Page 4 of Archie

“My name is Shelly Gibson. I’m dead. Or at least I think that’s what happened to me. I’m not entirely sure. Anyway, I’m…I was your brother’s girlfriend up until—To be honest, I’m not doing well with times. I can hang out a little, but then I get sort of weak and sleep, I guess. Only to wake up someplace else. Like here. I’ve been trying to find you since I passed away.” Carrie asked her how she had died. “Douglas beat me all the time. I think that it was our thing. Anyway, I read in the paper about you being a hero and we got into a fight. That doesn’t matter, not really, but he beat me up again. Snatched some of my hair out of my head too. I ended up in the emergency room because I started throwing up. The doctors there told me that I had a concussion, a bad one, and that they needed to take some x-rays. I had a brain bleed, they told me when the doctor came to see me. After giving me something to calm me down…I think I died before they could operate on me. At least, that’s what I’m thinking. I don’t know how I died other than I just showed up at the hotel where I’d been staying, and Douglas didn’t acknowledge me in any way.”

“So you’re telling me that you’re dead and that my brother had something to do with it. I don’t know what your game is, but Douglas is dead.” Shelly told her that he faked his death so that he didn’t get killed when some of the people that he borrowed money from would leave him alone. “I’m sorry. This is a lot to take in. He’s alive. And has been all this time. While I don’t want to believe you, this does sound like something that he’d do.”

As she was sitting there, talking to Shelly about some of the things that had happened since her brother faked his death, Nash joined her on the couch. He asked her who she was talking to.

“Shelly Gibson. Do you know her?” He shook his head telling her that he did not. “She claims, and I have to admit that I’m believing what she says about him, but she told me that he killed her. Indirectly, I guess, but he slapped her around, and that was how she ended up in the ED. She died before they could take care of something—”

“You don’t believe me?” Carrie turned to Shelly and told her that it was a lot to take in. “I guess I can understand that. It’s not every day that a dead person would visit you. How long have the dead been coming to you?”

“You’re my first.” She looked at Nash when he cleared his throat. “She’s talking to me about how I don’t believe her. I feel like Alice and that I’ve tumbled down a rabbit hole.”

Nash threw back his head and laughed. “You’re such a delight. However, if she’s speaking to you from the beyond, I’d believe her. I just checked with the hospital, and a woman died two days ago from blunt force. Her body hasn’t been identified, but I was able to have the faerie that I sent there to verify that it’s the woman you’re talking to.”

“Now, what do I do?” Nash told her that Archie was on his way home, and he wanted to see if he could see her as well. “So we just hang out? I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling decidedly overwhelmed right now.”

“I don’t blame you, love. This is something new to all of us.” Carrie didn’t comment on the fact that there were three more men in the room with them. All of them looked as if they’d had their throat cut out. She asked Nash to describe what the men looked like that he’d killed. “One of them is taller than the other two. He has blond hair and a tattoo on his face of a teardrop. The second man was shorter and very heavy. He had as many as three chins. His hair was dark, almost black. The third man. Let me think. By the time I got to him, he’d shot at me three times. I don’t know if you can see it or not but he didn’t have his right hand after I was finished with him. Is that them?”

“Yes. All three of them are here and they’re demanding that I bring them back to life. I’m not going to do that. I don’t know that I can but I wouldn’t anyway.” Nash told her that he was glad for that. Just then, Archie came into the room and sat down on her other side. “Can you see them too?”

He looked around the room until she pointed out that Shelly was sitting on the couch and that the three men were in the doorway to go outside. Shaking his head, he said that he couldn’t but that he’d be there for her if they came at her.

“You think they can harm me?” He said he didn’t know anyone else who could see them, so he hadn’t any idea if they could or not. “Good point. Nash can’t see them either. I’m assuming that this is some of the magic that I got from you. If so, why can’t you see them too?” Archie took her hand into his and kissed the back of it.

“I don’t have any idea. But I would say that’s about right.” He looked in the direction of where Shelly was sitting again. “I don’t know how to help you on this other than to be with you when you’re working. Do you know what it is that you’re supposed to do for the dead? Have you any clue that would help them or something?”

“I suddenly have a bunch of information in my head. When you touched me, it was just there. I can help them, but not illegal. Also, I can do things for those who have been murdered. However, if anything happens, like they try to make me kill someone for them, I can send them away.” She looked back at the three men that had murdered before. “I can tell what their deeds are, too. Those three men that you killed, Nash? They have a long list of people that they’ve murdered. I even know where the bodies are.”

She thought of their mother, a woman who deserved to be sent away more than anything. Carrie had heard about how she’d treated her sons and wanted them to be safe. It occurred to her that she knew that she’d been causing trouble to the other dead people in the holding area. What she hadn’t been aware that it was called.

“What the fuck are you doing?” The moment that the elderly woman spoke, she knew who it was. LouCinda Sheppard had made her way to her. It was Shelly who confirmed it for her by telling her that she’d been harming the dead since her death. “I asked you a question. What do you think you’re doing with my ungrateful curs of my children?”

“Guys? Your mother is here. At least, that’s who I think it is. There is an elderly man with her, but he committed suicide. I have to figure out how to speak to him.” Both of them stood up, but they sat down again when she asked them to. “She’s complaining about how you all are responsible for her death. I don’t believe that any more than I believe that the world is going to be all up in smoke in ten minutes.”

“What is she saying about us? I’m curious to know.” Carrie told the two brothers how she was bitching about dying before they did. “She wanted us to be dead. Tell her who you are to me, love. I’m betting that gets her really pissed off.”

“You’re not supposed to be here without an appointment.” LouCinda told her that it was her house and she’d do as she pleased. “But it’s not your house. It’s mine and Archies. We’re going to be getting married soon too. Might even have a bunch of little cubs and tell the world how we made you a grannie. Won’t that be awesome?”

“It will not. You get that notion out of your head right now. I’ll not have you…who are you anyway? Some tart that thinks to get my son to marry you? He won’t. I don’t know why he’s thinking that he can do a damned thing without my approval, but none of them are going to be married. Over my dead body.”

“Well, that’s easy enough. You are dead, dumbass. And you’ll keep control of yourself, or I’ll send you away. Now, as I was saying, we’re going to be living here and making this house a great deal more fun than you ever allowed. And when the holidays come around, we’ll put up the biggest tree we can find. In every room of the house, too.” She glanced at Shelly, who told her that she was there to help her if she needed it. “Now I have a helper. Your mother is still bitching, but I’m ignoring her for now. What do you want done with her? I can send her away; that’s what I’d do, or we can send her back to where she came from.”

“Away.” She asked Archie if he wanted to ask his brothers. Perhaps they’d want some questions answered. “I’ll ask them. That’s a good point. Though I will have to admit, whatever spews from her mouth would be a lie.”

After Archie spoke to his brothers by the way of the link that they all shared, they all agreed to send her away. Her father, as well. Asking Shelly what the repercussions would be if she did that, Shelly said that nothing would come back on her as that’s what she’s around for. Seeding LouCinda away was fine by her so she simply told her she was no longer welcome in this plane or the other. That she was forbidden to come back again.

When she disappeared, the elderly man stepped forward. There was so much anger and evilness coming from him that the air surrounding the man was bright red with it. While she thought of that, she looked at Shelly. Her air was blue. And according to the information that was in her mind, she wasn’t perfect but she wasn’t evil either.

“She’s gone. Now, your grandfather? What do you want to do with him?” Archie said that he had a question for him. After he asked the old man, she waited for his answer like everyone else did.

“Why did I treat you so badly? Christ, you weren’t wanted in the first place. And if I’d of had my way, I would have killed your father the first time he had sex with my baby girl. But she didn’t mind it as much until she got knocked up. I hated the six of you more than…well, my own mate. And I hated her with every breath that I took for trying to make my little girl into her image. She was easy to kill, unlike the lot of you. You’ve no idea how many times I would try to smother you. Drowning you in the tub, too. It was like you had nine lives or something. Always hanging on out of spite to me. Then that fucking bitch, Lily, came along and made it so I couldn’t touch you, and that pissed me off enough that I killed my son-in-law when I couldn’t kill you kids. You hung on like your…that’s funny, you hung on like your life depended on it. So I guess that’s right. What do you plan on doing with me? Huh? Do you think you can just toss me away like she did your mother? It’s not going to happen. I’m here for good. I have friends in places like the one where I’m staying that will kill you off so that I can have my life back. Yeah, you heard me, I’m going to be alive soon and you’ll see just how bad I can treat you six. Good Christ, I can’t believe I was stupid enough to kill myself off when I should have turned the gun on the lot of you.” Carrie understood that there were people in the world of the dead who bragged about returning the dead to the living. But it wasn’t possible.

With a snap of her fingers, something that she’d never been able to accomplish before, the man disappeared in a puff of dark red smoke. Almost like he’d exploded where he stood, and the evilness of his life was all that was left of him. Turning to Archie, she waited for a few seconds before speaking to him.

“We need to bond. I want to be assured of being able to protect your family if someone like that comes around again. It won’t be your family, I don’t believe so, but there might be some people that don’t care for what I’m doing with their kind.” Archie asked her if she was sure. “I am. I don’t think I’ve ever been so sure of something than I am bonding with you. I’m not sure if I love you. I’m sorry about that. I don’t believe that I’ve ever loved anyone before. I did love my parents. But I’ve also come to the conclusion that they weren’t all that good to me anyway. It was always about themselves. And Douglas when he needed their help financially. As in him needing bail and a good attorney. “

“How often was that? I’m assuming quite frequently, knowing what little I know about him now.” Carrie said it wasn’t too bad when he’d been a teenager but it got so much worse when he got older. “I’m assuming that you’ve never been in trouble. That’s why they never noticed you. Is that about right?”

“Yes. They loved each other without thought to their children. I tried acting out, getting them to at least notice me but that wasn’t happening. Then Douglas started his life of crime, and that was all they could see with him. All they wanted to see, I guess. When they died, my mother passed on first, then my dad. They said that he died of a broken heart. Mom died of lung cancer because she smoked two packs of cigarettes a day up until she got lung cancer. After that, I think it was a race for her to smoke as much as she could. Stupid of her, but then I don’t know that she was ever very smart. Mom seemed to be the breadwinner most of the time.” Archie asked her if her mother had the money. “Yes. Dad didn’t have anything before they married. Mom had married him after her parents had died, and they had left her a great deal of money. They didn’t spend it on much, not even to upgrade the house, so when they died, they left it all to me. I guess when I think about it, they had noticed me and rewarded me for not causing any trouble. Douglas wasn’t mentioned in the will, and as far as I can remember, he’s never asked about it. Is he really still alive?”

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