Chapter 12 #2
“I’m sure. I might be out of my body right now, but I’m still tied to it. I can feel exactly where it is, because it’s constantly trying to pull me back,” she said.
“So why don’t you just let it? Pull you back, I mean?” I asked, genuinely confused.
“Because it’s currently inside a zipped-up body bag stored in an airless freezer drawer,” Jess replied dryly, “and if I let it suck me back in, I’ll be trapped there, too.
I might not be breathing right now, but on reentry I will start again, and I would very much like there to be oxygen available when that happens. ”
My stomach lurched at the thought. “Okay, good point.”
“Got it!” Nova crowed, as the lock clicked and the door swung open.
We didn’t have to worry about motion detectors or burglar alarms—no one in Sedgwick Cove went in for that sort of modern security, except for the occasional rich outsider who bought one of the waterfront estates. When I’d suggested we get one for Lightkeep Cottage, Persi had laughed in my face.
“Why deter a thief with loud noises when you could curse their bloodline instead?” she had asked. I had to admit she had a point. The Vesper witches hadn’t locked a door in centuries. Their magic had always been their protection, and most of the rest of Sedgwick Cove’s population felt the same way.
There were a few seconds of confused fumbling as we all activated the flashlights on our phones, and the room was a terrifying confusion of looming shadows and swinging beams of light.
“How do we know where to—” Zale began, but Jess swooped past him, creating a chill breeze and eliciting a high-pitched scream. “She’s near me! I think she touched me! Is she touching me?”
Even in the semi-darkness, I could see Jess’s spirit roll its eyes. “Will someone please tell him I’m not the boogeyman? It’s this way. I can feel the pull, come on.”
“Jess says it’s this way,” I told everyone, and they all fell into line behind me. I didn’t love being at the front of the group—cowering at the back was more my speed when it came to situations like this—but I had no choice, as we’d left the only other person who could see Jess out in the car.
We moved through three large, square, adjoining rooms by way of massive sliding pocket doors that squealed along their tracks as we shoved them open.
Stacks of chairs were lined up against the walls, and empty plinths shaped like Roman columns stood around awaiting their crowns of funeral arrangements.
Thick carpet muffled our steps as we followed Jess’s slightly luminous form toward the back of the funeral home.
Shelves on the walls held row after row of candles in every color imaginable, and the scents from all the jars of incense were enough to make my head spin.
Eva let out a shriek as we turned a corner and found ourselves facing a row of figures blocking our way, but it was only a collection of statues depicting a multitude of goddesses, familiars, and other deities.
“If I die of a heart attack before we get out of here, do not let them put any of those creepy ass statues at my funeral, please and thank you,” Zale babbled, trying to get his breathing under control.
“I’m starting to think we should have left you in the car,” Nova hissed. “Seriously Zale, get a fucking grip.”
We sped up so that I didn’t lose sight of Jess, who was drifting along impatiently ahead of us, and watched her beckon us before disappearing through a solid door. I seized the handle, and was relieved to find that it turned easily under my fingers—no more time wasted picking locks.
We all agreed we could risk turning on the basement lights, since they couldn’t be seen from the street outside, and everyone seemed to relax a little—we were still about to break into a room full of dead bodies, but at least we could see where we were going.
Jess drifted through a room full of coffins and racks of shrouds and ceremonial robes to a second door, this one massive and made of metal.
She drifted through it, and we pushed it open after her.
I had never in my life had the slightest interest in understanding what happened to people’s bodies after they died—it was the kind of morbid mystery I was happy to leave unsolved.
Now, as I gazed around at metal tables, rolling carts of sterile instruments, and a wall full of square silver refrigerator doors, I felt my stomach give a heave.
Zale’s face was pale and clammy looking.
Eva looked like she couldn’t decide between fascination and horror.
Only Nova managed to cling to her general sense of ennui.
“Okay, now what?” she asked. “Do you think those freezer thingies are locked?”
“God, I hope so,” Zale murmured. He was staring at the doors as though expecting them to pop open at any moment, like in a zombie movie.
I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. “Jess, where are—” But as I asked the question, she appeared again, floating out from the wall of freezers looking relieved.
“I found it—I mean, me. My body. It’s in this one,” she said.
“You’re sure?” I asked, my voice higher than usual as anxiety coursed through me. “Because I do not want to play musical corpses here. I only want to open one of those drawers.”
“Yes, I’m sure! Do you seriously think I don’t recognize my own body?” Jess snapped. “Now come on! I have no idea what the effect on my body will be from being stuck in there so long!”
“Does she know—?” Nova asked, and I cut her off by pointing to the correct door.
Slowly, we all moved past the metal tables that dominated the middle of the room.
Thank goodness they were empty. If there had been a human shape under a sheet or a toe sticking out with a tag tied to it, I might have lost all grip on my self-control, and run screaming from the room.
We gathered around the door Jess had indicated, and I quickly realized they were all staring at me.
“What?” I asked.
“We agreed to help you, but this is your mission, Vesper,” Nova said. “And that means you open the dead body fridge.”
Realizing I had no argument to make, I sucked in a deep breath, held it, and yanked on the handle.
The door opened with the slight hissing sound of broken seals.
A gust of frigid air blew out in a fog, and we found ourselves staring into a narrow metal tube with a slab on a track, and an ominous black bag resting on top of it.
I seized the handle on the metal slab and pulled hard.
The slab slid out with a metallic screech, and the telltale shape of a body was revealed.
Unable to stand the mounting tension, and afraid I would lose my nerve, I found the zipper with shaking fingers, and unzipped the body bag.
I had only a moment to process the Jess Ballard who lay in front of me—her skin so pale it was almost blue, her lips slightly parted, a peaceful look on her motionless features, before the spectral Jess Ballard at my side gave a sigh of relief and muttered, “Finally!”
A moment later, she was sucked back into her body like water down a drain, and what had been a corpse a moment before suddenly gasped to life again.
Her back arched as the air flooded her stationary lungs, and then she sat up, a string of hoarse curse words streaming from her dry, cracked lips.
With a gasp, she stared down at her body, and then sighed with relief.
“Thank God. I was worried they might have taken my clothes,” she gasped through chattering teeth, as she looked down at herself. “Will someone help me out of this thing, please?”
Nova and Eva, their mouths hanging open, hurried forward with me to help Jess shimmy her legs out of the body bag.
Zale had slid to the floor, and was sitting with his head down between his knees, taking great gulping breaths as he fought to stay conscious.
We helped Jess as she slid down onto the floor, but her legs wouldn’t support her, and we had to keep her upright.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, looking a bit ill. “I… my muscles aren’t quite… I need to warm up, I think.”
“It’ll be a miracle if you don’t have hypothermia,” Nova remarked, though her eyes were bright with excitement. Despite the creepiness of the situation, I could tell she was enjoying herself.
“Let’s get her back up to the car. We can blast the heat,” Eva suggested.
“And find Zale a barf bag,” Nova added.
“I’ll be okay, I just need a… a minute,” Zale said in a feeble voice.
Nova and I stood on either side of Jess and put her arms over our shoulders so that we could take some of her weight.
Eva yanked Zale to his feet, and let him lean into her as he tried to get his legs back under him.
It was slow, noisy progress back up the stairs, and even slower through the completely dark upper level.
At one point, my elbow nudged one of the statues, and I had to dive for it to stop it from falling and shattering all over the floor, which left Jess to collapse on top of Nova when she suddenly lost my support.
Finally, though, we managed to get out to the car, where Bea’s eager face was pressed up against the window.
“You did it! You found her! And she’s… she’s in there, right?” Bea asked, poking a little at Jess’ arm as she slid into the back seat.
“Ow! Yes, I’m in here! How would I be moving if I was—wasn’t—” But Jess’ teeth were slamming together too hard for her to keep speaking.
Nova went around to the trunk and pulled out two sand-crusted beach towels, which we wrapped around Jess before cranking up the heat in the car. We all crammed in and drove up the street.
“Where are you staying?” I asked Jess. “You’ve been here for a few days, you must have been staying somewhere.”
“The bed and breakfast around the corner from the town center, the one that overlooks the docks,” Jess managed to eke out between her chattering teeth.
“That’s Priscilla Baroni’s place. Do you think we can take you back there?” Nova asked. “Or do you think they told Priscilla you were dead?”
“I doubt they told her anything in the middle of the night,” Jess said. “I didn’t have any identification on me when they found me, but I did have this.” She reached into her jeans pocket, and pulled out a key on a brass keychain shaped like a cat.
“Let’s get you back to your room, then, and we can decide what to do from there,” Nova said, decisively.
We took a side street that cut us down closer to the docks, and pulled up in front of Baroni B&B. The porch light was on, but the lights inside were all dark.
“I don’t think she can get up to her room by herself,” I said to Nova. “I’m going to stay with her.”
“Well, then I’m coming, too,” Nova said. “What, like I’m going to leave you alone with this random woman who just Houdini-d herself into her own body? No way.”
It was a show of solidarity and I was appreciative, but I didn’t say thank you. Nova only rolled her eyes at anything approaching genuine emotion. So I nodded instead, which she ignored.
“I should get Bea home,” Eva said. Bea had nodded off in the intense warmth of the car, her face pressed against the window, her mouth gaping. At the sound of her name, though, she jolted awake.
“I’m fine! I wasn’t asleep!” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
“Yeah, okay,” Eva snorted. “Whether you’re tired or not, Xiomara will ground you for the rest of your life if she finds out what you did.”
Bea looked mutinous. “But I want to know—”
“So do we,” Eva cut her off. “We all want to know what the hell is going on. But that’s going to have to wait for tomorrow.”
“She came to me first!” Bea countered, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Bea.”
Bea turned, startled to hear her name come out of Jess’ mouth.
“Thanks for all your help,” Jess ground out. “You saved my life, short stack.”
Bea’s cheeks flushed with pleasure. “You’re welcome.”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me,” Jess said. “And it’s safer if fewer people know what happened tonight. Can you help keep my secret? Wren can explain everything tomorrow, okay?”
Only a desire to keep being helpful could have talked Bea out of staying. She nodded solemnly and held out a pinkie.
“Aw, hell yeah, a pinkie promise,” Jess replied, managing a smile. She hooked a shuddering finger with Bea’s, and they shook on it. Then Bea rounded on me.
“Tomorrow?” she prompted, holding out her pinkie again.
“Absolutely. All the details. I promise, too.” Taking that pinkie felt like swearing a blood oath, but I had no intention of breaking it. Bea had earned the right to know what was going on. I just had to figure it out for myself first.
“Zale, are you good to walk?” Nova asked, giving Zale a skeptical, sideways look as he pulled himself gingerly out of the car.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement. “I’m only a block from here. I think I just need the fresh air.”
“I’ll drop him first,” Eva assured us, trying not to smirk. “I guess we can rule mortician out for your future career prospects, huh Zale?”
Zale flipped Eva a single, enthusiastic digit. Bea giggled, and the three set off down the sidewalk.
“Right,” said Nova when the others had disappeared around the corner. “Let’s get zombie woman inside, and then maybe she can tell us what the actual hell is going on.”