A

Day in the Afterlife Of Tod

A Soul Screamers Novella
Rachel Vincent
8:00 AM Another cup of coffee. Pecan caramel, this time. Ive tried every flavor of
creamer the cafeteria has. The coffee still sucks.
8:54 AM These ER chairs were manufactured in the 70s. I swear, cave men were more
comfortable sitting on logs and rocks. Thats it. Im filing that requisition form today.
Eight months of practicing the attending physicians signature is about to pay off
9:47 AM Rush hour traffic collision. Crushed sternum. Splinters of bone sticking
through his skin. Two punctured lungs. Death is a mercy. Hey, is that coffee on his shirt?
Smells good. Wonder what kind of creamer he uses?
10:38 AM Third period. Kaylee has no class this period. I have no one to kill.
Coincidence, or fate?
11:54 AM Six minutes left on my shift. I will not go to the school after work. I will not
go to the school after work. I will not go to the school after
12:22 PM Lunch in the quad. Nash is having pizza. I dont care if I never see another
slice of pizza. Kaylees wearing that blue shirt again. That one that matches her eyes.
She looks tired. I will not show myself to her at lunch. I will not show myself to her at
lunch. I will not show
12:24 PM Nashs pizza tastes as bland as it looks. But since I already took a bite, he
said I should just take the rest of it. Wonder what would happen if I took a nibble on
Kaylee?
1:48 PM Wonder what would happen if I switch the labels on some of the bottles in the
chemistry labs storage closet? Ooh! Or I could test the acidity of the toilet bowl water
with these litmus strips. Im betting its acidic

2:36 PM Seriously, why do they still teach history in school? If its going to repeat itself
anyway, cant we just catch it the next time around?
3:02 PM Schools out. Only nine more hours to kill until there will be actual people to
kill. Erreap.
4:22 PM Large pepperoni and sausage. There in 30 minutes, or your money back.
Minus the 50 second commute, and the actual delivery leaves me 25 minutes to pop over
to Moms house for a brownie.
4:26 PM Kaylee and Nash are trying to swallow each other whole. I suggested they eat
the brownies instead. Nash threw one at me. My appetite is gone.
4:40 PM Theres never anything good on TV. At the hospital, they only play news and
cartoons. And not the good cartoons. The ones where animals dance around and some
little girl with a big head counts in Spanish. Aydame!
4:41 PM If Nash and Kaylee are going to make out instead of watching the movie, they
should just hand over the remote.
4:42 PM The remote slid down between them on the couch, and I am not going after it.
4:43 PM I wonder if theres any reasonable way to reinterpret the phrase Get the hell
out of here, Tod to mean Please stay and help us maintain the PG rating on this
hormonal train wreck. Maybe if I rearrange the letters
5:58 PM Dude. Do NOT answer the door in your underwear. No two dollar tip is worth
that. Now Im going to have to find something prettier to purge that mental image.
Mangled bunny road kill should do the trick.
7:00 PM Is it time to reap souls yet?
7:01 PM Seriously, has time stopped moving? Is this what eternity feels like?
9:10 PM Kaylees practicing conjugating irregular verbs for a French test tomorrow. I
said Id check the verb chart for her, but this stupid language has more sounds than

letters, and Im not sure I even remember how to conjugate English verbs.
9:24 PM I have no idea what shes saying, but its hot.
11:05 PM Sabine suggests we play Guess Whose Life Sucks Worse. I cant lose this
one. Im not even alive.
11:14 PM New game. Guess Whose Love Life Sucks Worse. Its a tie. A big, pathetic
tie.
1:00 AM An hour into my shift, and no ones died yet. Is it possible to be bored to
death if youre already dead?
3:42 AM Massive cranial and spinal trauma from head-on collision. A cause-of-death
near and dear to my heart. Now were talkin
5:19 AM The guy in room 434 looks tired. He looks done. We both know this is the last
room hell ever see, and hes ready to end it. He deserves a merciful, peaceful death in
his sleep. But hes not scheduled to go for another four days. Poor guy. Sometimes I
wish I was the boss.
7:43 AM Hit-and-run at an elementary school crosswalk. She cant be more than eight
years old. I hate my job.
8:00 AM Parents crying in the waiting room. They dont know yet. I wish I didnt know.
I wish I didnt have to see her last moments. I wish I didnt have to be her last moments.
Im sick of white walls and endings. The only thing that doesnt end in this place is me. I
dont end. I just go on, and on, swinging that scythe glued to my hand. Theres no
rhythm to the strokes. Few see death coming, and even those who do see death dont
see me. Because there is no me. Not anymore. Always the reaper, never the reaped.
Soon that wont bother me. Soon I wont care. Emotional death follows physical death at
a different pace for each reaper. Ive put it off for more than two years, but its
inevitable.

It would take a miracle to keep me alive on the inside.

When I was a kid, my mom said that everyone gets one miracle. She said the trick is
recognizing your miracle from a distance, so youre ready when it arrives. Im watching.
Im waiting.
Im ready for my miracle.