More Than Flesh & Bone

Chapter 22

GRETEL THE (UN)FRIENDLY GHOST

I blinked at her as my brain tried to understand what that meant. "Death? Like Hades, the guy in the underworld?"

Eliza moved her hand in a back and forth motion that I took to mean "sort of." "Hades is a personification of Death in Greek mythology. A character from a storybook. The real Death is of chaos, one of the five powers that created the worlds."

I'd never tried acid, but trying to follow Eliza's explanation made me feel like I was in the middle of one hell of a trip. "Worlds, plural?" I asked, enunciating the 's.'

She nodded. "Death gifted each world with one of his daughters to oversee it. For as long as the world has spun, so too has there been a Daughter to watch over it."

Zed was shaking his head. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It makes perfect sense," Eliza countered. "All creatures, human or otherwise, die. Someone must be in charge of the souls, helping claim them and either return them to their next life or send them to what lies beyond."

"That sounds a lot like what the zo...reapers do," I said, not understanding the distinction she was trying to make but trying to appease Zed with his preferred terminology at the same time.

Eliza gave us a smug smile. "Where do you think the zombies came from?" She was responding to my question, but her answer was for Zed. I turned to him, wondering if he knew what she was talking about.

His jaw was hard, his gaze distant, like he was trying to recall something he'd heard a long time ago. "I don't understand," he said finally, frustration leaking into his voice. "Reapers were created to keep supernaturals in line. We were given our gifts from…" He looked at me and then back to Eliza.

"Death," she said with a smile, finishing for him. "You were told one of many versions that have made it through history. Chances are none of them are completely true. Most of them have certain elements, though. Consistencies. In every story that tells how your kind was made, it starts with the Black Plague."

"The Black Plague?" I repeated.

Eliza nodded. "The Plague was the largest case in history where supernaturals got out of control. It's said that Death itself couldn't stop them alone. For there was only one Death and many supernaturals. So Death created others to help itself." She looked at Zed then, nodding in his direction.

"But… but I don't even know how to process this. Death? That makes no sense. I can't be Death, I'm only twenty-two, and I sure as hell didn't create an entire supernatural species." My eyebrows scrunched together as I tried and failed to comprehend what this even meant.

"Well, that's the fun part. You did do that. Just not… this you."

I narrowed my eyes. "What does that even mean?"

"You died," Eliza said shortly.

I blinked.

"We just explained that I died and came back. I'm confused. I can't die." I glanced over at Zed and for once he was looking as lost as I was. "Neither of us can."

Eliza sighed. "You can die. Sometimes. But you are always reborn… because you're a Daughter of Death… though as far as this world is concerned, you are Death itself."

My head was doing a serious bender to try to get what she was saying but I was holding in there. "Okay… let's try a different question I might actually be able to understand the answer to. How do you know all this?"

Eliza took a deep breath and walked out from the other end of the counter. She pulled out a book and flipped it open. From where I stood, I could tell it was a picture, but that was about it.

"I know," she started, pausing to walk back over and extend the image in her hand toward me. "Because you were here thirty years ago. Except your name wasn't Addison Wells back then. It was Annaliese Moriarty. We were best friends."

I stared at the picture, my jaw falling open.

Two girls stood next to each other smiling at a camera. While the picture was grainy, it was unmistakably a younger version of Eliza and me. I had my arm over her shoulder, and she had hers around my waist. I looked a little younger than I was now, and my hair was the same shocking shade of white.

"How?" I asked, finding my voice, though the most I could bring myself to say was that single word.

"Normally, you can't die. Sometimes, you can. I don't understand all the rules frankly. I only know what Anna told me before she was killed. This was taken only months before."

I pinched the image between my fingers and took it from her, bringing it close to my face. This was a lot. Even for me. I was so going to decimate my emergency stash of Takis as soon as we got back in the Impala.

"I think you should start from the beginning," Zed said, handling this curveball far better than I was.

Eliza shrugged. "I've told you practically everything I know. Anna was killed by a vampire when she was thirteen. About a month later, she had a run-in with a feral shifter. That's when the ghosts started appearing to her. She said each time she died, they told her more, revealing pieces of her past. That's how we learned about the Daughters. It wasn't until a few years later that we realized she was being hunted. It was around that time that I inherited my own power. I tried to protect her, but it was too late. All that was left was a letter she'd hidden for me asking me to find her when she returned and help her… you… figure it out sooner this time."

Not-Morticia chose that moment to remind me of her presence. "Told you that you should listen to me."

I glared at her over Zed's shoulder, using his body to shield my hand as I gave her the middle finger.

"If Annaliese knew all of this, why did she never involve the Council or even the reapers? They could have protected her," Zed said.

Eliza snorted. "Those pompous fools? When have they ever tried to do anything for anybody else? The Council craves power, and they fear what they do not understand. Anna would have been little more than a science experiment for them to study and destroy. We stayed far away from them, and the zombies."

"But if she… I"… my head ached trying to keep the pronouns straight, "created the zo… reapers, aren't we allies? Shouldn't they want to help me?"

"Why?" Eliza asked, completely serious. "To admit that there is a being more powerful than they are, negates their authority."

The witch had a point. Zed's plan to involve the Council was looking like less and less of a good idea. Especially if past me had been against it as well.

"So let me get this straight," I said, rubbing my temples. "I am Death, or at least, related to an entity we know as Death. A past version of me likely created the reapers. I can't be killed, except when I can. And every thirty years or so after I happen to die for real, I'm reincarnated to try and Frogger my way through life all over again?"

Eliza smirked at my video game reference but was nodding along. "Essentially."

"Anything else I need to know?" I asked dryly, not really expecting her to answer.

"As far as we were able to tell, whatever was hunting her is the same thing that finds you in every life. I helped hide you when you were a child. Your mother…"

"Wait, you knew my mom?"

Eliza nodded. "When I foresaw that she was pregnant with you, I went to her. Together we tried to keep you safe, take you away from Seabrook, and give you time to learn and grow before you had to face your hunter once more. That's why I requested your blood. I tried to renew the spell, but now that your powers are growing, I do not think there is much I will be able to do to keep you hidden. One thing I learned from Anna is that each time she died, her power grew."

"Wait, wait." I held my hand up, putting the brakes on this conversation. "That's the reason my mom left my dad? She always told me he was a 'dangerous man,' but then she died in a car accident and we went to live with Dad, and he was nothing like she said. I assumed they just had a bad falling out…" I looked away. For someone that always valued the truth, it stung like a bitch this time. My birth was the reason my mom left.

And everything after…

I swallowed hard.

No. I would not go down that road, blaming myself for her leaving. It wasn't my fault they split up. It wasn't on me that she worked two full-time jobs and she fell asleep at the wheel.

None of that was my fault. I didn't choose to be born, just like I probably didn't choose to die. Like, for real die. Not the thing I usually did, which apparently gave me more bad-ass powers.

"You have no idea what's hunting me, do you?" I asked.

Eliza shook her head.

"Not-Morticia?" I called. She popped up beside me, a scowl on her face.

"That's not my name," she said pointedly.

"Well, you never told me your name because you've been too busy being creepy while you give me half-baked warnings. So it's the best I got," I replied.

Her lips puckered like she bit a lemon.

"Gretel," she said.

"What?"

"My name is Gretel."

"That's not important right now."

"How would you like it if I called you snow-ball?" she argued.

"Oh my god…" I pressed a finger to my temple. "It's just a name. For fuck's sake, you're dead. Why does it even matter?"

I wasn't the greatest at making friends, and I clearly struggled with tact. So when I insulted a twelve-year-old and her eyes started to water, I didn't know what to say.

"Gretel, I…" I opened my mouth and looked at Zed, who was shaking his head in the universal sign of nope.

All at once, her tears dried and she burst out laughing maniacally. "Got you," she said.

I threw my head back and sighed. "Seriously? You know what? Whatever. Do you know what's hunting me?"

"Maybe," she said, drawing out the 'e.'

I narrowed my eyes. "Are you going to tell me?"

"Can't," she said with a shrug.

"Can't?" I repeated, throwing my hands up. "Why the fuck not?"

"Because you're not the worst out there. At least not yet." With that, she vanished in a puff of smoke that I was pretty sure she did for dramatic effect because no other ghost seemed to do that.

I groaned loudly, mumbling under my breath about the disappearing acts of spirits that haunted me.

"So…" Zed said. "Did I just overhear that you had a conversation with Gretel? Like from Hansel and Gretel?"

"Um, is Gretel a twelve-year-old that looks like the vamp representative on the Council?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Then probably. She said she can't tell me what's hunting me because 'I'm not the worst thing out here. At least not yet.' Whatever that means." I rolled my eyes, really not enjoying this change of events. Wasn't it bad enough that I already had one psycho and his pet werewolf wanting to kill me?

"Anna also expressed that frustration with the ghosts," Eliza said.

"Well, at least there's that," I said, at a loss for where to go from here. When we'd decided to come to Eliza for answers, I'd hoped she could shine some light on what I was, but I hadn't been remotely prepared for the truth. Especially not as it related to my family history.

"So what am I supposed to do, Eliza?" I asked. "If I don't know what's coming for me, how am I supposed to stop it?"

"Grow. Evolve. Learn," she said as if it should be obvious.

My eyes narrowed. "You mean die again. That's how I apparently level up, right?"

"Die now so that when the time comes to face your hunter, you don't."

"Is that even supposed to make sense?" I asked, even though it did. Kind of. I looked at Zed… he was shaking his head.

"Dying is not a plan. Figuring out how to keep her alive is," he said, glaring at Eliza.

"If she fails again, her life isn't the only one at risk."

Zed's jaw clenched. "Come on, Addie. I've had enough cryptic bullshit for one day. Let's get out of here."

"But that cryptic bullshit is all we have to go off," I argued.

Zed looked over at Eliza. "Anything else you'd like to add?"

"Don't be a fool. Whatever got Anna last time will find Addison again now. It has in every life. Avoiding it only hurts you both."

His eyes turned a little frosty. "Duly noted. We're leaving."

I opened my mouth to say something, but Zed had already turned on his heel and was halfway out the door. One look at his eyes had me snapping my mouth shut and following after. "I guess we're leaving."

Eliza nodded as if expecting as much. "Goodbye, Addison Wells, and good luck."

I paused at the beaded entryway and looked back over my shoulder, but Eliza was already gone.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Anyone else freaking out about the Zombies 3 announcement today?