Since then, I kept a close eye on Aven. Yeah, she has her moments and has slip-ups, but I never expected her to be perfect. I’m always there for her when Aven needs someone to talk to, help her, or do anything else she needs. I would’ve liked Aven to have gone to somewhere like Heaven, but I was secretly glad she was here with me. If Aven just went straight to Heaven, who knows if she would’ve tried to do more of the same up there. At least with me, I could make sure Aven was ok.

Beatrice, on the other hand, makes life hell. She didn’t keep up the good girl routine for very long, even if she totally changes her tune later and tries to apologize. Now I have to spend my entire afterlife with her. My entire fucking afterlife. At least in life, I could rest knowing she’d rot in Hell and I wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore! But ugh, this is just the worst. On the bright side, she doesn’t have any leeway down here, so I can get back at her with barely any consequences on my side. Let’s just say she’s had a lot of coffee and tea with some special things put into it when I can sneak my hands on it. And even when she complains about me, Lucas doesn’t like her enough to do anything about it. Her name gets her nowhere in The Afterlife. That was the only thing I liked about her being in the workplace.

*   *   *   *   *

One day I was just chilling in my office, eating some pasta in a cheesy sauce while doing overdue paperwork. I honestly needed some kind of assistant. I was so bad about procrastinating my work and piling it up until the day of the deadline. It always stressed me out and put me in a bad mood too. It didn’t help that in the middle of it, Beatrice opened my door to peek her stupid, snaky head in.

“Hey, can um, I ask you a question?” she said nervously.

“I think you just did,” I growled harshly.

“Who do I give the paperwork to again?”

“You just drop it in the tray in front of Lucas’ office,” I shot back. “Now leave me alone. I’m trying to actually do my work instead of pawning it off on some rep.”

“I’m actually doing  my work!” Beatrice hissed back with a red face.

“For once,” I rolled my eyes.

“Listen here, bitch-”

“Guys!” Aven exclaimed, stopping next to Beatrice, leaning down and heavily panting. “Guys you… You need…”

“You need to run more than that to lose some weight,” Beatrice sneered. “With all that weight you carry, it’s a wonder you don’t burn calories faster-”

“Oh shut up already,” I interrupted. “Aven, what’s up?”

“Lucas… needs everyone…” she coughed, still trying to catch her breath.

“Is it meeting day already?” I asked, looking at the calendar. Great, that’s all I needed. A surprise meeting to waste even more time when I had work I needed done.

“No, someone… someone else showed up…”

“He can assign reps without me,” I waved.

“Yeah, and I’m not going back for a fifth time today,” Beatrice scoffed. “Honestly, I just take the reps that look nice.”

“You take the reps you can sucker into doing your work,” I corrected without looking up from the papers.

“It’s not a rep!” Aven shouted out. I looked up from my work, and even Beatrice looked surprised.

“Did you guys have anyone else visiting that lab on a regular basis?” Beatrice asked me. I shook my head.

“No, we’re all here…” I mumbled.

“He’s apparently a boss for something called OCD. Nobody knows who he is, but he’s an Irishman and shares a last name with Bailey. We can’t ask her though because she’s still in one of her long sleeps.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, confused. “Go back. You mean we’ve got a new Council member and…?”

“Yeah, we’ve got a new member of The Council, and nobody knows him.”

“What’s his name?”

“I only saw it for a second,” Aven admitted. “But I think it was… Rian O’Conney.”