Souls of Caelis

Chapter 1

ZANDRA

Zandra was late. So late, in fact, that her partner (who had gained extreme notoriety for his lack of punctuality), had arrived well before her and had collected the souls from Opsianos.

When she reached the shore of the glassy beach, she saw her partner, Alex, leading the new souls (known as 'fresh blood' by the other Necromancer detectives- it's their idea of a joke) to the Necromantiae.

She ran up to him, about to commend him on his maturity and ability to do his job without any supervision, when,

She saw him flirting with one of the souls.

"Really, Alex?"

The frosty-haired boy spun around to face her, a pout on his face.

"Oh come on! You had to show up now, you ruin all the fun!"

She huffed and turned towards the souls, each of them wore the same expression of bewilderment and confusion, except the soul Alex was flirting with. That guy just glared at Zandra as though she had gatecrashed his wedding.

"Grow up, Alex, did you even brief these people?" Zandra spoke, exasperated.

Alex moved to argue with her when he paused, mouth open. A look of extreme perplexity dawned on his features,

"We do that?"

Zandra almost face-palmed herself, "You've been my partner for what, two years now? We've been doing this stupid job for the past two years every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and you don't know protocol yet?"

Zandra didn't believe his act one bit. Who did he think he was fooling? They'd been best friends since middle school. She knew that he only broke the rules to rile up his parents.

She shot him a look that she'd given him a million times before- her stare conveying the promise that she made to Alex two years ago when they joined the NAIC as the lower class detectives.

No matter what happens, Alex, my reputation at Mortem matters more to me than your petty feud with your parents. You step out of line, you talk back to the uninformed, you don't do your job- don't you dare count on me to back you up.

You're alone in that fight.

Alex caught her death stare and backed down. Zandra knew she was being 'the bad cop'. Technically, Alex didn't even do much wrong. He just didn't brief the souls (there was no rule against flirting with them), which she would have easily done when she arrived.

But Zandra knew she couldn't take any chances.

There was nothing in the world, absolutely nothing, that mattered more to her than joining the NIC. Those uniformed officers, the judges and upper-class detectives were all she dreamed about, ever since she was a kid.

But she would never get in.

Her family name and history had already ruined her chances of becoming a full-fledged NIC Necromancer. The NIC judges had sworn that they would never let the Flynn family back into the NIC again, after what they had done.

She wasn't going to take any chances. Not with the only opportunity she had to prove herself to the NIC members.

Which is why, even though he was her best friend, Zandra was hard on Alex. If he messed up, her head was on the chopping block.

All of Caelis knew that nobody questioned the Reaper family.

Especially not if the sole heir to the Grim Reaper empire was Alex Reaper.

Alex 'Reaper-in-training', more like.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and turned her attention towards the souls.

Zandra clapped her hands together to silence the crowd.

"Alright, listen up! Welcome to Caelis. My name is Zandra Flynn and this is my colleague Alex Reaper. You may know him because of the, uh, warm welcome he gave some of you prior to this."

As she said that she turned to look at Alex, who was busy making eyes at the soul he was flirting with earlier.

She sighed, "Both of us are going to guide you to the Necromantiae where all your further questions will be answered and you will be divided into groups and be given detective handlers."

She stopped and scanned the crowd. The next part was always the worst. The expressions on the souls after they learned what happened to them and where they ended up were heartbreaking.

"You all... are dead, and uh... the reason you weren't taken in with the other souls is that.. you were murdered."

Just as she thought, a wave of fear and confusion ran through the crowd. Varying volumes of gasps emerged and the faint sound of crying filled the air. It was normal for them to act this way. Souls are the purest, most untainted form of a person. They're naïve and trusting, so it made sense that they wouldn't be sceptical.

But it didn't make it hurt any less.

She heard Alex whisper from behind, "Real smooth Zan. Real smooth. Way to break it to them."

She huffed and whispered back, irritated, "Well you haven't got any better ideas, have you?! What do you want to do, break it to them slowly? It always ends up turning into a support group on the beach, you know that. Remember Mrs. Mulaney? The lady who wouldn't stop hugging you the first time we briefed the souls?"

Alex shuddered involuntarily, "She was strong for an old woman, and she smelled weird too. Ah, good times, good times."

Alex straightened, "Alright everyone! All your questions will be answered at Necromantiae, including the identity of your murderer. So come on, no time for crying. Let's go!"