“Can I work for the Council?” Aven badgered again while I was dropping my work off in front of Lucas’ office.

“No,” I shot down.

“Whyyy?”

“Because you need some more time to get on your feet before you get a job down here,” I told her. In reality, it was because I didn’t want her to have anything to do with a group of people set on the degradation of mental health.

“C’mon Max,” she pouted. “If you’re going to lie to me, don’t immediately tell the truth in your head.”

“Oh- Sorry. Forgot about the mind reading.”

“You shouldn’t have to forget,” she insisted. “And I can take the job! Just let me prove myself! I’ve seen you do so much work already that I could pick it up right away!”

“There’s a lot more than just what you see me do,” I pointed out. “And those long meetings, having to file work on every rep, and having to give them all orders and evaluations. Trust me, we’ll find you another candy shop or something.”

“What’s going on out here?” Lucas dully asked, poking his head out of his office. “You’re both making too much noise for me to focus.”

“Hm,” Aven narrowed her eyes on him. “You just got bored and wanted to talk to us.”

“Hm,” he frowned at her. “Try reading my mind again.” Aven narrowed her eyes again before getting an awkward expression.

“Y-Yes sir,” she stuttered.

“So what were you two talking about?”

“Aven wants to work with the Council,” I told him. “I mean, just tell her how bad of an idea working with us is.”

“I mean, we’re short on hands to-” He stopped in his tracks as I elbowed him in the stomach. “It doesn’t pay well,” he amended.

“Oh come on!” she whined. “Why? Why won’t you guys let me in?! Would you be embarrassed of me around the workplace or something?!”

“Aven, we-”

“Sorry mademes, but I’ve got a meeting,” Lucas said, taking out his pocket watch. “They should be here in just…”

Suddenly in a flash of light and a crack of the air, Aven and I were sent to the floor as two women appeared in front of us. They both had burnt red skin and pointed ears, though one had purple hues in her hair, had horns, black devilish wings, and had a rather… large figure to say the least. The other was a bit smaller and had a halo above her head and two dovelike wings; one white and one red. She also had a set of bifocals on her face, a cane in her hand, and her dark hair had a single blonde streak running through it. Very odd indeed.

Their fashion was also so odd. The large one wore a large dress with little splotches of all sorts of colors around it. The other one dressed a bit similarly to Lucas. Aven and I were stunned at them, and I was personally terrified at them. I couldn’t help but scream the first thing that came to mind.

“Demons!” I howled.

“Rude,” the angelic one mumbled. She grunted and leaned against the other one, who was helping her stand.

“Don’t strain yourself, Iris,” she said. “You wouldn’t want Moon-”

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” the one apparently named Iris interrupted, still looking at me and Aven. “And who’re these two wom-” She took a second staring at Aven. “Women?”

“Women,” I confirmed.

“You’re Lucas, right?” the larger one asked him.

“Mhm. And you two made it on time. Iris and Lisha,” he said, pointing to the angelic one, then the bigger, more demon-like one. “Sisters of Heaven and Hell, right?”

“Yep,” Lisha smiled.

“Heaven and Hell?” I asked curiously.

“My sister Iris here watches over Heaven,” Lisha clarified. “And I’m the queen of Hell!”

“You really are The Devil…” I whispered.

“At your service,” she grinned deviously.

“Let’s talk in my office,” Lucas coughed, opening the door. As the three disappeared into the room, Aven and I just stood in wonder.

“What were they?” Aven asked.

“I don’t know…” I said, stumped. “But I’m damn sure they weren’t human.”

*   *   *   *   *

Months Later

“Did you find any good candidates for a sand-in for Rex?” Lucas asked.

“Not really,” I sighed, shaking my head.

“We need one soon…” he mumbled. “The paperwork is falling behind.”

A little while ago, Rex had hospitalized himself from malnutrition. His original aversion to food and disinterest in it had grown into something else apparently. A full on fear of the stuff and a heavy toll on his own image. So while he was in the hospital trying to not die a second time, we had put out ads for a temporary stand-in. Not a whole lot of people who submitted papers to apply actually had a good work ethic though. They just wanted all the magic and power that went with it. Probably also thought it’d be less work too. Boy were they sorely mistaken.

“Have you had any good applicants?” I asked.

“Only one. You won’t like it though.”

“If it’s that damn bulimia prick, Herald, you’re right,” I growled. “He can rot in Hell for all I care.”

“No,” he laughed, actually cracking out a rare genuine smile. “I think you’d better just look for yourself.” He handed me a paper and I barely looked at it.

“Absolutely not,” I crossed my arms. “How did Aven submit a form?”

“Probably asked a rep to do it, if I had to guess,” he shrugged. “Or she just did it when you weren’t looking.”

“The answer’s still no.”

“Max, it’s what she wants.”

“It’s not what she needs.”

“You’re not the one to make that call.”

“Oh, and you are?” I snapped, poking him in the chest. “How well do you know her? Did you have to take her to the hospital when she tore her stomach open twice?! Were you there to reassure her that she was a woman? Oh, here’s a good one, did you have to sit in a wooden chair all night in front of the pantry for weeks so that she wouldn’t try and kill herself eating?!”

There was a ring of silence as Lucas looked away and didn’t say anything. My chest was still heaving a bit from the outburst, and I just crossed my arms and calmed down for a second.

“I know you think of her as your daughter Max, but don’t treat her like a child,” Lucas told me, his words hitting me like a brick. “She can think and act for herself, so let her.”

“You don’t understand…” I groaned. “She’s going to find a way to hurt herself, I just know it. And I have to do everything I can so that-”

“Her binging is triggered by emotional distress and discomfort, right?”

“Y-Yeah…”

“How emotionally stable does a person being forced to spend her time basically in a prison being told she can’t do the one thing she says she wants to do sound?”

“Don’t be that way with me,” I mumbled. “Aven’s safe.”

“But is she happy?”

“…”

“I’ll leave this with you,” Lucas said, placing Aven’s application in my hand. “Drop it in my box if you have a change of heart. Think about what she wants though. I’ll see you later.”

Lucas walked away to his office, leaving me in the break room with a piece of paper in my hand and a very, very tough decision to make.

*   *   *   *   *

“Really?!” Aven exclaimed, throwing her arms around me. “You guys let me in?!”

“As a temporary,” clarified, laughing and returning the hug. “Just until Rex is out of the hospital, alright?”

“Still, just aaaaa!” she squealed.

“Come on,” I beckoned, taking her hand. “Let’s get you working right away.”

Aven got put to work as soon as she stepped into the office. I showed her around filling out the paperwork, introduced her to Rex’s reps, and filled her in on her new schedule. She got kind of overwhelmed at first, but got a handle on it over time. It went like that for months, and we had some great memories working side-by-side during that time. Even I had to admit that she was damn good at the job too.  But well… Rex did make it out of the hospital eventually, and Aven had to go again…

“Sir, please!” she begged, almost bursting into tears on his desk. “Please, don’t take this away from me!”

“Aven, please don’t do this,” I asked softly, putting a hand on her shoulder. It hurt to see her like that after being happy for so long. “Let’s just go home and-”

“I belong here!” Aven cried again. “I can feel it!”

I could feel Lucas’ stare at me as the guilt crushed me.

“Aven, please don’t make this difficult,” Lucas sighed. “You’re simply not a part of the Council. There’s not much we can do about that.”

“Are you talking about the dumb engraving?!” she fussed, marching over to it in the office. “Why does a thing on your wall get to… decide…”

Her speech slowed down as she put her face closer to the engraving. I felt my blood chill and Lucas grow slightly uneasy as Aven had a look of complete disbelief on.

“Is that… my name on there?!” the girl demanded to know. There’s no way I could let her know the truth. Knowing we took her magic when she arrived would crush her.

“It’s just someone’s faded name,” I lied. “Who knows what-”

“Don’t lie to me!” Aven demanded, tears streaming down her face. “You… You’ve been lying to me ever since I died?!”

“It was to keep you safe!” I defended myself. “I couldn’t risk putting you in a stressful environment like a job. You weren’t in the right space for that!”

“You didn’t even offer me a choice. Not a chance to prove myself,” she said, heartbroken. “Did you really not believe in me that much?”

“You came here with a rip in your stomach lining. Can you blame me?”

“Can you give me my magic back?”

“Aven, you-”

“Yes,” Lucas interrupted. “Quite easily.”

“Lucas!” I fussed.

“Well I’m not going to turn down another Council member. Especially after seeing how efficient of a worker she is.”

“I…” I had run out of arguments. All things considered, Aven should be a part of the Council. She should’ve always been. “Fine,” I mumbled, crossing my arms. “Just give her back what she had.”

Lucas held out her hand, which Aven grasped with an excitement. Suddenly, Aven’s entire body glowed before settling back down. I could see the engraving glow as the name Aven Murphy faded back into prominence and the photo filled out with her image again. Aven stumbled backwards dizzily before I caught her and helped her stand.

“Are you ok?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” she groaned, trying to get away. Suddenly, her hair grew hot, and the bottom tips of it burst into flames, making me scream and let her go.

“Someone get a towel or water or-”

“Aaaa!” she screamed, stumbling out of the office trying to put her hair out, but the flames only grew.

“Calm down,” I said, trying to grab her arm. “It’s just some new magic coming in. You’ll get used to it, but you just have to-”

Suddenly, Aven was consumed completely by flames from head to toe for a second, and when the fire died down, she was gone. Instead, in her place was a fiery bird, with light shining off of her orange and yellow feathers, scattering a multicolored glow across the room. The phoenix took flight for a moment before hitting the roof and crashing back onto a table and bursting into flames again, leaving a very frightened Aven to roll onto the floor.

“Take it easy, girl,” I soothed, picking her up.

“Wh- What was that?!”

“What I call our True Forms,” Lucas said, strolling out of his office.

“What’s all the noise for?” Rex grumbled leaning on his cane heavily as he marched over to us.

“Sir,” Dallas said, running over to us. “Was that-”

“Our newest Council member,” Lucas finished. “Aven Murphy, our new and rightful BED/Dysphoria boss.”

“I’m so glad-”

“We have more-”

“Family here now!”

Skip and Sophie chirped onto the new scene, followed by Bailey, who was drowsily rubbing her eyes and trying to stay awake.

“What’s on?” she asked.

“It looks like Aven here’s a quick study, to have found her true form in less than five minutes,” Lucas laughed. He turned to Dallas.

“Have you found yours yet?”

“I’ve been practicing, sir.”

“Mind showing us?”

Dallas focused really hard before his body was consumed completely by a dark, tattered robe and his face became completely obscured by the skull mask. The way he held his scythe was even more intimidating. For a boy, he seemed to just radiate power like that. Quickly though, he turned back.

“What about you, Bailey?” Lucas asked her. One-by-one, we took turns showing our true forms to each other.

Bailey was this mermaid-like thing called a Siren. Apparently she could sing people to sleep, and when she sang in Irish, it just sounded that much more mysterious to me. Rex’s looked to be the skeleton of some giant biblical beast! He was towering over us, and felt like a goliath. Not to mention he took out a ceiling and a wall. A few lounging reps had a nasty surprise with that one. The twins’ turned out to be inducing and invading dreams, and also making people see and hear hallucinations. A scary thought for sure.

When it came to me, I had to focus really hard. I had never successfully done it before, but in front of everyone I became an inky black before white pictures started to dance across my skin. I didn’t look much different than that though. Not some radical transformation like everyone else. What we did find out was that I was super strong in that form, and breaking a chair over my head didn’t even phase me. Don’t ask how we came to that conclusion.

“What about yours?” Rex asked Lucas. “C’mon, don’t hold out on us.”

“Oh, it’s not hard to imagine,” he chuckled, walking back into his office. “True Forms are just what we are when you peel back to what’s underneath.”

“So what’s underneath?” Rex pressed further.

“A monster beyond your ability to process.”

With that, he closed the door and we all dispersed back to our jobs. I was still holding onto Aven’s arm though.

“Aven… you know why I did it, right?”

“You could’ve at least told me,” she pouted. “I don’t like being lied to, Max. Family doesn’t lie like that. We could’ve worked something out without having to throw around something that isn’t true for months.”

“I know, I know… I see that now. I promise that there won’t be anything like that between us again,” I said, putting an arm around her. “You have my word.”

“Let’s stop with the promises,” Aven sighed with a smile, patting her stomach. “We know where making promises got me. How about we just don’t do it; no need to promise.”

“It’s a deal,” I nodded, throwing my arms around her and giggling as she tried to support my weight. 

It was hard to deal with the lie I had been keeping up to her, but I think now she’ll be happier. At least, I hoped she would be. Aven’s a tough gal, and if she needs help, I trusted she’d come to me for it. Overall though, it started to look like nothing could ruin this afterlife with her. Not a chance in hell.