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𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 : 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐍, 

𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐑

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I followed the same path to the trailer I had that terrible night. Obviously, I got slightly lost on my way in because frankly, it was dark and I still didn't have a clue how I had found the trailer in the first place that long month ago.

It had been luck, or perhaps, the help of a spirit secretly guiding me.

I liked the latter.

Unfortunately, there was no ghost or ghoul helping me navigate through the woods. I did, however, find the trailer after thirty minutes of wandering.

It was exactly how I had left it, only a bit worse for wear. The letters were fading on the outside and when I got inside, it seemed that a few animals had made a nest within the torn up cushions of the couch. Thankfully, I saw no animal life as I picked through old photographs with my one free hand.

I had stopped by one of the hardware stores in town and bought myself a shovel, knowing that I'd need it tonight and however many times I needed to dig up a body. I'm begging every being and creature above that I won't ever have to use it again after tonight.

But I knew better than to be a fool.

When I finally touched the earth with the metal tip of my shovel, it gave way easily. Metal slipped between mud and smooth dirt, turning it over until the body was uncovered like something sacrificial.

When I had gotten most of the dirt scattered free from Eric Conner's host body, I realized my plans for revival were incredibly short lives. I hadn't anticipated the body to be so decomposed already. I realized, knee deep in an uneven grave, that I really should've looked up how fast the human body decays before wasting money on a shovel and my strength digging.

The host body was swollen and red and emitting a stench so thick it made my eyes water and my nose sting with rot. Its gut was extended and leaking a dark brown liquid from where it had already begun to burst. Even if I somehow succeeded in bringing him back, there was no way anything would be truly correct with this level of death. I wouldn't even be raising a living soul, only one trapped in a deadly host unable to function and move.

It would be a misery no man or demon should have to endure.

I ended the night covered in dirt and smelling spoiled. I covered the body, patting down the dirt until it was flat and even before taking off on my solitary walk back through the forest with my shovel on my shoulder like a man coming home from the mines. If I wanted to bring the dead back to life, I would have to visit a graveyard and I wasn't sure I had the stomach for it tonight, still queasy from the smell.

I was fairly certain my night was over but when I entered my home, I found myself in a world of dark gray. The figure standing in my kitchen was not one I had any joy in facing, especially after a long night of digging.

Cage Lake was just as disheveled and bloody as always.

I didn't bother with any theatrics as I might've when encountering him. Wordlessly, I dropped my bag on the kitchen counter and stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jacket.

"Beatrice informed me that you've gotten my message."

I nodded, scuffing the ground with my boot. "And there's a reason you weren't the one to say it to my face?"

"I didn't want to express my own disappointments out loud," he said with a shrug, the slickness of the blood on his clothes reflecting in the dim, unmoving lights. The one downside to the gray was that every frozen, nothing outside this world moved and it only made me wonder if there were places, across the world, that continued to move as I stood surrounded by the frozen.

"So, why come here at all then?"

He pressed his lips together in a thin line before saying in a tone I certainly didn't enjoy, "I thought you'd be smarter than this. Going back to that body, thinking you were clever. I mean, did you ever read a science book? I know your mother and I didn't enroll you in that school for you to eat cafeteria pizza and goof off with your friends-"

"In case you didn't realize," I snapped back, stopping him dead in his speech. "All my friends are either dead or missing."

He rolled his eyes. I wished I had known my father was this much of a dick while he was alive, I would've caused him more trouble. "Tell me, do you have plans to attempt it at least?"

"What? Raising the dead?"

He nodded.

"I don't know what you expect me to do, it's not like I have an unlimited supply of dead bodies on my hands-"

"You might not, but I'm sure Crow does."

The air chilled and the blood running down Cage's coat dripped onto the floor, already forming a steady puddle.

"So, let me get this straight," I murmured, gripping the edge of the chair closest to me to keep myself from digging my nails into my palm from frustration. "You want me to go straight to the place where all the people wanting to kill me are and what? Break into the morgue right across from Crow's office and steal a body?"

"Not necessarily steal a body, just perform what ritual you must there. It's quite simple."

"Simple?" I scoffed, shaking my head. "I'll be walking into a death trap."

"But I thought you enjoyed that, since we've last met I'm almost certain you've willingly fought against the very men trying to kill you. That must mean you're likely to face death again, yes? Or am I wrong?"

"Those men found me, I didn't find them-"

"You went to Andrew Stone, did you not?"

I scowled, gripping the chair even tighter, the wood digging into my hand like a warning. I needed to step back, to breathe.

"You'll find that going there might be your best option, if you're actually going to be doing what you're supposed to from now on."

My scowl deepened and I had the strange urge to slash at him with my nails. "And what does that mean?"

"It means you've been absent for a month, Blaire. A whole month-"

"I was in mourning!" I shouted, biting my tongue instantly.

"For a friend you practically led to their demise. Tell me, daughter, did you not take her hand in hand into this world? Did you not keep her monitored, in case something like this were to happen?"

My mouth fell open. How dare he, how dare he speak to me like that! "How dare you-"

"Pandora Basks was another useless casualty and it's about time you get that. She died, meaningless, or perhaps, not so, since it's put a much needed fire under your ass."

Spiorad sang in my pocket and I ignored her lure as the blood underneath Cage's feet grew. I didn't want to get close, in case whatever had dragged me under two months ago did it again.

"I thought you were such a nice man growing up," I said to him, grateful for the steady calm in my voice. "But now, I can see that was just a glamour. Nothing real behind that mask besides a coward, ugly, little man-"

"You shouldn't speak to your father like that."

"Or what?" I laughed, shaking my head. "You'll kill me? You need me."

"You'd better watch your tone-"

"You'd better watch your tone, young lady," I mocked, laughing in his face. Pandora's death was not meaningless, her life meant something, she meant something. To me, to her friends, to her parents. Nothing this little, cruel man says will change that. Nothing.

"I suggest you go to the church and test how far your little powers can go," he hissed, the blood running faster once his temper flared. The drip was loud, like a faucet, continuously rhythmic. "It won't be long until Crow and the rest of his little group comes for you. You can't hide from them forever."

"I'm not hiding-"

"You mean to say that being cooped up in your bed drowning your sorrows in pints of ice cream and cheesy rom coms, isn't considered hiding?" he was the one to laugh now, heartily like he had gotten the last word.

The blood at his feet moved across the floor, inching closer to where I stood and I knew I needed to back away but I would not show this man fear. No matter how much he infuriated me and how badly the blood terrified me, I would not back down.

"Use some of that backbone I know you have and go to the morgue."

"Any other helpful tips you'd like to tell me before your little geata swallows the kitchen whole?" I asked with a smile, meeting his eyes.

"It's best not to trust anyone, not even John or Ace. Everyone you thought you knew is false, I need you to be careful."

"Wow," I said, feigning surprise. "It sounds like you're actually concerned."

"I don't want to see you hurt or dead, you're still my daughter. I still love you."

"You sure have a shit way of showing it."

He rubbed his hands together, sighing. "It's like I said before, dear. Trust no one, not even the dead."

"But aren't we all dead anyways?"

There was a twinkle of amusement in his eyes before he vanished, leaving a pool of glowing red blood in his wake. The blood moved without him as it needed no host to create and destroy.

"Nope," I hissed towards it, pointing a long finger as if it would tell whatever resided inside to stay back. "You need to leave, vanish, shoo!"

It rippled, like it was laughing.

I was sure it was laughing.

The blood stilled it's movement, going deadly still and I didn't let it trick me. I took a fat step back, keeping a good distance as it rippled and a long hand reached out from its bloody depths. It was just as it was the first time I'd encountered it, its fingers long and clawed, its red liquid dripping from nails with deadly points. The hand slammed down against the ground near my feet and it dug its claws into the wood and I yelped, stomping my foot against its knuckles to get it to stop.

"You're going to mark up the floor!" I snarled, stomping again and again until it released the floor and it only left four claw marks. "Go back to wherever the hell you came from! Go away!"

I, obviously, needed a lesson in gatekeeping because this thing was not happy. It rippled and lurched in its pool before two clawed hands emerged, followed by shoulders, and then a head and I was screwed, as always. It latched onto both my legs and yanked hard and I fell back so hard that the wind was nearly knocked from me.

I gasped at the contact before letting out a desperate wail as the claws dug into my jeans and then flesh. I clenched my teeth together as pain shot through both legs and I tried to kick with all my might because if I gave up and surrendered to the pain, I'd be yanked down and drowned. And honestly, I wasn't ready to drown in blood anytime soon.

I reached into my jacket pocket as it began to drag me towards it's open pool. The blood itself was warm and radiated with such a heat that it made me clammy with sweat. I pulled Spiorad free and leaned forward, giving myself enough momentum to slash through the thickness, splattering red against the cabinets under the sink.

Whatever the blood geata was, it screamed when my knife cut through its misshapen head, spraying blood from its open maw. I drew a long hand down my face, spitting blood from my mouth. It continued to wail but the creature sunk back into its abyss, happy to get away from me and my dripping blade. My demon killer was my most prized possession, doing me justice with every swing.

The blood settled, finally calm, and I tested the pool with the tip of my bloodied shoe and found that it was only a spill across the floor and not an empty, boundless pit. I struggled to my feet, wincing at the strange pressure against both calves and shins from where it's nasty claws dug in. I would have to deal with that later, once I'd showered and cleaned this terrible mess.

It was strange to me, my thoughts running smoothly and calm in my head as I cleaned. If this had happened to me two months ago, I would've panicked, would've been driven into a fearful fit or tears. It was all so different now, I wasn't the same girl Cage clearly still saw.

I was going to show him just how wrong he was.

That thought alone spread a smile across my face, wicked and ready.

But, my sinister smile faded when I registered noise behind me. Feet, on the stairs, my stairs. I reached out, wrapping a single bloody hand around the hilt of my knife as the footsteps neared me and stopped.

"You missed a spot."

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lol this was kinda late buuuut i hope you guys enjoyed it!!!

would loveeeee some interaction on the story just so i know yall r there :))

xx day