One of the ghosts that was only a couple of feet away fades away, disappearing like a wisp of smoke.
Something tells me I better ask any other questions quickly, before the evidence in front of us fades into thin air.
I hurry toward the nearest ghost. It’s a guy in a shirt which is unbuttoned right the way down to his belly button, showing off a hairy chest.
“Hey, do you know what happened to you? Please, if you remember where you were or what happened, tell me.”
My softly, softly approach didn’t work, and it seems like we’re running out of time. Right in front of my eyes, thewoman I spoke to first thenpopsout of existence and her ghost disappears.
The pile of bodies is fast disappearing, too.
Shit.
I hurriedly approach another ghost. “You all look like you went to a bar or something. Do you remember exactly where you were before you ended up here?”
“Out. I think.” The man frowns and rubs his eyes. “It’s kind of fuzzy. I just remember feeling really good.”
“Out at a bar? At a restaurant? A casino?”
These people can’t all have been casualties of one of the fight nights. Although, you would have thought that word would have spread if there was a massacre on the streets of Arcanum.
Although, with this city, and the way things are run, maybe not.
“I wanted to get laid,” the ghost guy tells me. “I think maybe I did get laid. I guess I must have died happy.”
“Died?” Someone else’s voice echoes the word and I grimace.
“Uh, it seems that way.”
Yeah, I’m definitely failing my first test in talking to dead people.
“This is nutso,” Roscoe mutters, sidling up beside me and slinging an arm around my shoulders. “I’ve seen you talk to people in your head, but this is a whole other thing.”
Dante sniffs the air again beside the rapidly diminishing pile of bodies.
“I died with a hard-on, can’t work out if that’s embarrassing or not.”
And those are the last words the ghost guy says before he, too,popsout of existence.
Soon, all the ghosts are gone and all that’s left is a pile of bones.
Which start to whisper.
“You smell so damn good. I just want to lick you.”
Oh fuck. Not this again.
I stare and stare at the pile of bones, trying to make sense of what’s happened here. How it all fits in with everything else that’s gone on recently.
The bones beneath the city. The bloodless bodies outside the cafe. The mass drugging at Second Circle. The vamps that want to take over the city, who have apparently gone to ground since we’ve heard nothing more of them in over a week.
What the fuck is going on in this city?
At least we haven’t had any more run-ins with Felix. Haven’t seen or heard anything from him at all. I’m guessing he’s keeping my secrets to himself for now, just in case he needs to use them to manipulate me in future.
Also, no one’s tried to blow anyone up for almost a month now. A couple of small mercies when we’re wading blind through shit.
“Silver?” Someone touches my shoulder and I jump a mile.