Chapter 4.42 – Unfinished Business

“Are you sure this is the right location?”

Wyatt scratched his greasy head. “It’s what the book said: ‘Mildred Cumberbutton, buried 300 yards east of the fifth river milestone’.”

“But this is…”

Lilith screwed up her nose as she took in the building before her. She’d been here before, with Chuck, but hadn’t truly appreciated how vile the place was. The windows were filthy, the stained awning sagged and the tables were so covered in graffiti and chewing gum that Lilith could see it from her distance across the car park. Not to mention that something smelled off; a mixture of rotten meat mingled with the distinct scent of butyric acid. “It’s some sort of gross eating establishment.”

“Gross?” Wyatt laughed. “You drink blood to survive – that’s gross.”

“Whatever,” Lilith muttered, not wholly disagreeing. “Look, I don’t know what this place is, but there’s no plasma tree growing out of it. Next.”

“There’s only one more on the list, but hey, all this trekking around the Woodland Borough has me hankering.”

“For what?”

“I’m starving, Lilith. Wanna grab a burger?” He thumbed towards the brightly-lit, red-roofed monstrosity behind him. “The veggie one’s a bit dry here, but the fries are good.”

Lilith just glared at him. “Even if I could eat burgers, I wouldn’t eat at a place that smells this strongly of…” she took a whiff of the air, picking up even more unpleasant aromas. “…Poopy children.”

Wyatt shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He walked on a few paces, then tapped his pockets.

“Actually, scratch that – I, uh, forgot my wallet.”

“That doesn’t work on me. I guess you’ll have to starve,” Lilith said bluntly. “Where next?”

Wyatt huffed and handed her the sticky note that he had hastily scrawled some names and locations on.

“‘Edith Clocklock’,” Lilith read aloud. She rolled her eyes. “Why did you write their names? I don’t care who they were.”

“Well, I do.”

Lilith muttered about sentiment and carried on reading. “’Edith Clocklock, buried adjacent to the fifth river milestone’.”

“Awesome, so that should be just over there…”

“…under the plastic pirate ship.”

“This is pointless,” Lilith huffed.

“Yeah, I think it is.”

“We’ve traipsed all over the sodding Borough and the closest we’ve gotten to a plasma tree was Japanese knotweed growing out of a sewer.” She huffed. “No ancient burial sites are going to still exist within miles of Windenburg – it’s too… too… built.”

“Yeah.” Wyatt agreed, a little sadly. The pair had spent a good few hours following the sticky note, mostly on foot which had been gruelling to Wyatt, with his skinny legs and his worn shoes, as he’d liked to complain to her every few minutes. Lilith didn’t hold much sympathy for him, though. She’d been quite content to make this journey on her own, but he’d insisted that someone go along with her, in case any of the sites were still active, witch-wise, and, with Broof still festering, had decided that that person would be him.

Wyatt was fine, as a person, perhaps a little too morally pure for Lilith, but otherwise fine. Spending hours in anyone’s company though was prone to put her in a bad mood. And she hadn’t had a drink that day, thanks to Broof being a misery, adding to her ire.

She screwed up the sticky note and threw it across the car park.

“I’m never going to find a damn plasma fruit! This is all just bloody pointless!”

Wyatt moved to comfort Lilith, but she hastily shrugged him off with a little hiss. “Don’t touch me or I’ll be making my own murdered witch burial site with your entrails.”

“Woah, sorry.” Wyatt tucked his hands into his pockets and took a big step back.

Lilith shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I know you’re just trying to help but,” she sighed. “Between this and the lack of family and the fact that the death flower might be useless—”

“Not useless, just not as effective. And I get it. I know you haven’t had a drink today. You’re miserable when you’re hungry, ain’t ya?” At Lilith’s glower, he continued quickly. “So… can I get a burger? You can then have a quick nibble on me if you wanna, but if you do it beforehand I’m likely to pass out.”

Lilith didn’t see the harm in him passing out. The erythrocyte elixir he took daily would replenish him pretty quickly and she could probably traverse the town faster with him slumped over her shoulders.

Hm, she really was miserable when she was hungry.

“Fine, I’ll buy you a burger.”

“Great, thanks, I’ll pay you back when…” he muttered something under his breath and nodded over towards a big grey block of a building. “Maybe arcade afterwards?”

“Don’t push it.”

“I just thought, y’know, you might want to shoot out some of that frustration on some pixelated zombies.”

Lilith let out a low growl, but her gaze was fixed on his neck, her pupils dilating. “I’ll buy you a burger,” she reiterated slowly. “But if you think I’m setting foot in an arcade, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Jessica had tried everything but, after adding so much lavender oil to her pillow that it made her eyes water, counting over 500 sheep and drinking down her third cup of chamomile tea, she resigned herself to the fact that she just couldn’t sleep.

She got dressed and decided to take a late-night walk along the river.

It was a nice night, warm and clear. She walked slowly, taking in the view over the water periodically, when she wasn’t looking down to make sure she wasn’t about to step in dog poo.

The last time she’d walked along the river had been the last night she’d seen Chase.

The pair had been to see a movie, but had gotten into an argument in the foyer, as they were so prone to do. Jessica couldn’t even remember what it had been about, but it all seemed so trivial to her now. Now that Chase was dead.

She swallowed a big lump the size of their incubating embryo as she tried to remember the last things they’d said to one another.

She couldn’t quite remember. Next thing she knew she had woken up near the pirate ship with mosquito bites on her neck, leaves in her hair and absolutely no memory of how she’d gotten there.

The experience should’ve warned her that this wasn’t a great area to be wandering in alone at night. Still, it was nice to be able to look over at the pretty part of town, and she’d walked the route many times before without ending up bum-up on a playground, so she felt as safe as she was going to feel, she figured.

Her plan had worked and the crisp, yet mildly smoggy, air had made her start to feel sleepy. She rounded the corner near the burger restaurant, trying to avoid the gaze of an arguing couple in the car park. To head in the direction of home, she needed to pass the arcade.

There was a man standing on the pathway. A big man.

He could just be an innocent fellow waiting for a taxi. But Jessica hesitated. Despite being a police officer, she was also very aware of the fact that she was a lone woman, it was dark and the path ahead was otherwise deserted.

It took a few seconds to realise that the man lacked some opacity.

It took a few more to figure out who he was.

“Chase?”

The ghost turned to her, clearly startled, and looked her up and down. “Damn, Jess? Did the vampires get you too?”

Her heart caught in her throat as her memory flashed back to her stalker. “Vampires?”

“Yeah. Two of them. They attacked me, killed me, just here, when I came looking for you after we argued that night.”

Jessica wasn’t sure which part of his sentence made her more emotional. “They killed you? You came looking for me?”

“Jess, of course I did. I know you’re tough and everything, but if anything had happened to you…” he shook his head. “I guess something did happen, huh?”

“What?”

“Oh,” he said softly. “Jessica, didn’t you know? You’re dead.”

Jessica blinked a few times. Was she? Was that how she could talk to ghosts – was she one? But then, that meant the GliTS were also ghosts? Her mum was? Beth was? The Wangshafts were? The lady who she’d just passed who had tried to solicit her was? Everyone was? Surely not.

“No, it’s OK. I’m not dead. At least, I think I’m not.”

He tilted his head and reached towards her. She watched as his hand passed right through her shoulder with a little shudder. “Nope, you’re warm. I guess you’re not dead. Good, that’s good.” He nodded firmly, as if convincing himself. “Wait, then how are you talking to me…?”

Jessica shrugged. “I haven’t figured that part out yet. This talking to ghosts thing is a pretty recent development.”

“Oh really? Handy though, as a cop. Maybe you’ll find some ghost witnesses, solve some mispers.”

Jessica thought of Rose and sighed. “Maybe.”

As an uneasy silence fell, Jessica looked out over the water. She remembered how Chase had been found; bloated, wet and entangled with trash. She was relieved that his ghost looked like how she’d wanted to remember him.

“I’m sorry, for what I said about your mother,” Chase said quietly.

“My mother?” Jessica repeated, not following.

“That last night,” he explained. “Goddamn, I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I wanted to come find you but I couldn’t. I get to the end of the lane there and simply appear back at the start.”

“I think you’re tethered here.”

“Forever?”

“I don’t know.”

“Right,” Chase shrugged. “Could be worse, I guess. I’ve got the river. The pirate ship. I’ve taken to haunting it, best I can.”

“You can haunt? As in, appear to people?”

“No… but if they walk through me, they shiver.” He grinned. “And hey, now you can come by and say ‘hi’.”

Jessica nodded. She was getting quite used to seeing dead people, but this whole situation was too close for comfort, it was creeping her out. Still, her familiarity with the deceased guy before triggered her police button. She knew that, as a fellow officer, Chase would likely understand if she asked him some questions about being a ghost. Maybe he could answer something she’d been curious about, but hadn’t quite had the courage to ask any of the other ghosts so far.

“Chase, can I ask you something?”

He hesitated. “…Sure.”

“What happened, y’know, after you died?”

“Hm. The vampires stole my watch and dumped me in the river. I was sort of gutted, even though I knew I’d have no need for a watch, because it cost a lot, you know?”

Jessica blinked. “No. I mean after.”

“Oh, right, yeah, after.” He thought for a moment. “There were lots of blue lights.”

“Police cars?”

“No, no, more like star bursts. And it was peaceful, you get me? Soothing. But I wasn’t ready to go where I was supposed to go, and I tried to go back and, well, I guess I did it. Sort of.”

“What made you want to come back? Your age? Prospects? Unfinished business?”

“No, not really. All the mispers were unfinished business. Bringing down the Wangshafts was unfinished business. Painting my damn bathroom was unfinished business and I wasn’t thinking of any of those things when I was trying to come back. I was only thinking about you, about the last thing I said to you. I was just wondering if you were okay.”

Jessica hadn’t felt less ‘okay’ in her entire life, but clearly this had been a big cross to bear for the former police officer; enough to make him want to cheat death. She tried to smile. “I’m fine.”

“I’m glad. You’re looking… well.”

Jessica wasn’t sure if he meant that she looked fat, and she grunted.

Chase didn’t seem to notice. “I… I really like you, Jess. I do. I’m just… I was just… stressed. Trapped. I should have treated you better.”

“Yeah, you should have.”

An uneasy silence fell again. Jessica didn’t remember it being this hard to talk to Chase when he was alive; it felt like a huge block had appeared between them. She had an inkling what this might be, as she idly drew her thumb in a circle on her abdomen.

“So, what have you been up to?” Chase asked eventually.

Jessica licked her teeth, wondering how to respond. Then she realised that it didn’t matter, she might as well tell the truth. “I was put on a case to investigate an assault at a bar in Forgotten Hollow, and another to investigate an incident at the Grand Hotel, but ended up inadvertently uncovering some sort of supernatural cover-up.”

“Supernatural cover up,” Chase repeated. “Really?”

“Yes, really. I got locked in the Tower for a while, but was released following a protest by the Glimmerbrook Truth Society.”

“The GliTS? They’re—”

“I know. But knowing they were on my side, and that everyone thinks they’re a bunch of nutters, I ended up joining them so I could investigate the Forgotten Hollow Mispers, and the supernatural element, without the Wangshafts taking me seriously.”

Chase stared at her. “That’s…”

“Insane?”

“No, bloody brilliant. I knew something was amiss, but it’s only been the last few months – when I became a ghost after being attacked by vampires – that I really starting thinking about what other life states there might be. Ghosts and vampires, definitely. Werewolves? Maybe. Witches? Who knows?” He shook his head. “Joining the GliTS… that’s a stroke of genius. You’ve been up to a lot these past few months, haven’t you?”

“Yes,” Jessica agreed, a little knot in her stomach becoming a huge one. Should she share her other news. Their other news?

Chase was grinning from ear to ear. She figured this was as good time as any. “Chase, I have something else to tell you,” she began. “You might want to sit down.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“Oh, OK, um.” Jessica looked at the floor and sucked in a breath. “I’m… we’re… pregnant.”

“We are?”

His smile wasn’t the reaction she’d expected. “You’re happy about it?”

“Yes! Damn, yes! If I could scoop you up and swing you around, I would! Oh, Jess! This is the news I’ve been waiting to hear; this’ll give me purpose!”

“Uh, it will?”

“Yes! We can get a place together and…” he paused. “No. Oh Watcher, no. We can’t, can we? Unless you build a house here, behind the arcade…” his face had well and truly fallen by this point and Jessica felt awful. “Oh Jess, I’m so sorry.”

He placed his ghostly hand sort of on and sort of through her shoulder and it sent a chill through all her bones.

“If it’s any consolation, Jess, I’m here for you and our baby – I’ll probably be here forever.”

Jessica shuddered and pulled away. There was no comfort in that at all.

She took a few steps back. The creepy feeling was overwhelming all other feelings she was having, and she was running through quite a few of them. “I need to go.”

“When will you come back?”

Jessica hesitated to reply and, for once, Chase understood her cues.

“You’re not coming back,” he stated, his voice flat. He reached for her hand but again his fingers slipped through, leaving her once more feeling like a cup of ice had been dropped down her tights.

“I understand,” he said softly. “This is a weird situation, you’ve moved on, you’ve probably found a bloke who isn’t a complete tool, right?” He welled up – Jessica didn’t know ghosts could do that – and turned away. “Have a nice life, Jess. You deserve one, you really do.”

“Goodbye, Chase.”

Jessica turned away, tears hot on her cheeks, as she walked on along the path.