25 The bonus soul alert

Valeria took Mark Brinstrone's arm and together they walked out the front door and made their down down the drive. It was freezing cold outside. Valeria shivered slightly. She had forgotten to put on her coat and of course, Mark did not even bother to stop to ask her if she needed to put on her coat.

"You can withstand the cold actually, so you won't die from it," Ari said behind her. She could hear him walking nimbly behind them. Damn the annoying demon reaper.

"I was just being helpful," he replied.

Shuddup you demon, she thought back.

"Oh by the way….this might drag on till late and you might have to rush for your more important duty of reaping souls," Ari added.

Whatever, then you settle this for me and pretend to be his wife, why don't you, she told him in her mind.

"Oh ho ho ho…no thank you…he may be good looking to some of you mortal women but he dang ugly to me, even if I am into humans, that is," Ari said.

As if that was not enough. Valeria could feel as if she is getting a sudden notification from the reapers headquarters or whoever that is sending her the list of her souls to reap. This doesn't make sense. She is supposed to get her list at midnight.

"I want you to smile and act more loving like a loving wife otherwise our deal is off," Mark is muttering to her under his breath. They are reaching the front gate where the hordes of reporters and photographers are gathered. Valeria is still shivering in the cold but she is also getting a notification in her head and Ari is whistling an annoying tune behind her.

Which should she concentrate on? There is an annoying ping in her head, like a text coming in and going ping, ping, ping in her head. She decided to access the message to get rid of the weird pinging sound.

Bonus soul alert!

November 8

Evil escaped soul from August 30

Ted Krane

30 years old

Death row inmate who was put to death

Serial killer

Escaped from reaper, spotted near Zarin city

She read the message again. What does that mean?

"That's your opportunity to power up, if you capture that soul," Ari said behind her.

Right. She has weekly tasks if she wants to power up and redeem more appearances to change into. This must be one of it.

How do I find this soul? It's not like I have a soul detector or anything, she asked Ari in her mind.

She and Mark has reached the gates and cameras are flashing frantically. She pasted a fake smile on her face while Mark placed an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him. A cacophony of questions from the reporters were hurled at them through the gates.

"Mr Brinstrone! Were the allegations true?"

"Mr Brinstrone! Do you know the woman?"

"Mr Brintstone! How will this affect your company stocks?"

Mark Brinstrone held up his hands to silence them.

"I will read out a statement now, we will not be taking any questions," he said in his loud booming voice. The crowd quiet down and waited. He took out the printed statement and started reading from it. Valeria took the opportunity to tune out.

How do I find him? She asked Ari in her mind.

Ari strolled over to stand next to her.

"Why should I help you? I am merely a demon," he drawled and grinned cheekily at her.

She wanted to reach over and grab his neck but they are literally facing cameras and reporters. She couldn't even glare at him. She kept her fake smile on her face and thought murderous thoughts at Ari.

Look here demon. Don't think I can't do anything to you, just you wait! She warned him, grinding her teeth in frustration.

Ari walked over to stand in front of her and he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Come, strangle me if you can," he stuck his neck out. He placed his hand on his neck. "See, it's nice and bare for you to strangle right now," he said.

Valeria kept her fake smile by the thread of her patience and tried her best to ignore him. It will not do for her to lash out at the infuriating demon right now. Not in front of all these people.

Just you wait, demon, she warned him. She looked away from him and concentrated on her memories. She needed to find a way to track down the evil soul. She searched her archive of memories for ways to seek out and capture an escaped evil soul. She found some clues in one of the archives.

1. Evil souls are discernible by the black fog they leave in their trail.

2. They often cause chaos and anger amongst humans in places they've been hiding.

Next to her, Mark jostled her and was looking at her expectantly. It took her a while to register that everyone else was looking at her. Great, she had zoned out for too long.

"Tell them Val," Mark is saying to her, smiling, but she could see an angry nerve pulsing on his temple.

"Right, we are happily married, I don't believe in all these false rumours," she said, hoping this was what was expected from her.

"Mrs Brinstrone! There were talks of a divorce, isn't that true?" a reporter asked.

"There were talks that you had moved out," another said.

"Is it true that your marriage have been on the rocks because you are unable to conceive?" another asked.

Mark held up his hands.

"That is highly disrespectful! Whether we have children or not is a personal matter and as you can see, my wife is here, next to me, all these are mere rumours," he said. His arms around her shoulder tightened considerably.

Valeria widened her fake smile. Her mouth is getting cramped from all that fake smiling. She gave the reporters a beauty queen style wave.

"Yes, we are happily married, children or no children, we will be together forever," she said, almost tonelessly. Try as she might, she couldn't put any feelings into it. This is all a farce.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I am freezing cold here," she added.

She turned around and ignoring Mark and the crowd of media frenzy, she hurriedly walked back to the house. She hated the damn cold. There was a burst of questions and frantic flashes from the photographers. She could hear Mark trying to explain her behaviour.

Well, she couldn't give a fish stick about Mark, she thought. Ari hurried over to walk alongside her.

"You do know that the evil spirit is nearby right?" Ari said conversationally.

This time she whipped around to stare at him. What did he mean? She turned around to look at the crowd gathered at the gate and for the first time, she noticed the black fog surrounding the crowd.

"What in the fishes…." She mumbled. The black fog was particularly thick near to the left where Mark was standing. She must have been staring at the spot near the evil spirit without noticing.

Argh. This means she has to walk right back out to there. Damn all the fish sticks in fish hell. She started trudging back down the path to only realise that her reaping device, the scarf, is in her hand bag inside the house.

"Fish sticks!" she mumbled as she turned to go back.

"Check your pocket," Ari suggested. She did as he suggested and found the scarf stuffed into her pants pocket. She looked at him.

"How?" she asked him.

"Did you forget? The reaping device follows the reaper and is never far," he said. "Now go reap you an evil soul,"

She nodded and walked back down the path.