Albert had spent the weekend at home, occasionally talking to his mom about his worries regarding the internship. Though, when it came to more serious points he had to disguise certain things as something else. Like talking about Hope as a teacher’s daughter, instead of the boss’s daughter, and certainly never using her actual name. He knew his mom thought there was still something he wasn’t telling her, but he hoped she could chalk it up to a teenage boy not wanting to tell him mother all about his life. He doubted most teenagers shared everything they did with their parents, even if they were very close. It still felt wrong to hide things from her, but if it meant keeping her safe from the dangerous world he’d gotten caught up in and he could live with that.

When Monday came, and Albert left for school, he half expected Amy to find him on his way there. But he didn’t see her, or her car, as he walked there. It wasn’t until the last possible minute before his first class started that she stumbled into the classroom and took her seat on the opposite side.

Albert was still getting odd looks from his classmates, but it didn’t bother and distract him as much as it had the day before. It felt normal now, almost natural, to have the concerned attention of the other people around him. He still had bandages and gauze over his hands, and there was no hiding that. But if someone gave him a curious look or stared at him long enough for Albert to catch them, he would just shrug and that would be the end of it. The casual approach to dealing with teenagers seemed to be working. Though for the first few periods of the day, he couldn’t get hold of Amy. She was in all of his classes, but she never sat near him and wouldn’t look in his direction.

Finally, when the lunch bell rang and everyone scrambled out of the classroom, Albert caught up to her and got her attention.

“What’s going on? Are you avoiding me? I thought you were supposed to be, like… a liaison or something.”

“I’ve been instructed to lay low and not raise suspicions.” Amy growled. Albert hadn’t expected a foul mood, but he didn’t blame her for the way she felt. “I guess that means not being seen around you as much. It’s… really dumb and arbitrary.”

“I don’t know what you mean. But I do need to talk to you.”

Amy let Albert pull her to the side of the hallway outside of the classroom to talk away from the thinning crowd of students.

“So, you decided?”

“Yeah. I think I’m going to do it. Death’s going to try and manipulate me either way, I may as well take the option where I have some more choice, right?”

“I don’t know about having more choice. But you are right, Death’s probably gunning for you. He made me fork over all the notes and information I have on you.”

“That… wait. What?” Albert paused, uncomfortable with the idea that Amy had been taking notes on him. It was creepy in the same way that being stalked was creepy… but less threatening. But only because Albert knew if Amy wanted to hurt him, she’d just do it.

“I take notes on all the arbitrators I work with. I like to know the styles and approaches people use, the attitudes they have towards the work, that sort of thing. It helps me do my job easier.”

Albert was a little less put off by her explanation, but now he was worried about what Death wanted with those notes.

“It’s not like I write down anything I don’t expect to be read later by someone else. So there’s hardly any personal stuff in there. I think I might have mentioned your mom once, but that’s mostly in the ‘do not contact form.’ Apart from that, I don’t think you should be particularly worried about him having my notes.”

“About my mom. I told her about a few things, nothing dangerous for her to know…”

“Hold that.” Amy interrupted him. “I should remind you, Hope can force me to do whatever she wants. So anything you tell me, she can know if she asks the right questions.”

“Right, that…” Albert didn’t know how to phrase the question he’d been wanting to ask since Hope had forced her to punch a tree.

“I’m not going to explain why she can do that. It’s personal… kind of. I’d rather not share it.”

“Okay.” Albert went back to the request he’d been about to make. “I need some documentation and information that won’t be, like, dangerous for my mom to see. She wanted to see my internship application and information on the company. She knows where it is, so if I don’t show her something she’ll try and figure out stuff on her own.”

“Well that was a mistake.” Amy sighed. “You shouldn’t have told her where it was.”

“I was caught in a ramble of things to try and divert her attention. I couldn’t help it.”

“Now there’s a chance she’ll show up.” Amy pressed her palm against her face and let out a groan. “That’s… it’s not great. The firm doesn’t really have much paperwork. It’s mostly a front. But Death had to get some paperwork done to work with the school… or Hope did it. Either way, I’ll see what I can get from the school administrators office… and I guess... I guess I can forge the rest.”

“You don’t have to forge things. That’s. That’s a lot. I can’t pay you for that.”

“No. Albert. I’m doing it.” Amy had a suddenly very forceful tone to her voice. “Family is one of the most valuable things anyone can have. You don’t mess with someones family, and you don't let anyone else mess with someone else's family.”

Albert didn’t know how to respond to that, exactly. He was touched, but he could tell there was some deeper personal motivation behind her words. He also could tell that she’d probably never tell him what it was. He didn’t mind that part so much, but it made him curious.

“I’ll go do it now, actually.” Amy turned to go towards the administrative office, but Albert stopped her.

“I also told her that you were taking the internship too, so you can still stop by and she’ll probably expect to see you dropping me off back at the apartment.”

“Okay, that’s good actually.” Amy nodded. “I can work with that.”

“Thank you.” Albert did his best to give Amy a genuine smile, but she turned away abruptly and made her way down the hall.

“Meet me at the park after school, we can go from there.” Amy called back. Albert didn’t get a chance to respond.

He spent the rest of the school day half paying attention to classes, nervous all over again for a completely different reason. The last class of the day seemed to drag on forever, but when the bell finally rang Albert practically bolted out of his seat and towards the door. He hadn’t seen Amy in any of his classes after lunch, so he suspected she’d been working on getting some documentation for him the entire time. Once he saw her at the same chess table in the park, though, he realized that something else had probably happened. Hope was sitting across the table from her and they were playing a game with much more expensive looking metal and glass chess pieces.

“Albert, take a seat.” Hope patted the curved stone bench she was sitting on.

There was enough room for Albert to sit next to her, but he politely declined and stood by the side of the table instead.

“Fair enough, we’re almost done anyway.”

“I can’t believe you want to play like this.” Amy sighed. She was in visible pain as she moved her rook across the board.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Hope smiled brightly as she moved a her bishop into a checking position. “Checkmate.”

Amy growled at Hope and gave her a disgusted look before knocking over her own king and letting out a defeated sigh.

“I’m fine when Albert wins because of luck. But this has easily been the worst game of chess we have ever played.”

“Oh, shut up.” Hope rolled her eyes. “Albert, did you want to have a go? I’m not as good as Amy, but I figure you aren’t either when you don’t rely on luck.”

“No. I’m good.” Albert frowned at the invitation. “I was hoping to get some paperwork from Amy, but I guess you distracted her?”

“I’ve got the paperwork, actually. I ran into Amy while I was trying to bribe one of your school administrators. I made her tell me what she was doing and had it taken care of.” Hope reached into her purse and produced a very official looking brochure along with several papers that, at first glance, appeared to be an accepted application with his signature and information on it along with several other documents about the internship program.

It was very detailed and very specific for something that had likely been put together in under three hours.

“Thanks. I guess.”

“Of course. I treat my employees very well. You needed this, and it wasn’t hard to do.”

“You made the administrator do most of the work.” Amy interjected.

“We made an agreement. I paid her, she produced the documents, and she can retire now.”

Albert didn’t want to know how much money Hope had spent to get the paperwork. But he was glad to have it.

“And I’m glad you've decided to accept my father’s offer, Albert. It will be nice to work with someone a little less… familiar.”

“Yeah, until you get bored of him.” Amy interjected again.

“This is why I always send you away to punch trees and things, Amy.” Hope sighed. “I even told you to shut up and you still keep talking. How did you manage that one?”

“That was more of a general passing statement than a command.”

“Fine. I’ll make sure I tell you more directly what I want. Every. Single. Time. Like a micromanaging slave driver. Is that what you want?”

Amy remained silent.

“Okay, didn’t think so.” Hope turned back to Albert. “Are you ready to get the real paperwork signed, then?”

Albert hadn’t even thought about that part of accepting the internship. Of course there was going to be some sort of soul binding contract in order for him to work with Death. Even when the last contract hadn’t fully taken effect and fixed his eyes all the way. Albert had been walking around with slight cracks in the vision of his left eye since Friday. He was not thrilled about having to sign another piece of paper written out by Death, but he didn't see any way around it either.

“Sure.”

“Great.” Hope held her hand out to Albert. “Here, grab my hand like this.”

Hope positioned Albert’s hand under hers in a sort of awkward cupping hand hold. Albert was uncomfortable with the forced physical touch, but didn’t make it known.

“Amy, if you would do the honors.”

“Oh, of course.”

Amy retrieved the same pen that she and Albert had used during his various attempts at arbitration. Rather than hand it over, Amy gripped it firmly in her hand like a dagger and plunged the point down into Hope’s waiting palm. Albert flinched, half expecting the sharp point of the pen to go completely through Hope’s hand and into his, but Hope grabbed hold of his hand with her free one and sandwiched it between both of her hands to keep his flinching palm from retreating out of her grasp.

Albert had closed his eyes just before the pen struck Hope’s hand. When he opened them, the three of them were standing in Hope’s office at the debt collection agency. Albert withdrew his hand cautiously, but met no resistance now that the deed was done. He was confused, but not without a guess as to what had happened. Amy had always handed him the pen to go to the arbitration room, so it sort of made sense that it was used to go other places as well. But Albert couldn’t begin to fathom how this process worked.

Hope led Albert out of the office and into an empty reception area. Amy followed casually behind him. The door to Death’s office was cracked open and Albert could just barely see the man sitting at his desk. Hope opened the door and strolled in causally.

“It looks like Albert is on board.” Hope exclaimed excitedly.

“Wonderful.” Death looked up from whatever it was he had been writing and looked at Albert. A twisted sort of grin spread across his face. “I am so pleased to hear that you have decided to join our team. Please, have a seat so we can go through the paperwork.”

Albert sat down in the same chair he had taken a few days before, while Hope took the one next to him. Amy stayed standing, opting to lean against the frame of the open door.

“Before we get to the matter of signing you in as an arbitrator, I should cover something I forgot the other day.” Death retrieved two separate stacks of paper from a wide desk drawer in front of him. “You are entitled to review the titles of spiritual property recovered from your contracts.”

Death slipped the shorter stack of paper forward to Albert. Much of the page was written in what Albert thought looked like Latin, but there were sections that looked like English translations. The documents outlined three items of spiritual property. The first was an ornate gold ring with a flat face and an insignia, the document listed it as having been the property of Markus. The other two items, a smoking pipe described as being made from ivory and a plot of land in a place Albert had never heard of, were both listed as previously belonging to Arnie.

“Three pieces from two random contracts is pretty good Albert. You really are lucky.” Hope turned to Albert and gave him what he guessed was supposed to be a reassuring smile. Somehow it came across as hollow and sarcastic.

“Albert, as outlined in our original contract, we are to settle the ownership of these items between us.” Death reached back under his desk and one by one retrieved the ring, the pipe, and a piece of paper that Albert guess was a land title deed.

Albert didn’t know what to expect when he saw the items in front of him. Because they were spiritual property, he didn’t really know how he was seeing them or how Death had produced them from his desk. But he knew if he questioned it out loud, he likely wasn’t going to get a straight answer.

“I am willing to part with one of these. Though, in particular, I do not care which.” Death made sure to have his hand visibly pressed against the surface of his desk before he spoke. “Unless, of course, you would like to make a case for you to claim more than one.”

“No. No. I… one is fine.” Albert didn’t really know what to do with the choices placed before him. It almost felt wrong to divvy up Markus’ and Arnie’s former possessions, like he was splitting the loot after a robbery. “The ring.”

Albert felt better about taking Markus’ ring. The personal agreement they’d made felt more worthy of the transfer than what he had signed for with Arnie.

“Very well. I would be lying if this ring did not appeal to me the most out of these items, but I am not at a loss for adornments.” Death waved his hand over the three items, and each vanished as his hand passed over them.

Death retrieve the papers outlining the items as well, or at least the ones for the pipe and land. He left the paper that described the ring for Albert to take.

“As for your internship,” Death pushed over the other stack of papers that he had originally retrieved, “these terms are not up for negotiation. However, I would not blame you if you review them and decide to decline the offer.”

Albert nodded slowly to Death as he picked up the papers and read them over slowly. He could feel the three other sets of eyes in the room watching him.

There were several things in the contract that Albert had not expected. They weren’t necessarily bad, some of them were actually nice to have in writing, but he hadn’t been prepared for what he was reading. The contract explicitly provided protection from use of force or other harmful acts carried out against him by Death and other employees and associates of Death. But Death also specified that the internship could be ended at any time and for any reason that he chose. To Albert, the combination of those two ideas meant that Albert was safe from other people that worked with Death, but not Death himself. His internship could be ended on a dime and Death could kill him on the spot if he wanted. It would be in poor form, but Albert didn’t think that would bother anyone.

The contract also didn’t go into specifics of what his role would be when working with Death or Hope. It specified that he would be completing tasks for either or both of them, but not what those tasks were limited to… if anything. The contract prevented him from being directed in such a way that he was abused, like what Albert imagined Hope had Amy do on a regular basis. But that also wasn’t very reassuring if that had to be added in to begin with.

Nothing else in the contract caught his attention. He definitely read all of it, but he couldn’t see any way it could be exploited or used against him that was as obvious as the contract being terminated at the drop of a hat. Albert didn’t see a reason why he shouldn’t sign, at least not one that was better than the reasons that he should.

So, gently, Albert picked up the pen that had been left on the desk for him and signed his name on the last page of the contract.

Albert William Carol

“Glad to have you with us, Albert.” Death grinned as he took the contract back. “So very glad.”