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Having him with her made her feel a little less uneasy too, so it was really a win-win situation. She could feel his steady presence behind her as she moved through her rounds, enjoyed meeting his gaze as she flittered from patient to patient like a strange nocturnal butterfly.
She made her way into the low-care ward, looking forward to earning her next cup of coffee.
A heavyset man in a pair of long khaki overalls shuffled down the corridor ahead of her. He carried a long-handled broom over one shoulder, like a sort of modern-day chimney sweep, only Bunny hated to guess what he might use the contraption for. If he was going to be scooping dead animals out of air conditioning vents, she wanted to be in exactly the opposite part of the building from where he was.
But what if this guy decided to check out Mr. Grisham's room? And what if that same room had a gaggle of zombie-fied patients gathering in it?
Bunny's heart thumped with protest when he took a left ahead of her, heading into the low-care ward. She quickened her pace, wanting to keep an eye on where he was poking around.
“Hey,” she called, dashing to follow him around the corner. “Can I help you?”
“Just workin’ on the AC,” he called back without stopping. “I’m all set—thanks!”
She briefly thought about chasing him. Her heart rate climbed as he approached Mr. Grisham’s room, but she breathed a little easier when he continued past the entrance. That was, until a hand shot out of the door and yanked him inside. Literally pulling him off his feet, slamming the door afterward.
Not an easy feat, seeing as the dude would have to weigh at least 300 pounds.
What the—?!
Bunny broke into a run, the soles of her shoes slapping against the linoleum. Death was hot on her heels as she made it to the door in question, almost throwing it off its hinges when she turned the handle and pushed it inwards.
The shadow was already halfway out of Mrs. Howard by the time Bunny even registered that’s what it was. A thick black ribbon of smoke, curling out of the elderly woman’s mouth.
Bunny paused, took stock, and then pounced forward again—but she was too late. The smoke poured out of the old woman, straight into the mouth of the AC repairman, which was stretched unnaturally wide and ready to receive the shadow. With the sound of water being sucked down a bath's plug hole, the smoke disappeared.
The repairman’s eyes snapped immediately to regard Bunny, just as Mrs. Howard’s soulless body exploded into a shower of putrid brown goo and oozed all over the floor.
“Holy shit!”
With a sharp-looking grin and sporting teeth that were suddenly less human and distinctly more needle-like in appearance, the repairman lunged across the room and threw himself headfirst at the window. He crashed through it with a deafening roar of breaking glass, tumbling out into the night—down four stories.
With a gasp, Bunny rushed to the window. The curtains billowed inwards from the night breeze, but there was no sign of a dead repairman on the pavement below Arcadian Waters. She watched in disbelief as he ambled on all fours like a wild beast along the sidewalk below, lit by the intermittent streetlights before he vanished into the bordering bushes of the small recreational space next to the care home’s parking lot.
“What,” Bunny gasped, throwing a terrified look at Death, “the fuck was that!?”
* * *
Bunny feltapprehensive about leaving Death in the supply closet while she ducked into the Lobby of the higher realm, but she mollified herself by locking the closet from the inside and hoping Dana didn’t try to access it while she was gone.
Some of her misgivings melted away when she noticed the familiar woman sitting behind the desk next to the huge golden gates, her hair currently bubblegum pink and coifed into a style that could only be described as a beehive. Roberta glanced up over the rim of her lime green cat-eye glasses, a knowing smile curving the corner of her bright pink lips.
“Thank fuck you’re back a day early,” Bunny sighed, resisting the urge to either hug the other woman or collapse on her desk in desperation.
“That’s the kind of greeting I should have gotten from everyone.,” Roberta sighed melodramatically, pressing a hand briefly to her forehead as though the world really was just too cruel. “You’re a sight for sore eyes too, doll-face.”
Bunny didn’t have time to waste on pleasantries. She’d already waited for Roberta to get back from vacation. Now it was time for action.
“Look, I really need your help,” she said, cutting to the chase. “Death can’t remember who or what he is. He doesn’t know how to do his job, and to be honest, I’m stressing the fuck out.”
Roberta blinked, straightening in her chair. “Where is he now?” she asked crisply.
“In the incontinence supply closet,” Bunny said, as though it would be madness to assume he would be anywhere else.
“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t just hear that,” Roberta replied wryly. “You mean he’s in the human realm?”
“Yes?”
“Well bring him here,” the receptionist said, shocked. “I can’t very well work out what’s wrong with him when he’s that far away, can I?”
