by Kayes, Greg
Still...He is acting strange. What does it mean?
"What does it mean?" Henrietta thought to herself.
The pair just kept moving around almost in a zig zag as if looking for something. Or more one was looking around while the other followed closely behind and stood still while waiting for the other to do something else. They were getting closer to her and that unsettled her for some reason, especially after they went in to the wine cellar with the champagne. Well it's not like they are searching for me.
What are we doing in this demolished coffee shop? First that wine cellar and now this?
Oh my God they are totally searching for me.
Where are we going now? We were barely there a moment.
Ok so what do I do now? It's not like they can hurt me. I'm already dead. So why am I so scared right now?
What's that ghost doing up on that toppled tower? Did she die there or just lose her corpse?
"Oh shit. They can totally hurt me can't they."
Is that ghost fleeing?
"Master?" Mike asked with a sudden loss of better judgment.
"Keep up if you don't want to get lost." The master said before bolting away.
Mike stood dumbfounded as he watched the master give chase. He stood there dumbfounded as if trying to wrap this new information around his incapable ghostly mind. He struggled to comprehend a ghost who could move freely and wasn't the master. Then he stopped trying and said the only thing that came appropriately to mind.
"What!?"
Oh shit! He is chasing me! I can't see him but I know he is!
Henrietta quickly ducked into some rubble.
What do I do? What do I do!?
A pair of hand burst through the wall just as Henrietta reflexively jumped away. She ran just as a menacing man with a sharp focused look on his face burst through the wall angrily and flew, instead of ran, after her. Following suit, she gave up on her legs and flew faster than her feet could take her.
Mike clambered to the top of a toppled building just as he saw that odd ghost burst into the air like a bird as the master flew behind her like a terrifying bird of prey. They sped in an ark high around the city in a manner of seconds before the master caught up with her where she dodged his attack and dove into the earth. The master then recovered and dove in right behind her. Mike was no expert but if he could be any judge he would say that the Master was playing with his food.
Rushing blindly through strata of earth Henrietta lost all sense of up and down. Everything was a pit of empty darkness rushing by as she dare not stop. That beast of a ghost could smell her out, she could see that. And whatever he wanted her for was obviously going to be a very terminal experience. This gave rise to the unfortunate untimely distraction of "If I can die again, what the hell is going to be next!?"
Henrietta fought hard to subdue that thought for the time being as she flew in frantically random directions but something about all this terror made that thought stand in front of her like her mother menacingly blocking the doorway with the look of "I don't care if you are going to be late. We are going to sit and talk about this now!"
Henrietta stopped cold at the imagery of that thought on top of the memory of all the frustratingly awkward times her mother did that to her. And just like then she really didn't have time for this.
It was then Henrietta realized that something refreshing was rushing through her face. She took a moment to focus and realized she was in a water main. She didn't hesitate as she sped off along the pipe. She followed the twists and turns it made by feeling how refreshing the clean water felt. It was truly as close to a shower she's had since she died, which she realized that phrase was becoming a bit cliché now. But...well that didn't matter, this felt good, she had a direction, and she wasn't going to find out what death beyond death was going to be like...when something grabbed her in the dark.
Mike stood there waiting for something to happen, anything to happen. It had been twenty minutes since the Master dove after that woman into the earth and frankly the suspense was killing him further. It was single handedly the most excitement he had felt since the zombie apocalypse broke out. It was like watching a Rottweiler chase after a rabbit with the added terror that the same could happen to him soon.
A ghostly hand fell on Mike's shoulder making him nearly jump out of what goes for skin on ghosts these days. After the chain reaction of screaming while quietly keeping his mouth shut with the inexplicable urge to flee while being to frozen to do so, he collectively took a breath and calmly stepped away to turn around. The Master was standing there holding an arm. The same arm he just put on Mike's shoulder. The same arm that he assumed recently belonged to that fleeing woman.
"Here." The Master said, tossing Mike the arm. "You should eat something. You haven't eaten a thing for days."
Mike looked disgustingly terrified at the arm lying on the ground in front of him.
"Not that it makes any difference to me." The master said sitting down comfortably as he looked out over the cityscape as if he just enjoyed a satisfying meal. "You're still just a snack waiting to happen."
"I..." Mike said before he could catch himself
"Go on. Spit it out. I'm too stupid full to bite." The master said with a sinister toothy grin.
"I...Don't know how to eat. I didn't know we had...to."
"What do you think all those stories you told each other were? Entertainment in a boringly endless existence?"
"Well...yes."
"Those stories were your food. You lived off them. Listen I don't care if you understand that or not. I'm only telling you this cause I'm in a good mood. There hasn't been a meal like that in a very long time for me. Reminds me of the time I ate Priestess Jungãla, now that takes me back. Kept me full for months. Not that this little girl had her poise. She must have just started training. Still, can't let them have a chance to get away. Too much trouble to find. They damn near fly across the planet once they’re on to you. Ya know I once had one try to hide on the moon? Tricky one that was. Twice as tasty though."
Mike just stood there in a trance staring at the arm laying there lifelessly for a ghost’s arm while he listened to the Master talk. It was as if he were in a bad dream about to turn into a nightmare. He picked up the arm and held it to his chest like a security stuffed animal. Finding momentary comfort in the severed arm of an unknown ghost then freaked him out adding to the constant stream of terror that he had found himself accustom to now. This mildly caught the interest of the Master.
"Oh? So you're going to keep it as a pet? And I thought I had done some messed up stuff before. Still, not the most interesting thing I've seen a pet do. Well go on and keep it then. I'd say you have about thirty minutes to enjoy it before it starts to break apart. They don't last long when there's not a body attached to it."
This made Mike hold the severed arm even tighter as he felt so incredibly helpless and lost. Despair took over as he sobbed silent dry tears that were not capable of coming.
"Enjoy the moment while it lasts. We're moving on from this dirty dry well soon enough. I swear if it weren't for that girl I'd have eaten you out of disappointment. This ghost city was a sorry excuse for an afterlife. Come on. Don't look at me like that. We both know what I am. Why pretend any different. Now don't push your luckuuuUUGh!!!"
The Master keeled over as Henrietta phased out his body like vomit. She looked up and around while holding her left shoulder where her arm was missing, saw the Master, saw Mike, and then saw her arm clutched to his chest.
The next few moments felt like an incomprehensible dream for Mike beyond the sudden materialization of Henrietta. First Henrietta tackled Mike onto her good shoulder as everything started to move in slow motion. Next the Master looked up in a mix of surprise, excitement, and fascination, as he said "Well that's new." After that he got really excited and wild eyed as he reared himself to charge. At which point he promptly went "UuuuuUUUGh!!!" Again and vomited out a random splat of ghostly body parts over and
over until he was so far behind that he became a speck in the distance.
Henrietta woke up in searing pain in the middle of a ghostly forest. Her left arm was gone. Everything around her looked as though it wasn't sure if it was there or not. The edges of things kept phasing in and out like heat waves irritating off a scorched highway. A man sat comfortably cross legged on the ground in front of her with a huge grin on his face, which wasn’t so weird except for the fact that he was sitting upside down while his butt was still on the ground while her own feet were on the same ground he was sitting on. It gave her a headache to look at.
When Henrietta tried to look at her own feet (which were still in fact on the same flat ground as him) she then saw her own body in pieces splayed all around her as if it had been through a wheat thresher. She in fact had no ghostly body anymore. Yet her left arm was actually gone and not the missing amongst the horrific display around her, type of gone.
"Very good." The man said as Henrietta turned her attention back on him. She couldn't make out any features about him at the same time as he was completely distinguishable. Words failed her on how to describe it. It was possible the words didn't exist.
"God?" Henrietta asked
"No. I'm not as pompous as to pretend I am. Let's just say...I'm impressed."
"What?"
"What you just did, just now, reflexively...is not an easy feat for the living."
"But. I'm dead."
"And damned near impossible for the dead."
Henrietta stood there silently for a moment.
"I don't understand. What did I do?"
"Don't worry about it." The man said as he stood up making Henrietta feel as though he should have hit his head on the ground if it were not still under his feet as he walked still upside down toward her...on the same ground she stood on.
"Say hi to Mist for me when you see her again." He said
"Who are-" Henrietta began when the man tapped her forehead.
The impact of his finger felt like a gunshot as a tremendous gong blasted out tremors of echoing reverberations. It was as if the earth it's self carried a tone that resonated a base sound so profound that it shattered the smoky world around her as she fell face first through an uncomfortable threshold and then onto another ground. When she looked up she saw, of all people, Story Master Mike who was unmistakably holding her left arm like a teddy bear. Quickly she turned to see that awful sharp eyed man behind her looking surprised, menacing, and rather ill.
Henrietta didn't wait for a reaction. One look into that monsters face was enough for her to grab Mike and run.
"What just happened back there?!" Mike shouted as the world sped past him atop Henrietta's shoulder who wasn't about to stop for anything.
"Where are you taking me?" Mike asked
"I don't know!" Henrietta said
"We can't hide from him. He will find us!"
This made Henrietta stop cold. She didn't say anything. She just stood there until she reached a decision and started moving again.
"Did you hear me? There isn't anywhere we can go that he can't find us!"
"Then anywhere is as good as anywhere else, so shut up!"
"I...I didn't mean to..."
"I know. Just don't talk. Beside I might know someone, if they're still alive that is."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't worry about it. Just be quiet for a bit."
The silence lasted for two seconds.
"What did you do-"
"Oh would you shut up!"
"I'm sorry! All this is just so overwhelming and hard to process and probably would be just as hard if I were alive!"
"Stop saying that! It's so cliché now."
"Really?! Cause I didn't get that memo! And on top of the fact that we could just die again at any moment I think it's safe to assume that I would want to know how the hell you did that!!"
Henrietta didn't say anything.
"Well!?" Mike said
"I don't know!!"
Henrietta was sure Mike was stunned into silence. He sure felt different in her arm.
"-And I doubt I'll be able to do it again. So if you're feeling so chatty why don't you tell me why Story Master Mike was with a monster like that!"
Mike didn't say anything for a moment.
"Suddenly lost your voice now have you Mr. Story Master?" Henrietta said
"I didn't know you knew who I was..."
"Yea, well that was another afterlife ago. I heard you tell a story once. It was quite good at the time."
"It's just Mike now." Mike said solemnly
"Oh?" Henrietta said with more attitude than she meant too.
"A lot has happened since the city fell. I imagine a lot happened to you to considering who...What you are now."
Henrietta didn't say anything for a moment.
"Tell me what happened." She said
"What? Free of charge?"
"That was then!!" Henrietta snapped "...This is now!"
She felt bad for snapping. Change wasn't easy for her. It must have been hell for him.
“Think of it as gossip.” She said sympathetically
"Right. You're right, of course. Most of us lost our corpses to the fire. I imagine you did too."
"I lost mine before that." Henrietta said "Things got complicated after that."
"I'd love to hear about that."
"Another time."
"Right..." Mike said as he paused "...We grouped up after that."
"Oh like those little groups I found? Boy were they...creepy."
"Something like that. But we were a much bigger group. When we ran out of stories I tried to make up new ones. But I couldn't keep that up so I took charge and sent people out to find others to tell everyone stories but..."
Mike went quiet for a moment. The air felt tense.
"But...He already found us." Mike continued
"So you sent people out and they brought him back?"
"No. He was already in the group. Watching and waiting. His eyes creeped me out so I sent him with the search party...It was really working, it really was! We were going to find all the lost fallen people and bring them back! And no one would be lost because we had each other."
Mike paused.
"He killed the search party. He killed those who were already dead! And then he killed everyone else but me. Said I amused him. Made me his pet. Made me tell stories on command like some neat trick while he ate more and more people in front of me, taunting me with their ghostly flesh. It made me sick!!...And there was nothing. Nothing I could do! It was like reliving the zombie outbreak all over again! No, I take it back. This was much worse. I may not have been a good person in life...and maybe I abused my position, a bit, of a great story teller in death, but I am not...That!"
Mike shivered with rage in Henrietta's arm. It was the first time she realized that he didn't weigh anything. Being a ghost herself she would have thought it would be at least something. Thinking about that took her mind off things.
"I got your arm here." Mike said
Annnnd my minds back in.
"He wanted me to eat it. Said I hadn't eaten in days. I don't know what the hell he's talking about. As if I could eat someone's arm like he does..."
"Just hold on to it for now. We can deal with that later." Henrietta said while keeping her eyes forward
"He also said It'd be gone soon. Without a body that is."
"Damn! How long?"
"Twenty more minutes maybe."
"Damn!! Hold on!"
"Wha-?!"
Henrietta picked up speed like a gunshot. She didn't know where it was coming from but she imagined it was because she never tried. There was so much more to being dead than she though.
It was ten minutes later when Henrietta arrived at Mist's cabin. The place was torn apart. It looked like no one had been there for days. If there had they might have scooped out all the deer shit.
"What happened here?" Mike asked
"Zombie deer."<
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"Oh that's original. I definitely wanna hear about that. But does this mean your person is already dead?"
"She was gone when it happened. I was hoping she was going to be here. It’s been a few days. Have a look around and see if you can find anything. And give me my arm back!"
Mike looked down at her arm still clung to his chest like a teddy bear and felt embarrassed for it. Sheepishly he handed it back to her then went to look around before he froze at the doorway.
"Uh..." Mike moaned
"What is it?"
"I can't leave your sight."
"What?" Henrietta said in disbelief
"I'll forget as soon as I leave your sight. I...I don't want to lose myself! Not after all that! I...I can't, I won't do it. I'm...too scared!" Mike said with his eyes clenched tight
Henrietta sighed then went over to him.
"Come with me." She said softly
Mike followed Henrietta upstairs to where thankfully the spirit bed was left untouched. The deer didn't seem able to handle the stairs very well.
"Take a nap in there. I'll be back for you in a bit. I'm not going anywhere," she said quickly before Mike could protest "I'm just going to have a look around. You'll not lose yourself here. I promise."
"But your arm-"
"-I will be fine. Don't worry about that. Just get some sleep. You deserve that much."
Reluctantly Mike got into the bed. Henrietta stayed there a moment before she went back down stairs.
"Well said missy." Mist said
Henrietta jumped startled as she span to see Mist crouched with her back to the wall with a thin trail of blood coming from her head. Mist cocked her shotgun sending a spent shell bouncing across the floor.
"Oh God Mist! You look like hell!"
"You're no prize yourself missy. What with your arm being gone and all."
Mist slid her butt down to the ground and cradled her shotgun. She looked like a fierce forty year old warrior rather than the disheveled old woman she first met.