‘I don’t understand.’ I shake my head at her. ‘You want me to decide who dies?’

‘Of course not.’ Deborah looks so appalled that I have to stop myself from laughing again because that’s a completely unreasonable thing to assume, apparently. ‘The decision has been made before you get there.’

‘Who makes that decision, then?’

She carries on as if I haven’t said anything. ‘Grim reapers are responsible for the people in their parish who die the same way they did. So, in your case, you will be responsible for adolescent sudden deaths. We refer to you as grim reapers, but you’re actually more like collectors. All you have to do is escort them down to the beach where someone will be waiting to take them to the otherside.’

‘The other side of what?’

‘Hove,’ Esen says.

Deborah pinches the bridge of her nose and lets out a weary sigh. ‘How is that helping?’

‘I’m not trying to help.’ Esen puts her hands behind her head and eases into the chair.

Deborah ignores her. ‘Listen, Ash. I know this is a lot to absorb all at once.’

‘Not at all.’ I wave my hand at her. ‘This is all absolutely, perfectly normal.’

‘I understand.’

‘Do you?’

I don’t think she does.

‘I do.’ Deborah looks me in the eye and says it again. ‘I do. But you’re not alone.’

Something dawns on me then. ‘Wait. Are you all grim reapers?’

‘Dev and Esen are.’

‘What are you, then?’

‘You could describe me more as a mentor.’

‘What? Like that guy from Buffy?’

‘Yes.’ Esen points at me. It’s the most animated I’ve seen her since she walked in and it makes me unreasonably uncomfortable. ‘Except you have to do everything she says or you’ll be banished for eternity.’

I look back at Deborah. ‘Excuse me?’

‘Again, not helping, Esen,’ she says without looking at her.

‘Again, not trying to help, Deborah.’

‘Can you stop? This is hard enough for Ash as it is,’ Dev tells Esen, shooting her a look so fierce it makes Esen hold her hands up and pretend to lock her lips and throw away the key.

‘That’s why I was at the mini-mart this evening, Ash.’ Dev’s face softens as she turns and peers at me from under her neat fringe. ‘To reap you.’

‘You,’ I point at Dev then back at myself, ‘reaped me and now I’m a grim reaper as well?’

‘Because you were the last person to die this year.’

‘Is that what you meant when you said that you knew I was the one?’

She grins. ‘Yes! I didn’t know for sure, but I was hoping.’