The Crossroads Diner

Chapter 2

Chapter 2Benjamin heaved out a sigh of relief under his breath as he returned to the counter inside the diner. That was a close one. He was glad he managed to get Eric out from the diner before anything bad could happen to the human. The Crossroads Diner wasn’t meant for a living, breathing human. Everything that was served in the diner might be fit for human consumption, but the establishment itself was a place where lost and hungry souls stopped by for something to eat and drink before they continued their journeys. It was also the place for those souls who had, for one reason or another, been taken before their time on the mortal plane was supposed to expire.

“Trouble in paradise?”

Benjamin was startled by the melodious voice. He quickly turned toward the direction of the entryway that was covered by the white cloth before he smiled widely.

“Hello, Catrina,” Benjamin greeted while walking toward Catrina with both arms wide open. Upon reaching Catrina, he hugged her tightly for a moment before breaking away gently. “How’s hell? Has it frozen over yet?”

“No,” Catrina replied while giggling softly. “And don’t be cheeky. The eternal fire of hell will never be extinguished. It will keep the underworld warm and toasty forever.”

Benjamin shrugged. “I know, but having a sense of humor is the only way I can keep my sanity intact.”

Catrina cupped Benjamin’s cheeks lightly with both palms and rubbed them tenderly. “This punishment will soon be over. Just one more year to go, and you can be reborn afterward.”

Benjamin nodded. “I know.”

“Hang in there. Okay?”

“I will.”

“Excellent.”

“Why are you here, though?” Benjamin inquired as he led the way toward the counter.

Something felt off to him. Catrina would usually be more playful. However, Catrina was strangely much more subdued now.

“Am I not welcome here?” Catrina countered in a teasing tone of voice.

Benjamin snorted, but he didn’t provide a verbal response just yet. Instead, he pulled one of the wooden chairs out for Catrina before occupying the one to her left. He continued to carefully observe Catrina’s every action and facial expression as the two of them sat side by side right next to the counter, but he couldn’t detect anything from her. Benjamin decided to give up for a moment. Catrina would eventually tell him if something was wrong. He then waved his hand in the air, and in the next second, a pot of tea appeared on top of the counter halfway between him and Catrina. He also summoned two cups and placed them on the counter before he used his magic to move the teapot. He waited for the cups to be filled up nearly three-quarter of the way each before passing one of them to Catrina.

After that, they both sipped on the chrysanthemum tea slowly because it was steaming hot. Benjamin wasn’t in a hurry. The diner was totally empty now. All the souls had already left for the next portion of their journeys, which was to get on to a ferry that would bring them toward the main gate of the underworld. A thousand black crows were responsible for pulling the ferry toward the other side. Aside from that unexpected encounter with Eric earlier, it was just another normal evening at the diner.

“Don’t be silly,” Benjamin retorted without any heat moments later. “You always are. I’m just curious because you only pay me a visit when you have a message for me from the queen. How’s the old hag, by the way? Still cranky?”

Catrina burst out laughing. “Persephone is doing well, and yes, she’s still rather…uh, grumpy sometimes.”

“That’s a nice way of putting it.”

Catrina seemed really amused now. “You’re one of the few who can get away with calling her all sorts of names with little to no repercussions. She has a soft spot for you.”

“I know, and as much as I loathe to admit it, I kind of miss her.”

Catrina reached for Benjamin’s hands and patted them in an affectionate manner. “She feels the same. Trust me. Every time your name is mentioned, her facial expression softens a little.”

“Then she should come to the diner. She has never been here before. I haven’t seen her since…you know.”

“Yeah, but Persephone is the Queen of the Underworld. She’s busy all the time. She barely has time to rest.”

“Does she have any wrinkles on her face now?”

“No, and she never will,” Catrina answered while grinning at Benjamin. “She’s an immortal, and she can’t grow old. Not ever.”

“Neither can you nor I…” Benjamin trailed off when he recalled something from the past. His statement wasn’t exactly accurate. Once upon a time, he had grown older even though he was already dead, but that was a special situation. He shook his head slightly before smiling at Catrina. “The loneliness is taking its toll on all of us, I think.”

“I’m fine being single,” Catrina said. “I also enjoy my duty very much.”

“I bet.”

Catrina was the leader of all grim reapers. She was of Asian origin, but she had never revealed her ethnicity to anyone. Not even Benjamin knew about it even though he and Catrina were friends with each other. Close friends even. At least Benjamin would like to consider they were. After all, they had known each other for more than one thousand years now. Catrina was quite short. Without those sky-high boots that added at least ten inches to her height, she stood four feet and five inches at best. She was also very slim, to put it mildly, but her pink dress was a wonderful fit on her. It reached just above her knees, molding to her every curve and showing off that amazing figure to its best advantage. Every part of her was well-proportioned. She also had the kind of beauty that would make even the most gorgeous woman in the world looked like an ugly beast by comparison. The word perfect wasn’t sufficient to describe her flawlessness. She was beyond that.

As Benjamin studied Catrina, he was struck by the color of her long, flowing hair. It was curly and silver in color, and every strand glistened as if the sunlight was shining on it. Even her makeup looked different. Benjamin knew for sure that she must be experimenting again. He was about to inquire the reason for Catrina’s choice of hair color and makeup when a small piece of yellow paper materialized and floated in the air right in front of him. There was a name on it. It was Ryan. Benjamin gasped at Catrina in shock. He knew what that yellow paper symbolized. No wonder Catrina had been acting rather off ever since she arrived at the diner.

“I’m sorry to be the bearer of such tragic news,” Catrina apologized.

Benjamin clenched his fists and shut his eyes. He hated it when Catrina came by with that yellow paper because that meant someone innocent had recently died, and more likely than not, he knew that it was a young person. Maybe even a child. Or worse, a baby.

“f**k!” Benjamin cussed under his breath before he opened his eyes. “How old was Ryan when he…?”

Benjamin trailed off. He couldn’t complete the sentence. There was nothing more painful and heartbreaking for him than to persuade the soul of a young child to cross over.

“Five. He had been dead for more than a month now, but so far, he had yet to cross over. All of the grim reapers I sent his way have failed to persuade him to move on.”

“f**k!” Benjamin repeated himself for the second time. “How?”

“The house had burned down with him in it,” Catrina replied, and Benjamin’s heart throbbed and ached. “Ryan’s mother was holding his baby sister, and she thought her husband had Ryan.”

“What about Ryan’s father?”

“He was carrying Ryan’s baby brother out from the house, and he assumed his wife had Ryan with her. By the time they realized their mistakes, it was too late for Ryan. He died inside the house.”

Benjamin ignored the tears that streamed down his cheeks. “Damn it!”

“It’s not going to be an easy assignment, but you have to get Ryan to move on to the other side. You know what happens when a soul has lingered on the mortal plane for way too long.”

“Yeah.”

Benjamin knew the consequence well. He used to be one himself. He had stubbornly refused to cross over. Instead, he had stayed and roamed the mortal plane for eighteen years. Over that long period of time, he had gradually lost all of his humanity, and something else happened that turned him into an evil spirit, but he didn’t like to remember that. Fortunately, before he could commit his first murder of the mortals who honestly deserved to be killed, Catrina had somehow made up her mind to simply capture him and drag him kicking and screaming into the underworld. If Catrina had arrived even a second too late, she would have no alternative but to destroy his soul. After that, he would no longer exist. He didn’t want that to happen to Ryan. Or any other souls for that matter. That was the reason why Benjamin had, after six centuries of doing nothing in hell, decided to embark on his current path. It was his choice to repent in such a way for a thousand years. Once he accomplished that, he would be allowed to reincarnate.

“Do you need me to accompany you?”

Benjamin shook his head. “I can handle it. It’s my job to deal with souls that are at the crossroads between this world and the next. You’re busy enough as it is, and so are the other grim reapers. All of you can’t afford to spend so much time and effort on a single soul. That’s my duty. Besides, you will have to be the one to guide him all the way to the other side. I can’t make my way to the underworld. Not until I’ve completed my punishment. Nine hundred and ninety-nine years under my belt. Just one more year to go, and I’ll be allowed to be reincarnated.”

“I know all that,” Catrina said. “But you hate handling cases involving kids, especially when someone as young as Ryan is a part of the equation.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Catrina didn’t seem fully convinced, but she nodded anyway. Benjamin didn’t utter a single word as Catrina sipped on the remainder of the tea inside the cup before she gracefully got up. They both remained quiet for the next few seconds as they gazed into each other’s eyes. Catrina damn well knew the reason why Benjamin hated dealing with the souls of children and teenagers. He found it painful to do that because he had died at the tender age of fifteen all those years ago. Having to assist young souls to cross over brought back way too many excruciating memories for him.

“I’ll be waiting for Ryan by the river. The ferry will be here in an hour. If we miss that one, Ryan’s journey to the other side will be postponed by another seven hours.”

“I know. Each one-way trip takes three and a half hours to complete. I’ve done this for nearly a thousand years.”

Catrina smiled a little. “I know. Anyway, I can’t bring him through the direct portal into the underworld because he’s an innocent soul. The color of his soul will be golden, and it shines too brightly. The portal is made for souls who are fully tainted by the darkness. It’s reserved for the worst of the humans. The pure ones, and those whose souls are the same color as the blue of a burning fire, will get to ride on the ferry.”

Benjamin chuckled. “I remember all that. You don’t have to impart the information to me again. I’m not senile.”

“Good,” Catrina said while grinning widely. “Now, go and fetch Ryan’s soul. He’s in San Antonio, Texas. The address is on the paper. You know the drill.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

After that, Benjamin grabbed the yellow piece of paper from the air and bowed his head slightly at Catrina before making his way out from the diner through the entryway that had the red cloth draping over it. He could see everything on the mortal plane, including the people, but he himself was invisible. So was the diner for that matter. That was the reason why he had been so shocked by Eric’s appearance at the diner earlier. No living humans should have been able to see the diner, much less enter it. A living human released yang or positive energy while the soul of a dead human was yin or negative through and through.

Naturally, when Eric had stepped into the diner, everyone inside had been taken aback by how much heat and vitality had been emanating from his direction. After all, Benjamin and the souls of the dead inside the diner were much colder in comparison. Eric’s yang energy was the equivalent to the heat and light of a thousand suns, and it was contained within the diner. Benjamin was already one thousand, six hundred, and thirty-two years old. He had been murdered by a group of people when he was only fifteen years old. After spending eighteen years as a lost spirit on the mortal plane, six centuries in hell, and the next nine hundred and ninety-nine years working as a guide for souls who were trapped at the crossroads of life and death, he had forgotten what real warmth felt like. Eric had reminded him of it, and he honestly couldn’t wait for the final one year of his punishment to be over so he could be reborn as a human being once again.

In the meantime, he had a task to complete. Hence, he picked up his pace, floating toward his destination at a rapid pace. Building, vehicles, people, and everything else became blurry as he rushed by, passing through everything in his path until he arrived at his destination. He could have used a portal to reach Ryan in a matter of seconds, but he needed the extra time to calm himself down. When he got there, the first thing he noticed was the blackened remains of what used to be a house. A young soul, presumably Ryan, was sitting on the ground in front of it and sobbing loudly. Benjamin bit back a sigh as he approached Ryan carefully. Then he slowly plopped on to the ground right next to Ryan before he gently touched the boy’s hair. Ryan seemed surprised as he glanced in Benjamin’s direction, and his eyes widened.

“Who…who are you?”

“I’m Benjamin. You must be Ryan.”

Ryan nodded. “I don’t know where mommy and daddy are. I’m scared.”

Benjamin gulped as he blinked his tears away. He knew Ryan’s soul could have roamed anywhere, but it would always return to the house because that was the last place he was at when he had still been alive. However, Ryan must have missed the moment when his parents and siblings went elsewhere. That would explain why he had no idea where his parents were. Benjamin did his best to smile at Ryan as he patted the boy’s head lightly.

“Ryan, do you know what it means to die?”

Ryan nodded. “My pet rabbit died a few weeks ago. I was so sad. I still am.”

Benjamin beamed a little at Ryan without bothering to correct him. Ryan had been dead for a month now so his pet rabbit must have been gone much longer than just a few weeks. That wasn’t the important point in the matter, though. Benjamin had to convince Ryan to make the trip to the other side. He shifted closer to Ryan before sitting on the ground next to the boy.

“I’m sure your rabbit is in heaven now with all of the other animals.”

Ryan’s eyes widened slightly. “Really?”

“Really.”

Ryan was quiet for a moment as he stared down at the ground in front of him. Then he glanced toward Benjamin once again. He looked terrified and even more miserable than before.

“Is that what happened to me? Am I dead?”

Benjamin tried to will his tears away, but he failed. He sniffled a little as the tears started to roll down his cheeks. He wished he could lie to Ryan and spare the boy the pain, but that would be stupid.

“There was a fire in your house,” Benjamin explained. “You didn’t make it.”

Ryan sobbed loudly as he seemed to recall something. “I remember now. I screamed for my mommy and daddy, but they didn’t hear me. It felt hot, and it hurt everywhere.”

Benjamin gently pulled Ryan toward him. “I’m so sorry, Ryan. Your parents didn’t do that on purpose, though. They had to grab your baby brother and sister. Your parents thought you were with either of them so they didn’t turn around to make sure.”

Ryan’s whole body shook even harder as he wailed against Benjamin’s chest. Benjamin simply tightened his arm around Ryan and hugged the poor little boy. That was all he could do in that situation. After a while, Ryan shifted backward and gazed into Benjamin’s eyes.

“Are you going to take me with you now?” Ryan asked. “To heaven? Like my pet rabbit? And my grandpas and grandmas?”

Benjamin wiped Ryan’s tears away and chuckled a little. “I’ll bring you to a friend of mine. Her name is Catrina. She will take excellent care of you. She’s a sweetheart. You will be safe with her. I promise.”

Ryan hesitated for a second or two, but he eventually agreed. “How will we get there? Do you have a car?”

Benjamin chortled. “No, but I can fly.”

“You can?”

Ryan’s tone of amazement tickled Benjamin, and he couldn’t help but chortle in amusement. “Yes.”

“Cool.”

“I’ll give you a piggyback ride. Then we can take off.”

“Like superman!”

Benjamin snickered. “Not quite, but close enough.”

“Okay. Can I see my mommy and daddy first?”

“Ryan—”

“I just want to say good bye.”

Benjamin hesitated for a moment, but one glance at Ryan’s miserable expression was all it took for him to cave, and he squatted down with his back toward the young boy. “Fine. Come on. Hop up and hang on tightly to my neck.”

The moment he had Ryan securely on his back, he rose upward until they were high above all the buildings in the city. He used his magic and easily located the whereabouts of Ryan’s parents. They were asleep in one of the spare bedrooms in Ryan’s uncle’s apartment. Benjamin gently pushed Ryan toward the boy’s parents. He glanced away briefly as Ryan was approaching his parents.

“Mommy, Daddy, I miss you, and I love you.”

Upon hearing that, Benjamin quickly wiped his tears away because this scene reminded him too much of his past, and he hated remembering any of it. Most of the time, he shoved the memory to the back of his mind. He choked up again when Ryan bent forward to kiss his mother on the cheek before doing the same to his father. Then Ryan made his way back to Benjamin. He was crying, but he looked more at peace. Benjamin knelt in front of Ryan and forced a smile at the poor boy.

“Are you ready to leave now?”

Ryan nodded without uttering a single word. Benjamin beamed a little before offering to carry Ryan on his back again. After that, they passed through the walls of the apartment before Benjamin left the ground once again. In all honesty, he could have made it back to the diner in a matter of seconds, but he decided to slow down some, giving Ryan some extra time to enjoy the view. Ryan’s time on earth had been cut short, and it was unfair, but Benjamin knew there was nothing he could do about it. However, he could bring Ryan a little bit of joy before the boy had to make the trip to the other side. It was highly likely that Ryan would be reborn into this world in a matter of hours, but he wouldn’t be Ryan anymore. He would be someone else’s son or daughter. Benjamin hoped Ryan would be much more fortunate in his next incarnation.

When the two of them reached the diner moments later, Benjamin carried Ryan all the way toward the entryway that was covered by the large piece of white cloth. He pushed the cloth to the side and stepped outside. There was a long river in front of him, and he couldn’t see where it ended. Catrina was seated on top of a huge chunk of rock. She waved at Benjamin and Ryan when they approached her. Benjamin ignored her sympathetic gaze. He knew his eyes must be red from all the tears that he had shed on Ryan’s behalf. He was relieved when she switched her focus onto Ryan.

“Hello, Ryan. I’m Catrina. Are you ready for the next part of your journey?”

Ryan didn’t immediately respond. Instead, he looked at Benjamin who simply patted the boy’s shoulder encouragingly in return.

“I think so,” Ryan replied. “Are you taking me to see my pet rabbit? I also want to meet my grandpas and grandmas. I miss them so much.”

Catrina grinned. “We can do that for sure. You have my word.”

“Okay.”

After that, Benjamin gently deposited Ryan back onto the ground. Grasses and flowers bloomed the moment Ryan’s feet touched the soil. The power and purity of an innocent soul would bring life even to the most barren ground in existence.

“How are you doing?” Catrina inquired of Benjamin while she held on tightly to Ryan’s hand.

“As well as I can be,” Benjamin answered. “You know how much I dislike picking up the souls of innocent children.”

“I know,” Catrina said. “Even the ones up there are fully aware of it, but you’re so good at it.”

“It kills me inside every time I have to do something like this. It will take me a while to get over it.”

“You’re strong. You will get through it.”

Benjamin shrugged. “Maybe.”

“You will.”

Benjamin decided not to grace that with another response, and Catrina also didn’t utter a single word afterward. The three of them waited for the ferry to arrive in silence, and when it did, Benjamin hugged Ryan one last time before he bade farewell to the poor little boy.

“Good bye, Ryan.”

“See you someday soon, Ben.”

Benjamin could only force a smile onto his face, fully knowing that the possibility of that happening was slim to none. “If we’re meant to, sure.”

Moments later, Catrina and Ryan boarded the ferry. Some other souls appeared by the side of the river almost at the same time. All of them must be the obedient ones. The souls who willingly stepped into the light and reached the side of the river for the next portion of their journey. All of those souls also climbed on to the ferry. Once there was no other passenger left by the side of the river, the crows began to flap their wings and flew toward the direction of the underworld, pulling at the invisible ropes with their beaks. The ferry drifted away from the riverside. Benjamin stayed rooted on the spot until the ferry disappeared. Then he turned around and headed back to the diner. He still had several more hours to go. He had to be present at the diner to ensure that all the souls would be taken care of before they embarked on the next portion of their journey, and that was fine with him because after Ryan, Benjamin needed the distraction.