The Awakening

Oh God.

"It stinks real bad, and it's sort of scary." Bliss swallowed hard. "Do you believe in ghosts?"

How could she not? She'd destroyed many of them. "Of course." Gaby looked back at the theater door, but there was no sign of Luther. "Listen to me, Bliss, You should stay out of those woods, and you should definitely stay away from that hospital."

"But…"

"It's scary because disordered, rancorous spirits possess it."

Bliss's eyes went round. "Spirits?"

Nodding, Gaby said, "Not just spirits from the deceased either. The average person has such a fairy-tale perception of evil. They think energized emissions come only from those who have passed."

"You mean from dead people?"

"Exactly. But that's not the case. Not always." Gaby visualized the isolation hospital, the way it had made her feel, and she almost shivered. "Definitely not the case with that place."

"You're scaring me, Gaby."

"Good." Maybe she'd heed Gaby's warning and stay away from the hospital, "Dead, alive, sick, tormented, and tortured spirits stir the air all around that place. It's wicked, and treacherous."

In awe and worry, Bliss stared at her. "You've been there?"

"Yeah." Gaby had to make the girl understand. "Malevolent discarnates overrun that hospital and the grounds around it. Not just the dead, Bliss. But spirits of deranged people, desperately unhappy people whose circumstances have adversely affected their behavior."

Bliss whispered, "So you're sayin' there's live people there who'd wanna hurt me?"

How could the girl be so stupid? "Exactly. They might not be consciously evil. They could be confused, desperate, unaware of how their actions hurt others. But that makes them no less dangerous for someone like you." For someone like Gaby, it was a whole different story. "Promise me you won't go there again."

"I… I never wanted to go there in the first place. And now without Rose…" She chewed her lips. "But that's what I was gonna say to you—what if somethin' happened to Rose? What if she's there and hurt and I'm too chicken-shit to check on her?" Big tears spilled over Bliss's painted lashes, leaving muddy tracks on her cheeks. "What if them spirits have her is why I ain't seen her?"

It amazed Gaby that one person could look so pitiful and pathetic. Against her better judgment, with warning bells going off all through her system, Gaby said, "Don't start sniveling on me, okay? I'll go there to look for Rose."

Relief nearly melted Bliss over the curb. "You'd do that? Really?" She wiped at her eyes—and in the process removed some of her makeup, too. "When?"

That's when Gaby noticed the lingering braises. The girl had not had an easy life. Maybe that's why, despite her wariness. Gaby felt an affinity to her. "Right now, if you want me to."

"Now?"

"Yeah." Luther could damn well talk all night to Ann, since that seemed his intention anyway.

"But…" Again looking away, Bliss shook her head. "If you go right now, and Rose ain't hurt, she wouldn't be there."

"No?" Gaby's eyes narrowed. "Where would she be then?"

Bliss drew away a little. "Um… Could be she's just mad at me or somethin' and maybe that's why she's not around."

Gaby saw the deception in every line of Bliss's body. "So now you think she's unhurt?"

"I dunno. Maybe. I'm just sayin', if she's not hurt, this time of night she would be workin'."

The cloud of conspiracy thickened—but that didn't deter Gaby. For whatever reason, she felt she needed to follow Bliss's lead, to carry out the plan. "Okay, Bliss. So if you don't want me to check on Rose now, then when should I?"

"I… I dunno." Nearly choking on the words, Bliss turned away. She fretted with the fringe off the end of her denim skirt. Misery weighed her down. "Oh God, I'm so sorry."

Gaby tilted her head. "You apologizing to me or Him?"

"What?" Bliss floundered in confusion. "No, I… You was so nice to me, and you already helped enough."

"But?"

Firming her resolve, Bliss drew a deep breath and blurted, "I shouldn't be dumping all this on you. I know that. But I…"

Don't have a choice, Gaby silently finished for her. Someone had coerced the girl, likely applying with threats either to her, or to a friend… perhaps Rose.

For once, Gaby put aside her suspicions and reached out to take Bliss's hand. "It's all right." And she meant it. Everything would be all right. Even a conspiracy. "Tell me when I should go."

Eyes squeezed shut, Bliss whispered, "She'd be most likely to be there tomorrow night." She drew a broken, shuddering breath, and whispered very low, "Will you please be careful?"

"I always am."

At that firm statement, Bliss opened her eyes again. She looked at Gaby, and some of her upset abated. "You will, won'tcha? You'll be real careful and everything really will be okay."

"Yeah." It'd be fine for Gaby, and hopefully for Bliss. But for the restless spirits—from both the dead and the tormented—hell would make some claims.

With a new calm about her, Bliss tried a small smile. "There's a lot of buildings by the old hospital. You need to go to the one with graffiti on the walls. That's the place. Rose might be in there, on the first floor."

"So specific." Gaby shook her head at the easily thwarted plan. Definitely a scheme. And not a very bright one. "Any particular time tomorrow?"

"After dark, but before midnight."

"That's when you and Rose would hang out there?"

"Yeah." Appearing more relaxed. Bliss said, "I remember how you fought that guy in the alley. You was like a superhero or a ninja or maybe both." She gazed at Gaby with adoring eyes. "I never seen nothin' like it."

"I know."

"You saved me, so you should be able to save yourself, huh?"

A verbal slipup, that. "Yeah, I can save myself." Taking a chance, Gaby said, "I'm sorry I couldn't save Rose, though."

Bliss started to nod, then caught herself with a sharply indrawn breath. She reared back in fear and shock, looking around the sidewalk. "I gotta go. I shouldn't have sat here talkin' so long."

"It's all right." They both stood, and Gaby said, "Go on. But Bliss?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful tonight, okay? Stay out of the shadows and alleys. Stay where there are people."

"I will." Bliss turned—and ran into Luther.

He caught her arms, but looked beyond her to Gaby. "Making friends?"

Well hell. For a minute there, Gaby had forgotten all about him. "Bliss and I are already acquainted."

"Bliss, huh?" Luther's expression sharpened and he looked at the girl with new interest. "Is that so?"

Seeing Luther sent Bliss into a terror and she bolted away in a run made more graceless by those hideous sandals.

Frowning, Gaby watched her disappear around a corner; utilizing her crazy intuition, she knew Bliss would be okay. She dismissed any worries and instead put her mind to figuring out the treachery that had been awkwardly presented.

"Let me guess."

Gaby recalled Luther's presence. "Don't bother. She's the girl I helped the other night."

"The girl who was there when you stabbed her attacker."

"One and the same."

"And somehow, she just ran into you here?"

"Actually," Gaby said on her way to his car, "I think she was looking for me."

Luther beat her to the door and opened it for her. "To thank you?"

"Not exactly." She seated herself, reached back to adjust the knife in the sheath so it didn't gouge her spine, and then waited while Luther studied her.

"What exactly?"

Impassive and unprovoked, Gaby stared up at him. "What did Ann want?"

He sighed—and slammed her door. When he got behind the wheel and had the engine humming, he said, "I can't tell you."

"Ah." Gaby propped her feet on the dash. "So it was something all sugary sweet and intimate, huh? I understand." She was probably better off not knowing. "That's not the sort of a thing a man like you shares, I guess."