As days go by in the veil, my boredom seems to loom over me like a dying tree. I haven't seen Jasper in a while, which sucks, but I assume he's busy doing something important.

Business, if you know what I mean, has been slow. I haven't admitted a soul to the sanctuary in a while. However, there's been talk of Winchesters and their angel friend planning on trying to get a soul from the sanctuary.

I laugh at the thought. Not on my watch.

My mind wanders; I think of what could happen if they possibly did succeed in their efforts of doing whatever it is that they're trying to do. First and foremost, my dad would have my skin hanging from a hook. Other than that, the veil would probably collapse into some sort of chaos for a while for no serious reason, and then return to normal. Of course, losing a soul isn't exactly something you'd strive for, but it's no reason to break into madness. Even still...

Finally, as I'm released on my break, Jasper shows up.

"Hey, Mallory!" He greets loudly from his spot in the normal traffic. I wave as he approaches me. "How's it going?"

"Normal," I reply. I have to laugh when he asks me that — as if we're normal people on the street. "Where've you been?"

"Oh man, I've got a story to tell you," Jasper practically bounces with excitement. We walk through a couple different rooms and decide to crash in the main chamber for a little bit. It's quiet in here at the moment because all of the reapers are busy.

"Your dad put me on this crazy job, you know," he brags. "There was some chick that wasn't resting properly or some bullshit, and she was full-on crazy. Your dad let me go retrieve her. It was crazy. She fought me a bunch until I got ahold of her. Look at this bruise -"

"Hold on," I interrupt. "My dad sent you to do this?"

"Well, yeah," Jasper scoffs. "You're his daughter, he'd never send you. You're like, the princess of the veil. If something happened to you, there would be an uproar."

"Doubtful," I shoot back. "I'm so sick of sitting at the step of the sanctuary all day. I don't get to do anything. I've heard about some little plan someone's trying to swing to get into the sanctuary, but I doubt it'll happen. And if it does, I doubt my dad will let me in on it."

"He's just trying to protect you," Jasper reminds me.

I sigh. "I'm tired of being protected. I want to go do things. Sometimes I sneak down to earth during my break but that's it. That's all I get to do."

"Mallory, that's dangerous, you shouldn't do it," Jasper scolds me. "What if you dad figured out?"

"It would be more excitement then I've gotten in my entire life," I drone.

Jasper doesn't argue with me any further. He takes on a different topic. "What was that about people trying to get into the sanctuary?"

I shrug. "Some of the reapers were talking about it earlier. Apparently some guy is alive without his soul, and it's in here, so they want to try and come get it." I dodge the fine details of the matter, unsure of whether other reapers are supposed to know. If it were anyone except the Winchesters, it wouldn't be a big deal. But everyone knows about those flannel-wearing idiots around here.

"Try," he repeats me with a laugh. "I think your dad would kill them off the second they got into the veil."

"I wouldn't doubt it," I agree.

Jasper and I let the hours pass with nonchalant conversation about people dying. After all, that's our business. As my break comes to a close, I make a final proposition to him.

"Wanna go run around in the sanctuary tonight?" I ask.

Jasper nods. "Sounds fun, we haven't poked around in a while."

"Cool, I'll meet you in our usual spot when it gets dark."

He nods in agreement as I hear my dad call me back. Begrudgingly, I make my way back to my throne of sorts.

"Mallory, I'd like you to pay a little more attention to whoever approaches the sanctuary," he informs me.

"Why?" I question, as if I don't already know.

"No reason, just do as you're told," he commands.

A splinter of annoyance breaks off at my core. I knew he'd never tell me. Unfortunately for him, I know who was discussing it earlier, and where to find them.

The evening passes, and it begins to get dark. My dad becomes preoccupied with other things, and it's mine and Jasper's perfect chance to go meddling in the sanctuary.

I round the corner of the stone structure and wait for him under a dead, but still very large and camouflaging willow tree. A few minutes later, he rustles through the branches.

"What took you so long? I've been waiting for hours," I tease him.

His smile beams. "You're always here, shut up."

I laugh at his remark. I feel myself loosen up; daytime can be a stressful component of my position. I have to keep a straight face and look tough to the rest of the reapers, lest they forget just who I am. However, none of them ever forget, and none of them ever cause problems with me. That's just my father's request.

I guess, in a way, this does make me sound like the princess of the veil.

"Let's go," Jasper urges. I break from my trance and lead the way.

I make Jasper look away as I unlock the door, as usual. No one's supposed to know how to get in except for me and my father. Everyone thinks its some spell or ritual, but it's really just a key that no one can know about.

Pushing the door open, Jasper and I hurry inside the building and shut the door behind us.

"Where do you want to start?" I ask him.

"Let's just do alphabetical," he shrugs. "There's a handful of new ones that've come in since the last time we looked."

I agree with him, and we begin rifling through the remnants of dead people. Jasper finds one that's barely encased, and starts reading it aloud, speaking about its experiences and its life to me and the rest of the glowing souls.

As he rambles on, I tune out. I'm making my way down the rows and rows of lifelines. While I walk, I notice something new — something that wasn't there the last time I looked through the sanctuary.

It's a door, carved into a stone wall. I can see light through the small crack of an opening. My curiosity piques, and I walk toward the door.

"Jasper, come here," I summon him. He hustles over to me.

"What's this?"

"I have no clue, I've never seen it," I respond. "Let's check it out."

As I start toward the door handle, Jasper grabs my hand. "Woah, are you sure? I don't think we should."

"Why not? Nothing's ever stopped us from invading people's privacy before," I joke.

With a labored sigh, he permits my entrance and doesn't argue any more. For a second, I wonder why he's skiddish, but I don't dwell on it.

The light I saw is of course, souls. I approach wall of a few shelves, which contains what looks to be the Winchesters' souls, and then some.

"Did someone really feel the need to move these in here?" I scoff. "As if any of the Winchesters would even get into the veil, let alone into the sanctuary, but now this? This is extensive."

"Yeah, I don't know," Jasper laughs. "Come on, let's leave this alone."

"You can go," I wave him off. "I'm going to explore this. What's your deal?"

"Mallory, really, come on," he urges.

I ignore him and continue my activity. As I'm looking through the components — all of which, I've seen — I notice one in particular that isn't labeled, which is weird, because every single soul in the veil is labeled in some way. As I look closer, I see a small date engraved on the glass. March 21.

Through the glass, I observe the soul. It's absolutely untouched. It's never seen a single interaction or emotion, it's clearly been in this case since the day it came to exist. Absently, I wonder if it maybe belonged to a lost leaf of the Winchester family tree that never fell to the ground of Earth. It's a strange happening — I can count on one hand the number of souls that I've seen with absolutely zero marks.

"Mallory!" A voice booms behind me. I turn to see my father, gripping his scythe with white knuckles. "What are you doing?"

"Um, I got bored and I just take a trip through the sanctuary sometimes," I try to quickly explain.

"Do you have any idea how irresponsible this is? You know better," he scolds. "Out."

"I'm not doing anything wrong -"

"Out!" He yells. His voice practically shakes the walls. If reapers slept, he would've woken every last one of them.

Speaking of reapers, Jasper is nowhere in sight, but I'm guessing he's hiding from my father.

I lower my head and scurry out of the sanctuary. Damn my curiosity, but what is that room even for? And whose soul did I just find?