by TJ Adams
He’d made light of my rejection, but it had to have hurt him, even in a small way. We’d become friends-yes, for me it was so much more-and friends were there for each other.
“You could walk me to my car. That can’t be too far out the way of the coffee shop.”
“I’d happily do it even if it took me a mile out of my way.”
At the same lifts I ushered him inside first. He gave me a wry smile and stepped in.
“I wanted to make sure you made it inside the lift this time.”
Another lady jumped in as the doors closed and we backed up to give her room. Her presence prevented me from saying what I wanted to say to Matteo, so we rode the lift in silence. Matteo held his sore hand like it was bugging him. Falling should injure his wrist not his knuckles, but I wasn’t the doctor.
At ground floor, I slowed my pace forcing Matteo to match me.
“Let’s sit a moment.” I indicated the low brick wall bordering a flower garden.
He gave me a curious frown but sat without a word.
“I’m worried about you.”
“There’s no need to be.”
“I bet your mom said that to you all the time.”
He looked at the paving between his feet.
“I’m sorry, that was mean of me, but I don’t want you to lie to me because you don’t want to admit the truth. We’re friends, right?”
“Of course we are.”
“And friends can be honest with each other. Something’s up with you. Maybe I can’t fully understand what you’re going through because I’ve never lost anyone I was close to before, but I can imagine it must hurt a lot. But there’s more going on here. You’ve changed since Amanda. It’s like you’ve shut down and in the process of withdrawing yourself from the world. It scares me because when people do that it usually means their slipping into a bad place where it’s not so easy to get out of. I don’t want to see that happen to you.”
Matteo stared at me through my lecture. I tried to work out what he was thinking by his expression, but he did a good job of keeping his core emotion hidden.
“I hope I haven’t over stepped the boundary by saying all of this, but I just wanted you to know I’ve noticed and that I don’t want you to suffer alone. It can’t have been nice to be manipulated like that. But she was a jinn. No one can overcome the power of a jinn.”
“That’s twice now.”
“What do you mean?”
“First it was Samuel, who bound me while he cut into you, and then Amanda. I pulled a gun on you, Bounty.”
“That wasn’t you.” Damn, why had Mora told him that? “You weren’t to blame. I would’ve done the same if she had her tentacles on me. The supernatural is something outside your control. You shouldn’t feel bad or weak by being easily manipulated.”
The way he wouldn’t look at me, head down staring at the ground, I felt a wall grow between us. He heard what I said, he just refused to listen.
“I want you to promise me something.”
He looked sideways at me. “Name it.”
“Stop looking.”
This time he stared me squarely in the eyes. “I can’t.”
“What about your mother? She doesn’t deserve to lose another child.”
Matteo lurched to his feet. He stood with his back to me. The set of his shoulders indicated the tension riding throughout his body. I came up beside him.
“I don’t break my promises, so I will not promise you that.”
“Okay, I don’t like it but I can accept it. Then make me another promise, stand by your mother.”
“Of course I will. I don’t need to promise that.”
“She needs you. More than you know.”
The silence that stretched between us as we stared at each other spoke volumes of emotion we were both too frightened to share. If only there was some way I could make Matteo see how important it was to be by his mother’s side at this time. For whatever reason that creature wanted her soul. I wasn’t going to let it happen, and some instinct told me that if she was surrounded by love, the creature would have a hard time stealing her away. In the meantime, I would find my answers and kick its scrawny ass to oblivion.
This was the perfect time for a hug, something that would show Matteo more than words what I felt for him. Standing here now, staring into his eyes, my heart was slowly breaking apart. There was no dismissing the fact I would be there at the end of his life, whether it ended tomorrow, or next century. I would be the one to send him on. And when he was gone, I would return to this world and start all over again, riding this unending train of immortality.
“I’m off.” I had to let this moment go; there would never be a right time for us, not for a dead girl.
“I best get that coffee back to mom.”
“I’ll call you later and see how everything’s going.”
I didn’t give him a chance to respond, but hurried off down the paving for my car. I didn’t want him to see the moisture in my eyes.
I slammed the door of my car and rested my head on the steering wheel. Only months, that’s how long I’d been in this job and look at me. I banged my hands on the steering wheel. Toughen up, girl, you’ve got eternity to get through. I wiped my eyes and dried my hands by running them down my jeans.
First on my to do list, throw some dynamite on the creepy creature’s plans, next, stalk Matteo with the idea of derailing any of his wayward ideas. Jesus, girl, STOP. IT. Perhaps it was time for penance in the Halls of Judgement.
I maneuvered out of the hospital car park and joined the traffic heading home.
Seconds into my journey something appeared beside me. I glanced across and shrieked at the ugly, twisted form that occupied the passenger seat. I think the ugly little beast smiled at me, but then it flicked a look ahead and its eyes bulged wide like they would pop from their sockets. I glanced ahead, but had no time to react as my car, which had veered off the road, hit a tree. I only briefly registered the noise of crunching, folding metal and shattering glass as something white punched me in the face. My head whiplashed forward then back and slammed into the seat.
From there it was lights out.
6
Jesus Christ, not again. I tried throwing all sorts of mental commands at my limbs but there was no moving them. I couldn’t even lift my head to look for blood. Even if I could I wouldn’t see because my eyes were closed. How badly was I hurt? And what about the ugly little beast that had caused me to crash, where the hell had that gone?
I heard shouts, and tires screeching, then someone tried the door handle but it sounded as though it wouldn’t open. Hands touched me because, I guess, it was my passenger window that had broken. I was still in this body, which had to be a good thing. I hoped it was a good thing. It had to mean I wasn’t dead. But how badly was I hurt? Eyes closed meant my body was unconscious. If only this super-consciousness that was me had blacked out as well it would be a relief, at least then I wouldn’t have to feel this growing tightness in my chest; the panic took hold. What if Bounty was scarred? What if she died in front of all these people? It meant she would be recorded as dead and Death would be forced to give me another body. There was no way he would risk exposure by raising a body recorded as dead just so I could keep the skin I was in. I would be physically separated from Matteo.
God, I was going to ring the neck of that ugly creature if it dared show its head again.
People were pawing at me, arguing about what to do. A male voice was telling the crowd not to move me in case I had spinal injuries. Someone else was yelling the emergency number. Everyone seemed to have an opinion about the best thing to do.
That was when the pain pierced through me. A pain so great my mind screamed to be free of it. I couldn’t move, cry out or in any other way attempt to free myself from the constant, searing agony. It was so great it encompassed my entire body. There was no place in my mind to escape. The voices became background noise. The fear of leaving this body turned into a desperate
will to do just that, get out of this vessel of torture and float free. In my mind I moaned to myself. I pleaded for freedom, which did zilch to help me.
Buried deep in anguish, I didn’t realize my energy was draining. Once the pain lessened enough, lethargy swept through me. God, I’d never felt so tired. From the pain to this, the respite was welcome. My mind was slowing down. Thoughts became sluggish. People were doing things to me, but it made no sense. Their touch was fast disappearing as I numbed down. I didn’t care. The pain was all but gone and I rode on a wave of peace. The moment was beyond bliss.
And then I became light and my mind pinged back like I’d been injected with a gallon of adrenaline. Sweet Jesus, I was floating. No, no, no, I couldn’t die now. This was not going to happen.
I focused with all my might on remaining in my body. I threw out mental anchors, tried to grasp hold of my skin suit. Nothing worked. An ethereal form had no way of holding on. The borders that guarded this world from the void inched nearer, so I turned away. I looked below at my wasted body, not looking so bad on the outside, which meant internal trauma.
I willed myself to stay. Perhaps it was stupid of me. I saw the white thread that linked me to my body. And the other thread. Jesus, Matteo. It snaked off in the direction of the hospital. Even from this distance my hold on him was tight. The two threads entwined forming one thick, long bind.
But would that be enough to resurrect a person with massive internal injuries. This wasn’t a simple heart stopping electric shock.
The paramedics worked hard, not ready to let me go. I wasn’t ready to let me go either. They cut my shirt and attached flat strips trailing wires to my chest. The wires connected to a small box. I saw it all. God, I didn’t want to watch. I closed my eyes and felt the first jolt of the electric current surge through to my heart. And with that I faded for the second time.
I lurched upright, gasping in one long breath. The cold air ran down my spine, and I shivered. The first thing I saw was the white sheet they placed over me. I looked to one side of me and saw two more beds, white sheets covering the entirety of the other people. Oh bugger. I was in the morgue.
I leaped off the metal trolley and ripped the tag from my big toe. Bloody hell. This was totally screwed. But at least I was still inside Bounty. I must’ve made it back into this body before I’d crossed into the void.
How long had I been here?
I peered down my body, looking to see how I’d faired. They’d yet to change me, which had to mean I’d recently arrived, unless the mortician was slack with his or her job tonight. My clothes were ripped and bloody, but considering I’d been in a fatal car crash they weren’t too bad. I lifted my shirt and found nothing on my body that would account for the blood. I gingerly touched my face, expecting swelling at the very least, but all felt fine. I peered down at the metal surface, hoping to see enough of a reflection to be sure. There were smears of blood and that was all, like I’d done a rush job for Halloween. Best of all there was no pain. I remember the excruciating agony just before I died; thank god that didn’t follow me through to my rebirth.
I was involved in a fatal car crash, and now I was back without a scratch. Yeah for immortality, but one thing I learned from my recent death; it bloody hurt. I may not be able to die but I had to be careful with my body because I’d grown fond of being Bounty, plus I didn’t want to experience that sort of pain again.
Now what? Escaping would be good, but I could hardly leave a vacant trolley were a body had once been.
Through the opaque glass of the double doors I saw light. That was my only way out and the place I would most likely find the right people to explain the terrible mistake. In order to continue living as Bounty I had to prove she wasn’t dead.
I inched the swing door open and spied a man, wearing headphones, sitting behind a desk. Strangely enough, I felt the urge to creep up; had to be something to do with the silence of the place. Standing in front of him at the desk I gave a small wave when he glanced up. His reflexes were impressive. In a flash he yelled and lurched to his feet. Problem was his feet got tangled with his chair and the two went backward.
His eyes saucered, and he ripped his headphones from his ears then scrambled to standing. “Sweet mother of Jesus, am I looking at a ghost? Holy shit, this is not happening.”
“I’m not a ghost. I’m very much alive. There’s been a mistake.”
“You were going cold.”
“Probably something to do with the air in here.”
“No.” He waved his hand at me as he moved around the desk. “No, you were dead. I handled you. You were absolutely…not breathing.”
“It’s a miracle. Halleluiah.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ. This one is going in the books.”
“Just make sure you rule a thick line through deceased.”
He fisted his hair. “I’m going insane.”
“I can assure you you’re not. And I would very much like to hang for a while until you calm down, but I’ve got to get on my way. This has held me up enough.”
“Hey, what? You can’t just walk out of here. You need to see a doctor. Have a medical examination. You need to be passed as legally undead. You can’t…you know, just leave.”
“I know there’s probably a lot of red tape to all of this, but I’ve really got to get out of this morgue.”
“But your wounds need attention. I gotta call security.”
“No, don’t do that. I’ll go up to emergency and have them patch a few things.” I moved toward what I hoped was the exit.
He shuffled just as quick from behind his desk to block my way. “I’ll get you a chair. A nurse can take you up. You just returned from the dead. You shouldn’t be walking.”
“Honestly I feel fine.”
“Huh. Just…wait, will you?”
He hiked it back to his desk and punched buttons on the desk phone. An itching in my muscles made me want to run. I needed to call a reaper meeting, find out what was after Matteo’s mom, not be submitted to tests so my record could be stamped with living instead of deceased. I also needed to hunt for the ugly creature that put me here in the first place.
The smarter thing to do was shut up and take the tests, but I would cause a sensation when the doctors discovered my wounds had disappeared.
The guy slammed his phone down and came around to stand beside me.
“Anyway, my name’s Doug.” He held out his hand for a shake.
“Bounty.” I stared at his hand, not afraid of gaining an emotional boost, but I didn’t want to appear woozy in front of him, and I tended to sway with emotional hits. His smile faltered and he withdrew his hand, wiping it on his shirt as if sweating palms was the reason I’d refused to be polite. “You want to sit down or something?”
“Do I look like I need to sit?”
“Perhaps I should get you a drink.”
“Maybe you should get yourself one, and take a seat while you’re at it.”
“I think I might. This has never happened before. I’ve had plenty of groans from corpses, it’s the gas coming out, but never had someone get off the metal table once they’re on it.”
He grabbed a flask from under the desk and poured himself a cup. “Do you want any?”
I shook my head so he stashed the thermos and slouched back in his seat. “Did you see a white light, feel a strong pull to follow it, hear anyone calling your name?”
“I saw nothing but the back of my eyelids the whole time.”
“Shame, I’m compiling stories of people’s near-death experiences. I believe there’s more to this world than what we think.”
“You do?”
He jerked forward and rested his elbows on the desk. “I think ghosts are real.” He raised his eyebrows, as if he’d shocked himself with his own revelation, and nodded. “And there’s a whole world of beings that exist alongside us. Invisible to our eyes, they work together to bring chaos to our world. They want to bring forward revelations.”
He was
on to something where the ghosts were concerned, but not much beyond that.
“The end of the world, what’s the point in that?”
“Humanity will be on their knees. We’ll be easy pickings. They mean to make slaves of us all and live off the power of our souls.”
“What makes you think souls have power?”
“It must take an awful lot of energy to keep a human being alive for the average life span. If you could harness all the energy at one time. That’s what they want, their own power generators.”
“I think I saw that scenario in a movie once.”
He slouched back into his seat. “There may’ve been something.”
I was saved by a male nurse, who strode in, followed by an orderly pushing a wheel chair.
“Doug, what’ve you been smokin’-”
The male nurse halted mid stride when he saw me. “Jesus, so you’re not high.”
There was a round of silence while the male nurse and the orderly stared at me.
Doug jumped to his feet. “Guy’s this is Bounty.” Doug looked at me. “Mark’s our resident asshole. You can ignore him. And I don’t know the other guy’s name.”
The nurse glanced at my bloodied shirt.
“You going to offer her the wheelchair?” Doug said.
Mark snapped out of his trance.
“You better sit.” He motioned the orderly forward.
Mark suddenly remembered he was a nurse and asked me the usual questions about pain and dizziness, then announced he would wait to check my vitals until I was up top out of the morgue. Fine by me, I had no reason to hang around with the dead. I was likely going to be seeing them in the Halls of Judgement sometime soon.
The next level up and cruising down the corridor, I attracted a lot of stairs due to my bloodied outfit. I looked straight ahead, avoiding everyone’s eyes, until I caught a flash of movement, like something small had darted behind a trolley that was up against the wall.