Page 17 of Definitely Dead

He would give Tyr anything he wanted, debt or not, but he wasn’t above using it to his advantage. “Deal.”

The elevators were another one of those things that just worked, though no one really understood how. They didn’t have buttons, yet the cab always stopped on the correct floor. Instead of a mirrored wall at the back, the ones in the Tower were made of only glass with a clear view of the vast blackness beyond.

Well, for about the first twenty or so floors. After that, the darkness gave way to the strange, silver light that covered the town. If he had to compare it to something, he would say it looked like moonlight, but softer, more dispersed, as if someone had hung a lampshade over the night sky.

And Aster? Apparently, no one had taught him how to read a room because he kept up a constant stream of chatter on the ride to the lobby. Sunne pasted on a polite smile and pretended to listen, though Tyr held most of his attention. His mate looked about two seconds away from breaking the windows and tossing Aster through them.

“Oh, you know those weird phone booths downstairs?” he asked. “I heard you can contact people through them. Like a haunting or something.”

While an expansive space with high ceilings and marbled floors, the building’s lobby didn’t house a business center, a welcome desk, or even a wall of mailboxes. It didn’t boast cozy seating areas or generic, mass-produced art.

Apart from the bank of elevators, the only thing in the cavernous space was a dozen bright red phone boxes that stood in a neat row. Sunne had never heard one ring, and he had never seen anyone make a call. Maybe they had a purpose, but Aster’s claim kind of sounded like bullshit.

Besides, even if what he said was true, Sunne didn’t have anyone to call. He’d been nine when his mom had dropped him off at school one morning and just never came back. His dad hadn’t really been that present in his life before, and after his mom left, it had only gotten worse.

Now, the guy existed in an angry, drunken haze, and while technically still alive, he had checked out long before Sunne had. As a result, they hadn’t so much as exchanged Christmas cards in six years.

At some point, Sunne figured the local police station would inform him that his only son had died in a freak accident. He wondered if the old man would even remember that he had a kid, let alone care.

It still unsettled him that his body probably hadn’t been found yet. While he had spent the last three days adjusting to his new reality, barely three minutes had passed since he’d bought himself a one-way ticket to the afterlife. And trying to wrap his mind around that just made his head hurt.

So, he tucked it away with other unpleasant things to worry about precisely never.

“Everything okay?” Tyr asked as the elevator finally slowed to a stop on the ground floor.

Blinking to clear the fog of reminiscence, he squeezed Tyr’s hand and bobbed his head. “I’m good. Just thinking.”

“Anything you want to share?”

He glanced at Aster from the corner of his eye. He didn’t carry pain from his past, nor did he treat the things that had happened like some big secret. At the same time, he didn’t particularly want to get into it in front of a stranger either.

“Later.”

Outside, they followed the uneven road that led from the Tower to the heart of the village. Sunne smiled and nodded at some of the residents they passed, receiving mostly odd looks in return. Although one soul had given him a startled wave before ducking their head and scurrying away.

Tyr had confirmed that thousands of people resided on that side of the river, but Sunne had yet to see any evidence to support the claim. At most, he had witnessed maybe a dozen or so souls gathered in one place, and barely twice that many in total. The streets and shops were almost always empty, quiet, creating a sense of hollowness that rang throughout the town.

“Where the hell is everyone?” Aster asked, giving voice to Sunne’s thoughts. “It’s fucking dead around here.”

It shouldn’t have been funny, but Sunne snorted. Then that snort turned into a chuckle, and before he knew it, his amusement had snowballed into a full-blown belly laugh that made his cheeks ache and his stomach cramp.

“What?” the kid demanded. “What’s so funny? It’s true.”

“It really is true,” Sunne gasped through his laughter. “It’s so dead here.”

“I know. That’s what I…I…oh, my god.” Cottoning on to his own accidental joke, Aster looped his arm through Sunne’s and leaned against him as he joined in his hilarity. “I didn’t mean it like that, but you’re right. It’s so true.”

The only person who didn’t appear amused was Tyr. Eyeing Aster with barely veiled disdain, he curled his upper lip and growled.

As a result, Aster’s laughter faded, but he didn’t back down. “Bro, chill.” Tightening his hold on Sunne’s arm, he stared up at him and rolled his eyes. “We’re just laughing. You should try it sometime.”

“I laugh,” Tyr responded defensively. “And I’m not yourbro.”

“Fine. How about Daddy? Is that better?”

Sunne nearly choked. If the kid hadn’t already been dead, he might have thought he had a death wish.

Cackling, Aster finally let go of his arm and danced away when Tyr reached for him with a menacing growl. Then he jogged backward, his eyes gleaming with mischief, clearly enjoying himself.

---