Chapter 13

"No. I don't want Andy any more involved in this than she already is." Thanatos said to Charon as they sat at his desk.

"Any more involved in what?" I asked, walking into the office, carrying a large brown bag in my arms.

"Nothing," Thanatos said, a little too quickly.

Charon shot Thanatos an annoyed look before getting up out of her seat. "Thanks for picking up lunch, Andy. I know it was probably annoying, and I apologize."

"It's fine, Charon. Barry went with me and did all of the talking," I said as I set the bag down on the coffee table and began unpacking our food.

I noticed Thanatos staring at me out of the corner of my eye and blushed. I'd noticed him doing it more and more over the past four months, but thought nothing of it. Or at least tried to. Something about how he stared at me when he thought I wasn't looking caused my heart to race. I gathered my wits about me when he turned his attention back to the papers in front of him.

"Um… They were out of shrimp fried rice, so I got you vegetarian instead. Is that okay?" I asked Thanatos, but he seemed to ignore me. He looked as though he was lost in thought, focusing intently on the work he and Charon were doing. We tried calling his name but got no response.

"Bossman!" Charon yelled, causing Thanatos to flinch and look up at the two of up.

"Did I miss something?" he asked with a nervous chuckle.

"Andy was trying to tell you that they were out of shrimp fried rice, so she got you vegetarian. Is that cool?"

"Oh… yeah," he nodded, "that's fine."

"Come join us before your food gets cold," I said, waving him over and patting the couch beside me since Charon took the armchair.

Thanatos nodded and came over to sit beside me and eat his lunch.

"What are you guys working on in here?" I asked Charon, taking a sip of my water.

"We're looking into The Memitim, but we're having trouble differentiating Christian lore from facts. Do you think you could help us?"

I noticed Thanatos give Charon a dirty look out of the corner of my eye and stifled a chuckle. So this was what he didn't want me any more involved in. Well, he would just have to realize that I was capable enough to handle myself and help out when needed.

"Sure. I'm done in the tech department anyway. All of the computers have been updated, and the firewalls have been reactivated."

"Cool"

"Thank you, Andy, but you don't have to help with this. You could head home and relax."

"How am I supposed to head home when you're my ride?"

"Uber?"

I looked at Thanatos in annoyance. The man blushed and cleared his throat.

"Right, Uber's out of the question. Then I guess we'll get to work once we're done with lunch."

Thirty minutes later, I had my laptop and was sifting through the information that the other two had gathered on The Memitim. "Had you considered that they weren't hiding in the folklore?"

"Y-no. No, we hadn't. Could you elaborate, though?" Thanatos turned on the couch to face me, and Charon leaned forward in her chair, holding on to her laptop so as not to accidentally drop it. Both gave me their full, undivided attention.

"Well, I mean, obviously they don't look as freaky as the angels in the bible do. They don't even have wings. But, what if the stories were created in response to what they were doing? What if you guys just assumed it was about The Ferrymen, but in fact, it wasn't?"

Charon and Thanatos gave me a confused look, obviously not grasping what I was implying at that moment.

I sighed before continuing, "you guys created your folklore to tell your story, but also to hide who you were. Thanatos taking souls and Charon ferrying them across the River Styx so that Hades could assign them to their eternal fate. Morpheus giving them a taste of death in the form of sleep. All of the Greek mythology, you all fabricated to keep people from knowing who and what you truly were and o keep them from fearing you. What if The Memitim didn't hide who they were or what they were doing?"

"So, if we substitute angels for serial killers who kept visiting their victims over a period of time long enough to have them die before their appointed time --"

"We get the crazies we're looking for," Charon said, interrupting Thanatos.

I nodded.

"But nobody knew about them prior to thirty years ago," Thanatos said, frowning slightly.

"You Ferrymen didn't notice them until thirty years ago. That doesn't mean that they didn't exist before then. Actually, there are several instances in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian bible that talks about them and the deaths that follow them. From what I can tell, they've been praying on humans for millennia. Not as long as you all have been bringing them peace, but for quite a long time. I could be wrong, though. The stories could've been about The Ferrymen taking people who were destined to die, but I highly doubt it."

"Hades would know if the stories are about us or not. I've never heard of Ferrymen being referred to as Memitim in any texts. Still, if there's a possibility for that, I'm sure either he or Anubis would know," Charon said.

"In that case, I need to go have another meeting with Hades. It's a good thing I didn't change out of this God awful suit." Thanatos was wearing a black suit with a navy dress shirt and a black tie, a far cry from the usual jeans and t-shirt combo he sports on a near-daily basis. His usually shaggy hair was slicked back, and the light stubble I'd gotten used to seeing for the past two weeks was gone.

"I think it looks good on you," I said, giving him a sweet smile.

Thanatos blushed and fixed his tie. "Yes," he cleared his throat, "well, thank you. At least someone knows how to compliment someone and not make them feel like shit for wearing something different." He shot a pointed look at Charon as he spoke.

"All I did was ask if you were a body snatcher," Charon said with a shrug of her shoulders, turning her attention back to her laptop.

I chuckled softly at the two's banter. "Why are you wearing a suit anyway?"

"I had a meeting with Hades earlier."

"He insists on funeral attire," Charon chimed in, not looking up from her laptop.

"It's formal attire."

"Same difference."

Thanatos groaned in annoyance, then excused himself and walked out of the office.