Ash didn’t realize how much time had passed as he found himself sitting on the same seat that Betty once had, still holding what was left of the key and chain combination in his hand. The heavy plaque felt like rough plastic against his palms, despite having what looked like a metal finish. It was only when he heard another voice in the room that he realized he had been sitting there for a long time.

  “Looks like you really were the right Diver for the job.”

  Ash looked up from the blue tile floor, seeing a familiar face wearing an even more familiar black jacket as Gray looked down at him with a soft smile. “All the hostility and fear that this place was wrapped up in isn’t gone completely,” he looked briefly around the bathroom, “but it feels a little…lighter.”

  “Is she gone? Like actually gone?” Ash asked, holding onto the keychain still while he waited for an answer.

  “You saw it, right?” Gray held up his hand with his Diver’s ‘badge’ showing towards Ash. “That little spark from her soul.” With a small flash of light, a flickering flame appeared in his hand, visible though his fingertips as it cast a bright light on all the walls around them. He closed his fist around the flames, forcing them to disappear as he placed his hand back in his pocket. “The Betty all of us saw was that little flame holding onto all the sights and sounds she could remember until it finally gave out.”

  Gray walked back over to the gap he had presumably walked out of to get here. “This place’ll fade away soon too without her soul here to keep it burning. So it’s time for us to get going.”

  “Wait,” Ash stood up from the lonely little seat, “where does she go after this? After her soul burns away?”

  Gray waited in front of the gap, looking off into the adjacent room he had come from before. “Hopefully somewhere better.” He squeezed through the gap without another word, leaving Ash to quickly follow. Gray led him through the hole to the room he had been in previously, but this time it was suspiciously empty, save for one giant puddle in the middle of the floor. Every toilet in the room, including the one that Ren was sitting on earlier, had disappeared.

  Ash wanted to ask a followup question about souls, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking a much more immediate question burning through his mind. “What happened here?”

  “I cleaned up!” Gray responded proudly, as if that answer was satisfactory. “I’ll give you some proper cleaning lessons whenever you’re a little more official.” After ending on the word ‘official’ a sour expression came over Gray’s face. “I’m probably screwed if Abbey makes a report to Forin before I do, so we should get moving.”

  Ash took a careful peek at the puddle in the dimly lit room. He could see his own reflection staring back at him, but instead of seeing the ceiling above him in the puddle’s surface he saw a hazy blue sky. “That’s our ticket back outside, and usually our ticket inside too if you know where to look.”

  “Abbey had mentioned something about puddles before, but just like when I told her back then, I don’t think any of us stepped into a puddle on our way here.” Ash took a small step back as he looked at Gray, waiting for an answer.

  “I’m still trying to figure that one out.” Gray crossed his arms as he gently tapped his foot a couple of times against the ground. “Something about the street felt off the second we turned the corner, but the last thing I expected was all of us to get yanked inside of the soul stream and split up.”

  Gray turned towards Ash, letting his arms fall back to his sides. “The plan before we got here was for Abbey to scout ahead, and hopefully, bruise any trouble, while I slowly worked towards the center with you to explain things along the way.”

  “What about Ren?” Ash quickly asked, still not sure how he was doing at this point.

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  “He would have been fine,” Gray’s concentrated stare shifted into a softer smile, “I don’t think there’s anything in a H rank city that would give him much trouble.” He scratched behind his head for a moment as he looked back over to the now empty backwall. “If anything he probably just fell asleep and decided to let us take care of it.” He looked back towards Ash as he loosely pointed an open palm in his direction. “I don’t think he knows you’ve joined the team though, so we’ll need to introduce you when he wakes up.”

  “Abbey seemed kind of concerned when she saw him.” Ash recalled.

  “She might not seem like it, but she’s a bit of a worrywart, even though she’s kind of reckless.”

  “Kind of?” Ash felt like the only time she sat still today was when he saw her pounding back another amber bottle. He dropped the thought for now, remembering Gray saying he needed to make a report, before Abbey if possible.

  “Either way, what happened today will all be in my report to Forin, and he’ll be able to cross reference it with other cases in Broolhaven.” Ash felt like Gray read his mind for a moment. “I haven’t been in Broolhaven for very long, but being pulled into a soul stream from that far away…” Gray trailed off with a hand softly covering his mouth as he slowly devolved into mumbling. The moment he felt Ash’s eyes on him however he put his hands back in his pockets and smiled.

  “None of that really matters though, I think Abbey was right that we need to celebrate, especially since you just completed your first job.” He got a little closer before resting a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “You probably have a lot of questions still, and this wasn’t the best orientation, but you still did well.”

  Ash wasn’t exactly sure what to say, but he couldn’t help but at least smile a little back as some of the tension in his chest released. “It hasn’t been my worst first day, believe it or not.”

  “After all that’s happened so far? I don’t.”

  “Well if I have another ten of those sours at the office, I’ll tell you all about it.”

  “Oh yeah?” Gray gave him a wider smile this time as the grip on his shoulder tightened. “Guess we better get moving then!” With a surprising amount of strength, Gray gave Ash a shove, forcing him off balance, and hurdling towards the puddle on the ground. Ash’s reflexes kicked in as he threw up his arms to brace his fall, but as soon as he touched the wet surface of the tiled floor he sunk into it instead of falling flat on his face. A cold rush of frigid water enveloped him from head to toe, but a new warmth he wasn’t familiar with started to radiate outwards from his chest.

  He had closed his eyes when he first felt the initial push, and when he opened them again all he saw was a constant sea of blue completely surrounding him. The warmth radiating from his chest almost felt like it was pulling him forward, and before he knew it, he felt a surge of heat and saw a flash of bright light that blew the water surrounding him away.

  He blinked a few times with sunlight adjusting eyes as he saw the fuzzy shapes of alleyway bricks, the dull green shine of a full dumpster, and the gray ground beneath his feet. He stumbled a little, his head spinning as if he already had those 10 sours he wanted, but he soon found his footing again. To his right he heard a splash of water echoing throughout the alley, and as soon as he turned to look he saw Gray steadying himself beside him, slightly adjusting the neck of his red sweater.

  “Feel like hacking up that coffee yet?” Gray smiled at him as his hands reflexively went to his waist where his jacket pockets no longer were. “Making the jump from the ground to the sea is rough the first few times, so I won’t make fun of you too much if you need a minute.”

  “Maybe I need a second,” Ash coughed a couple of times as he saw his vision start to clear. He brought up a hand to hold his head for a moment, and felt the cold touch of plastic meet his skin. Confused, he brought his hand away and saw that he was still clutching the cumbersome keychain from the diner in his right hand.

  “Did you have that before you got pulled in?” Gray asked, staring at the heavy looking placard.

  “No…I, uh, took it off the key I gave back to Betty.” He continued to stare at the metallic looking but plastic slab in his hand, but before he could question it any further, it burst into the same red, blazing flame he was familiar with. The blaze was warm, and didn’t burn his hand, before it shrunk to the size of a baseball. The little ball of flame jumped out of his palm before slamming back down into the back of his hand, making the red nine pointed star glow with a brand new light before disappearing back into his skin.

  Ash stared at the back of his hand, dumbfounded before he turned to look back at Gray who had an expression on his face that was just as shocked as he was.

  “Does that,” Ash started, “normally happen?”