Page 1 of Death Warden
CHAPTERONE
Anecromancer needed finesse and compassion when playing ghost whisperer. Nudging earthbound spirits to cross over required patience and empathy.
I had none of those. “Go into the fucking light, Jimmy!” I glared at the stubborn ghost.
He glared right back, his chin set mulishly. “Fuck you, Adi. You go into the fucking light if you want it so bad.”
I climbed up the stairwell toward him. “I’mnot the one who’s dead, you dimwit.”
“You can’t talk to me like that!” He bristled, spectral form crackling in agitation.
“Oh? Well, I guess I didn’t get the memo.”
My job was to get him to leave. To swan off into the light, wherever that would take him. He was cramping his ex-fiancée’s style by hanging around her ancestral home. She’d moved on and was about to be married. I had five hundred in my pocket and another to come if I convinced him to finally cross over.
There was nothing left for him here. “She’s moved on, Jimmy. You got to let her go.”
He took a step backward, toward the glowing doorway behind him. “You can’t force me to leave.” His voice trembled. “You can’tmakeme.”
“You have no unfinished business here.”
“Fuck the unfinished business. That’s just a rule you fuckers made up to manipulate us into passing over. But I don’t have to go.” He stared at the doorway, fear etched into his features. “Who knows what’s out there.”
He had a point. I mean, the few spirits I’d drawn back couldn’t recall what was beyond the door. The whole thing was a secret.
“I wanna stay,” Jimmy said. “I can stay if I want to.”
Better the devil you know, I guess, but he was forgetting one important fact. “You know what’ll happen if you stay, Jimmy. You know you’ll become empty. Is that what you want?”
“You’re wrong.” He shook his head vehemently. “There’s a place I can go. A place where there is no empty.”
Oh, this shit again. I’d heard the whispers too. “Have you been listening to little ghostie rumors, Jimmy?”
His eyes narrowed. “There’s a place, okay. It’s real, and ghosts can go there. Live there. No empty. No crossing over.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true and I’m going there.”
Well, that worked too. “Fine. Go to the magical place where ghosts get to exist forever.”
He sniffed and lifted his chin. “You tell Barb…You tell her that I hope she has a shit life and that Barry’s dick shrivels up and falls off.”
He vanished.
I sighed and headed back down the elaborate staircase. Job done. Time to collect the second half of my paycheck, then time for a beer.
* * *
Nothing quite hitthe spot after a long day of spirit chasing than a cold bottle of beer. Nothing except maybe an extra cheesy pepperoni pizza. Put the two together and you had a winning combination.
I slumped on the sofa, slice in hand, bottle in the other. Some shit played on TV. A rom-com with kissing and bleurgh. Where was the horror?
I flicked the channel and then sat back to watch some woman in a nightgown run across a neatly clipped lawn while the axe murderer strolled at a leisurely pace behind her.
Oh, there she went, tripping on nothing.
A chuckle shook my frame.
