Chapter 39 Rule Eleven Emmett - Keep records of everything
Rule Eleven Emmett - Keep records of everything
“You fucking killed me. Why?” I demanded in our honeymoon suite. I stared at both my wives, one dead, one alive, both holding hands. “What is going on?”
I couldn’t believe this. Any of it. I was dead. I knew that for sure. I’d woken up when my body hit the water, but by then, it was too late. There was nothing to grab and I couldn’t swim upward. They’d murdered me in cold blood.
Catherine, still in the dress she’d died in, stood. “You killed me and were about to kill her. We had to stop you.”
“Stop me?” I shook my head. “I never killed you,Cathy. And I wasn’t going to kill her either!
” I waved to Vera, who was shrinking into herself.
Her lips were blue and she was shivering from the cold.
As I no longer felt things like that, I hadn’t noticed how long she’d been out in the snow.
Despite my anger, I went to the fireplace and crouched to light it.
“You did too!” Cathy exclaimed. “You pushed me into that same hole we pushed you into. Hell, I’m pretty sure my body is still in there, is it not?”
“It is,” I replied mournfully. I’d felt it when my body hit the lake floor. It was the last thing my brain registered before it shut down. Now, our bodies would be together forever.
“No one came to get me. Even once the snow melted. They claimed they couldn’t find the body, but the lake is not that big. They just didn’t try.” She sniffled.
A flick of flame erupted from a log, and I stood as it began to grow. Turning, I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m sorry. That’s on the police.”
“Oh, fuck the police.” She sobbed and dropped back to the bed, throwing her head down in Vera’s lap.
Vera glared at me. “Be nice.”
“Be nice? You guys fucking murdered me!” I bellowed.
The audacity to demand that I remain pleasant when they’d fucking Goodbye Earl’d me was unreal.
It was an odd feeling, being a ghost. I still could feel things.
I felt the heat of the fire, for instance.
However, I could also sense that it was all conditional.
There was a tingling in my fingertips when I touched things. As if, I wanted to...
Testing my newfound form, I walked across the room and right through the table where I’d tried to have dinner. I came out the other side, feeling exactly the same.
Woah. Closing my eyes, I thought of the bathroom. Opening them again, I found myself near the toilet.
Okay, this wasn’t awful.
As the three of us returned to the hotel, I could feel a pain, almost as if being stretched, when I passed by the gates. I could no longer leave.
What did that mean then...
With a blink, I returned to the room where Vera and Catherine sat. I caught them as they were pulling away from a kiss.
Excuse me?
I cleared my throat, and they pulled away. Vera blushed.
“I-I’m so sorry, Emmett,” she started.
“I’m not.” Catherine snickered.
Of course she wasn’t. She had wanted me dead, and now I was.
“So this is it, then? I’m dead and stuck in this hotel while my ex-wife kisses my new one?”
“You can join us...” Cathy raised an eyebrow suggestively and then scowled. “Wait, no, you killed me. I’m still mad at you.”
“I didn’t kill you! Who told you that?” It had to have been that creepy guy with the long hair. What was his name again?
“I didn’t need to be told, Emmett. There was no one else out there. It couldn’t have been anyone else.”
“Cat…” I sighed. Pinching the space between my eyes, I faced her. “The video clearly shows you tripping. Why do you think I was never arrested?”
“Tripping?” Catherine stood, her dress swishing as she moved. She was so stunning, so forever beautiful. A twinge of sadness flooded me, thinking that this was how she’d look for eternity. I glanced down at myself. Was this my permanent clothes? I was in gray sweatpants and an undershirt.
I considered this for a moment, wishing I’d died in my wedding suit. At the very least to match her. And then, I felt a shift in myself. When I looked down, I was now in my suit. Could I do anything?
Yes and no.
A voice inside my head laughed.
You can’t leave.
Right. I couldn’t leave, but Vera could.
“I don’t understand, Emmett. I felt a push.” Catherine came over to me, and as if it were just a natural thing, she wrapped her arms around me. I felt the weight and warmth of her ghostly frame. None of this made sense, and yet, it totally did. I embraced her, placing my chin on her head.
“I know, sweetie, but it’s the truth. Just ask the guy at the front desk. I emailed him all the videos because he was going to seal up the hole. He vouched for me. He never showed you?”
A sniffle came from just below me, and I pulled back to look and catch sight of Catherine, my dear, beloved Catherine crying.
“No, he never did.”
“Well, let’s go talk to him.” Kissing her forehead, I stepped away and took her hand, and as we turned, my gaze fell on Vera.
Oh, right.
I’d been so lost in the haze of seeing Catherine, laughing and crying and talking again, that I’d all but forgotten about Vera. The one who was still breathing, her heart still pumping, her body still aging.
Vera’s eyes darted away from us, but Catherine reached out. “Come, let’s go solve this.” Vera perked up at her invitation and joined us, taking her hand.
Together, the three of us went downstairs to confront the man who ran this place.
“Hello,” he muttered in his weird, unplaceable accent. I slammed my fist on his counter, but he barely looked up. “Are you in need of toiletries?”
“I’m in need of the videos from my phone. The ones I emailed you and sent to the police? You have them, I know you do.”
Slowly, his head tilted up and he sized the three of us up.
“Oh, I suppose I do have a video or two of yours, don’t I?” He smirked.
“You bastard,” Catherine snarled.
“What are you going to do, kill me?” He laughed.
“Show us the footage,” Vera piped up beside us. “We need to know what happened.”
“Why? It won’t change anything. You’ll still be alive, and these two will still be dead.”
“It will change everything,” Catherine insisted. “Have I been angry at the wrong person this whole time? Have I been crying for nothing?”
A strange woman with large red curls bound from a door behind the man, her arms outstretched. She wore a see-through nightgown and a black, lace robe.
“I particularly like the crying. It gives the hotel a kind of... charm. Don’t you think, brother?”
“I like what you like, sister,” he replied to her, and the two shared a look that made my stomach turn. Like magnets, they moved toward each other slowly and stood so close I thought it was going to take a turn for the revolting, but then, as if in sync, they turned to face us.
“I’ll get the computer,” she said and ran back from where she came. Returning a flash later with a laptop, she clicked on the keyboard and set it on the counter, turning it to face us. “I assume it’s this one you’re wanting to see.”
I leaned in and recognized the clip. It was the video I’d taken from my phone. I’d been trying to record our first dance and other things to make a little movie for us later. Unbeknownst to us, I’d also managed to catch the moment Catherine fell into the water.
Catherine shook beside me. I wrapped my arms tighter around her and kissed the top of her head again.
“It’s okay, but you need to watch.”
Slowly, she nodded and reached for the laptop, clicking on the mouse track, and the video started to play.
I’d seen it a hundred times, if not more. It was clear as day. We were slipping and sliding and then she was falling. I wasn’t even close to her. When the video ended, she turned to me, her eyes wet with unshed tears and a dark look of guilt on her face.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.” I chastised gently, then hugged her tightly. “You didn’t know. It’s okay.”
I closed my eyes and relished in the embrace I thought I’d lost forever.
She was back.
Or, well, I was gone.
But we were together.
I looked up and locked eyes with Vera. She didn’t look sad, but she looked... I wasn’t sure what she was thinking as she stared at us. I loved Catherine, that was true, but I loved Vera just as much.
While I couldn’t tell exactly what she was thinking, I knew my wife. When I pulled away from Catherine, she shared the same look.
Now what?