Tom's hand stayed on Alfie's shoulder when he was told to take his son back to room 1 for further interrogations. Fran and Ursula followed, staring at Alfie as he walked, who pretended to be Koda, looking rather distraught from seeing his mother's body.

Ronnie followed too and told the women to lay off any physical contact with the subject and ask questions instead.

Alfie felt his father's grip soften after listening to Ronnie's words. Though Fran sighed with frustration and Alfie wondered if she'd stick to Ronnie's instructions. Alfie also wondered what his father would do if Fran hit him again, or if Tom could react. He was undercover after all.

"So, Koda," Ursula said and pushed him into the chair. Tom stood where he stood before, but Alfie didn't feel uncomfortable under his gaze. "If you don't bring the Reaper to us, you'll end up in the same state as your mother."

"You're not allowed to hurt me." Alfie crossed his arms, eyeing Fran who was staring at him with equal hatred, though she couldn't hide her specks of curiosity.

"Ronnie doesn't come down very often. It's not like he'd know," Ursula scoffed and stepped closer, smirking when Alfie tensed. "Summon the Grim Reaper, and we won't hurt you."

Alfie prepared his skin for contact. "I can't. I think it's-"

His words were slapped out of his mouth when Ursula punched him in the face. Alfie's head was thrown back until he faced the ceiling. He gripped the chair and pulled his head back down, feeling the familiar warmth of blood dripping from his nose, though usually, nosebleeds didn't throb his entire face.

He held his nostrils shut until a grey rag was dropped onto his knee. Alfie held it to his face and avoided looking in his father's reaction. He could feel the tension oozing from his energy. Tom was fighting to stop himself from ending the entire operation there and then.

"Are you going to hit me every time I give you answers you don't like?" Alfie asked through the cloth against his nose. The fabric quickly soaked up the blood and hid his curved mouth as Alfie battled to hide his pain.

"Yes," Fran said with one hand in the pocket of her white lab coat. "So, you should think about your answers more carefully. Now, summon the Reaper."

Alfie's eyes finally landed on his father. Through the sunglasses, Alfie could tell they made eye contact. "I can't summon them. They either come to me when it matters, or I don't see them at all."

"Them?" Ursula asked. The quiet woman sat at the back of the room, scribbling words down.

"The Reaper has no gender." Alfie was surprised when they were surprised. He thought they would know. They seemed to know about everything else.

"How do you know that?"

Alfie opened his mouth, then quickly closed it. He couldn't tell them about Connor. "A hunch." Alfie knew it was coming before he spoke, and he quickly dodged Fran's fist when it flew towards his face. She punched the air instead and Alfie pinned himself to the other side of the room.

"You can't beat it out of me," he said, not surprised when his dad didn't move out of Fran's way with arms folded firmly over his chest. Alfie could only imagine his scowl.

"Watch me." Fran stepped around Ronnie's bodyguard but didn't make a step closer to Alfie because Tom grabbed her shoulders and shoved her back.

"Ronnie said no," Tom muttered in a low voice.

"He speaks," Ursula grinned. "And if you're that bothered, go back to Ronnie's office, that way you can't see what's happening down here."

Tom didn't budge and Alfie was a little jealous of his height and big build. Even if Alfie stood as tall as he could, he wasn't threatening at all.

"Koda, summon the Reaper. We know you're lying to us. We know you can do it."

"You don't know anything," Alfie snapped and focused on summoning Mister Dorinto who was by his side in under twenty seconds.

"Your nose!" Dorinto gasped, turning to the women and cracking his knuckles. "Which one was it?"

"That doesn't matter," Alfie said out loud. "Just do what you have to do."

Dorinto nodded, smiling at Fran's confusion before he tugged on her hair with the help of Alfie's energy.

Tom spun when Fran shrieked and jumped back. "What was that?" she yelled.

Dorinto and Alfie both laughed. "Do it again," Alfie ordered and Dorinto pulled on Fran's long red hair.

Those in the room saw her hair lift in the air and Tom turned to face his son. Alfie imagined him staring through a slit-eyed gaze.

Dorinto kicked the chair over and it hit Ursula in the leg. The two women screamed and the quiet one at the back watched with raised brows.

"I'm respected in the land of the dead. You anger me, you anger my ghosts." Alfie stood proud, happy to see a ghost so pleased with himself. Dorinto had never grinned so hard.

"We're just doing our job!" Ursula cried, pinning herself to the wall and frantically staring around. She resembled the definition of terror.

"Dorinto, turn off the lights."

"NO!" Ursula and Fran yelled at the same time and screamed even louder when the lights turned off. Dorinto locked the door and Alfie felt his nose starting to bleed a little harder. If he wasn't so pumped with adrenaline, he would've collapsed by now.

Tom rushed to Alfie's side, holding him close. The light from the hallway poured into the room, though the corners were like black portals, endless, and hiding ghosts.

The women cried and screamed by the door as Dorinto poked and pinched and flicked. Alfie cleared his throat when Dorinto tried to slap Ursula on the bum.

"Right," Dorinto said with a serious frown, "nothing inappropriate."

Alfie was very entertained by their fear, but he was getting weaker and weaker by the second.

Dorinto flicked the light switch on and off and on and off, laughing until he had to clutch his belly. When his ability to touch things in the material world started to fade, he turned to see Alfie grabbing his dad moments before his legs felt like ants trying to carry a large pebble. His legs crumbled underneath him, and Tom held Alfie up, whispering, "Stop now, you need to be strong."

Mister Dorinto vanished from view, though Alfie could still feel him.

When the lights came back on and stayed back on, Ursula, rushed to the door and breathed a sigh of relief when she could open it. Fran and Ursula fled down the corridor without looking back, leaving only Alfie, Tom, and the shy woman sitting by the back of the room.

She didn't seem freaked, but she did look irritated as her eyes landed on Tom who continued to hold his son to stop him from collapsing.

"Sit him back on the chair please," the woman said sternly and pushed her glasses up her nose. Her black hair was smoothed to her head in a tight bun. Her brown eyes were dark and showed no emotion. Her thick eyebrows were shaped in a way to make her look permanently annoyed. Her nose was pointed to match her pointed chin, and Alfie hated himself for comparing her to a stereotypical cartoon witch.

Tom guided Alfie to the chair and as soon as he was sat down, the woman pushed Tom out of the way and towered over Alfie.

"Summon the Reaper, or I have a reason to believe that you're not who you say you are." Her eyes were like needles stabbing Alfie in the face.

"No sidekick can summon the Reaper. You should know this." Alfie's voice was calm, and he was careful to leave behind his attitude, but whatever he said didn't sit well with these scientists.

"I don't believe you."

"What other choice do you have?"

The woman stood up straight and flipped the paper over on the clipboard. She let her eyes hover on the page with a smirk. "Well, I have a reason to believe that you're not Koda Oaks."

Tom hurried to her side and because she thought he was Salix, she showed him a picture of Alfie. It was clear that the picture had been taken without Alfie knowing, but the part that disturbed Tom was the name under the picture. Alfie Willow. She knew who he was.

"Then who am I?" Alfie asked, eyes darting to his dad.

"You're Alfie Willow, an eighteen-year-old who goes to the college above us and makes money off of your mediumship business. I took this clipboard from Ronnie's office, so he knows who you really are." She turned to Tom. "I bet you know who he really is too." The silence was too loud as she took her time to speak again. "Care to tell me what's really going on here?"

* * * * *

Koda looked tranquil and too relaxed for someone who's boyfriend had been kidnapped. The longer Morlen stared at him, the more he knew the cogs were turning in his head.

"He's planning something," Connor murmured and Morlen jumped.

"For a blind person, you're good at sneaking up on people," Morlen said, trying to sound unimpressed.

"If anything, the loss of sight made me more silent. I must be careful and slow. We can't all stomp around like you."

Morlen stared blankly into Connor's blue eyes, glazed over with mist. "Is he planning how to rescue Alfie?"

Connor never failed to find amusement in Morlen's sudden change of topic. "Yes, and how to kill everyone involved with his kidnapping in the most horrendous ways." Morlen glanced back at his son. He looked like he was thinking of something amazing, not murder. "If he decides to take the souls of those involved, it'll be the Reaper's decisions, not Koda's."

"Who is the Reaper in their human form?" Morlen asked. Connor shifted with sudden discomfort. "Why are you not telling us?"

Connor shuffled away which Morlen thought was suspicious. Connor seemed like a guy who didn't take personal space into account.

"I'm not telling you because you'll find out eventually, and it's not my secret to tell."

Morlen shook his head. "Tell me."

"I can't."

"Will Death kill you if you spill?"

"Most likely, yes."

"Oh." Morlen stood awkwardly until Molly burst into Alfie's office with frustration.

"Tom isn't answering his phone," she said and moved to the shelves full of crystals, picking up Alfie's large tiger's eye stone.

"Why would he pick up? He's working undercover for people who would probably shoot him in the head if he answered the phone to his ex."

Molly had to sit down at the thought of Alfie being involved with people like that.

"Real sensitive," Connor muttered and Morlen glared.

Those in Alfie's office felt very powerless, full of questions, and ready to burst with perturbed worry.

"I can't believe Tom is involved with this." Molly smoothed her thumb over the stone, watching the colours move from brown to gold, to yellow, and black. "Why would he not say anything?"

"To keep you safe," Connor said and moved around the table until his hand touched someone. "Koda," he said softly. "What are you thinking?" Connor's hands buzzed when he was around him, and they almost burned when the tips of his fingers touched Koda's forehead, snapping the teenager out if his lucid thoughts.

"Um, about getting Alfie back," he said, blinking and looking around as if he had only just entered the room. "I can't just sit here anymore. We have to talk to Ronnie."

Morlen moved his tongue back and forth along his bottom lip, thinking deeply. He too was sick of waiting. "Ronnie's not the bad guy now, right?"

"According to Mister Dorinto, he's working undercover with Tom too."

Morlen and Koda watched each other as if they were trying to read each other's mind.

"Get your shoes on Koda, we're going to the college," Morlen said and held his pride tightly when the light returned to Koda's eyes. "We'll question Ronnie and report back."

"I'm coming," Connor said, rushing to grab Koda while he still knew he was close.

"And me!" Molly said, jumping to her feet.

"This is not some family trip," Morlen muttered. "You'll slow us down."

"Shut up Morlen," Molly sighed and left Alfie's office first. "I'm sure you wouldn't want to sit around if Koda was in Alfie's position."

Koda would've laughed if he wasn't still half wandering in his sidekick mind. Death was heavily coating his heart. He couldn't tell if it was the death of humans in the near future, or the Grim Reaper taking control.