon walked off in the corpse, making Willow wonder what kind of horrors it was going to do.
"Sure, I'm heading back anyway instead of going back to Arvo," Daisy replied with a smile, motioning for Willow to come closer. "It seems like the island has become a lot more fun." Without waiting for Jack's response, she grabbed Willow, and in a matter of seconds, they found themselves in what Willow assumed was Daisy's bedroom.
The room was simple and bathed in blush pink hues. A large vanity table adorned with perfumes, nail polish, makeup, and hair accessories stood by the bathroom door. Magazines were scattered on her nightstands. A stereo was positioned beside her desk, almost hidden beneath a pile of paper, next to her PC. Daisy sat down in a white comfy chair in the corner, adorned with a pink fuzzy blanket draped over the armrest. A round table beside it held beautiful notebooks. On the wall was a small bookshelf adorned with glass figurines and travel books and scented candles were placed throughout the room, infusing the space with a hint of vanilla.
Willow's gaze was drawn to what hung above the bed, filled with furry pink pillows.
"You dance ballet?" Willow asked, her eyes lingering on the worn pointe shoes hanging on the wall.
Daisy replied, "Sometimes. I did it a lot when I first became a reaper to maintain some sort of connection to my old life." She pushed herself out of the chair. "Adélaide, another reaper who used to stay on the island at the time, would practice with me. She had been a ballet dancer before becoming a reaper. Actually, she died performing Le Papillon in Paris in the 1800s."
"How did she die?" Willow asked curiously, wondering how one could die performing.
Daisy pulled her gaze away from the shoes and turned to Willow. "She caught on fire."
"Oh," Willow murmured, fiddling with a lock of hair that had escaped from the hood, unsure of what to say next.
Suddenly, Daisy gasped loudly, her eyes widening, and she vanished, reappearing by the balcony door, startling Willow with her abrupt movement.
Daisy crouched down, a gentle smile on her face as she addressed the furry bundle in her arms. "Luna, my baby, how have you been? Has Jack been feeding you properly?" The cat responded with a loud meow, and Daisy continued, "I know, baby, but he wouldn't let me take you with me. Something about finders keepers." She nuzzled Luna's fur, cooing into her head, completely immersed in her own world.
"I... better get going, it's getting late." She smiled.
"Sleep well, Willow," she smiled softly as she walked towards her desk, still holding Luna in her arms. Willow mumbled a goodnight as she headed for the door. She made her way down another hallway to her own room, where she changed into a pair of grey shorts and a black tee. Pulling the duvet around her, she closed her eyes, intending to get a good night's rest. However, after a few minutes, she turned with an irritated grunt, pushing the duvet off as it felt too warm to lie beneath.
She glanced at the clock and realized she had been lying in bed for half an hour, unable to fall asleep. Frustrated, she groaned softly and pulled the teddy bear with the green ribbon closer to her, wondering why she couldn't sleep, when softly, the sweet tunes of a violin filled the air, the music so gentle and soothing that it instantly calmed Willow's restlessness. A small smile graced her lips as she was slowly lulled into sleep, knowing that Jack had returned.