“Sorry, sir, but today is not my day to die. But thank you for your concern.” She brushed past him and when she was only a few feet away, he called after her.
“What’s your name?”
She spun around and something in his face made her want to possibly see him again. Perhaps it was the crooked smile that made him seem a bit eager. “Save me from the train at the tracks tomorrow, and I might give you a name.” Talia smiled in return and walked away.
More memories came to Talia: Shea sweeping her off her feet at the train tracks, him spinning her in circle after circle as they danced to records, her feeding him chocolates, their first kiss at the train station, making love for the first time in the front seat of his car. Then came the bad times: the arguments of why she wouldn’t marry him, when she never got pregnant, her confessing to why she could never have his baby because she was immortal, him constantly depressed and afraid she would move on because he was aging.
But the good always overpowered the bad. If only they had both been human, then things would have been perfect.
The day forged into night and Talia fell asleep on the couch. When she opened her eyes, Ednah must have already gone to bed because she was no longer sitting in the worn recliner. Talia stood and turned on the TV, putting it on a channel that was playing Frankenstein. It must have been a Frankenstein marathon because a different one played next. After watching the first two, an idea formulated in her head. Something she should have thought about before because Shea loved the films and book so much.
She ran to the bedroom and flicked on the light, finding Ednah on her back with her mouth fully open, lightly snoring.
“Ednah!”
Jerking forward with wide eyes, Ednah’s hand flew to her chest. “You can’t do that to an old woman,” she groaned. “Do you want another person lifeless by the evening?”
Talia was too dead-set on what she came up with to let the words remind her of what had happened to Shea. “I have an idea.”
“I’m sure your idea could have waited.” Her tone sounded guttural and her eyelids were already starting to close.
“I think… I think I can bring Shea back!” Talia felt this with every fiber in her being that she could. There still had to be enough time.
Ednah sat up wide awake and shook her head. Gently, she pushed her legs to the side of the bed and said in an extremely calm manner, “No, honey, you can’t bring him back. Shea is gone.”
“I watched Frankenstein—”
The old woman held up a hand, interrupting her. “A work of fiction.”
“But I know I can help him,” she pressed, balling her fists so tight her palms were hurting.
“I’m sorry, child”—Ednah moved from the bed and reached out for Talia—“but we don’t have a large electric current machine sitting around, do we?”
Talia drew out of Ednah’s warm grasp. “That’s not funny, and I’m not a child. I’m hundreds of years older than you.”
“Yet you sure don’t act it.” With a yawn, Ednah sat back down on the bed.
“Fine, stay here,” Talia said with anger lacing her words. “I’m going to the cemetery to find a body for Shea.”
Not waiting for a reply, she left the room and hurried out to the garage to grab a shovel and ax before getting into her car. Starting the engine with a loud purr, she headed to the cemetery and held back her tears. It was only a few blocks up the road and no one was ever there, except for the dead.
Under the moonlight’s glow, two large metal gates pulled into her periphery. Talia parked the car in the gravelly lot and turned off the headlights. Quickly, she pulled out the flashlight from the glove compartment and grabbed the shovel and ax from the trunk.
The closer she got, the taller the gate seemed to grow before her eyes. The iron was of a murky black with sharp points and words spread across the top reading, Morgan’s Point Cemetery. A rusted handle and no chain bound it together. She adjusted the shovel and ax at her side and lifted the clasp—a grinding clink filled the air.
She let out a deep breath as if the dead would emerge out of their graves, but they didn’t. They remained buried. The only paranormal mystery she’d ever come into contact with was herself.
A slight fog and pine-like scent radiated off the tall trees. She held up the flashlight and scanned the cemetery, stopping on a large rectangular headstone with a crack down the center. An angelic stone angel rested on top, one of its arms missing.
With a hard thrust, Talia stabbed the shovel into the soil. Thankfully, the ground wasn’t frozen over so she wouldn’t spend days getting to the coffin, but it would be some time by morning. Shovel full after shovel full, she scooped out dirt. The night was already turning into day, and her arms and legs felt like gelatin, but she didn’t stop. Not until, finally, the end of her tool struck something solid.
Her earlier sadness had vanished with the new focus driving her entire being, and a new determination was there. Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau may have all been mad, but they were both geniuses who pulled it together. Talia had learned over the centuries that all fiction was rooted in fact. She was living proof of it.
Pulling herself out from the grave, she swiped the ax from the dew-covered grass. She rubbed sweat from her forehead and hopped back into the grave. With one strong whack, she buried the metal end of the ax into the wood. Again, Talia repeated the motion, and again, she hacked at it over and over.
“It took me a few cemeteries to find you, but I’m here,” a voice called.
Talia glanced up and tugged the flashlight from her back pocket, pointing the light onto Ednah’s face. “What are you doing?”
“I still think you’re crazy”—Ednah crossed her arms over her chest as she frowned—“and I still believe that this won’t work, but here I am just as Shea would have wanted. He was always such a crazy bastard.”
“The craziest,” Talia agreed with a smile. As she turned back around, she brought the ax down again and again, thinking about the time she and Shea stood in front of the train until the last second just because they could. Before she could delve further into that memory, the inside of the coffin caught her eye. She threw down the ax and let the rising sun highlight the old bones of a skeleton resting inside.
Ednah perched forward and peered down at Talia and the skeleton. The old woman pointed a painted pink nail at what was the ribcage. “Hmm, are you trying to bring a skeleton back to life?”
Tossing the ax and shovel onto the grass, Talia pulled herself from the grave. “No… I don’t know! I mean, how long does it take to decompose?”
“By the looks of that skeleton, I’d say it’s been decomposed a while.” Ednah pushed her glasses up her nose and focused on the tombstone. “Died 1964.” Hanging her head and shaking it in disapproval, Ednah continued to stare at the engraving.
Talia gripped her dark hair and dropped to her knees. “I don’t know! I’m not a scientist!”
“Well, you sure are trying to be one!” Ednah bit back.
“I can’t waste time trying to find skin to wrap around the skeleton, too.” Talia had been too desperate to get a body that she hadn’t been thinking straight and misread the year on the tombstone. Besides, she didn’t know what she thought she would find. Perhaps a perfectly put together body?
“We can fillet my own skin for it.” Ednah stared at her, face serious. “I’m sure it will grow back.”
“What?” Talia squeaked, her heart accelerating.
“I’m not serious.” Ednah scooped up the shovel and turned around. “But I could be…”
“That’s not funny!” Talia picked up the ax and followed her friend. The woman was growing closer to death, but she kept her sarcasm strong.
When they made it to the outside of the gate, Ednah closed the metal and pressed down the latch. “Instead of digging for these fresh bodies, why aren’t you snatching Shea’s?”
Talia closed her eyes and bit her lip, turning away from Ednah. “Because… Because I wan
t to give him a new body. One that doesn’t hurt.”
“What an incredibly beautiful story,” Ednah said loudly. “Then how will it be Shea?”
Holding back an inner scream, she twisted around to face her frustrating friend. “I plan on inserting his brain!”
The old woman stabbed the ground with the shovel. “Oh, biscuits and gravy, you really are crazy!”
“It’s okay to curse, you know that?” Talia shouted at the top of her lungs. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
Jolting forward, Edna covered Talia’s mouth with her wrinkled hand. “Stop! My old ears can’t handle it.”
“Please help me,” Talia mumbled through Ednah’s hand.
Closing her eyes, the old woman dropped her hand and stared at Talia fiercely. “Look, I’m not going to be an accomplice, but I’ll drive you to get Shea.”
“That’s an accomplice.”
“No, it’s me taking my friend to the funeral home, thinking she’s arranging a funeral.”
Talia rolled her eyes and headed to her car. First, they dropped off Ednah’s Pinto because she didn’t want to be seen driving her own, so she drove Talia’s.
When they arrived at the funeral home, the building was covered in an off-colored white brick with small windows lining the front.
A single car sat in the parking lot, and Ednah let out a groan, “Well, it was a good try.”
Talia looked up and down the sparse street. The funeral home was a lonely building surrounded by even lonelier trees. She knew she could do the job quickly. “I’m going in.”
“What do you plan on doing if whoever’s in there catches you stealing Shea’s brain?” Ednah appeared worried with her lips pursed and wrinkles deepening.
“Murder, if I have to.”
“That’s a joke, right?”
“What do you think?” Talia smiled and grabbed the dirt-covered shovel from the backseat, along with the ice chest she’d packed. Then she pulled a ski mask over her head and put on a pair of black leather gloves.
At a quick pace, she moved toward the door and knocked rapidly. Several moments passed with no answer. Precious time was slipping away from her. She walked to the grime-covered window and whacked her shovel through it. A ripple of glass rained down between the ground and the inside of the building. She knocked the remaining pieces out, but small chips still nicked her arms and body as she slid inside.
Right as she pulled herself through and lifted the shovel from the floor, the door flung open. Without thinking, she leaped forward and swung the shovel at the interloper’s head. A frightened gasp escaped her mouth as the mystery man slumped to the ground.
“Oh fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Maybe I did kill someone on this pursuit.” Talia was the real intruder here, but it was her reflexes that did it. She quickly fell to her knees and pressed her hand at the man’s throat. A pulse beat beneath her fingers. Not dead—thank God. Heart pounding, she rolled him to his side and hastily tied his wrists and feet together with the tape sitting on the desk. The man had gray hair, sunken cheeks, and wore a smock over a long-sleeved collared shirt.
If the man had died, Talia didn’t know what she would have done, because her number one concern was getting to Shea’s body. She plucked up the ice chest from the ground outside and moved toward the door.
Peeping her head around the open door, Talia didn’t know which way to go. In answer, she took the first hall she saw. Pictures of flowers painted the walls, as if the hallway itself was a cemetery. Eventually, she came to an iron door and opened it. Inside, a row of metal stairs led to what she assumed was the basement.
“This must be it,” Talia whispered.
A bright light sprinkled across the room, making her eyes squint. Her body stilled and grew rigid when her gaze connected with the silver table. There lay Shea, only him, and no one else. His eyes, always filled with love, now closed forever. His pale skin, once warm, now cold, was already withering. Or maybe that was her imagination. Without touching him, she knew his body was stiff, his skin and everything buried underneath would have no warmth. He looked cold. So incredibly cold, she thought. And that left her feeling even more alone.
Once her plan worked, neither would be alone any longer.
A long, clear tube was connected to his right leg. Lifting her mask, she scampered toward him and ripped the tube out and tossed it to the floor.
Talia’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at her lover on the table. She’d find him a new body. Heart pounding harder, she hurried and set down her ice chest.
Talia had come prepared with tools but the things in the room would work much better. She reached for the bone saw with a sharp circular disk on the end and pressed the yellow button. The metal wheel made a loud buzzing sound, filling the air of the room. If she stuck her finger to it, her digit would be gone in an instant. It was perfect.
Turning the tool off, she stepped behind Shea and pressed her hand to the side of his freezing face. From behind him, she leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his forehead. “I know you’re still in there, so please hold on,” Talia whispered.
When she flicked on the tool again, the loud noise filled the room once more. Talia was not a surgeon, but she’d been around long enough to know how to cut something open. However, the task was messier than expected.
As blood dripped and oozed from the incision, she second-guessed herself for a moment, not knowing if she was making a mistake by not attempting to use his old body instead. But she knew Shea, and he wouldn’t want this tired body for eternity.
The sound of metal hitting skull only drove her determination further. Once Talia came full circle, she slid off the top portion of the skull, exposing the extraordinary brain. She couldn’t help but stare in awe. She’d never seen such a beautiful sight—such a small and wondrous tool could hold so many things. Dreams, nightmares, thoughts, memories, precious, so many precious words exchanged between the two of them.
With careful precision, she pushed her hands in and disconnected the brain as best she could. Talia slowly pulled it out and cradled the organ, studying each indention. From the outside it still looked utterly healthy and perfect. She didn’t know if she had done it right, but she made sure to keep it whole.
Bending her left knee, she set it inside the ice chest, along with the bone saw, and quickly closed the lid. Turning away from the body that had grown to give Shea so much pain, Talia dashed out of the room. She wouldn’t look back at her lover’s body, because the one part of Shea that was truly him was inside the box she carried. His heart was still in his chest, but his true heart that contained what he felt for Talia was buried in the lovely organ she had with her.
Because a small amount of pity washed over her, Talia went out the way she’d come in to check on the man she’d injured. He was still resting on the floor, breathing heavily. To give her more time, just in case, she left his hands and feet taped. Someone would find him, and it wasn’t as if he couldn’t find a way to slip free if need be.
Talia crawled through the window, leaned in, and grabbed the cooler and shovel. Behind her sat Ednah in the driver’s seat, watching her like a hawk. When Talia strolled up, the old woman leaned over and threw open the passenger side.
Taking a seat after placing the shovel in the back, she held onto the cooler tightly, afraid it might disappear if she stuck it behind her or in the trunk.
“Thanks for not helping,” Talia said with a small smile.
“You’re lucky I’m here.” Ednah put the car in drive and glanced at Talia’s gloved hands. “Also, you’re filthy.”
Talia looked down at the red—so much red. “It’s blood.”
“And it’s filthy…”
“We need to find a fresh plot.” Talia stared out the window, watching trees wiggle under the wind’s strength. “That funeral home didn’t have any spare bodies at the moment.”
“And what if we dig someone up and he’s not up to par physical wise, huh?” Ednah snapped.
“This isn’t a bli
nd date!”
“It kind of is.”
Talia looked down at the box in her lap and rested her cheek against it. “I’ll take anyone as long as Shea’s in there and he doesn’t have to hurt anymore,” she whispered, unsure if Ednah had even heard her. All she wanted was to feel Shea’s hand gripping hers like it used to.
Ednah stayed quiet for a long time before she finally pressed a palm against Talia’s cheek. “I have a better idea.”
“I thought you wanted no part of this.”
“I don’t, but I have a friend who works at the morgue at the hospital…”
Talia straightened and blinked several times before speaking. “What friend?”
“Oh, just someone who comes and goes.”
“Like a special friend?”
“Something like that.” Ednah grinned. “Anyway, we’ll go back to my place, you’ll get cleaned up, and then we’ll go shopping when night falls.”
Talia felt as if all the pieces were coming together. She wrapped her hands around the cooler, pressing her head against the plastic. This is going to work, she silently told Shea.
Once back at Ednah’s home, Talia wiped the blood from the outside of the cooler and took a shower. The water felt cold against her skin—she closed her eyes and thought about Shea.
“Why do you not want to marry me, love?” Shea placed his forehead against Talia’s naked shoulder and kissed the side of her neck.
“I just can’t...” Talia rolled away from him.
“Is it someone else?” He quickly sat up and ran an agitated hand through his hair. “You can tell me, you know.”
“No, there’s only you, so stop asking that!” she ground out. “Isn’t here and now good enough?”
“But I love you.”
“And I’m sure I love you more, that’s why I can’t.” Talia pressed her hand against his warm cheek. He was in need of a shave, but she liked the way the prickly hairs felt against her palm.
He stayed silent.
Dearest Clementine: Dark and Romantic Monstrous Tales (Letters Book 1) Page 3