Digging Up the Dead

by Willie E. Dalton

  “Hel, what is it?” His voice carried more concern than I had ever heard. Normally he was so blasé about everything.

  My eyes scanned the store to be certain there was no one else nearby that could hear what I was about to tell him. “I just came from the assignment hall. All of the people taking care of the files are vampires. We haven’t reaped anyone in days that hasn’t disappeared. I think they are doing something to the files to change the soul contracts.”

  Andreas brought his hand to his mouth, my findings having rendered him momentarily speechless. Even in his shocked state, he still looked perfectly polished and lovely. I was pretty certain I looked like I had seen a ghost and run three miles.

  Finally, he spoke. “Tell me about the vampires. Who were they? What did they look like?”

  “The one I saw was warm and friendly, plain brown hair; his name was William. He could have passed for human if it hadn’t been for the black eyes,” I said, as I recalled sitting in front of him.

  “What about the others?” he asked.

  “I don’t remember any details about them. One was a woman, I think. But they all had the same black eyes,” I said and a shiver went through me.

  “Fuck,” Andreas said under his breath, “that means they were all made by Rasputin.”

  “What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “He just made six or seven new vampires to work at the assignment hall?”

  “I bet they worked there before they were turned. The hall wouldn’t just hire all new people, but they also wouldn’t fire people just for turning.”

  His train of thought made sense.

  “So you think Rasputin is having them send souls… somewhere for him?” I asked.

  Andreas dropped his head forward and sighed. He ran his fingers through his blonde mane, and just for a moment I had to fight the urge to run my fingers through it, too. It was so full and shiny. Not the right time for this, Hel.

  “Yeah, I think that’s where the clues are pointing us,” Andreas nodded. “Although I don’t know what he’s getting out of the deal yet,” he finished, clearly frustrated.

  “It’s something,” I agreed, but I still didn’t feel like this brought us any closer to finding Boude. “Where is Grace?” I asked.

  “She’s hunting.” He tilted his head in the direction of the Quarter.

  Internally I cringed a little, but Andreas didn’t seem to notice. I couldn’t get over my friend drinking people’s blood. “I know all of this means something, probably something really big. But I’m at a loss of what to do next. Do you have any ideas?” I asked Andreas.

  Andreas was watching the shopper as she approached the counter. “Let me help her and think for a second.”

  I put my back against the wall and closed my eyes while I heard Andreas teasing and chatting it up with his customer. Once the doorbell chimed and the shopper was gone, I opened my eyes and looked at Andreas. He looked more tired than when I had arrived.

  “We need to know someone who works at the assignment hall—someone who can get in there and actually find out what’s going on,” Andreas mused.

  “Do you think that other shop owner, the one you were flirting with, Jeremy, could he help us someway?” It was a stretch, but we didn’t have much to go on as it was.

  “I’ll stop by when I leave here and see what I can get out of him.” Andreas tried to be serious, but I saw signs of the other devious thoughts running through his brain.

  I glared at him.

  “What? You’re not the only one allowed to have good sex.” He looked down the end of his nose at me.

  My mouth gaped and he grinned. “Oh yes, Grace tells me all the dirty details you tell her about you and the human brick wall over there.”

  I felt myself glowering; I was going to have to have a talk with Grace about her chattiness.

  “Whatever.” I shook my head to shake off my irritation. “Let me know if you find out anything from Jeremy.”

  “I’ll send Grace over after I’ve seen him.” Andreas started re-arranging clothes on one of the racks.

  “OK,” I said, and waved to the vampire as I headed out the door.

  As I went back to the fields I was more afraid than ever. Rasputin was making vampires. What was happening to these poor souls that hadn’t made decisions about where to spend their eternity?

  An obvious realization punched me in the gut. Is that what had happened to Raphael? Maybe he was supposed to have woken up and stayed here. What if, instead of his soul being settled somewhere like heaven, he was drifting aimlessly in a place he had never known anything about. Or what if his soul had simply vanished from existence without him ever having a say? How many souls was this happening to every day? And where was Boude? His soul was already gone

  Way too many questions were weighing heavily on my mind. This was so much bigger than I could have imagined.

  I didn’t see anyone digging as I made my way home back through the fields. I thought about just changing and working without looking for Soren first, but laughter coming from a couple of houses down intrigued me.

  I knocked on Soren’s door and heard his rough voice call, “It’s open.”

  Stepping inside, I smiled at Soren, and then at Billy who sat across the table from him. “Hey guys,” I said.

  “How’d everything go at the Assignment Hall?” Billy asked, and took a sip of whiskey from the glass in front of him. Apparently I had interrupted happy hour.

  I let out a long slow breath and rolled my eyes, trying to summon the energy to tell the story… again.

  Wordlessly, Soren got up and walked over to his counter that was scattered with various types of booze and mixers. In just a moment, he handed me a perfectly mixed gin and tonic—my favorite.

  “Thanks, baby.” I sipped the drink and kissed him on the cheek. There were only two chairs at the table where the men were sitting, so I hopped up onto the counter and began to relay the whole story, adding the bit about me stopping in to see Andreas. “Maybe his thing with this Jeremy-vampire will give us something else to go on.”

  Soren shook his head like it was a lost cause, though he knew better than to say it out loud.

  Billy was leaned back against his chair. He had on what I always assumed was the same stained white t-shirt he always wore. He took off his ball cap and worked it back and forth in his hands. He was thinking hard about something.

  Hesitantly, he said, “I might know of someone who could help you.”

  Soren and I both turned to look at him as I took another drink from my glass.

  “Who?” I asked.

  Billy looked down at his hat in his hands, and his worn face blushed. I knew Billy was probably about the same age as Soren and me—at least he was when he died. But it was easy to see Billy had lived a hard life while he was alive. He was tall and lanky—skinny to the point of his joints protruding—but he was strong, maybe just by sheer will. The tattoos in sporadic places on his arms didn’t quite hold the quality of even prison tattoos, and I was guessing they had probably been done at a friend’s kitchen table while they drank.

  “Well, there’s this woman I’m friends with,” he confessed, blushing even harder. “She works over there.”

  “At the Assignment Hall?” I asked.

  Billy nodded.

  “Could you get her to talk to us, or me?” My voice was high and hopeful.

  “I’ll ask her,” he grinned.

  “Oh Billy! Thank you!” I jumped off the counter and ran to him, grabbing him in a hug.

  “You’re welcome.” He ducked his head down bashfully.

  I released him and went back to lean against the counter, smiling, happy to have something to look forward to.

  Soren had been quiet, but even he couldn’t hide the surprise on his face about Billy’s lady friend. It wasn’t that we didn’t think Billy couldn’t get a girlfriend, it was just that he was always around the fields. Anytime we needed anything at all from him, he was out there digging away and
singing a song. I couldn’t imagine where he had found the time to visit her.

  “So tell us about this woman,” Soren spoke up.

  Billy took another drink of his whiskey. “Well y’all know I don’t go too far from home, but the last time I had to get my watch reset, the woman and I hit it off pretty well. She saw in my file I was from Kentucky, and she just happened to be from there as well. Bigger city though. Anyway, we talked, and have had dinner a couple of times.” Billy’s sheepish smile said he liked her a lot.

  “Well, what’s her name?” I asked smiling at him. I really was so happy he had found someone.

  “Margaret. She’s pretty too—a little older than me…” Billy seemed to drift away thinking about his attractive friend.

  “Were you ever going to tell us about her?” Soren asked, crossing his arms.

  “Aw, it might be nothing, and I don’t want to get my hopes up,” said Billy.

  “Thank you for telling me. She really might be a lot of help,” I said to him.

  He nodded, then said, “I’ll go shower and clean up to pay her a visit.”

  A sinking feeling flooded my body, so much so that I became lightheaded. “Billy, how long has it been since you’ve seen Margaret?”

  “Eh, about four or five days.

  I didn’t know whether to tell him to prepare, or if I should just keep my mouth shut so as not to worry him. I weighed the options and decided prepared was better. “I don’t want to worry you, but the people in every office I looked in had been turned. Andreas and I suspect they’re the same employees as before, and that Rasputin got to them.”

  Billy pressed his lips and nodded. “OK,” was all he said. Then he stood up and headed to get ready to see his girlfriend.

  I looked over at Soren and shook my head. “I hope she’s OK.”

  Soren nodded in agreement and patted his lap.

  I walked over to him and sat down. He was so big and lean, it was easy for me to curl up in his lap as he held me.

  “This is some deep shit you’ve stumbled into,” he spoke against the top of my head, and kissed me.

  “Yeah,” I nodded against him, “but don’t say it again: don’t tell me to be careful or get out of it.”

  Soren tightened his arms around me and sighed, “I won’t, but can I tell you something else?”

  I looked up at into his gray eyes and serious face—the face that, at one time, I had found so intimidating. “Yes.”

  “You’re very brave,” he said.

  At his words I could almost feel my heart swell inside my chest, and my eyes filled with tears. Brave? I’d never seen myself as brave. I didn’t feel brave, I felt scared. But just knowing one of the strongest men I’d ever met saw me as brave gave me more courage than I’d ever had before.

  I kissed him, long and chaste. “Thank you. That means so much from you, because I know you’d never say it if you didn’t mean it.” Honor and honesty were both very important to Soren.

  “I know you’re being careful, and I know you can’t truly die here. But if this is a real conspiracy, and they are changing files and re-assigning souls,” he paused and sighed, “they might be able to do some pretty bad things to you—even send you away from me.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck; I didn’t want to go anywhere. “I promise, to be as careful as possible,” I assured him.

  “Thank you,” he said. And after that, we just sat together in silence for a long time.

  Once we managed to drag ourselves away from each other, I changed clothes and met Soren out in the fields to dig.

  We kept up with each other, and the bodies in front of us disappeared the moment we clicked on our lights.

  “Should we stop working until this is finished?” I asked him, suddenly feeling uneasy. “I mean, we don’t know where these people are going, or if they’re supposed to be going there.”

  Soren leaned on his shovel and rubbed the back of his neck. “If we don’t keep digging, we’ll get behind fast, and if we stop, the people at the Assignment Hall will know that we know something is up. I don’t think we really have a choice.”

  I thought about what he said, and finally nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. We don’t need to attract any added suspicion.” I resumed my work.

  Digging today felt monotonous. I was ready to hear back from Grace and Andreas, or Billy. As each body we unearthed blinked away, I couldn’t help saying a prayer to whatever god was listening that their souls were finding peace.

  I caught myself wondering more than once if Raphael was OK—if he was safe and content wherever he had ended up. My mind tried to run away to the what-ifs of if I found him. Would I try to stay with him? What would I do about Soren? That only led to more questions. What if we could get ahold of the list of souls and find Soren’s wife? Would he leave me? The very heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach seemed to say I already knew the answer to that one.

  “Where’s your mind?” Soren asked, breaking my thoughts.

  I realized I had been standing still and staring at an empty hole for a while now. “Just thinking about if we find the lists of where all the souls go.”

  Soren raised his eyebrows. “That would be something,” he said.

  I was going to do it, I felt the words coming out of my mouth. “What would you do if you found out where your wife went?”

  Soren's face went blank as he looked at me. I could tell he was searching his mind for the words he wanted to say.

  I only watched him struggle for a moment or two, and then just said, "I shouldn't have asked you that. I'm sorry."

  He moved a fraction of an inch towards me and I stepped back. The movement wasn't voluntary, and I wasn't upset with him. I just didn't want him touching me right now. He sighed and ran his fingers through his beard; his eyes looked sad.

  After a moment, he spoke. "Hel, I never dreamed I'd find someone like you here, in this place. Before you came along, you have to realize: Eira and our children—they were my entire world.

  Until he said it, I didn't realize I'd never heard her name. Eira. It was a lovely name, and I couldn't decide if it made me want to know more about her, or less. "I would never try to keep you from her," I said.

  "And I would never try to keep you from Raphael. If I asked you who you would choose between the two of us, could you answer?" he asked.

  Raphael would always be the big “what if” in the back of my mind, but I had already known Soren now longer than I'd known Raphael. And when it really came down to it, I couldn't answer; I didn't know who I would choose. I softly shook my head "no" at him.

  To my surprise, he smiled at me. "I think we should just keep all of the what-ifs in the future, where they belong."

  "Yeah, I think that's probably a good idea." I hadn't meant to open that can of worms, and I was glad Soren was so understanding.

  I finished the next plot I was working on and sighed; my body was tired, and my mind wouldn’t rest.

  Watching me, Soren said, “Go shower, make yourself some tea, and read one of the new books you picked up. You need a break.”

  I started to protest that taking a break wasn’t very productive of me, but I knew I would be more useful to everyone if I could recharge. “That’s a good idea.” I walked over and kissed him on the cheek. “Are you digging a while longer?”

  He looked at the sky, almost like he was checking for rain or signs of darkness. It was such a common gesture, even though it held no weight in this world. The sky was almost always gray and appeared to be dusky. “Yeah, I think I will.”

  “OK. I’ll see you later,” I said, and headed off to put my tools away.

  The silence and solitude I found in my house was refreshing. I couldn’t recall how long it had been since I’d had much time alone.

  I showered and put on a pair of soft shorts and a t-shirt. I laid down on my bed, pulled my furry duvet up around me, turned on my new lamp on my new bedside table, and opened the mystery novel I'd picked up when I was out with Soren.
For a girl who had spent so much time alone while she was alive, I certainly hadn't had much alone time since I'd been dead.

  Thankfully, the book was interesting from the first page; I was a little afraid I would have trouble getting into it and quieting my mind. The main character's life story was so drastically different from mine it was a wonderful escape. A romantic drama or tragedy probably would've reduced me to a weeping pile of goo on the floor.

  After a good amount of time reading, I carried the book with me to the kitchen, where I did make myself a cup of tea, recalling Soren's suggestion. I also made a note to pick up some chocolate next time I was in town; that seemed to be the only thing missing at the moment. I carried my tea and my book back to my bed and plopped down among the pillows.

  I was nearly halfway through the book, and well into relaxation, when I heard a soft knock at the door. The door opened immediately after the knock, before I could even respond with, "Come in!"

  I looked over the top of my book to see Grace walk over and open my fridge before she even said hello. She had on a low-cut white t-shirt, black torn-leg jeans, and as always, a pair of black boots. She had switched up her eye patch, from the plain black one to a white one with a black cross.

  “Hello to you, too,” I said dryly.

  “Hey, sorry, I was thirsty,” she said as she poured herself a glass of juice.

  I always had so many questions about the vampiric lifestyle, but it never seemed like the right time to ask.

  She made her way over to the bed and sat down beside me.

  I put my book down and picked up my teacup. “Any news from Andreas?” I asked.

  “He’s with Jeremy, so I gave them the apartment.” She raised her eyebrows, and I nodded in understanding. “Any news on your end?” she asked.

  I told her about Billy’s friend, and that I was waiting for him to get back and say if she would be willing to meet with us.

  “So we’re stuck waiting,” she sighed.

  I saw the pain in her eyes at not being able to do anything to track down her lover. “We will find Boude, I promise.”