Chapter 4 – Stone
STONE
Iopened my eyes and looked around. I was on the ground in the receiving area, but I had no idea how I’d gotten there. When I sat up, my entire head throbbed with pain.
“Fuck,” I groaned and got to my feet. Then I carefully made my way to the office and dropped onto the couch. I needed to go home. Regardless of what did or didn’t happen, I couldn’t safely operate the crematorium and didn’t need to be at work.
Before I called Sin, I took a few minutes to try to figure out what happened versus what I remembered.
Because what I remembered was my wife jumping out of a casket as something slammed into my face.
My presumably dead wife. The one who left a suicide note claiming to have been inside the last casket I cremated.
The one who has never been seen or heard from since.
There was no fucking way I was telling Prez that bitch jumped out of Glenn’s casket and knocked me on my ass.
No, something else happened, and that part was a dream. A fever dream.
Stone: Need to go home. Sick.
My phone rang two seconds later.
“What’s going on?” Sin asked.
“Not sure, Prez. My fucking head hurts. I don’t know, I just don’t feel right.”
“I’ll be right there.” He ended the call before I could protest. Fuck. I wanted someone to fill in for me, but it didn’t need to be Sin.
A few minutes later, Sin walked into the office at Grave Cremations. “What the fuck happened to your face?”
“What?” I instinctively raised my hand and touched my nose. “Fuck! That hurts.”
“Looks like you got hit in the face.”
“Feels like it,” I agreed. “But I thought that was a dream.”
“What was that?”
“Uh, I said I had a weird dream, but I think I passed out and hallucinated or some shit. I don’t fucking know. I woke up on the floor out there, and now my fucking head feels like it’s gonna explode.”
Sin stiffened and lowered his voice. “Where’s the money?”
“In the desk.” Leaning back against the couch, I closed my eyes and willed my head to stop hurting.
“What the fuck, Stone?” he asked. I cracked one eye open to see him pointing to the cash haphazardly crammed into the drawer.
“Sorry, Prez. I thought I heard something and shoved it in there before I went to look.”
“Are you shitting me?” he asked, hastily wiggling the mouse on the desk. “Did you check the cameras?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t see anything,” I said and paused to think for a moment. “Actually, I don’t know about the cameras. I think I checked, but I might’ve dreamed that I did. It’s hard to know what really happened and what didn’t.”
“Cut the shit, Stone. Tell me everything.”
“After Johnny left, I was counting the money in here and thought I heard a thump or thud. I heard it a few more times and went to check it out. Before heading to the receiving area, I think I checked the cameras, but I’m not sure.
I cleared the entire fucking building and didn’t find anything.
Then I heard it again. The only thing I hadn’t checked was the casket, but I’d already done that when Johnny got here.
Fuck,” I sighed and rubbed my forehead. I didn’t want to tell him the rest because I knew how it would sound—like I was still dealing with Kim’s death.
I wasn’t. It’d been fourteen years since she died, and fifteen since any feelings I had for her had done the same.
“Listen, Prez, I know how this next part is going to sound, but here’s what I remember—when I opened the casket, a woman jumped out.
I don’t know if I fell or passed out or what, but I woke up on the ground, then sent you a text. ”
Sin turned away from the computer screen to look at me. “A woman jumped out of the casket?”
“Yeah.” I knew where he was going and braced for the next question.
“What’d she look like?”
“I saw Kim’s face first, then blue eyes opened, followed by pain and blackness. I know how it sounds, but I think this is what they call a fever dream.”
“Are you running a fever?” he asked, turning back to the screen.
“I better fucking be,” I grumbled. Because I couldn’t think of one acceptable explanation for what happened other than a fucking fever.
Regardless, I felt like shit and wanted to go home.
“You good if I head out? I haven’t done anything with the body, only brought the money into the office. Didn’t even finish counting it.”
“Hold on.” Sin turned the monitor toward me so I could see the screen. “Who’s this?”
I didn’t need to get up and move closer. I could tell from where I sat that the woman on the screen was the one who jumped out at me. And then it hit me.
It was real.
“Holy shit! That’s her.”
“You know her?”
“Never seen her before.”
“Fuck!” Sin grabbed his phone and got to his feet. “Count the money if you can. I’m gonna call Danger and check the locks.”
He left the room, but I didn’t move. I sat there staring at the woman’s face on the screen. Her eyes matched the ones I saw in the casket, but the rest of her face was unfamiliar to me.
Who the hell was she? And why the fuck was she in that casket?