by Megan Morgan
“Oh, don’t flatter yourself.” Cindy snorted. “That’s why I drink so much, especially when I’m around a bunch of men. It dulls it. I found that out when I was a teenager. Drugs, too.”
“That sounds like a healthy alternative.”
“Boys were a terrible distraction during puberty. And I did awful things to them.”
“I’ll read about it in a book or something, all right? Please stop sharing.” Shuddering, June imagined the poor teenage boys Cindy molested. “Is that why you’ve had multiple husbands?”
She nodded. “My ability…charms.” She bit her lip. “And too many times, before I wised up, I mistook it for real attraction.”
This at least explained Kevin.
“It could be worse,” June said.
“Could it?”
“Yeah, trust me, it could.”
The door opened. Sam stepped out, his expression blustery, an equally agitated-looking Kevin following him. Kevin wore a leather jacket more tailored than June’s—fashion, not punk. June pitched her cigarette on the concrete and ground it out with her boot.
“Cindy,” Sam said, “do you know where Robbie is right now?”
“No, but I can text him.” She pushed a hand into her coat pocket.
“Do you think he can help us get into a morgue?” Sam asked.
Cindy pulled her phone out. “Is there anywhere Robbie can’t help you get into?”
“Let’s just hope they have what we’re looking for.”
“Like what,” June asked, “a puppy?”
Cindy got in touch with Robbie. He told her he would meet them there. “There,” Sam explained, was the Cook County Morgue, apparently a happening spot, because no one needed directions.
Sam drove them through the neighborhoods of Chicago, past gritty tight-packed urban cluster and alternately lavish blocks of huge beautiful houses. June sat in the back with Kevin, Cindy in the front. They were silent most of the way, Kevin sitting as far away from June as he could physically manage. What the hell were they about to do in a morgue? Maybe she didn’t want to know the answer.
They arrived at a two-story catacomb-windowed building with a low wall proclaiming OFFICE OF THE MEDICAL EXAMINER at the entrance to the parking lot. The gloom of evening had descended, turning the world shadowy and sinister. Sam pulled into a spot and killed the engine.
“This is going to be a group effort.” Sam turned and looked in the backseat. “Kevin, you know your part. June, you’re going to have the most important role.”
“As long as I don’t have to jack any dead bodies,” June said. “I just busted into a funeral home a couple days ago and that was creepy enough.”
“You won’t be stealing anything. But you’re about to get a whole new idea of what ‘creepy’ is.”
“Thanks for the reassurance,” she said.
“What am I going to do?” Cindy asked.
“You’re going to stay here and keep a lookout,” Sam said. “And drive the getaway car, if need be.”
“What am I looking out for?” Cindy asked.
“Everything.”
They waited for Robbie to arrive. No one spoke, making the tension even worse. Finally, a black car pulled into the parking lot and slid up beside them. Robbie sat in the driver’s seat.
“About time,” Sam muttered.
They all got out. Cindy walked around to the driver’s side. June zipped her jacket and shrugged down into the leather.
“Tell me what I’m supposed to do,” she said to Sam.
“We need to get in to where the bodies are.” Sam tugged his own coat closed. “You need to convince anyone we come across that’s a good idea.”
Robbie had a long black coat on, his hair pulled back. In addition to a huge mouth, he had big bulgy eyes as well, like a caricature, and they were luminescent greenish-gray against the dull light. He gazed unflinching at June, strands of loose hair fluttering across his wide forehead. He was creepy, and she couldn’t place her finger on exactly why—it wasn’t just the mind reading thing. He was skulky and looming and weird.
“There’s nothing in my head worth seeing right now,” June said to him. “Get lost.”
Robbie started toward the building. He also had a strange, slippery way of moving, gliding along as if on roller skates. The rest of them followed him up the concrete walkway to the building, pressing against the frigid wind.
“Is that because of his power?” June asked Sam, walking next to him. “He looks like he’s floating.”
Sam stared straight ahead. “Yes. My brother was a telekinetic. He could do the same thing.”
“Was?”
They stopped outside a set of glass doors, and Robbie pulled one open.
Sam glanced briefly at her. “You’re not the only one who’s lost a brother.”
June stood still for a moment, stunned. Kevin went in. Sam followed.
They entered a foyer dominated by a security desk. A guard with a shiny bald head sat behind the desk. He looked up from writing something.
“Can I help you?” he asked gruffly.
June scrambled for something to say. “We have an appointment.” Her power spread through her chest and welled up her throat, warm and prickling. “Let us inside.”
The man stared at June for a moment, his gaze going glassy. He pushed his chair back. “Right this way.”
They had to pass through a metal detector. June took off her jacket so they wouldn’t encounter any unnecessary hassle. After they stepped through, Sam gestured questioningly at her face as she pulled the jacket back on.
“You didn’t set it off,” he said. “With all those piercings.”
“It’s a myth body piercings set off metal detectors. Unless you’re wearing some huge metal gauge. I can’t believe I finally know something you don’t.”
They entered a lobby with thin blue carpet, the room divided into a small waiting area with chairs and couches and a reception area with a high desk. A woman with long brown hair and glasses sat behind the desk.
“Can I help you?” she asked, with watered-down friendliness.
June readied herself. Cameras peered down from the corners of the room. She had to make her behavior look natural.
“We need to go back to—where you keep the bodies.” June leaned on the desk and lowered her voice. “I want you to send someone back with us so we look like we’re supposed to be there.”
The woman’s eyes were unfocused behind her glasses. “One moment.” She picked up the phone in front of her.
June watched closely as she punched a button. She silently held the receiver to her ear until a faint voice came on the other end. “Jim, can you come up front and escort some people back to the morgue?” She paused. “No, I’m not sure who they—” She lowered the receiver. “Who are you again?”
Robbie stepped up beside June. Suddenly, the end of the phone cord fell out of the receiver and dropped onto the desk.
“Never mind,” June said quickly. “Put the phone down.”
She did.
“Why didn’t you just snatch the phone off her and talk to Jim?” Kevin asked in an irritated whisper.
“Because my power doesn’t work across electronic devices,” June said.
“Jim will come out anyway,” Sam said. “Keep your poker faces on.”
“Stay quiet right now,” June told the woman. “Don’t say anything when Jim comes out here.”
A moment later a door to the right of the desk opened. A tall middle-aged man dressed in a white lab coat emerged.
“Can I help you?” he asked, frowning.
June turned toward him. “Take us back to the morgue.”
“We have to hurry this up,” Sam muttered. “Before it starts looking weird on the cameras.”
Jim held the door for them. June followed the others, trepidatious. Beyond the door stretched a long white hallway. Jim led them silently along the corridor, past various offi
ce-like rooms. They saw only one other person, an older man behind a desk who gave them a cursory look as they passed.
When they reached the end of the hallway, they faced a steel door; a security panel was mounted on the wall next to it. Jim swiped a card through the reader. A buzz sounded, and he opened the door.
“I’m afraid everyone’s gone home for the day, about a half hour ago.” He sounded politely bewildered. “Most of the people who work back here go home at five, unless a special case comes in. You’re more likely to get someone early in the morning or just after lunch.”
“Stop talking,” June said. “Don’t wonder why we’re here.”
They stepped into a short corridor lit by a bare bulb dangling from the ceiling, the air colder than the outer hallway. Two more metal doors loomed in front of them, one labeled MORGUE, the other AUTOPSY ROOM.
“Guess we know our door,” Sam said. “June, make him go away.”
June turned to Jim. “Go back to what you were doing. Forget we’re back here.”
Jim promptly turned and walked out. The door closed behind him with a resounding clang.
“Well, that was easy,” Sam said.
“For you.” June scowled at him.
“Let’s get this over with.” Sam motioned to the doors.
Robbie stepped up to the morgue door. He tried the knob, but it didn’t turn. June hoped they were locked out, but Robbie stepped back, stared at the knob for a moment, and a pop sounded. He tried the knob again. This time it turned, and he pulled the door open.
“Thank you, Robbie,” Sam said.
“Yeah, thanks,” June added ruefully.
She didn’t want to go in. The air streamed out cold, carrying a faintly chemical smell. She tried to find some resolve. She didn’t want to look like a scared little kid.
The others filed in ahead of her. She waited until the lights popped on and then cautiously inched through the doorway.
“I don’t wanna see any dead bodies all cut up,” she whispered. She didn’t know why she whispered.
“You’re not going to,” Kevin said. “They do that in the autopsy room. This is just where they store cadavers.”
The morgue consisted of a warehouse-like room with a white tile floor and gray walls, eerily quiet, the atmosphere like a hospital. Along the back wall were square metal doors two rows high. Metal tables with creepy-looking attachments and sinks built into them stood in various places. As they moved deeper into the room, the antiseptic smell gave way to a cold, clean odor with an underlying scent not unlike meat, like the fresh rank odor of a butcher shop.
“To hell with this.” The scent made something primal inside of June snap, and she started to backpedal. Before she could get far, Sam grabbed her arm.
“Don’t freak out,” he said. “There’s nothing in here that can hurt you. Unlike out there.”
June swallowed and tried to breathe through only her mouth. She reminded herself being in the funeral home had been just as bad and she’d survived that debacle. Sam held on to her arm for a moment and gave it a squeeze before letting go.
“Can we get on with this?” Kevin asked. “Or does your girlfriend need to piss her pants first?”
“Don’t test me, Kevin.” Sam started toward the metal doors. “Or you might end up in one of these coolers.”
June regarded the cooler doors with dread. How many bodies were in them? How did they end up behind those doors? Had they kept Rose in this morgue? Would her brother end up on a slab too? Would she?
“Spread out and start looking,” Sam said.
June had no idea what they were looking for, so she stayed in place. Kevin and Robbie walked over to the doors and began perusing the labels below them, while Sam did the same, moving in the opposite direction. After a minute, freaked out standing in the middle of the room alone, June stepped closer.
Sam finally stopped, peering closely at a label beneath an upper door. “I think I found one.”
June flinched. “Found what?”
Sam looked over his shoulder at Kevin. “It says she died yesterday. Will that work?”
“As long as it’s been less than twenty-four hours, I guess,” Kevin said.
“You guess? You know more about this than I do.”
“I never asked my grandmother for details. She said it works within a day. I assume that means twenty-four hours.”
“All right.” Sam stepped back and nodded to Robbie. “I guess we’ll try her.”
Robbie walked over to Sam and focused on the door. A clink sounded. June's heart leapt. The door swung open in a slow arc and ice vapor rolled out, like something from a horror movie. June made a little whiny sound in her throat and backed up.
A metal slab slid out, appearing from the vapor like a magician’s trick. On the slab, the unmistakable shape of a human body rested beneath a white sheet. The form didn’t jiggle naturally when the slab jerked to a stop, like a living body would. Little tendrils of mist rose from the sheet.
“What is going on?” June summoned every bit of courage to remain standing in place instead of bolting for the door.
Kevin pulled something out of his jacket pocket. The white box.
“June.” Sam hurried over to her. He stepped behind her and gripped her arms above the elbows. June widened her eyes. “I know you don’t like being here,” he said. “I don’t blame you one bit.”
This couldn’t be going anywhere good.
“Something very messed up is about to happen, but I desperately”—Sam shook her—“need you to stay here.”
“What are you talking about?” June asked.
“You want to save your brother, don’t you?”
“I fail to see the connection.”
“You will, momentarily. You need to stay right here. For Jason.” Sam looked around at her. “His name is Jason, right?”
Kevin opened the box and dropped the lid on the floor.
“I don’t wanna touch the body.” June didn't care how pathetic she sounded. “Please don’t make me touch it.”
“No, you don’t have to touch it,” Sam said. “I promise.”
Kevin, delicately, took something out of the box: a small, glass vial with a black stopper, filled with dark red fluid, like blood.
“I hate this,” Kevin said.
“Your debt will be paid,” Sam spoke to Kevin over June’s shoulder. “For you, at least, the past will be put to rest.”
Kevin shook his head subtly, his lips in a tight line. He squared his shoulders and stood up straighter.
“What the hell is going on?” June asked.
Sam held her arms tighter. “Please try to trust me. I’m the smartest man you’ve ever met.”
With a screwed-up expression of distaste, Kevin gripped the edge of the sheet and peeled it back. The fabric made a crackling sound.
“Gah.” June jerked.
Sam held her in place.
The woman under the sheet was young, slender, and tiny with sharp features and short blond hair. Her skin was unnaturally white, almost gray, and her closed eyes and lips darkly purpled. In delirious horror, June noticed her ears were gauged.
Kevin grimaced. “Can I get a glove or something?”
Robbie walked off and returned briefly with a box of latex gloves. He held the box out to Kevin.
“Thanks.” Kevin held the stopper of the vial between his teeth while he pulled out a glove and worked it onto his right hand.
June tried to look away, but her fascination overcame her horror. “Whatever’s about to happen isn’t going to be cool, is it?”
“I guess it depends on your idea of cool,” Sam said.
Kevin pushed a gloved fingertip between the woman’s cold-bruised lips and pried them open. June cringed.
After making a gap, he uncorked the vial and tilted the open end over her mouth. The room had gone so quiet June heard a soft gurgle as the liquid dribbled out.
“Be care
ful,” Sam warned. “Don’t lose a drop.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Kevin didn't look up.
Kevin poured the entire vial and then shoved the stopper back in the end. He slipped the vial into his jacket pocket and stepped back. Robbie stepped back as well. June tensed.
“I’m sorry if I seemed offended,” Sam whispered, close to her ear. “That kiss was spectacular.”
“What?”
June realized a second later Sam wanted to distract her, when the body let out a hiss of air.
When the body fucking moved.
June shrieked. She tried to dart away, but Sam held her fast. She struggled.
“Stay here,” Sam ordered. “It’s the only way to save your brother.”
“What the fuck!” June yelped. “What the fucking fuck!”
The dead girl turned her head toward them. A cracking sound like ice breaking rent the air. The girl’s eyes were still closed, but she opened her mouth, a dark maw in her ashen face. Kevin averted his gaze to the ceiling. Robbie had somehow managed to widen his eyes even farther.
“Don’t panic.” Sam fought to hold June in place. “Kevin, cover her up!”
Kevin grabbed the sheet and threw it back over the girl’s face. She still moved underneath, turning her head from side to side. Then she spoke.
“Assssssssk.” The sound resembled air escaping a balloon. Not a human voice. Hollow and emotionless. Dead.
“What is this?” June demanded. “What the hell?”
“It’s an oracle,” Sam said. “The Oracle of the Dead. They know things the living don’t.”
“An oracle. She’s gonna tell the future?”
“Oracles don’t tell the future. They give counsel. But you can only ask her one question, and then the spell is broken. You have to act quickly.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. You have to ask her how to get your brother out of the Institute.”
The thing under the sheet still twitched. Kevin looked at the walls, the ceiling, at everything but the animated corpse beside him.
“This is some messed up shit,” June said. “Fuck!”
“Kevin’s grandmother was very powerful,” Sam said. “She gave us this particular Oracle. I couldn’t do this without him. But I can’t do this without you, either. Only a family member can make inquiries about someone.”
