nine stories

Rumor has it that the kid is being brought back.

She didn’t need to die, whole thing was a misunderstandin‘, so I heard. But her sister’s been practicin’ bringin’ back people from the dead in order to revive her.

I hear she hired someone to keep the body in a cryo-chamber. Heard she’s been doin’ deals with deities of various… shades of morality, we’ll say.

Been a few weeks now. If it’s possible to bring back the dead, I bet she’s close.

I’m alright with that. She was a sweet kid. Had some bitchin’ weed hook-ups too.

Timespace anomalies… I think that’s the word, have been poppin’ up all over in certain places where her sister’s been, but some lady in white keeps comin’ by and closing’ ‘em.

Rumor has it, anyway.

~~~

My daughter is dead.

We almost died ourselves in my wife’s ensuing rampage. She was murdered, my little girl was, and no two were more affected than my wife and my other daughter.

I barely managed to calm my wife down, of course, but my other daughter slinked away, talking about getting her back no matter the cost.

I’ve heard from other friends she’s been to that she plans on doing just that. She always did seem the type to do that. She cared for her sister just as much as we did. But I trust her to do what she needs to to make it happen.

All we can do is bide our time till then.

My daughter is dead, but I know she’ll be back.

~~~

Police reports read that there had been a murder. Business as usual for me, until I saw that it was someone I knew.

Now there’s stories coming in of a mysterious dark figure being spotted at the sites of various supernatural crimes around the area.

I know that figure.

I had hoped she was safe after the incident, And it turns out she was, even if she was now doing… this, for some reason. I’m going to believe that she’s just using whoever’s having her do this stuff.

I have my own ne’er do wells to chase until I’m proven right or wrong.

Police reports read that there had been a murder, but I have a feeling it’ll be set straight soon.

~~~

They call me a spirit medium.

I talk to lost souls, I heal lost souls. I power my abilities with evil souls. But more recently, I’ve traced the location of a lost soul.

She approached the night after the news came in of the incident. Handed me a wad of cash to do my work but I refused it. I knew the family. And I understand just what they would do for each other.

My partner in the business doesn’t think she’ll succeed in reviving her, but of course she doesn’t. Her wife is a deity of death for corn’s sake.

I know better. I know magic is capable of some very great things. And I also know my partner’s daughter is on the case of preparing the soul for revival… among the other weird shit she does. That girl has her ways.

They call me a spirit medium for a reason.

~~~

I’m just a simple mechanic.

Usually I just make prosthetics. My partner is an army medic and we plan to start up a clinic. I’m even going out for my medical license so I can make this official and be legally allowed to install my work.

But that’s not what this is about.

No, you see, I also dabble in other machines. Fixing cars, mostly, for spare cash, but in my free time I make things like robots, and my latest project was a preservation chamber for organs going to transplant.

My prototype could hold a full human comfortably. For organ donors and all that. That was why she approached me. And now I can’t use my basement workshop because I’ll have to look at the bod and it creeps me out.

I’ve been trying to avoid my house since for fear it’s haunted, which means I have to stay with my partner.

I’m just a simple mechanic, I never asked for this.

~~~

I am a woman of medicine.

It’s my job to stay strong in the face of tragedy.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t hurt inside when it happens for people close to me, or even people close to the people who are close to me.

I was the one called in to the scene of the incident. The girl had died nearly instantly. Probably didn’t even see it coming. The family was friends with a few friends of mine.

I saw one of her mothers fly into a rage, and I saw her other mom try desperately to calm her down. I know they eventually made it through okay. Call it intuition. But her sister worried me. I saw the look in her eyes change.

She somehow got me to hold onto the body for her to take with her. I think she thinks she can raise her. I hope she does.

I am a woman of medicine, but I still believe in magic.

~~~

I know what it’s like to lose family.

My mother was killed by my aunt, who in turn tried to rape and kill one of my sisters, and was brought down by my father. He went to prison for life for it.

One of my other sisters died in an accident and we had to stuff her soul into her twin to save her.

So believe me when I say I’m rooting for that kid, even if I don’t agree with her methods. That sister of hers knew a thing or two about shooting. We would talk technique.

I wish there were an easier way to go about it than what she’s doing. I’d find it myself but I came about it far too late.

I know what it’s like to lose family, so I understand that pain.

~~~

Time works in mysterious ways.

Just because I’m the goddess of it, doesn’t mean I understand it. But it wants me to help bring this girl into line with her sister for revival.

I’ve tasked my best agent to help her get strong enough to survive the process. Her powers to somehow be in two separate planes… or even universes at once, I suspect, do help with that.

Meanwhile her and I will stitch up any major anomalies that happen in the places where the waking world crosses paths with the astral plane where the dead roam.

That’s the plan. Help the girl. Her and me, any day.

Time works in mysterious ways, and it’s my job to help it along.

~~~

I am alive. Or at least I will be soon.

I know the bad things my sister’s done for me. It was part of this quest thing to mirror her and also do them.

But you know what?

If I had lived, and she had died, I think I’d have done the same things to get her back.

They, and I don’t know who ‘they’ are, sent a girl to help me along. I was shaky on her at first, she was very… energetic, but I can’t say I haven’t grown fond. I hope she can cross planes and visit me sometimes after I’m alive again.

I still don’t know how I died. It took me by surprise, and I didn’t even know I had died till I woke up and there was the girl. But I bet you I already know how my family reacted. Ma went berserk. Mom had to bring her down from her rampage. And if not for my sister, I wouldn’t be here on this timey wimey revivey quest.

But I trust her. I know she knows what she’s doing.

I think one day soon, I’ll be able to say.

I am alive again.