Erin leaned back on the sofa next to her daughter Ashe, set her mug of hot
tea on the end table, and turned up the television.
"What's going on?" she asked, gesturing at the news.
"Another murder…another drug bust. No biggie," Ashe replied, propping her legs up on the coffee table and chatting on the phone with her friend Bren.
"There seems to have been a lot of them lately…" she trailed off, focusing on what the newscaster was saying.
"James "Jimmy" Mereal, the owner of the local Conosurge club, was arrested and jailed today for the murder of John Winters, his sister Jana Mereal, and Yani Kapok. He goes without opposition. This appears to be a dispute over owed drug money, but police are suspecting something deeper. His trial is set for two weeks from today."
Erin shook her head, sipped her tea, and was about to say something when her husband, Kennen, burst in the front door, and ranup stairs. Ashe cast her mother a confused look as Erin ran up after him.
"Kennen! What's going on?" she yelled.
Outside, a strong thunderstorm raged and thunder clapped, shaking the windowpanes and filling the house with its bright light.
"I have to go," he shouted back down, "I can't tell you where I'm going, or when I'll be back!" He ran back down the stairs, trailing his briefcase and a duffel bag.
"What? I don't understand, why?" she asked, running after him to his car through the rain.
"I-" he was about to continue when two pickup trucks stopped outside their house, blocking the driveway. Out of these came four men. Two of them extremely large body-builder types, and the other two appeared to be businessmen of sorts, clothed in suits. They walked towards Kennen's car and Erin.
"Kennen Kennen Kennen…" the taller of the two businessmen, Kai mumbled, taking a drag on his cigarette and brushing a strand of his fair, and now sufficiently wet, shoulder length blonde hair out of his eyes, "You know not to run from us…"
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Erin demanded. Then Kai raised his brows and nodded to one of the large men, who proceeded to bash her upside the head with the butt of his fully loaded automatic machine gun. The other dragged Kennen out of his car and into the house, following the two men.
When they all got in, Ashe jumped up, dropping the phone under the table, stared blankly at them and then gasped as she saw her mother and father. "What are you doing!" she yelled at them.
"Ah…we seem to getting asked that question a lot lately don't we…" he raised his gun and shot her in the knee. As she crumpled to the ground, the two large men dropped Kennen and Erin on the floor in front of the sofa, and tied them together back to back. The second "business man" drug Ashe up from where she had crumpled and tied her to a nearby chair.
"What is going on!" she shouted through tears of pain. They appeared to ignore her question as Kai splashed Erin and Kennen with cold water to rouse them. When they did, they shook their heads and tried to move, but couldn't because of the ropes. The second man, Louis, annoyed at Ashe for not shutting up, duct taped her mouth shut.
"Ah! You're up," Kai said as he slumped into the lazy chair across from Kennen and Erin.
"Kai, I can explain-" Kennen said hurriedly. Kai just shook his head and steepled his fingers. Kennen hung his head, realizing it was a waste of energy to argue a lost cause.
"At least let my wife and daughter go. They did nothing," he pleaded.
"And have them turn us in like you turned in Jimmy? I don't think so…I really don't."
Ashe struggled against the ropes, but couldn't get free. Louis rolled his eyes at Ashe and snarled at her "It's useless! You'll be dead by the time you free yourself from those ropes!" Ashe stopped and stared into space, realizing that he wasn't lying.
"We gave you everything you ever wanted Kennen. And this is how you repay us? How you repay Jimmy? Tsk tsk tsk…" he said, mock sorrow tainting his voice as he twirled his pistol around. He looked to Louis who nodded, walked over to Erin, aimed his gun at her head, and pulled the trigger.
"NO!" Kennen shouted and hung his head, still clutching his wife's hand, which now hung limp in his. Louis then walked to Kennen and pressed the baral to his temple, "It was your decision. Live with it, or die rather," and with that final note, he squeezed the trigger.
Kai stood up, removed handkerchief from his pocket and wiped some splattered blood off of his face, "A dirty job…but somebody's got to do it…" He now stood over Ashe, and ran a bloody finger through her jet black hair then down the center of her face and off her nose, "Such a pretty face…I am going to regret killing you sweetheart…" he kissed her roughly and wiped away one of her tears then stepped back. Raising his pistol, he administered a single shot to the center of her forehead just as a colossal lightning bolt struck the house. Kai and the other men walked out of the house silently, closing the door behind them. Bren's voice blared out of the phone. Outside a single crow perched on the lamppost and flew away.
Bren ran to Ashe's house and burst through the front door and into the living room. There they were, all three of them. Not 10 minutes dead. He fell to his knees in shock. After he regrouped, he called the police and they arrived shortly after. An investigation was conducted, but labeled as just another drug bust, with Kennen as the guilty party. The bodies were buried and the story forgotten until one year later…
A crow perched on the gravestone of Ashe, pecking at it as if to rouse her from her sleep. Underground, Ashe opened her eyes and inhaled sharply, her body convulsing and shaking. She tried to look around, but couldn't because of the pitch black that surrounded her. She tried to move, but couldn't, for she was constricted by the hard walls of the coffin. Starting to panic, she beat on the sides of the coffin, trying to get out.
The crow above hopped down off of the stone and onto the earth above Ashe, its presence calmed her and she settled back onto the satin pillow. As she closed her eyes, a flashback rolled on behind her eyelids of the night she, and her family, died. It filled her with anger and an unquenchable urge to get revenge on those that did this to her and her family. Then with berserk strength, she beat at the lid of her coffin, splintering the wood. Cold wet earth spilled into her small area, filling her mouth, eyes, and ears. She pushed all of this up and away and began to dig her way out. When she finally reached the surface, she inhaled the cool night air stood up, stabling herself on her head stone, her black and dirt encrusted fingernails digging into the lime and leaving small divots in its gritty surface. She shook the dirt out of her hair and her black lace dress her feet sunk into the spongy, wet ground. The crow flew up to her and perched on her shoulder, casting her a sidelong glance. Then all at once, she knew why she was brought back.
Ashe left the cemetery and started the walk back home, getting many odd looks from other people on the streets. She didn't look dead…just incredibly dirty and extremely pale. She could feel that her body was extremely cold, and figured it was because she no longer had any blood, working organs, or need to breath, but she was aware of her five senses. When she reached her home, she saw that new people lived in it. She walked to the front window and peered in at them. A mother, father, two kids, and a dog sat around the living room watching a movie. The mother and father curled up together on the couch, and the children slumping on pillows on the floor with the dog. For any other person, this scene would have made them happy and it would have given them that warm, fuzzy feeling. But for her, it didn't. It only made her angrier that she no longer had her parents, or her life. Stalking away from the house, she went to the only place (and person) she knew would understand her situation, Bren.
When she walked around to the back door, she saw he was home alone, as usual. His father was a workaholic businessman, and his mother skipped out with a woman. Looking in the kitchen window, she saw him hunched over a bowl of Spaghetti-Os, reading a new book on the paranormal.
"Nothing has changed," she said to herself with a small grin as she knocked on the back door. Bren jumped, stood up, and opened it. After he did, he closed it right away, put his back to the door, murmured something about ghosts not being real, and opened it again.
"Hey," she said casually
"Uh…uh…uh…" he stammered.
"Well, it's certainly nice to see you. Are you going to invite me in, or am I just going to have to stand out here in the rain."
He moved aside and let her in. She wiped her feet on the door matt.
"You're dead…"
"I know."
"But…how…I don't…"
"Neither do I…I was hoping you could help me out a bit…" they both sat down at the table and she explained her waking up in her coffin, the crow, the flashbacks, and her lust for revenge. He sat there dumbfounded, taking all of this in like a sponge.
"Wow, that's-,"
"Deep? Yes, I know. I remember when I was younger, my mother used to tell me a story of sometimes when a soul would have some form of unfinished business, or revenge it needed to take, so a crow (the messengers of death), would bring them back to their body so that they could finish it and sleep peacefully for eternity. That's the only explanation I can come up with."
"So you want to get back at the men that did this too you then?"
"Yes, yes I do…I can think of nothing else…" she ran her fingers through her gritty hair, clumps of dirt falling on his table.
"This all sounds wonderful, but I think you really should get a shower and change out of those…clothes?" he chuckled, "How do I know I haven't lost my mind and that you're just a figment of my morbid imagination?"
"In order for you to loose your mind, you would have had to have something to begin with," she smiled and winked at him. He laughed and started upstairs. She followed him.
He took her to his room, where he pulled a large box out from his closet. Rummaging through this, he pulled out a pair of black bondage pants, a tight black tank, and handed them to her.
"Yes, I kept your clothes…they were going to give them to some homeless kids…but it just doesn't seem like their style," he chuckled, "Go shower, you smell horrible."
"I've only been dead for the past year. And thanks. This means a lot," she walked off to the bathroom. She stripped out of her "clothes", threw them in the waste basket and smelled her self, the scent of embalming fluids and earth filling her nostrils, "Wow…he wasn't joking around when he said I needed a shower…" she said to herself. She stepped into the steaming water and let it rinse away the dirt. As she reached for the soap, she slipped on the shower floor and slammed head first into the wall, sliding down to hit her head a second time on the lower faucet. She felt her skull crack open and her skin rip, but she couldn't feel the pain. She stood up again, felt her head, and immediately felt the wound starting to knit itself together. She opened the shower curtain and looked in the mirror, she could still see part of her inner head for a second, then it was completely healed. Feeling the wound, she gasped. It was completely healed, "This is too cool…" she mumbled, closing the curtain and continuing her shower.
A few minutes later when she emerged clean and clothed, Bren walked up to her and handed her her old long black leather trench coat and a pair of worn in army boots, "The coat makes the hero you used to say…" he said slowly while she put them both on.
"Thanks again. I really appreciate this," she said while lacing up the boots after shrugging into the long coat, "Hopefully, no one will know its me…except those whom I intend on enlightening…then the news would really have something different to report on," Bren chuckled.
"What's going on?" she asked, gesturing at the news.
"Another murder…another drug bust. No biggie," Ashe replied, propping her legs up on the coffee table and chatting on the phone with her friend Bren.
"There seems to have been a lot of them lately…" she trailed off, focusing on what the newscaster was saying.
"James "Jimmy" Mereal, the owner of the local Conosurge club, was arrested and jailed today for the murder of John Winters, his sister Jana Mereal, and Yani Kapok. He goes without opposition. This appears to be a dispute over owed drug money, but police are suspecting something deeper. His trial is set for two weeks from today."
Erin shook her head, sipped her tea, and was about to say something when her husband, Kennen, burst in the front door, and ranup stairs. Ashe cast her mother a confused look as Erin ran up after him.
"Kennen! What's going on?" she yelled.
Outside, a strong thunderstorm raged and thunder clapped, shaking the windowpanes and filling the house with its bright light.
"I have to go," he shouted back down, "I can't tell you where I'm going, or when I'll be back!" He ran back down the stairs, trailing his briefcase and a duffel bag.
"What? I don't understand, why?" she asked, running after him to his car through the rain.
"I-" he was about to continue when two pickup trucks stopped outside their house, blocking the driveway. Out of these came four men. Two of them extremely large body-builder types, and the other two appeared to be businessmen of sorts, clothed in suits. They walked towards Kennen's car and Erin.
"Kennen Kennen Kennen…" the taller of the two businessmen, Kai mumbled, taking a drag on his cigarette and brushing a strand of his fair, and now sufficiently wet, shoulder length blonde hair out of his eyes, "You know not to run from us…"
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Erin demanded. Then Kai raised his brows and nodded to one of the large men, who proceeded to bash her upside the head with the butt of his fully loaded automatic machine gun. The other dragged Kennen out of his car and into the house, following the two men.
When they all got in, Ashe jumped up, dropping the phone under the table, stared blankly at them and then gasped as she saw her mother and father. "What are you doing!" she yelled at them.
"Ah…we seem to getting asked that question a lot lately don't we…" he raised his gun and shot her in the knee. As she crumpled to the ground, the two large men dropped Kennen and Erin on the floor in front of the sofa, and tied them together back to back. The second "business man" drug Ashe up from where she had crumpled and tied her to a nearby chair.
"What is going on!" she shouted through tears of pain. They appeared to ignore her question as Kai splashed Erin and Kennen with cold water to rouse them. When they did, they shook their heads and tried to move, but couldn't because of the ropes. The second man, Louis, annoyed at Ashe for not shutting up, duct taped her mouth shut.
"Ah! You're up," Kai said as he slumped into the lazy chair across from Kennen and Erin.
"Kai, I can explain-" Kennen said hurriedly. Kai just shook his head and steepled his fingers. Kennen hung his head, realizing it was a waste of energy to argue a lost cause.
"At least let my wife and daughter go. They did nothing," he pleaded.
"And have them turn us in like you turned in Jimmy? I don't think so…I really don't."
Ashe struggled against the ropes, but couldn't get free. Louis rolled his eyes at Ashe and snarled at her "It's useless! You'll be dead by the time you free yourself from those ropes!" Ashe stopped and stared into space, realizing that he wasn't lying.
"We gave you everything you ever wanted Kennen. And this is how you repay us? How you repay Jimmy? Tsk tsk tsk…" he said, mock sorrow tainting his voice as he twirled his pistol around. He looked to Louis who nodded, walked over to Erin, aimed his gun at her head, and pulled the trigger.
"NO!" Kennen shouted and hung his head, still clutching his wife's hand, which now hung limp in his. Louis then walked to Kennen and pressed the baral to his temple, "It was your decision. Live with it, or die rather," and with that final note, he squeezed the trigger.
Kai stood up, removed handkerchief from his pocket and wiped some splattered blood off of his face, "A dirty job…but somebody's got to do it…" He now stood over Ashe, and ran a bloody finger through her jet black hair then down the center of her face and off her nose, "Such a pretty face…I am going to regret killing you sweetheart…" he kissed her roughly and wiped away one of her tears then stepped back. Raising his pistol, he administered a single shot to the center of her forehead just as a colossal lightning bolt struck the house. Kai and the other men walked out of the house silently, closing the door behind them. Bren's voice blared out of the phone. Outside a single crow perched on the lamppost and flew away.
Bren ran to Ashe's house and burst through the front door and into the living room. There they were, all three of them. Not 10 minutes dead. He fell to his knees in shock. After he regrouped, he called the police and they arrived shortly after. An investigation was conducted, but labeled as just another drug bust, with Kennen as the guilty party. The bodies were buried and the story forgotten until one year later…
A crow perched on the gravestone of Ashe, pecking at it as if to rouse her from her sleep. Underground, Ashe opened her eyes and inhaled sharply, her body convulsing and shaking. She tried to look around, but couldn't because of the pitch black that surrounded her. She tried to move, but couldn't, for she was constricted by the hard walls of the coffin. Starting to panic, she beat on the sides of the coffin, trying to get out.
The crow above hopped down off of the stone and onto the earth above Ashe, its presence calmed her and she settled back onto the satin pillow. As she closed her eyes, a flashback rolled on behind her eyelids of the night she, and her family, died. It filled her with anger and an unquenchable urge to get revenge on those that did this to her and her family. Then with berserk strength, she beat at the lid of her coffin, splintering the wood. Cold wet earth spilled into her small area, filling her mouth, eyes, and ears. She pushed all of this up and away and began to dig her way out. When she finally reached the surface, she inhaled the cool night air stood up, stabling herself on her head stone, her black and dirt encrusted fingernails digging into the lime and leaving small divots in its gritty surface. She shook the dirt out of her hair and her black lace dress her feet sunk into the spongy, wet ground. The crow flew up to her and perched on her shoulder, casting her a sidelong glance. Then all at once, she knew why she was brought back.
Ashe left the cemetery and started the walk back home, getting many odd looks from other people on the streets. She didn't look dead…just incredibly dirty and extremely pale. She could feel that her body was extremely cold, and figured it was because she no longer had any blood, working organs, or need to breath, but she was aware of her five senses. When she reached her home, she saw that new people lived in it. She walked to the front window and peered in at them. A mother, father, two kids, and a dog sat around the living room watching a movie. The mother and father curled up together on the couch, and the children slumping on pillows on the floor with the dog. For any other person, this scene would have made them happy and it would have given them that warm, fuzzy feeling. But for her, it didn't. It only made her angrier that she no longer had her parents, or her life. Stalking away from the house, she went to the only place (and person) she knew would understand her situation, Bren.
When she walked around to the back door, she saw he was home alone, as usual. His father was a workaholic businessman, and his mother skipped out with a woman. Looking in the kitchen window, she saw him hunched over a bowl of Spaghetti-Os, reading a new book on the paranormal.
"Nothing has changed," she said to herself with a small grin as she knocked on the back door. Bren jumped, stood up, and opened it. After he did, he closed it right away, put his back to the door, murmured something about ghosts not being real, and opened it again.
"Hey," she said casually
"Uh…uh…uh…" he stammered.
"Well, it's certainly nice to see you. Are you going to invite me in, or am I just going to have to stand out here in the rain."
He moved aside and let her in. She wiped her feet on the door matt.
"You're dead…"
"I know."
"But…how…I don't…"
"Neither do I…I was hoping you could help me out a bit…" they both sat down at the table and she explained her waking up in her coffin, the crow, the flashbacks, and her lust for revenge. He sat there dumbfounded, taking all of this in like a sponge.
"Wow, that's-,"
"Deep? Yes, I know. I remember when I was younger, my mother used to tell me a story of sometimes when a soul would have some form of unfinished business, or revenge it needed to take, so a crow (the messengers of death), would bring them back to their body so that they could finish it and sleep peacefully for eternity. That's the only explanation I can come up with."
"So you want to get back at the men that did this too you then?"
"Yes, yes I do…I can think of nothing else…" she ran her fingers through her gritty hair, clumps of dirt falling on his table.
"This all sounds wonderful, but I think you really should get a shower and change out of those…clothes?" he chuckled, "How do I know I haven't lost my mind and that you're just a figment of my morbid imagination?"
"In order for you to loose your mind, you would have had to have something to begin with," she smiled and winked at him. He laughed and started upstairs. She followed him.
He took her to his room, where he pulled a large box out from his closet. Rummaging through this, he pulled out a pair of black bondage pants, a tight black tank, and handed them to her.
"Yes, I kept your clothes…they were going to give them to some homeless kids…but it just doesn't seem like their style," he chuckled, "Go shower, you smell horrible."
"I've only been dead for the past year. And thanks. This means a lot," she walked off to the bathroom. She stripped out of her "clothes", threw them in the waste basket and smelled her self, the scent of embalming fluids and earth filling her nostrils, "Wow…he wasn't joking around when he said I needed a shower…" she said to herself. She stepped into the steaming water and let it rinse away the dirt. As she reached for the soap, she slipped on the shower floor and slammed head first into the wall, sliding down to hit her head a second time on the lower faucet. She felt her skull crack open and her skin rip, but she couldn't feel the pain. She stood up again, felt her head, and immediately felt the wound starting to knit itself together. She opened the shower curtain and looked in the mirror, she could still see part of her inner head for a second, then it was completely healed. Feeling the wound, she gasped. It was completely healed, "This is too cool…" she mumbled, closing the curtain and continuing her shower.
A few minutes later when she emerged clean and clothed, Bren walked up to her and handed her her old long black leather trench coat and a pair of worn in army boots, "The coat makes the hero you used to say…" he said slowly while she put them both on.
"Thanks again. I really appreciate this," she said while lacing up the boots after shrugging into the long coat, "Hopefully, no one will know its me…except those whom I intend on enlightening…then the news would really have something different to report on," Bren chuckled.