Li and the Casket

Li's hand trembled as ey drew a crude line through the first item on the list and checked it again. It was a delaying tactic ey knew emself well enough to know that, but it was still helping as the gates of the infinite graveyard loomed before em.

Ey sighed and looked at the list again and was disappointed to find it held no more excuses, only the certainty that this was the place where Al’s body lay. A quiet cowardly part of eir mind said that this was not eir area of expertise, that it had nothing to do with woodwork, crafting or repair. Annoyed at emself, Li pushed the thoughts down and resolved to continue without further hesitation.

A tremble ran down eir arm as ey pressed the chairs control stick forward and advanced. For a moment the chair crept forwards, the motor squealing furiously as it struggled to crest the slight incline into the infinite graveyard.

Li released the control stick and the chair rocked back into the position it the rut it had stopped in previously. Ey grimaced and looked back at the attached coffin, ey had hoped the motor would have the horsepower to deal with pulling the numerically sealed steel, but it seemed that the additional barrier of the slope had proven too much for it.

Li frowned at the list again and considered eir options: The coffin was needed, and ey certainly couldn’t drag it by hand, but the street was hardly wheel accessible at the best of times. Fortunately, ey had prepared for this eventuality, and Li reached under the chair. Ey let out a low hiss as the movement bent eir leg and sent a spike on pain from eir thigh to eir midriff. Li paused for half a second and waited for the worst of the pain to subside to a low ache, and once it was manageable pulled eir walking stick and a length of worn rope out.

Ey considered eir surroundings, tied the rope around the cane and threw it in a rough underhand lob through the bars of the graveyards gate with a satisfying clang. Ey paused, shook the rope, and carefully pulled it back towards em, wedging the sturdy steel banded oak against the bars of the gate whilst looping the spare rope around the back of eir chair. Thus arrayed, ey pulled on the rope whilst pressing forward on the joystick of the chain and slowly, begrudgingly pulled emself, the chair and the coffin up slope and onto the flat-ish surface that marked the start of the path to Al’s grave.

Li allowed emself a small smile as ey retrieved eir impromptu contraption, disassembled it and stowed the rope and cane back under the chair, a second narrow spike of agony a painful marker that the items had been returned to eir correct place. Li grimaced and massaged eir leg in a vain hope to distract emself from the pain, perhaps ey needed a better place to store things. Eir leg had been getting worse lately, a side effect of the new dangers on the street likely made worse by the electrical injury earlier in the month.

Unable and unwilling to return home and give eir leg the recovery time it needed, Li continued onwards into the graveyard, making eir way through the endless rows of headstones until ey could see Sai’s head peeking over the rows. The usually jubilant lawyer was deflated, their body lapsed into a rough slump against their own adjacent headstone.

As Li approached, Sai looked towards em, their eyes dull, lifeless orbs leaking dark trails of moisture along their dark skin. The ghost of a smile flicked across their face as Li approached and they gestured to the sheet covered body beside the grave, a faint trace of flamboyance in the casual flick of their hand, despite the spray of dried blood that followed in its wake.

Li nodded and moved closed. No words were needed, the dark, stained sheet and bloody hands telling more than mere language ever could. Li suppressed a shudder; dead bodies were not something ey were used to and there was nothing Li could do to help just yet anyway.

Instead ey returned eir attention to the bedraggled Sai and found eir eyes drawn to the blood dried and trapped under their fingernails, the dripping lumps of semi coagulated gore and the fine smattering of drops across their shirt. Was there a way to tell them without causing distress? Li took a long look into Sai's eyes and looked for the emotions behind the dull blankness, the boiling blur of grief, regret and the faintest of hopes. Li shook eir head, no - there was no good way of telling them.

The softly spoken word seemed to awaken Sai. They blinked and moved to rub their eyes, stopping just before they could rub the bloody digits across their face. Li winced and looked for something to say.

“Once we have done here, you will need to have a wash. Before then, you are going to need to help me, I can not get Al into here alone.”

Sai nodded, lips tight and moved out of view behind the wheelchair, their absence followed shortly after by a dull click as the coffin was unattached from the back of the chair. Without prompting they moved it adjacent to where Al’s body lay, its white clothed frame looking slight and fragile next to the goliath of metal and wood Li had dragged to it.

Before they continued further, Li took a few minutes to examine the coffin. Easily the most complex device ey had built since eir unexpected move to the street. It was a pipe covered, gem encrusted machine, part enchanted casket, part sophisticated refrigeration device. Sections of it were largely a mystery, a finely polished mass of poorly understood devices pilfered from all across the street and wired together to Red’s exacting specifications. It was a collection of mechanical, magical, and mysterious objects held together by screws, bolts, wires, and in at least one section multiple layers of thickly wrapped tape.

Despite eir uncertainty of what it was ey had actually built, it was clear from eir examination that the coffin was undamaged by its travel to Al’s hopefully less than final resting place. Satisfied that no harm had come to it Li reached over and pressed the release button.

The casket responded with a dull grind as iron gears created against each other, the complex innerworkings opening a myriad of tiny paths for air to rush back into the casket. Air pressure restored, the next stage began, hinges began to creak open, and the well waxed woodwork slid apart to reveal the reclaimed leather cushioning of the inside.

The casket stopped moving and Li looked up to see Sai stood, Al’s lifeless body in their arms, waiting expectantly.

“You can put it in the casket now.”

Li waited as they moved to place Al within the device. Painfully aware of the silent tension from Sai, an uncomfortable reminder to Li of the risk the group had taken, and the gamble of Al’s life against those on the street. The quiet was haunting, and a bitter wind whistled between the graves demanded some noise. Some secret demand for an injection of life into this still place that broke through even Li’s habitual desire for silence.

“Sai, you…” Li trailed off as Sai turned back to em, their eyes barely registering their surroundings.

Ey tried again.

“Sai, you should go home. Rest. Have a shower…” Eir eyes scanned across Sai’s shaking hands, and the slight tremble that was beginning to shake them where they stood.

“…maybe call over Stevie and split a bottle of wine with her?”

Sai nodded absentmindedly, their mind clearly elsewhere and began to walk an erratic, winding path through the graves. Li grimaced and immediately pulled out eir phone to send a message to the aforementioned dryad. The path Sai was taking was too steep and uneven from em to follow, but it didn’t mean that Li was willing to let them wander off on their own.

The message came back immediately, Stevie had dropped everything and was on her way. Content that someone more physical would be able to track down Sai, Li turned back towards the coffin.

The sheet covering Al had slipped when it had been placed into the casket, the harsh white material, already marred with blood now crumpled unevenly across its body revealing the deathly pale skin of its face. Li leaned closer and looked, really looked, at the price it had gambled to make the street a safe place once again. Ey etched every crease and curve of flesh into eir mind, every strand of messy hair and every faint blood splatter.

“We will make it right Al, Jack and me, when we can, when it is time to do so we will bring you back.”

Li looked around the em. The world felt hollow, surrounded by endless headstones and bodies long since forgotten.

Did everyone think they could bring back the dead?

Li didn’t know, but ey did know how to have half a chance of succeeding.

With no good options left, Li wheeled around to the other side of the casket, and pressed the small, nearly hidden button. The casket whirled in response, sealing shut with a whoosh of air and a clang of gears, and Al’s lifeless form was consumed by clouds of smoke, and ash, and magic.

Ey just had to hope it was enough, and that Al would awake in a safer world.