Part Two – Duke's POV – "The Search"

I crossed my arms across my chest and waited for Tommy's explanation for Nathan's death. This outta be good, I thought to myself. Sweat had broken out across Tommy's forehead and he tugged his hat nervously from his head, wiping the sweat with his other hand. The guy was clearly trying to get his story straight so I knew whatever came out of his mouth next was gonna be pure bullshit.

"Well see, what happened was…." Tommy stuttered, I rolled my eyes and put an arm around Audrey before she pulled her service piece and shut Tommy up permanently.

"Why don't you start from the beginning" I prompted. "Nathan mentioned to Parker here that someone was going around resurrecting dead bodies?"

"Yeah," Tommy breathed out a sigh of relief, "Yeah, the girl, Noelle, she can bring people back to life as long as she touches them before sunset. Her crazy ass sister, Moira, was going around killing people and making their families pay up to bring them back to life."

"So what happened, Tommy, how did Nathan get shot?" Audrey gritted out.

Tommy took a deep breath and, with his eyes looking anywhere but at me and Audrey, he explained "It was that crazy bitch Moira, Nathan and I came up here and found Noelle. We were taking her to the car when Moira shows up and demands we give her sister back, or else. Nathan told her get lost and then she shot him. I returned fire and she shot wildly back and I think she hit Noelle. I chased Moira but she got away, when I came back Noelle was gone too."

Bull. Shit. Nathan? Telling someone besides me to get lost? I didn't buy it for a second and I don't think Audrey did either because if looks could kill, Tommy would be buried six feet under, or dropped off the side of my boat, whatever works.

"Listen, um, maybe we should split up, you two go look for Noelle since Audrey knows all about fixing them spooky problems, and I'll go see if I can find Moira." Tommy suggested.

"Fine", Audrey said. "Shout if you find anything". Tommy nodded and took off into the woods.

Audrey looked up at me skeptically. "Did you buy any of that?" I grinned back at her "Not a damn word, but I have a feeling you're gonna make me go searching in those woods for a troubled person and her crazy sister anyway".

"Let's go Duke." Audrey said and started in the opposite direction Tommy had.

"Of course, let's go tramping through the woods just before dark looking for a scared troubled girl and her psycho sister, what could possibly go wrong?" I muttered to myself since Audrey was already slipping behind the tree line.

I jogged to catch up with her and we started following a path through the woods. We had barely walked 10 feet when we saw a trail of blood leading into the forest. Moving as quietly as possible we followed the trail a little further until we saw a group of large rocks up ahead. The trail seemed to lead straight to it so this must be where our troubled girl was holed up.

Audrey did her he silent cop speak thing, indicating that she was going around the right side of the rocks and that I should go to the left. I gave her a thumbs up and she rolled her eyes.

I crept up to the edge of the rock pile trying not to make a sound. When I peered up over the edge I saw a girl lying there bleeding from a wound in her leg. I didn't see a gun anywhere so I assumed this was the troubled girl Noelle. Audrey must have figured the same because she slowly came out from behind the rocks on the other side with her hands up.

"Noelle, my name is Audrey and I'm here to help you. How badly are you hurt?"

I stayed hidden behind the rocks keeping an eye out in case Noelle was hiding a weapon or her nutcase sister found us. The girl looked up hesitantly at Audrey before answering "I…I'm ok, I think. The bullet just grazed my leg". Audrey examined the wound. "You'll be ok but we need to have that looked at, do you know where your sister went?" Noelle shook her head no. Audrey looked up at me and motioned me over. "This is my friend Duke, we're going to help get you back to the car and get that leg looked at."

"Ok" Noelle said pushing herself up. We had Noelle up and were walking back towards the house when Noelle stopped suddenly. "Wait is that cop still there?"

Audrey and I exchanged a glance before we both asked at the same time "Which cop?"

"The one who shot at me and that other cop!" Noelle said looking back and forth between us.

Audrey immediately released Noelle and pulled her gun. "Quick, Duke, get her back to the clearing, I'll cover you." I scooped Noelle up and carried her out of the woods and set her down in the back seat of the car. I scanned the clearing near the house but didn't see anything.

"Noelle, I need your help", Audrey, said looking down at Nathan. "I know about your trouble, that you can resurrect people. Can you help my friend?"

"Yes, Noelle said, of course, I just need to touch him before the sun sets." Audrey and I looked up and saw that the sun had already started its decent. Moving quickly we each got an arm around Noelle and helped her towards Nathan's body.

The sound of a gun being cocked froze us in place.