After long last, the musical extravaganza has returned, hopefully for the best. Sorry to keep everyone waiting, but here's another chapter. And, just a little side note, the song included in this chapter is just so that there will be a song in every chapter and I'm not just repeating the movie all over.

Chapter Eight

The Morgue

The night was cold, even for May, yet Alex and Clear didn't appear to mind the chill as they scaled the roof of Abraham Funeral Home, where Tod Wagner's body was being kept until his funeral in two days. Clear was leading the way, her feet expertly finding the best places in the rotting trellis, complete with wilting roses, that snaked alongside of the building, leading up to the roof. As Alex followed after the brunette, he wondered how she seemed to know exactly what she was doing, had she broken into a lot of morgues?

Clear was prying open the stain glass skylight to would be their entrance into the building by the time Alex arrived, huffing and puffing, dropping to his knees to catch his breath. He didn't quite like the fact that he was letting her know just how out of shape he was, but there was nothing he could do to keep from struggling to catch his breath.

"You all right?" Clear questioned, glancing over at him as soon as she had the window open, raising an eyebrow.

Alex nodded and waved his hand, as though dismissing her concern. "Just fine." He mumbled as he got to his feet once more, joining her at the open window. Clear didn't look too convinced, but remained silent as she turned and began to lower herself, feet first, into the silent morgue.

Wondering, not for the first time, if they were completely in their right minds, Alex followed suit, groping with his legs for somewhere to touch down. Clear landed on one of the open coffins, finding her balance so that she didn't tumble off the casket, and glanced up to see Alex still dangling from the window.

"Easy." She instructed, placing her hand on his back as though to steady him so that he could make the drop. After another moment's pause, he dropped down beside her, looking proud of himself for completing the break-in.

Clear leapt off the casket and onto the floor, grinning when Alex joined her. "It gives me a rush." She admitted devilishly, a smile upon her face.

Alex stared at her in disbelief. "This place?" He questioned, trying to figure out just what she was talking about. She would be a lot stranger then he had first thought if sneaking into morgues turned her on.

"Doing something I'm not supposed to." She corrected, turning away from him and heading down the hallway. Alex watched her for a moment before hurrying after her, liking the idea of sneaking into a funeral home considerably less then she did.

Clear and Alex navigated through a series a rabbit hole tunnels before finding the room labeled The Standards Room. Alex turned the doorknob and was almost disappointed to find that the door was locked. He sent Clear to fish around the other rooms for something to use to somehow unlock the door to the Standards Room; he figured that she would be adept at poking around then he would be.

After a few minutes, Clear returned with a skinny, curved metal object that looked much like a hook, though Alex couldn't imagine what it would be used for. He slipped the hook through the slit between the double doors and turned it until the curved end caught on what he guessed to be the handle. The handle jerked when he pulled and the door swung up, granting them entrance into the Standards Room.

Alex and Clear entered side by side, gazing around before looking at the gurney in the middle of the room; Tod rested upon the metal slab, a sheet covering him to his neck, which was ringed with raw circles where the wire had embedded itself into his skin.

"That him?" Alex questioned, though he felt foolish, yet he sensed the need to say something, to dispel the feel of Death in the room.

Clear wrinkled her nose, as though unsure. "I think. Why do they make him up like Michael Jackson?" They took a step closer, their gaze never leaving the corpse that they had once known.

"Whatever made him Tod is definitely gone." Alex observed, feeling a pang of sadness at the sight of his once alive friend. The last time he had seen Tod, he was so alive, yet now he was nothing.

Alex stared at the body, unsure of what he was supposed to realize; he had figured that coming to see Tod would give him some strange insight into what was going on, what he felt, yet nothing was happening. Without warning, Tod's hand jerked upward, causing both Clear and Alex to jump backward, shocked.

"Jesus Christ!" Alex cried, grabbing onto Clear's arm without even realizing what he was doing. She looked equally frightened and confused, unable to figure out how a dead boy had just moved.

"Shh...please, you'll wake the dead." A hauntingly smooth voice said from somewhere in the shadows. Alex and Clear turned in the direction of the voice to see a tall, slightly menacing black man slipping out of the shadows.

Alex studied him for a moment before saying, "Why'd his hand do that?" He wasn't sure why it was so important to figure out the answer to that question, because Tod was most certainly dead.

"Chemicals in the vascular flush create cadaveric spasms." The man explained, crossing to the head of the gurney and studying the body that lay upon it. Alex assumed he was the employee in charge of making up the bodies before they were seen at open casket funerals.

"I'm his friend and-" Alex began, only to be stopped by the morgue attendant, who simply brushed his words aside.

"I know who you are." He picked up a makeup brush, the end dark with concealer, and began brushing it along the corpse's neck, as though Alex and Clear weren't there at all.

Clear studied the man's actions for a moment before saying, "What are all those tiny marks?" She hadn't noticed them until the man began to brush makeup over Tod's neck and now she wanted to know just why they were there. They couldn't have been caused by strangulation.

"Cuticle lacerations from pulling at the wire." The man answered.

Alex frowned after hearing the man's words. "Pulling at the wire? If he was pulling at the wire then he wasn't trying to kill himself, it was an accident." He knew he had been right all along about his friend's death not having been a suicide. That meant that something strange was going on, he had felt it.

"In Death, there are no accidents, no coincidences and no escapes." The man told him, voice low and gravelly, yet somehow enchanting. "What you have to realize is that we're all just a mouse that a cat has by the tail; every single move we make, from the mundane to the monumental -the red light that we stop at or run, the people we have sex with or won't with us, the airplanes that we ride or walk out of- is all part of Death's sadistic Design leading to the grave."

Everything the attendant had said unnerved Alex, yet the last part intrigued him. Design? If there was a certain Design, could it be broken? "Design...does that mean if you figure out the Design you can cheat Death?" He questioned, not quite sure why he was asking this man. Just because he worked at a morgue didn't make him an expert on the inner workings of "Death", whatever that really was.

"Alex, you've all ready done that by walking off the plan." The man explained, not even bothering to explain how he knew the teenager's name. "Now you have to figure out how and when it's coming back at you. Play your hunch Alex, if you think you can get away with it; but remember the risk of cheating the plan, of disrespecting the Design could incite a fury that could terrorize even the Grim Reaper. And you don't even wanna fuck with that Mac Daddy." His voice had suddenly gotten low, threatening and Alex suddenly wanted to be far away from this place and judging by the look on Clear's face she fully agreed.

With a forced nonchalant expression, Alex clapped his hands together and sighed. "Well, okay then. Sorry we broke in and-" He wasn't quite sure what he was going to say, but the ominous man cut him off before he could even think about it.

"No harm, no foul." He assured Alex with a shark-toothed smile that made Clear back up a step and grab Alex's arm, ushering him toward the door. The teenager followed her out the room, yet couldn't help but turn around for a final look at the man behind him. He wasn't surprised to see that morgue attendant was already staring at him. "I'll see you soon." He assured Alex with a wink.

Fully creeped out, Alex quickly skirted from the room, letting the door ease shut behind him. He found Clear waiting from him in the middle of the hallway, as though she had only stopped when she realized that he wasn't following her. "Can you believe that guy? He was crazy." She mumbled as soon as Alex joined her.

Alex tried to nod in agreement but couldn't decide if he fully believed in her statement; the things that the man had said about Death and its Design made a strange amount of sense to him. What if there was some grand Design at work, something that controlled every action he took in life, including his Death.

* * *

Terry Chaney ran a brush through her semi-curly blonde hair as she regarded her perfect reflection in her mirror, admiring the way that she looked, just as she did every morning and night, and many times during the school day. She had her mother to thank for her beauty pageant goodlooks, though she never did, caring on her snobby cheerleader attitude even at home.

Setting her brush aside, Terry primped her hair and smiled full toothed at her reflection, puckering her lips as well; sometimes life was simply too kind, giving her killer looks and a good body, plus the star of the football team for her boyfriend. Perhaps there was a reason that she hadn't died in that plane explosion with the rest of the Mt. Abraham High cheerleading team; she was, after all, the captain and perhaps the best cheerleader of the bunch. Plus, she was always much better at getting the guys then Crysta Andrews or Adrienne Grant. Mt. Abraham needed her to keep up the pep in spirit after the accident. The guys loved staring at her ass, even Carter, who told her over and over again that he didn't like her just because of her looks, though he always said it without conviction.

"The boys are bad, the boys are good, they would all love me if only they could. It's only play and only pretend, 'cause I can see through all those men. Who am I supposed to be? A girl who stays at home alone? Baby needs a fantasy, someone who'll never let me go. Could I be forgiven for how I want my life to be?" Terry sang, turning away from her mirror.

"I'm gonna wish upon a star, I wanna go a bit too far; need a little love to get me by. I'm gonna wish upon a star, don't you think I'm going too far? I need a little trouble to get me by." Terry sashayed over toward her window, imagining herself in the arms of an invisible dance partner, looking through the glass at the stars that weren't veiled by the city lights.

"If you like what you're seeing, then keep on believing, gonna have it my way. So you better watch out 'cause you should have no doubt, I don't care what people say. I'm gonna wish upon a star, I wanna go a bit too far. I need a little love to get me by." Terry twirled away from the window and over to her bed. "I'm gonna wish upon a star, I'm gonna go a bit too far. I need a little love to get me by, let's start with you and I." She blew an air kiss before dropping down upon her bed, staring up at the ceiling with a smile upon her face.

Yes, it was certainly a good thing she hadn't died in the plane explosion. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know, the song was pushing it, but I wanted a scene with Terry since she's only in the movie for a limited time; I always thought of her as a bitchy girl. You have to imagine her singing to song with Grease style dance moves, it just really accents the hilarity of the whole thing. So, anyways, please review.