Page 34 of Body Tox

I was leading Asher here. I realized…I was worried about the brown-haired man walking into that snake’s den.

Would the snake spout bullshit to him, too, about the empires and war?

What did that creep even mean anyway?

There was a cellar. It was tucked away so far from the church that I wondered if the same place even owned it, but another sign was posted. This one wasn’t fluffy about acceptance or welcoming in the slightest. I frowned, reading the scrawled writing, and that chill from before became even more potent.

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous will soar within the eternal life.” Brushing off the debris from the door, I listened for anything odd.

Did these weirdos keep animals locked away in here to sacrifice to their god?

I didn’t hear anything weird, so I tested the door, shoving it with my foot. After the loud clank, I saw the padlock with a fucking fingerprint?

What in the hell was stored down there?

I knocked on the wooden decrepit door.

“Hello?” I whispered loudly.

Trying to hear over the rush of the wind and annoying ass birds tweeting around the wooded area near us was discomforting. A buzz sounded from the pocket of the jacket, and I frowned, sticking my hand in the fabric and bringing out a phone.

Asher left his phone in his jacket. What kind of secrets did my target keep? Gasping, I dropped the cell and tried to catch my breath.

A familiar number flashed across the screen with an ominous message blinking on the display.

Unknown: GPS coordinates indicate the package was delivered. Please hold.

I stared at the phone, watching it light up and more automated letters morphing into different messages.

Unknown: Package accepted. Delivery successful.

The address typed under the text was for the very land I was standing on—the church.

What the fuck was delivered? And why was Asher the one delivering it?

“Fisherman by day and a delivery boy at night, Pretty Boy?” My curiosity peaked. I sat on the grass, not knowing the passcode. I couldn’t do shit but stare at the same screen.

After a while, no other messages came through. Welp, doing things the old-fashioned way it is, then.

Feeling some little pebbles under my ass on the grass by the cellar, I grinned. I would make a delicious little trail for my monster to follow, and when he fell into my trap, I’d get the answers I fucking wanted. I sliced the stone into my arm, walking around the area and leaving small red dots on the ground.

“Come on, lover boy. I’ll be waiting.”

The trail that was left of sweet little blood drops was so damn unfair. I knew this was a trap, yet I happily raced to my slaughter. It was getting ‘dark.’ In Alaska, that meant it got loud with animals, people disappeared, the cold became a problem, and the hazy dusk tone filled the skies.

That was okay. I enjoyed the darkness that Alaskan beauty offered. I’d lived my whole life in the shadows, bouncing from one corner to the next. At night, you could hide in the light that exposed you.

“Oh, my Little Wraith.” I sang, squinting to see her trail of broken sticks and beads of blood in the dusk moonlight.

I was at a cathedral now. The huge ass holy fuck land swallowed most of the landscape.

There was no way she’d go traipsing buck naked in a church, right?

I rubbed the stubble on my face and realized…yes, she fucking would. Sighing, I turned toward the church, abandoning the trail that led deep into the woods, likely a goose chase that would lead me right back to these doors.

It was shut tight for the night, but I knew a closed door wouldn’t stop a vengeful spirit like my Little Wraith.

I inspected the cool metal door, wondering what angle she would pull to get through.

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