Page 6 of Shadow Prophet (Scythe Grove Academy 2)

I nod. It could be worse.

4

The house is surprisingly nice compared to some of the others we've found ghosts in, though maybe that shouldn't surprise me. The reason anyone found this ghost to start with is because they've been haunting the place and stopping it from selling.

Just how the ghost has been doing that is a mystery to me, but I'll probably just have to add that to the list of things I don't know about being a reaper. Sometimes it's frustrating how long it is, but I've not been doing too badly, even with my lack of knowledge.

Which is probably down to Juliet and the twins' influences.

"Are you ready?" Mathias asks.

I nod, feeling a little bit nervous, but otherwise okay. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to feel completely steady while entering a ghost's home. Though I might do. I'm already better about it than in the beginning.

Mathias slots the key in the door and twists, letting us into the property.

I wrinkle my nose at the stench of newly dried paint. At least the previous owners thought to tidy the place up before putting it on the market, but I'd be able to do my job better if I wasn't distracted by a smell I hate.

It's better than some of the scenes I've heard rumours about.

"Oooooohhhhhhhhhhh," a woman's voice calls from behind us.

I turn to find a ghost floating in the middle of the room with her arms waving in the air. I think she's trying to haunt us.

"Hello," I say, tapping into the seer powers that allow me to communicate with the dead.

She does a double-take. "Hi?"

"I'm Syxe. This is Mathias." I gesture to him.

"You...can see me?" she asks.

I nod. "We're reapers."

"Oh. You've come for me then."

That is what we're supposed to do.

I don't say the words out loud, I don't think she'd be very impressed by them, and while ghosts can't give us reviews for our service once they've moved over to the other side, I don't want to alienate her.

"We've come to help you with your unfinished business," I reply. "Whatever that is, that's what we're here for." There are a few caveats. We're not allowed to hurt anyone. I'm not actually sure what happens if that's a ghost's business. I suspect it involves filling out one of the forms Juliet has promised to take me through.

"Help?" she echoes.

Oh no. We seem to have gotten the one ghost who doesn't know about us.

I take a deep breath. Whether or not we can complete this reaping is going to depend on how good of a job I do right now. Mathias can't help talk to ghosts, as the porter of our team, he can't understand them.

It seems like a flawed system to me, but who is going to question how magic works? It's the kind of thing most people just accept and get on with.

"Do you know what we do?" I ask.

"No..."

"Okay, well our job is to help you work out what your unfinished business is and fulfil it so you can move on to the next realm. That's what Mathias here is going to do. I talk to you to help you work out what's going on, and he opens the portal to the next realm." I smother my wince at how badly I explained that. I need to come up with a better description of our job for the next time I'm faced with a ghost who doesn't know what's supposed to happen.

But that's a problem for another day.

"Unfinished business," the ghost echoes.