Blinking in surprise, I shook myself. “What? You talk like you have some sort of inside knowledge.”
We were putting off finding this body. We both knew that’s what we were searching for. After this long, the killer would be gone. All we were going to come across was a corpse and the possibility of a few clues. Neither of us had high hopes anymore.
“Vi, the blonde at work, is a demi-angel.” Addie went on to explain her friend’s involvement with Hell, Heaven, and Archangels.
The story kept us busy until we finally found the house that gave her a chill. Addie stopped and shuddered. When she declared that death was still lingering, I cautiously approached the house. I couldn’t enter without reasonable suspicion, and Addie’s ability to sense death wasn’t going to hold up in court.
That meant peeking through windows. If I could see the victim through the window, then I would have every right to enter. However, I wasn’t that lucky. A thick, light-blocking curtain hung over the window, blocking my view.
“You know everyone in town,” I said to Addie. “Do you know who lives here? Can you give them a call?”
Addie raised a brow then a lightbulb seemed to go off over her head. “I know everydeadperson, but I typically don’t meet my neighbors until then. Perse and I didn’t have more than a few short exchanges before she died.”
It was a reach, I knew. Still, I had to ask. There was no way I’d know otherwise.
“That woman, Perse? Would she know?”
Addie bit her lip, her brows arching in indecision. “Maybe? I felt someone die and there’s no ghost here. I…I don’t want to involve Perse in something that could be dangerous for her. What if this killer can, like, eat ghosts or something? I don’t want her to end up like Jaden. Not if I can help it.”
That sounded like a bunch of excuses to me, but I didn’t have time to push. We didn’t have proof of death yet. If we acted fast, there was a chance we could save someone.
Grumbling, I moved around the side of the house. This could get me in trouble, but there had to be a way to find out if everyone inside was okay. Behind me, Addie had another idea.
She walked right up to the door and knocked. The sound rang in my ears like a gunshot. I hadn’t realized just how quiet it’d gotten until just now. I’d been afraid to make a sound in case the killer was still around.
Addie didn’t have that same fear. That, or she was trying to bait the killer into coming out. She knocked again. Every rap of her knuckles against the door announced her presence while I was hidden from sight at the side of the house.
Nervously, Addie wrung her hands. She bent to peer through the nearby window, but I doubted she could see any more than I could.
Until a creature launched itself at the inside of the curtain and tore it away from the window. Addie let out a shrill shriek. I slapped my hip for my weapon only to remember that I’d left it back at Addie’s house. I’d been in such a rush to head out that I hadn’t even thought to grab it.
Then again, I knew that the thing was damn near useless against zombies, anyway. Should anything happen, my only option was to grab Addie and run. These human hands were useless in the face of supernatural danger and my thumping heart knew it.
However, the creature wasn’t a threat. Tiny claws ripped the curtain from the wall. A cat in the rough shape that I could only call a fluff-ball hopped onto the table beneath the window and meowed at us. The little thing showed us every tooth in its mouth when it cried, but I paid it no attention.
My gaze went to the body beyond it.
Another woman who looked surprisingly similar to Addie. Cold rushed through my veins. I went to Addie’s side and grabbed her hand just to remind myself that she was still warm and alive.
Quickly, I released her before she got any weird ideas.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she snapped, likely thinking that I’d grabbed her to keep her from running off like she had the night in the car.
I wasn’t about to tell her the real reason I’d grabbed her. Instead, I cautiously approached the door and used my shirt to test the doorknob. I might smear any fingerprints there, but at least I wasn’t adding to them. To my surprise, the door swung open.
Inhaling in a soft hiss, I gently pushed the door and peered through the yawning crack. The inside of the living room was dark, but I could make out just enough to see that there’d been a struggle. Tables had been knocked over, their contents scattered across the floor.
A basket of scarves had been tipped. The fabric spilled out like guts leading towards the victim who had one tied around her neck. From the purple gathering in her lifeless face, I could tell that the scarf had been the murder weapon.
The longer I stared down at her, the more unsettled I became. I didn’t want to be this useless. There were lives that I could have been saving, but I had no real power here. I couldn’t sense death coming. I couldn’t fight off the things this killer sent after us.
Over and over, I found myself lacking.
I had to step up. I was done crying about my faults. One way or another, I would turn them into my advantages so that I could stop this killer.