Dead Harvest

  'I did what I had to. You could have died, Kate.'

  'I wish I were dead.'

  'Yeah, well, I'm glad you're not.'

  She snorted. 'You're glad? You were so scared of me, you tied me to a chair.'

  'You tied up now?'

  Kate lifted her head. The effort caused her to wince. 'No,' she replied. 'But I ought to be. I'm not to be trusted. I killed my family.' A single tear slid down her cheek.

  'No, Kate,' I said. 'I don't think you did.'

  'I don't understand. You said they saw–'

  'I don't doubt what they saw. I just don't think it was you that killed them.'

  'You're not making any sense.'

  I flashed her a wan smile. 'Maybe not,' I replied. 'Or maybe you and me just have different ideas about what makes sense.'

  She clenched shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. 'My head is killing me,' Kate said. 'If you plan on talking around in circles all day, I'm going to need a couple aspirin.'

  'I think you've had enough pills for one day.'

  'Then how about you start talking straight?'

  'Believe me, Kate – you're better off not knowing.'

  She let out a barking, humorless laugh. 'Better off? You think I'm better off? My family is dead. I would be too, if I'd had my way. But you went and stopped me – God knows how, but you did. Now I'm holed up in some shitty apartment, a fugitive from justice, and I feel like I'm going out of my head. So to hell with what you think. I need answers, Jonah. I need the truth.'

  I looked at her a long, appraising moment. Kate looked back, angry and expectant. To hell with it, I thought. 'For starters,' I said, 'my name isn't Jonah.'

  And then I told her. What I was. Why I came. I expected shock, anger, disbelief. But she just listened, without comment, without interruption. It wasn't till I finished that the questions came.

  'So in the hospital, that was you?'

  'Yes.'

  'You'd come to collect my soul.'

  I repeated, 'Yes.'

  'I thought I'd dreamt it. I remember a sudden pain – pain and fear – and then this, this light…' Her hands found her chest. 'But I haven't any mark. Any scar.'

  'The invasion isn't physical.'

  'So why didn't you take me?'

  'I just… couldn't,' I replied. 'When I make a collection, there's this moment – this beautiful, terrible moment when my hand closes around the soul, and I see everything. Experience everything. A lifetime of beauty, and of happiness, and of sorrow. I see every kindness. Every slight. Every moment that's led them to my grasp. But the souls of those that I collect are just hollow echoes of their better selves – they're occluded by the darkness within. Yours was different. Pure. Unfettered.'

  'You make me sound like some kind of saint.'

  I smiled. 'I wouldn't know anything about that. What I do know is evil changes a person, tainting everything until no memory is untouched. Only in your case, there was no stain.'

  'But how can that be? I mean, my family–'

  'Kate, that wasn't your fault.'

  'But I have these flashes. These memories. Horrible reminders of the things I've done.'

  'I know.'

  'Then how could it not be my fault?'

  'Tell me,' I said, 'earlier, when you were in the bathroom, how did you get out?'

  'You got me out.'

  'Yes, but how?'

  Kate's brow furrowed as she struggled to remember. 'I was groggy. Sleepy. Then all of the sudden, you were in my head. I threw up. You rolled me over, so I wouldn't choke.'

  'Then what happened?'

  'I'd barricaded the door,' she replied. 'You clawed at it, I think. I don't know – I was so groggy, all I wanted was to sleep.'

  'Did you want to do those things?'

  She shook her head. 'All I wanted was to die.'

  'And yet here you are.'

  I let the sentence hang in the air for a minute. She was slow getting there, but eventually, realization