Chapter Twenty- Eight • Out of the Bag • Damien #2
Oh my god. Did you get Wren started on the sky rocks? I knew she’d want to do a chart rectification on you.
Is that what we’re calling planets now?
That’s cute though, we have some matching signs. Not placements, but signs. What brought it up?
Someone was keeping her birthday from me. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me it’s coming up in like a week.
I didn’t want you to feel pressured to do anything about it. I don’t usually do much for my birthday anyway. Gets depressing after twenty-five.
Bullshit, we’re definitely having a party.
I can’t go anywhere, though.
Then we’ll bring it to you.
Before she can fight me on it, I bring up the camera in our text thread and start recording a video. “Hey guys, we’re going to have a party at Lillith’s place for her birthday, alright?” I say.
“Oh, fuck yeah, can I bartend?” Roxie asks from the driver’s seat.
“I’ll bring my fiddle if you want,” Fletch supplies.
“I thought that was a given,” Oren says, looking back into the camera and smiling when he realizes I’m recording. “Hey, Lillith,” he says with a little waggle of his fingers.
“Are you going to come?” Wren asks Satoshi.
“I will if you’re there,” he says, a dusting of pink coloring his cheekbones.
I turn the camera back on myself and grin. “Alright, it’s obviously on. Party at your house, baby.”
I send it off and wait for her to watch it. A few seconds later, I get a text message from her.
I love you so much.
It leaves me floating all the way through the show.
???? ?????
The show goes shockingly well. People in the mountains really like to fuckin party.
Apparently, even at the Moose Lodge? Usually, shows kind of thin out as soon as we leave the stage, but here people converge on us.
The group skews a little older than I’m used to, but man, can these people hold their liquor.
They almost drink me under the table before Wren has a chance to eye me subtly with a reminder not to.
Right. We have to go talk to Lillith’s mom. Can’t get too sloshed before doing that. Would be a shit idea.
The guys, on the other hand, have free reign to get as fucked up as they want on canned beers, Jell-O shots and cocktails served way too strong in little dixie cups.
Wren and I linger for a little while, waiting for everyone to lose focus on us.
When I think everyone’s accounted for, I take Wren aside and whisper in her ear.
“If we’re going to do it, it should be now. I think they’ll be at it for at least a couple of hours.”
She nods, slipping out of the building before me. I follow her out just a few moments later while the guys take simultaneous shots of long ski together.
We’re quick to climb into the van. Wren brings up Lillith’s mother’s address on her GPS while I text Lillith to let her know that we’re heading over.
Be safe. Please, is her only response, but I know she wants to say more because the dots keep coming up and vanishing from the screen as I pull the van out of the packed parking lot.
All in all, it’s not a long drive. We’re maybe on the road for ten minutes before we pull up to a cabin that looks... actually nice.
It stands two stories tall, but narrow. A tidy little garden covers the front yard and a swing hangs from a massive oak tree that looks like it’s been there since before the house had been built. No car in the driveway, so maybe she doesn’t leave often.
I pull the van up into the gravel drive and put it in park.
“What do we say if the others ask questions when we get back?” Wren asks me. “What if they notice we’re gone?”
I shrug. “We’ll say you took me to get Taco Bell. They’ll believe it. That’s a common request for me after a show, especially when I’m drunk.”
“Taco Bell?” Wren asks.
“You’ve never had it?” I ask.
“No...”
“Well, that’s something we’ll be rectifying as soon as we’re done here,” I say with a laugh as we exit the van together.
I let her lead the way, though it feels strange to hide behind someone more than a foot shorter than me.
She’s taller than Lillith, but only by a couple of inches, and I still think I should be the one in harm’s way when the door opens, but both of them keep insisting that this is the best way.
Wren examines the front door to the house when I hear the one of the van’s sliding doors open from behind me. I turn to find Satoshi stalking toward us.
“What the fuck?” I say just as Wren knocks on the door.
She looks too, her face blanching.
“Satoshi, what are you doing?” she whisper-shouts.
He doesn’t answer her before decking me square in the face, grasping onto my shirt before I can stumble back into Wren.
“Bro. What the fuck?!” I repeat as another blow lands against my cheek.
“Are you fucking serious, man? You think I didn’t notice you sneak out with the girl I’m talking to?!” Satoshi shouts. “You think I’m not going to tell Lillith what you’re doing behind her back?”
I catch his next punch. “It’s not like that, you fucking idiot! Get back in the car. You’re in over your head.”
“Both of you, get down,” Wren shouts.
“What?” we both ask, stupidly.
She leaps onto both of us just as the door opens, but she’s too light to take us both down. I only see a brief flash before I gather Wren and Satoshi into my arms and pull us down to the ground.
A massive beam of light lances over our head and... and...
Incinerates the van.
Completely.
Gone.
Fuckin’ Donezo.
Roxie is going to kick my fucking ass.
I must say it out loud because Wren lets out a groan. “We have bigger problems!”
She scrambles out of my arms and runs into the house. Satoshi’s still panting as he looks at the black smudge in the gravel where the van used to be.
“What. I—What?”
“Yeah,” I say. “You picked a great time to be a jealous asshole. Thanks for that.”
“Damien, does a fucking super Saiyan live here or something?” Satoshi asks.
“Nope, just a powerful witch,” I say.
“Wait, Wren just went after her!” Satoshi says, getting to his feet and following her before I can stop him.
I shake my head and get up too, entering the house after them.
Only, when I get inside, I don’t hear the sound of a scuffle.
I don’t even really see any signs of the magic that just destroyed the van.
The air smells stale and foul. Like death.
“What the fuck?” Satoshi says, holding his flannel sleeve over his nose and mouth.
Wren appears from deeper within the house and runs past me, bursting outside and retching. Satoshi hurries outside to hold her hair as she vomits into the cute little garden. I step deeper into the cabin—into the room Wren just escaped from—and find what put her in such a state.
In front of me on the floor lies a woman. Her glassy, unblinking eyes match the pewter color of Lillith’s. The shape of her nose is the same pert button. But this older, stilled version of Lillith has retained her black hair. Hair that tumbles across her torso in the bizarre slump of death.
I’ve seen dead bodies before. Sort of came with the job sometimes, when I was still with the fire department.
The cause of Lillith’s mother’s death isn’t immediately apparent, but she died recently from what I can tell.
I approach her and gently palpate the cool skin of her throat, just in case I can find a pulse.
But there is none. Her body is loose and maneuverable, which means rigor either hasn’t set in, or it’s already come and gone.
She’s either been dead for less than twelve hours, or for longer than twenty-four.
As the initial surprise of finding a dead body wanes, reality settles. The list of tasks for tonight grows exponentially with each realized change in our initial plan.
We’re going to have to call 911. It’s going to make the night kind of a mess.
The van’s gone, which means I’m going to have to tell Oren, Roxie and Fletcher about Lillith and Wren. Even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t trust Satoshi to keep his stupid mouth shut.
Fuck. This whole plan just got so much more complicated.
Not to mention the matter of having to tell Lillith about her mother. How do I even start to handle that? How do I bring it up? Do I wait until we’re back in Del Lune? Do I tell her over the phone? Do I let Wren handle it?
Just when I’m about to spiral into panic about it, Wren returns. Her brow shines with sweat and she wets her mouth, clearing the taste of bile, I figure.
“I can handle this, Wren. You don’t have to deal with it,” I say.
“No—I need—I need to touch her,” Wren says. “I prefer premonitions to this. I’m a huge necrophobe, but before I came into the world as a chickenshit, this was actually what my ancestors were good at. Necromancy—entrail reading, shit like that.”
“What is touching her going to do?” I ask.
“You’re not going to bring her back to life, are you?” Satoshi asks nervously.
“No, but if she died within the last few days, I can see the last moments of her life,” Wren says. “I just... really, really hate dead things. So I need to get this over with.”
“Wren—seriously, if it’s too creepy for you—”
“I’m not going back to my best friend empty-handed, Damien,” she snaps. “I’m not going to go back to Del Lune with nothing but terrible news, a dead end and no answers for Lillith. I can do this. I can do this for her.”
I press my lips into a firm line and nod. “Alright,” I say. “What do you need from me?”
“Could you just... help me get to the skin over her heart?” She asks, swallowing loudly.
I nod and get to work on the task. I adjust her body so that it’s lying down instead of slumping sideways against the couch. While I unbutton her flannel, Satoshi makes himself scarce, citing the need for a light switch.
“You’re handling this really well,” Wren says quietly.
“Used to get a lot of calls to nursing homes,” I say. “Sometimes after someone had just died, or when they were on the way out and they didn’t have a DNR.”
“What is this?” Wren conceals a gag. “This bruising here?”