October 18, 2023

Some people really don't vibe with phone calls—people like Nathan, who pulls the cutest sour face imaginable every time his outdated Samsung starts playing him Metallica. Jamie, on the other hand, likes to talk, and whether the chat takes place in person, over the phone or through smoke signals is the least of her concerns. With a little imagination to spice it up, a phone call isn't that different from a face-to-face conversation.

Besides, she thinks as she waits for contact with the other end of the line, she quite likes talking to Veronika Lockhardt. It's like hanging out with your chill older cousin who shares your favourite interests and also happens to have a badass cat. Veronika's research centers folklore, magic and the supernatural—all things Jamie loves to cover on Witchcraft Wednesday. Since the whole Rauđskinna ordeal, they've gotten on like a house on fire.

(Generally speaking, that is. Nathan admitted Veronika makes him uncomfortable at times—says her questions and glances give him the idea she'd like to take a knife to his skin and study his magic scar tissue under a microscope. Upon learning about this, Jamie saw fit to remind Veronika with her sweetest smile that academic interest in certain types of magic may well lead to disaster, and anyway, how would Veronika's own skin like getting acquaintanced with the business end of a blade?

There have been zero issues since.)

Jamie's call goes to voicemail, which is unacceptable. Jamie isn't opposed to leaving voice messages, but she only does so after the second call. She immediately makes it. As she goes through another agonizing wait, the notion she may have forgotten about something tugs at her brain.

But Jamie gets this a lot, so she doesn't think much of it. Veronika is picking up this time, anyway, so no moment left to ponder.

"I know you're a special kind of special, Jamie," Veronika grumbles groggily into the phone, "but calling me out of bed at two A.M. is a new low even for you."

Oh! Time zones. Jamie forgot about time zones.

Whoops?

"I'm, I'm sorry," she apologizes, tense in an instant. "I should've paid more attention, I know, it's just you haven't responded to my email yet—good morning, by the way—and I need your second opinion, because it's getting pretty urgent and I worked hard on that email, so..."

There's a pregnant pause on the line while Veronika's brain computes this ramble. Jamie can picture her sitting up in bed, phone pressed to her ear, rubbing her eyes as she vows to put her device in silent mode the next time around.

"I was going to call you about it." Veronika's voice sounds more alert now. "In the morning, when it's afternoon in Venice. But I suppose if you were going to wake me for anything, this is a good reason. So let's get it over with straight away."

"Really? Thanks!"

"Just don't talk to me so chipper. Goodness gracious, it's too early for that sort of attitude." There's stumbling on the other end of the line-a door opening, footfalls on the floor, a creaking staircase. "Give me a moment to grab my laptop and my notes on your findings. We'll discuss my theories in a jiffy."

Jamie waits while Veronika hunts for her necessary belongings in her office. It seems to take hours, though the hands on her watch barely move. By the time Veronika has everything set up and clears her throat, Jamie is practically crawling up the walls.

"I was intrigued by your ideas surrounding the revenant's possible origins," the scholar begins. "You mentioned the enduring historical association of the undead and disease—as harbingers and spreaders of epidemic sicknesses. Of plague. I don't believe it's at all far-fetched to take Poveglia's own lengthy history with disease, plague and death into account while examining what brought forth this creature."

Jamie nods along. "I sense there's a 'but' in there somewhere."

"You'd be correct. The link between revenants and disease is old and important, yes, but I feel you're hyperfixating on the plague angle. This leads you to neglect the long tradition of associating revenants' coming into existence with unnatural deaths. And I believe in the paranormal as much as you do, but I hope we can agree poor Dr. Yersin didn't discover Yersinia pestis for us to chalk the cause of plague up to vampires and demons. Dying of illness constitutes a very natural cause."

Dr. Yersin is the only plague doctor Jamie intends to respect today. "Fair enough."

"So we ought to consider the sorts of unnatural deaths often said to make the deceased come back to life. These include, but are not limited to..." Veronika falters, probably to squint at her screen. "...Suicide, having lived a wretched life, having been murdered or having been so wronged some other way that revenge from beyond the grave is necessary, et cetera ad nauseam. What would you say could be a common denominator among all these options? Feel free to also incorporate disease in your answer."

"It's... Um..." The one downside of talking to Veronika is that it makes Jamie feel like she should have listened to Mom and Dad and gone to college after all, even though she would've left it in a coffin rather than with a diploma. "They're all, I mean... They're all... bad things?"

"Very good." Based on Veronika's tone of voice, she must be smiling, the broken canine that never healed on display in an empty room. "An oversimplification, but it cuts into the core of what I'm trying to steer us towards. The common denominator I see is suffering. Both in what brings the revenant into being and what it subsequently wishes to unleash upon our world. Does that make sense or have I lost you?"

Jamie leaves her seat, fidgety. She could run ten laps around Saint Mark's Square and never lose her adrenaline high. "I'm still with you. Go on."

"This is where we move into the realm of speculation. This Poveglia Island... It saw far more suffering than most places do, all of it concentrated on a tiny strip of land. I think a kind of negative energy like suffering could by now be entrenched in the soil, satiating the very air you breathe."

Fifty percent of the soil may consist of human remains.

"Perhaps the island has been sucking in suffering for centuries like a black hole," Veronika goes on, "until it spat out a creation of its own. Something to feed it even more."

"You talk about a place of death like it's alive."

"Because it might be. Undead, at the very least, just like the revenant. That's my two cents. An undead island stuck in a vicious cycle of suffering."

"Vicious cycles can be broken."

"Quite possibly, although I don't necessarily believe it's what you should aspire to. I haven't a faintest how you could put an end to the island corrupting what it touches, and what happens to it after your return to the States ought to be delegated to the local Venetian and national Italian governments. But if you could rid Poveglia of the revenant, it would mean there's one less murderous creature running around. That's a lofty goal in and of itself."

Veronika allows a short silence to fall before continuing. "One further note on the revenant... I feel your plague doctor might very well have been an actual doctor."

Jamie frowns. "Like a real plague doctor? I figured it stole the costume from a victim or something."

"No. I mean like a doctor who worked in the asylum during the early twentieth century."

Jamie has been through her own notes so many times she instantly knows who Veronika means. "The doctor who tortured his patients to death. The one who was supposedly driven mad by ghosts and threw himself off the bell tower. That's a suicide. An unnatural death."

She runs a frantic hand through her hair. Raffaele Mezzanotte did show Nathan jagged shards of his memories—a scalpel, a bloodied operating table.

Jamie overlooked the potential link, but it checks out. She staves off a shudder. "After his death, I guess the island could've turned the murder doctor into that... that thing. It never stopped doing what he did in life."

"It's a mere theory, don't forget, but one of the most plausible ones to me."

"If there's even a grain of truth in it, that means these murders go all the way back to the 1920s, 1930s at latest." How many? Jamie's head spins. She has paced the length of the room four times. "So it's definitely an idiosyncrasy and it's been around for way too long. How do you suppose we can kill it? Stake through the heart, cut the heart out entirely? Decapitation? Burn it whole until there's nothing of its body left?"

"I... don't feel confident telling you to settle for just one approach. Too many uncertain variables. But why don't you keep it simple?" Veronika chuckles. "Because if you do all of those things, I'd say chances are slim the revenant will get up again."

Jamie hopes so. "Thanks for all your advice, Veronika. Really great. We'll take care of everything."

"Be careful. And please do keep in touch about this and document all you can. The situation may be ghastly, but I don't get to study cases like this every day."

"Sure thing. By the way, if we're talking research... do you think an idiosyncratic revenant like this could be into apple sauce?"

The question has been living rent-free in the back of Jamie's mind since she spun Nathan the metaphor. She's invested in it now.

Veronika, lacking this crucial bit of context, must be raising an eyebrow on the other side of the Atlantic. She's too stunned to answer for a few seconds too long before her words return to her, slow and hesitant.

"Hypothetically, you could set up an experiment to force-feed it and see what happens. I'd caution against this for obvious reasons." A final pause. "But should you throw that caution to the wind, I obviously want to know the results."

Meh. Awesome in theory, kind of a mess in practice. Jamie is, in fact, capable of reaching this conclusion independently.

(Sometimes.)

"It's probably better off being a thought experiment," she admits. "Thanks again for the help. I'll let you get back to sleep. Give Jinx some scritches for me, won't you?"

Veronika promises to do so. Jamie says goodbye and ends the call. Then, she stands frozen in the room for a while, staring out the window, processing everything she just heard.

Enlightening conversation. Enough withered bones to chew on. But this, she knows, together with Raffaele Mezzanotte's Instagram account, marks the end of their theoretical preparation phase.

Shit will start getting real. Even more real than it already is.

Jamie is considering how ready for that she is when she notices she has a missed call. Apparently, Nathan tried to reach her while she was busy talking to Veronika. Jamie would've put Veronika on hold and switched to him had she known, but she has her phone's 'call waiting' function disabled to help her stay focused. It's quite helpful most days, but words cannot describe how intensely inconvenient she's finding it right now.

Cursing under her breath, she calls back immediately. She missed Nathan's call by a mere three minutes, but he left no voice message, so she can only guess at his reason for reaching out. He might be waiting a few minutes before trying again.

Jamie hopes that's the case, at least. That would mean he isn't in deep, life-threatening trouble. Her nerves go haywire at the thought, waves of anxiety higher than the Venetian Lagoon has ever seen threatening to engulf her. If waiting for Veronika to pick up the phone was bad already, this is a gazillion times worse. He's fine he's fine he's fine he's fine–

"Hi. I tried to call just now, but I guess we missed each other."

Thank fuck. Jamie can breathe again. She relaxes upon hearing Nathan's voice, which sounds all fine. A little on edge, perhaps, but nothing indicates he is in mortal peril. This fills her with even more relief than her earlier retreat into their hotel room.

"Nate, hey! I called you back the moment I could. I was on the phone with Veronika, sorry."

"It's okay. Did...  Did Veronika have anything useful to say?"

"Plenty." Jamie smiles her most genuine smile—it's in part the satisfaction of making progress, in part the Nathan Effect. Oh boy. "And guess what, my Internet research also paid off. I found your ghost~"

(Way too chirpy, way too excited to be sharing this info with him. This is ridiculous. Jamie should be getting these feelings under control rather than acting like a teenager with a first crush. Only harm will come of it—no good.

All that will happen between her and Nathan is a lot of nothing.)

"You did? That's amazing. We should discuss that soon." Nathan's tone turns grave. "Listen... I found something, too. The Doctor."