Page 68 of Ruled By Fate

“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing except this thing,” she grabbed the pendant and held it between them, flashing in the lamplight, “reanimated a corpse in the morgue today.”

The color drained completely from Cameron’s face. “It… it did… what?”

“Brought some unsuspecting dead guy back to life, Cameron. It hooked around his finger when I was looking for my shoes, and the next thing you know, a dead guy is sitting up and talking to me, just like I’m talking to you right now.”

His face stilled in confusion. “When you were looking for your—”

“For my shoes, yes.”

“What were your shoes doing in a dead man’s—”

“That’s not the important part of the story, Cameron!”

He looked at her like he was trying to calm down a rampaging honey badger while also trying to figure out how it had gotten into his living room. “Okay, okay. Are you alright?”

“No, I am not alright,” she cried. “A dead guy talked to me. A drunk threw up on my shoes. Some blonde lady wants a doctor in my hospital to do something terrible to a kid. Apparently, there’s a rash of unexplainable deaths sweeping the nation that nobody’s talking about, and meanwhile, Sherry gets to deliver babies in the parking lot!”

She slumped down on the couch, suddenly exhausted. Her little rant had used up the last of her adrenaline reserves, and she was left with nothing but hollow disbelief that this was her life.

He approached her cautiously and sat down beside her. “Do you want some tea?”

She let out a low growl and slumped down further.

“May I rub your back?”

She considered this, then nodded faintly.

He shifted around so he was behind her, then started to massage her shoulders. She groaned involuntarily and closed her eyes, leaning back ever so slightly as his thumbs traced delicate patterns into the muscles along her spine. Her breathing hitched, then slowed. Her pulse did the same.

Either he’s extremely good at this, or I’m getting a magical massage.

Just go with it.

It wasn’t long before the tension started draining away, and the pain began to fade. Only when her breathing had returned to normal did he venture a hesitant question. “So, someone threw up on your shoes?”

She laughed despite herself. “Yes, I’m afraid these are done.”

“I could fix them for you if you want?”

“That’s okay. Even if you did, I’d always know these are the vomit shoes.”

He nodded as though this made sense and decided to push the conversation a step further. “Your necklace reanimated a corpse?”

She nodded glumly. “Yup.”

“You think a blonde lady and a doctor are plotting something to do with a child?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And Sherry delivered a baby in the parking lot?”

She sank back into the cushions. “Yep. Yes, she did.”

“Okay.”

He leaned back as well and was quiet for a moment. Finally, he said, “So, what I’m hearing is that I left you alone for less than a day, and while you managed to single-handedly raise the dead, you can’t even be trusted to keep your shoes clean?”

Their eyes locked for a second, and his lip curled up in the faintest hint of a grin.

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