《23 Pangbourne Place》The Thirteenth – Chapter 24 – Respect the living
Advertisement
I heard Bill joking with Frank when I got back to the bar and my beers.
“From the looks of things the kid’s going to get lucky tonight,” he said to his old friend. Frank laughed.
“Good to know one of us is.”
I shook my head.
I actually was still on the phone, and thankfully not speakerphone.
“Oh honey,” Toni was saying, “could you please do one thing for me?”
“Sure” I told her, “anything.”
“I know you’re a bit upset about what you saw, you’d have to be,” she told me, “but could you please not go down to that bar.”
And by that bar, she was talking about the bar I was in right this moment working on my second beer. I decided not to tell her that I was already in the place. or that I was on my second beer.
“Of course,” I told her, “See you tonight, sexy nurse.”
“See tonight, sexy apartment building manager” she told me, “love you.”
“I love you to,” I told her and hung up the phone.
Sexy nurse sounds a lot better, but I’d never be able to pull that off.
Then I turned back to the two old lechers.
“You know guys,” I told him, “My girlfriend doesn't seem to like you at all.”
“Well of course she doesn't,” Frank offered, “That's because she's young, has a brain and isn’t blind. And she doesn’t like how my friend here looks at her.”
Bill chortled about that one.
“Now if she was 20 years older,” Frank continued, “She wouldn't be able to keep her hands off me. Well, maybe 40.”
“I had to laugh at that, because I was buzzed and it was funny. And I finished my second pint.
Advertisement
I looked back up at the screen, and saw the clip of the three mayoral candidates for our ward talking about local issues. The MZC issue came up. Worthington’s opponents seemed to think he’d be light-handed with the city’s growing street zombie problem.
Remembering, I looked back at the window. That same zombie was staring in. At me? I wondered. Shit.
“Hey, Bruce,” I waved a hand to get the bartender’s attention. “How often do you get that.”
He looked over. I pointed at the Z.
“Every once in a while,” he told me, then reached down and pulled up his electric zombie prodder. “He bothering you? I could get the bat.”
I shook my head.
“No, never mind.” I told him. Then I had an idea, and grabbed a napkin and a pen from my pocket.
Confirmation. I needed to know, to plan. And it was easier to ask when I was drunk.
“Bruce,” I pushed the pen and napkin across the bar. “Can you spell my name.”
He cocked his head as though I’d mouthed nonsense.
“Humor me,” I told him. He nodded, picked up the pen started scrawling.
“It’s Smith, right,” he asked. I nodded. In a moment he was done, and he passed the napkin back to me. He’s spelled my name perfectly. Without any prompting at all. I glanced back out at the zombie.
Could the spell, all that blood, have worked? After two drinks and a promised booty call from my girlfriend, what I’d seen hadn’t seemed so real. But people weren’t supposed to be able to spell my name. They weren’t. Not if it hadn’t been broken in pieces.
I shivered in the warm pub. I hadn’t felt so exposed in years. And maybe that Z was part of it.
Advertisement
“Hey Johnny,” Frank was shaking my shoulder. “Look, the building’s on the news again.”
I turned to see that Asian Pulse247 reporter from this morning on the screen.
“…the police are being quiet on this one,” the reporter was saying. “But they are calling it a suspicious death. Building manager, Johnny Smith offered no comment.”
“What the hell,” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They were using my name! Even during the Grappo murder they hadn’t mentioned me.
Fuck. I took another gulp.
“No comment eh?” Frank asked me.
“I didn’t talk to anybody.” I stared at the TV. “How could they put that on the air?”
“I guess that’s where the whole, no comment comes in,” Frank offered. “Still kind of odd that they mentioned your name specifically. What did you have to do with it?”
Could Dr. Dave have possibly been right in his assertions? Could it have been a real sacrificial spell cast using that man’s blood? And all to do with me? The dream. The thirteenth. The blood. I looked down and stared at the dark wood of the bar. I did not want to believe it was happening. It couldn’t have been possible. There was no way it was possible that anyone would know who I was, what I’d done. I took another few gulps from my pint and the alcohol helped convince me that it was all just something that happened. It would go away. It would always go away. It had to.
The coverage went back to the municipals and talks about how a dead candidate showed how the re-animated were being normalized in society, could be productive, a value.
“They are no different than the rest of us,” the advocate was saying. “They need a roof over their heads, and they need a purpose in their existence. To know that they are an accepted part of the community. I think if we elect a re-animated mayor that this will show that the city is moving into the future and not part of the past.”
“But what about the living, shouldn’t the focus be on them?”
“The living are all going to be dead eventually. If we don’t start planning for how societal demographics are changing we are going to be left behind. Look at how they are handling it in Europe, South America. There the re-animated are already leading members of society.”
“And Europe has one of the most stagnant economies on the planet. Do we really want to emulate that?”
“At least they respect their dead. Can you really say that about us on this side of the Atlantic? What does that say about how we respect the living?”
Advertisement
ThanaTopiary
A first-person slow-burn reincarnation slice-of-lives, with system elements. An exploration of personal growth and the costs, benefits, and consequences of rebirth. Drama and psychology play the lead roles for the first arc. Reincarnation is not rapidfire, each life is important.Living hadn't ended well, but dying came with its own set of complications. Now, I get to do both again (and again .... (and again) .... ).cover designed using: 123freevectors
8 294Valeria
Valeria, a world where only strength matters and Kingdoms vie for dominance. A young Knight with a mysterious birth rises from the ashes to lead the world into a new era. Follow Khal as he embarks on a quest of world domination. Will his strength remain true or will he succumb to the many evils that plague these lands?
8 82The Invincible Hero
A super hero’s life is simple. All you have to do is use your superpowers to protect Earth while maintaining a secret identity. The Invincible Hero is Earth’s most powerful superhero but he finally meets a challenge even he cannot defeat. Using bizarre technology such as the Samsara pods, Lorne, the Invincible Hero, climbs through the ranks of heroes and cultivators in a bid to acquire the power to protect those closest to him. The Invincible Hero battles to truly become invincible. However, new conflicts and enemies reveal he is still weak, but he persists stubbornly moving forward towards his destiny. This Novel can also be found on Webnovel.com
8 156Heavenly Goddess
It tells the sory of a goddess, sent to the mortal realm 200,000 years ago, when she failed to fulfill for the crime she committed. She is summoned by a cold-hearted prince(who falls in love with her at the first sight) during the 'Great Summoning Ritual', held in the 'Heavenly Academy'. Song Qing wakes up in an alternate world; finds that she has been summoned by an immortal. Now she has to live in the world of immortals, learning new things and managing herself.One day, when she was wandering in the forest of Lost Hopes, she comes across a man. Tears run down her cheeks. ‘Why am I crying?’ She doesn’t knows who the man is, but he seems to know her better than her.Then there is another immortal and no one is allowed to talk about him or take his name. Who is he really? Entangled in the feelings of three immortals, Song Qing witnesses strange events. Who is she really? Why was she summoned while she is a mortal? Struggling with these questions, she finds her true identity. Is there more to her identity than just being a goddess? What sin had she committed? Spanning over her three lives, when she was Xia Ruo, Ji Hua and at last Song Qing this novel will deal with her story and other four immortals who are somehow entangled in this mess. Being cursed by the Supreme Goddess, they can not escape fate. They would have to pay for their sins and undo the troule that they created because of which many lost their lives.
8 137Emperor's Reign
One day, crystals rain down from the sky, being absorbed into all humans. The crystals allow one to transport their consiousness to an alternate body in the Heaven Domain. Join Aeron as he builds his empire in this new, fantastical world. Concept and system based off The Lords Empire. Inspired by Doom Lord, The Lord's Empire, and The World Online
8 319Shot Down (hiccup x reader HTTYD)✔️
Banished from her village, shot out of the skies, questioned, and spent the night with a strange guy was not the way y/n was hoping her 22 birthday was going to go down. But what happened when she falls in love with the dragon master?IM SO SORRY THIS IS BAD I WROTE THIS SO LONG AGO ⚠️I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO DREAMWORKS ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO THE DREAMWORKS FRANCHISE ⚠️
8 157