Page 15 of Black Heart

“Nonsense, she’s a tough girl,” Beth said brightly as she practically shoved Marty to the door.

“Sorry, Marty!” Denny yelled as she stumbled onto the front porch.

“Sorry about what?” she asked a second before the door was slammed shut in her face.

“Well, that was definitely odd,” Marty mumbled, blinking at the front door. Deciding to get this over with, she shifted the large picnic basket in her arms and made her towards the sidewalk and-

A tingling sensation crawled up her spine, giving her no choice but to turn around and frown when she spotted Beth standing in the window, watching her with a huge smile and…

Was she giving her a thumbs-up?

“Okay, weirder,” Marty mumbled as she turned back around and headed towards Tristan’s house.

Beth was obviously up to something. What? She didn’t know, but it couldn’t be good.

* * *

“I’m telling ye,that’s not the best way to get this girl,” Shayne argued while Tristan tried focusing on the game and ignoring the asshole.

“Why the hell not? It always worked for me!” the dead asshole said defensively. “He’s good-looking, so it should work.”

Tristan ground his teeth and focused on killing zombies while Shayne gestured towards him. “He can’t just go up to Marty and say, ‘Do ye wanna fuck or do I owe ye an apology?’ That’s a stupid line!”

Pipe Man threw his hands up in frustration. “Why not? It works!”

Shayne grumbled something about assholes as he picked up his controller and joined the game.

“Well, why not?” the dead asshole demanded again.

“I already told ye, Patricia, Marty is a good girl. That shit won’t work on her.”

“And I told you that my name is Patrick, not Patricia!” Patrick snapped.

“Whatever, Patricia, until ye come up with something helpful, shut the fuck up,” Shayne said, beheading a demon.

Patrick tried to sit on the couch only to fall through it and land on his ass. “What the hell?” he shouted, making Shayne and Tristan chuckle.

“Yer just a ghost, lad. Ye can’t take any type of form or interact in this world,” Shayne said dryly.

“But you can,” Patrick said accusingly.

“That’s because I’m not a ghost,” Shayne answered in a bored tone.

“What the hell are you, then?” Patrick demanded as he stood up.

Shayne looked thoughtful for a moment before he said, “I guess I’m what ye would call a shipper.”

“A shipper? You mean like UPS? What the hell does that even mean?” Patrick said, only to hold up a hand when Shayne opened his mouth to answer. “You know what? I don’t really care because we’ve gotten way off-topic here.”

With that, he moved in front of the television and blocked the game.

“Now, where were we? Oh, that’s right. Do what I want or you will never experience a moment of peace again. I’ll also go spy on this Marty chick and watch her when she’s naked,” he added just to piss Tristan off.

Tristan’s expression turned cold as he moved to stand up. “I will fucking-”

Shayne cut him off as he gestured for Tristan to sit back down. “No, he’s right, lad. We really should help him,” he said with a heartfelt sigh as he stood up.

“That’s more like it,” Patrick said, grinning smugly in Tristan’s direction as Shayne joined him.

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