Griffin started looking around for clues. Something told him the last soul was somewhere close by. He noticed a smoking sign next to the door that would have led to the other carriages.

“Emma, how long does this train need to travel from where it started today until the next stop on its schedule?”

“This train only travels between the two main stops of the adjacent countries. It is an express way to cross the border. It takes a little under seven hours to complete its journey,” she replied.

Griffin had a plethora of unanswered questions troubling his mind, and the familiar feeling of one of them nagging at his brain was returning once again. He knew he had heard Emma’s voice before she became his scythe, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t remember when or where. Realising this was not the time nor the place to deal with that particular question he pushed it aside and focused on the task at hand. “Do we have any information on the missing soul?”

The scythe turned yellow, searching for information. It then vibrated and changed the colour it emitted to green. “The soul missing is male. In this lifetime his name was Nathaniel--”

“Did Nathaniel smoke?” Griffin interrupted.

“Yes, records show he was a smoker.”

“A seven-hour journey can be really long for a person who likes to smoke. How many smoking areas did the train have?”

“Four in total, one every three railway carriages.”

“Were these smoking areas open spaces between the carriages?”

“Yes.”

“Bring up an image of the train and re-enact the crash. I want you to calculate all possible trajectories for this Nathaniel, taking into account his weight and assuming he was standing in any of the four smoking areas.”

A train appeared on the track, but you could tell it wasn’t a real train. It was an illusion. Its detail astonishing, but the faded colours and the white light it produced when it came in contact with other surfaces gave it away. The holographic train followed the path of the real train and mannequins appeared with a blue dotted line that marked their trajectory as they launched off the train.

Griffin carefully observed all the lines marked by his scythe’s calculations. “Erase all the trajectories from the front three locations. They all show the body fell down the hill, that body would have easily been discovered and the soul would have probably released quickly as it would have been crushed by the train.”

Only four dotted lines remained at the very back of the railway track, just before the bend. Two of the lines marking the body’s possible paths ended in plain sight. The other two, however, disappeared somewhere in the thick forest. Griffin dived into the trees looking for Nathaniel’s body, but no matter where he searched there were no signs of him.

“Emma, can you try to calculate the body’s location based on what it might have encountered while falling down here? Even if the Demons took his soul, his body must still be here somewhere.”

Dotted lines appeared again, but each time they passed a tree, multiple lines formed, showing numerous possible paths.

“This can’t be right Emma. I’ve already been over all the areas you marked, and I didn’t find Nathaniel’s body. I’m missing something here.”

“You haven’t checked all the areas marked. Only the ones that end up on the ground.” Emma replied.

“Show me,” Griffin ordered, and all the holographic lines disappeared. “Is this some kind of a joke Emma? There are no lines left.”

“Look up, to the left.”

Griffin quickly realized that one line stopped halfway down a tree. He rushed to the marked area and found a man frozen in time. He was badly wounded and bleeding. His right leg was broken in two places, his ribcage seemed to have collapsed from the impact with the tree and both his hands were trapped between branches, leaving him hanging.

Griffin could see Nathaniel’s soul had already started to rise from his body, but with time frozen the soul wasn’t able to break free from the bonds of its human shell. It would stay like that until Nicolas stopped affecting time. Griffin couldn’t pull the soul out before it released, all on its own, and he couldn’t leave the soul there and run back to the others either. He couldn’t even shout for help as he feared he would risk revealing the soul’s location to the Demons.

Before Griffin could decide what his next move should be, time returned to normal. His scythe vibrated hard, and a red light shone in three quick bursts. The soul started once again to break free from the body, but something was wrong. It seemed Nathaniel was trying, with all his remaining strength, to hang on to his life.

“Urgent message from the Council,” Emma said and Griffin pulled out his scroll.

‘We cannot continue to slow down time.

All Grim Reapers and Angels still in the mortal world are to perform one last search for the soul before retreating. We have closed all fade-out paths in case a Demon finds the soul.

If you recover the soul, you must fly with it to the single crossover passage we will leave open high in the sky, leading directly into Heaven. The same area from where you all first crossed into the mortal world.

If a Demon recovers the soul, you have permission to hunt them down, hopefully reaching them before crossing into Hell.

We do not know the location of their crossover gate, but DO NOT chase any Demon into Hell, even if they escape with the soul.’

“Nathaniel?”

Griffin startled. He lifted his head up and realized that while he was busy reading the Council’s message Nathaniel’s soul had broken free from its mortal body. All souls keep the memories of their last life, and so they instinctively keep the shape of their last mortal shell.

There was, however, something unusual with this Nathaniel. He didn’t run away as most souls would have. Griffin didn’t have time to think why, but he decided not to spook the soul by trapping it in his Soul-Chain. He would instead try to talk to Nathaniel, convince him to follow him into Heaven. It would be easier for Griffin to travel to the crossover with a soul that willingly followed him rather than struggling to drag a soul that resisted him.

“Yes, your name is Nathaniel,” Griffin replied, trying to sound gentle.

“No, I know that. I meant you’re Nathaniel, the guardian Angel of the Hartley family. Are you not?”

Griffin was lost for words. He knew of rare cases where the souls couldn’t see the Grim Reaper’s true form. Instead, they saw what they expected depending on their religion, and how strong that belief was when they were alive. But he had never witnessed such a case. Most of the souls he had collected so far believed he was Haron, the first Grim Reaper, because of their resemblance.

“Yes, yes you are,” the soul continued, “You’re Nathaniel. I can’t believe the old family tale is actually true,” the soul smiled. “I can already see Grandma Emma with a grin on her face, saying ‘I told you so’,” Nathaniel laughed softly. “But I guess that won’t happen. I’m dead, aren’t I?” the severity of the situation was not lost to the soul.

Griffin froze as something crawled through every fibre of his being and clutched at his soul, numbing him out. He felt as if he had suddenly grown a heart and it pumped hard a couple of times, echoing loudly in his chest, and causing his veins to swell. “Did you say Emma?” His body was preparing to flee or fight.

“Yes, Grandma Emma. Not the Emma you fell in love with of course.”

Questions overflowed Griffin’s mind. “Could this Emma Hartley be the origin of my scythe’s voice? It can’t be. I don’t remember collecting a soul called Emma Hartley.”

“You, Nathaniel, are a legend of the Hartley family passed down for generations,” the soul added.

“I can’t waste more time here,” Griffin looked at Nathaniel and replied, “Yes, yes of course, the Hartley family. As your guardian Angel, I’m here to escort you into Heaven Nathaniel, but we must move quickly, it isn’t safe here.”

“I am sure I have nothing to worry about. The stories say you were a skilful fighter. The Hartley family owes everything to you, and everyone in my family believes you appear whenever a Hartley dies, to escort us to the afterlife.”

A sharp pain filled Griffin’s head as a single image flashed before his eyes. A single, fully grown, red rose. A split second later both the pain and the image were gone.

“A red rose?” Griffin whispered and Nathaniel heard him.

“Yes, that’s right, a red rose, Emma’s favourite flower. The brothers mentioned it in their diaries. Emma’s theory about the world, but we’ve never understood what that theory was. My guess is the brothers never really understood it themselves.”

A second sharp pain and another image followed. Griffin grabbed and squeezed his head, trying to deal with the pain. A Caucasian woman wearing a rather large and stylish hat, she had black hair, a beautiful wide smile and slender neck. She was dressed in an extravagant blue dress that emphasized her full and stunning curves. However, it looked as if something was wrong with her eyes, like two small foggy clouds covered them.

A second later Griffin was back, trying to remember all the details of the woman he had just seen. He couldn’t shake the feeling that what he saw was a memory; one that was somehow connected to what Nathaniel was saying about the Hartley family. Perhaps it could explain why he always felt like an outsider, no matter how hard he tried to blend in.

“I’m sorry Nathaniel, but we have no time to waste,” Griffin pulled out the Soul-Chain and tied Nathaniel’s soul. He looked like a mummy, only instead of cloth he was wrapped in chains. “I won’t hurt you, so please don’t try to resist the chain. It will allow me to take you away from here.”

Griffin turned and flew towards the sky, making his way to the crossover gate. As soon as he exited the forest, he heard Archangel Michael screaming his name from far away. The next thing Griffin felt was something grabbing his robe and pulling him down, slamming him head-first on the metal bars of the railway.

Click that LIKE button if you've enjoyed this episode and show your support. It really helps me spread the word about my novel and reach more readers.

All comments, feedback, general feelings, notes, or anything else relating to the work are more than welcome. All I ask is that you try and avoid spoilers, so we don’t ruin the story for any future readers.

If you don't want to wait for the next update then you can purchase a digital version of the entire story. The novel is available for sale on Kindle, Apple Books, and the Copper Mouflon online store (visit my website by clicking the logo below) where you can find and buy a digital version of the book.