Page 20 of Dead Serious with Benefits
“Not even once.”
“Wow, you’re a cool customer there, Arlo.”
“Anachronisms aside,” I said, eyeing him. “I have never seen any reason to believe that spirits of the dead exist, let alone linger on this side of the afterlife.Especiallydown here. If ghosts were to exist and wanted to haunt somewhere, I suspect they would stick to where they died, or perhaps somewhere that had meaning to them in life.”
“I just...find that hard to believe. All these dead bodies down here and...nothing?”
“They’re empty, Mitchell. The only thing to fear from them is potential diseases, and we have precautions to prevent the spread.”
“Yeah, I guess,” he said, and I noted a hint of discomfort in his voice, which wasn’t surprising since he had always been a little uncomfortable around the dead. If anything, I was surprised he had come down here. This was where the illusions were stripped away, and he always seemed far more comfortable dealing with the living and avoiding the dead. Elaine avoided coming down here, though she probably didn’t realize I had noticed. When she did, I suspected she wanted to prove to someone, probably herself, that she could be down here without being uncomfortable. “Still?—”
I glanced at him. “Still...what?”
“I don’t know,” he sighed, pushing to his feet and walking to the plastic strips dividing this room from the preparation room. He peered in, and I wondered if he was expecting a body to be laid out rather than tucked away in the coolers where they stayed until they were ready for preparation. “Growing up, my brother and his friends loved telling me creepy, scary stories. Used to drive my mom crazy because I was such a scaredy cat, and my brother took advantage of it.”
“That sounds like an older brother,” I said with a snort, thinking of Mason and all his mischievous, occasionally accidental, mean ways.
“Yeah, you’d think I would have learned not to listen to my brother, but uh...apparently not. Took me years to realize he was full of shit,” Mitchell said with a snort. “Still is actually, but it’s funny now. The number of times my parents nailed his ass to the wall for trying to screw with me intentionally, and he never stopped.”
Yes, that was the overall theme of Mason’s story, without the scaring people.
“Anyway,” Mitchell said when I didn’t reply. “I guess that shit stuck with me. I’ve never been, like, constantly worried about ghosts and stuff. But sometimes I’ll get this creepy feeling like I’m being watched, you know?”
I glanced at him. “You might be, but I doubt it’s a supernatural presence. More likely a real person who has their sights set on you.”
“Ugh, if you weren’t you, I’d think you were trying to scare me. I get that feeling in the shower sometimes, man.”
“And you think it’s more likely a ghost is peeping on you while naked as opposed to a real person?”
“A ghost would have an easier time hiding in my tiny bathroom,” he said with a snort. “Ugh, unless there’s a camera...do you think?”
I looked and shrugged. “I suppose it wouldn’t be too off the mark to guess someone would want to see you bathing. It’s more likely that you’re psyching yourself out than any actual spying going on. That said, there are devices you can use to scan your bathroom to make sure there aren’t any listening devices or cameras.”
“I’m still figuring out if you just called me ugly,” Mitchell said dryly. “Maybe I’ll take the risk of a camera and feel a little pretty.”
“You are very pretty,” I told him, deadpan. “The prettiest.”
Mitchell tucked the tips of his fingers under his chin, framing his face with the rest of his hand. “Thanks.”
“That was easy.”
“Now we’re on this topic?—”
“Of you being pretty?”
“The prettiest, remember?”
“Of course.”
“But no, not the part where you stated the obvious, the part where you commented on my looks.”
I thought about it for a minute. “I...said it wouldn’t be too far off the mark that someone might want to spy on you while bathing.”
He leaned forward, squinting. “That’s the first time you’ve ever commented on someone’s looks in a way that could be...I don’t know, a hint that you might be interested in someone. Are you interested in me?”
“No.”
“Hey, I mean, it’s the twenty-first century, I’m not judging. Being attractive to both men and women is kind of nice, you know? Not that I’m going to take all suitors, but?—”
