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It was Mosswood, but it wasn’t really Mosswood. She knew the tidy avenue of Main Street like the back of hand, which was perhaps why seeing it cast into smoke and shadows was so very jarring. Gone was the sky and the colors of home; whitewashed brick and carefully tended greenery became writhing outlines of mist as they walked down a ghostly quiet sidewalk between dimensions.
“This is weird,” Bunny murmured as they passed the sheriff’s department, her gaze slipping to the side to look at Ben’s beloved Go-Go Mart.
“This is necessity,” Death reminded her quietly, keeping pace beside her instead of walking slightly ahead, like he usually did. “How else are we supposed to get from A to B without wasting hours or even days traveling?”
Bunny rolled her eyes at him. “Forgive me for not being used to all this,” she shot back with a shake of her head.
He shrugged, an action that only tempted her to roll her eyes at him again. She refrained—giving herself an aneurysm right now wasn’t going to help her get to the truth.
They walked out of town toward the huge plateau that locals called The Ridge, a rocky outcrop that led up into the thick mess of Needlepoint Woods. The highway looked infinitely less confronting than town had. Wisps of smoke outlined the grass in the fields, and the pair passed a dilapidated factory on their left before they wandered up a long drive leading to what seemed to be a house.
“This’ll be where they’re keeping her,” Bunny said grimly, setting her jaw, and she began to mentally prepare for the task ahead.
“A vet clinic?” Death asked, peering at the sign above the quaint door as they approached. “Why?”
“Because it’s the only place in town with the facilities for conducting an autopsy,” she replied, cupping her hands to peer through the glass window into the vet clinic’s reception area. Everything beyond the glass was a shadowy void. “Okaaay,” Bunny mused, turning to look at Death. “How do we get out of here and into there?”
“Follow me.”
He stepped forward, disappearing through the wall like a sexier, more grown-up version of Casper. Bunny blinked, waited a second for her stomach to settle a little bit more, and then went after him. He was waiting for her inside, still within the Between. He held his hand out to her, and this time she didn’t hesitate to take it.
The smoke melted away like cobwebs dispelled by a strong wind. Color rushed back into their surroundings as they came back to the present time, slipping out from the layers of dimensions as smoothly as if he had lifted a veil from her eyes. The smell of lemon and disinfectant hit her, and she blinked at the sudden shock of being back in reality.
“Oh, that feels so much better,” she sighed with relief, gently removing her hand from his and nodding at the door that led into the back. “Let’s go.”
There was only one human-sized body bag in the cool room, much to Bunny’s relief. It was standard black plastic, thick enough not to crinkle, and it almost took up the whole examination table in the middle of the room. Someone—probably Veronica, the vet—had laid a bunch of wildflowers on top of where Bunny supposed her mother’s chest would be. She fought against the wave of emotion that threatened to overwhelm her.
“Guess I can strike ‘perform an illegal autopsy’ off my bucket list,” she muttered, relying once again on her sarcasm as a safety blanket. Moving the flowers carefully so that she could replace them later, Bunny began to unzip the body bag.
“What’s a bucket list?” Death asked, leaning on the table next to her.
The rumbling zzz of the zipper stopped. “You’re kidding?” Bunny said, half inclined not to believe him. But the blank expression on his face quickly convinced her otherwise.
“Okay, that’s a conversation for another time. She paused, glancing down. “Sorry, Mom.” The zipper opened the rest of the way. A sickly-sweet musky smell of something that was actually dead filled the room as Bunny started to peel back the plastic.
Death’s hand shot out to stop hers, his obsidian gaze scanning her face. “You’re sure you wanna do this?”
Bunny steeled herself. She knew she wasn’t going to ever be able to forget what she was about to see inside that body bag, but a lifetime of regret wasn’t exactly appealing either. She pressed her lips into a thin line of determination. “We don’t have a choice,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s now or never.”
He searched her gaze as though looking for confirmation. After a moment, he nodded in reluctant agreement. “Leave the bag closed,” he instructed as he moved around to the other side of the examination table.
It was such a kind and unexpected gesture, it caught Bunny off guard. Unshed tears filled her eyes. She refused to blink and let them escape, so she widened her eyes instead. Once she was sure the danger of crying had passed, she gave him a small nod of thanks. A hint of kindness ghosted across his handsome face.
“What do you need from me?” Bunny asked, eager to ensure their success.
He turned his back on her, shrugging out of his coat so that he could hang it on the end of a shelf by the door. “Just your power,” he replied.
Bunny shivered just thinking about it. “How do I give it to you?”
“You don’t. I have to take it.” He crossed his hands at the wrist before extending them across the table above her mother’s body, indicating for Bunny to do the same. “That’s why it’s so wrong.”
A jolt of anxiety coursed through her. What if he took it and couldn’t give it back? What if she wasn’t able to continue filling her quota? What if—
No. She cut herself off from that snowballing train of thought, crossed her wrists and took his hands. “You’ll give it back, right?”
He fixed her with a withering stare that took any debate right out of the conversation. “Do you really see me wanting to be responsible for taking souls out and putting them back in again?”
For some reason, his sudden sarcasm was incredibly reassuring. Bunny grinned. “Good point.”
