Redlisted by Sara Beaman

Author:Sara Beaman [Beaman, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-07-29T22:00:00+00:00

20

A Dream of Paperwork

{Adam}

I excused myself from the party before the next course came out. I had to get away from Mirabel; listening to her thoughts was starting to fray the thin threads that tethered me to sanity. I hid in my room, sitting alone on the lounge, too nervous to sleep.

It was easy for me to believe that Julian was a murderer. It’s what I had wanted to believe in the first place, before I allowed him to convince me otherwise, before I got complacent about staying at the estate and started not to care.

But Mirabel frightened me much more than Julian. Why did she have to be the only one who was offering me a chance to escape?

///

Less than an hour after fleeing the party, I heard a knock on the door to my suite. I went to the door and opened it. It was Haruko.

“Can I come in?” she asked. “I’ve got some paperwork you need to fill out.” She was carrying a portfolio under her armpit, a pen in one of her hands.

“Sure,” I said, stepping aside. “Paperwork?”

“We need to fill out your registry,” she said. “It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”

I shut the door behind her, led her into the office and offered her the desk chair. She sat down and opened the portfolio, revealing pages worth of official-looking documents. She skipped through several, flipping them right side down onto the left side of the folder.

I glanced over her shoulder. “What’s all this?”

“All revenants in the United States are listed in a registry kept by the Watchers of the Americas,” she said. “This is going to be your entry. Julian and I already filled out most of it.” She clicked the end of her pen. “I just need to ask you a few questions, and then you’ll sign a few things, and that’s that.”

I nodded.

“Date of birth?”

“April thirteenth, nineteen fifty-four.”

“Place of birth?”

“Rochester, New York.”

“Date of death?”

“Uh...” I furrowed my eyebrows. “Didn’t Julian tell you?”

“I want to confirm what he has written down.”

“It was during the first week of June, this year. I don’t know what day exactly.”

“I’m sure what we have is close enough,” she said. “Cause of death?”

I scratched the back of my head. “Yeah, I, uh... I don’t remember.”

She frowned.

“Is that a problem?” I asked.

“No, I can look up the coroner’s report later.” She traced a line down the sheet with her fingers. “Marital status?”

I sighed through my nose. “Single.”

“Never divorced or anything?”

“No.”

“Any kids?”

“No, none.”

“Do you have any surviving family members?”

“Just my brother...”

“What’s his name?”

I frowned. Why did she need to know that? “Jason Fletcher.”

“Was he the executor of your estate?”

“I have no idea.”

Haruko turned, a crease forming between her eyebrows. She cocked her head to the side. “Didn’t you have a will or anything?”

“Well, I did...” I looked up at the ceiling, then down at my feet. “My fiancée was supposed to be the executor.”

“God. I’m sorry. I should have gathered that from what Julian said.” She puffed air through her lips.

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