“Yeah. Nifty.” I took a deep breath. “Actually, it’s weird. But I’m okay now.” I wasn’t okay. I was far from okay. Mother never mentioned anything about Death commandeering bodies.
“Listen up, doll. I can’t keep this up forever, and the clock is ticking. Corinne is in danger.”
I held up my hand to stop her. “Really quick. I saw this...this...thing. Big and fleshy and stinky.”
“I was afraid of that. We’ve got too many unclaimed souls wandering around. That was a demon.” Hephzibah made a face. “Nasty things.”
“A demon? Mother never mentioned demons.” Mother and I were going to have a long talk.
“Your mother doesn’t see them, doll. Few do. For someone so late to the game, you’ve got a wicked strong gift.”
“Lucky me. So what was this demon doing in the train station?”
“It was hunting.”
“Hunting what?”
“Unclaimed souls. It’s dangerous out here for ghosts like Corinne. That’s what we need to talk about.”
“The demon wants Corinne.”
“Among others. She’s not the only one out here. I was worried about the Reclaimers. I didn’t know we had a demon on the loose.”
“What would the demon do with the ghosts if it catches them?”
“Eat their souls.”
“Ew! That’s horrible.”
She shook her head. “You’ve got no idea. It’s like this, doll. If Corinne doesn’t cross over within the week, the Reclaimers will come for her.”
“Reclaimers?”
“Mercenaries. They hunt unclaimed souls. Not like the demon, of course. They don’t eat them. They take ’em and forcibly cross them over. It ain’t pleasant.”
“What happens to them when they’re reclaimed?” I swallowed hard.
“Depends on who hired the Reclaimers. They work all the sides. Corrine’s got sort of a grace period right now, but the clock is ticking. She’s got four days left, and then she’s at risk.”
“What about the demon?”
“If it finds her, she’s toast. She can outrun it for a while, but if it corners her–and they are damned good at doing that–bad things, doll. Very bad things. We got to get this gal crossed over.” She looked down at the cigarette she was holding. “I wanna smoke this thing so bad I can just taste it.”
“Don’t you dare. That thing would kill you if you weren’t already Death.”
“Hey,” the man said in his own voice. “Speak for yourself, girlie. You don’t look so hot, either.”
* * * *
I kept a sharp lookout for Corinne all the way home, or at least I tried to. It was hard with the sleet pelting me. At the moment I couldn’t care less what my woolen hat did to my hair. I pulled the hat tighter until I could tuck the edge under my collar. Shoulders hunched against the precipitation, I darted along the edges of buildings, trying to seek out as much shelter as I could.
I never spotted Corinne, and by the time I squelched into my apartment I was thoroughly cranky. I looked at my pristine fireplace and promised myself that at my next trip to the market I would spring for one of those little Insta-Flame logs.
Dropping the box of my belongings inside the door, I thought about nothing more than putting the kettle on. The murderous card players occupied my kitchen table, but I was so accustomed to their presence I was thinking of naming them.
Then I heard it. Long, low and mournful.
Owwwwoooooo. Owwwwoooooo.
My first thought was that Corinne had learned another new trick. This haunting thing was old already. If she started rattling chains in the attic at night, I was summoning the demon to eat her.
My second thought, and unfortunately the correct one, was that I had a very loud dog in my bathroom trying to get me evicted. “Billy!” I dove for the bathroom and wrenched the door open, prepared to scold him for howling. Instead, my jaw hung open, wobbling up and down fruitlessly with no sound coming out. It had snowed in my bathroom.
I blinked a few times and realized it was a toilet paper blizzard. Billy had found something to do other than howling. A closer inspection revealed that Billy had also entertained himself by gutting the pillow I put in there for his comfort. He’d also peed in the shower.
Mother wouldn’t approve of the words I used, but the dog didn’t care if I cussed him. He jumped and licked my face as I bent over to survey the damage. He’d done a nifty job of clawing the doorjamb. It would take a whole can of spackle and some paint if I wanted to keep my security deposit when I moved.
I looked down at the joyful dog wagging his curly tail. He regarded me with those enormous liquid eyes and cocked his head as if to say, Like what I did with the place? I sighed. It was probably my fault for leaving all those things handy for him.
“We’re gonna have to reach an understanding, dog, or one of us is out of here. Got it?”
His tail wagged, and he darted past my feet.
“Hey! I was starting a lecture. Come back here.” I chased him into the kitchen. The red message light of my phone blinked at me. I couldn’t think of a living soul—or a dead one, for that matter—I wanted to have a conversation with. Good thing Corinne hadn’t appeared yet. I’d have given her an earful about her destructive dog. Things were turning out exactly as I had feared. Three days’ worth of ghosts, and already I had lost my job and had my bathroom ruined.
A sense of duty and, I confess, a niggling curiosity made me push the Play Message button.
“Hi, this is...uh...Dr. Feller. Ethan. Ethan Feller. From Our Lady of Mercy Hospital? You gave me your number?”
Why, yes, I did. This was a message I actually wanted.
“I promised to call you about that girl who died. About the aunt. She was notified and has made arrangements to take the girl’s...uh...remains back to Nebraska. Anyway, I promised to call...so...I was thinking that maybe if you wanted to go out for drinks sometime or something, my number is...”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” I did a happy dance around the room looking for something to write with. “He called. He called. He really called.”
Billy thought dancing was a fine idea and pranced around under my feet, doing his best to trip me. He wheezed and snuffled in his excitement. He started to run a circle around the table, then paused and cocked his head to look at the card players.
“Do you see them, too?” I asked.
“Well, isn’t this cozy?” Corinne hovered over the table, arms crossed. She didn’t seem to notice the man choking his fellow player right under her. Hephzibah was right. Others didn’t see what I did. I envied them. “Looks like someone had a good day.”
“Actually my day sucked,” I said with a grin. “I got fired, your little pooch here has trashed my bathroom, and by now I’m sure the neighbors have figured out I’m hiding a dog.”
Corinne made a sound like sucking air. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to get you canned. Why the dance of joy then?”
“Because the hottest doctor in the whole world called me,” I said smugly. “Okay, the hottest doctor at Our Lady, anyway. But still, dance of joy worthy.”
“A guy? Good for you.”
The