Just One Kiss

Chapter 8

This was not an opportunity I could miss. My first class of the day was Chemistry. I’m pretty sure nobody would miss me if I just happened to forget my way to that particular class. 

I started to walk towards the class with the rest of the students; the only difference was that I wasn’t gossiping about the supposed murder. Nor was I sobbing desperately into my hands like many of the girls was doing. So dramatic! I mean come on; most of the people here most likely didn’t even know the person. 

Actually, I don’t even know who it is…but I can make a guess that it’s a woman without a soul, she will be heading for a new life of pain and torment now. 

I was starting to sound really morbid now. And I was depressing myself. 

The crowd of weeping, dramatic people disappeared into the room without noticing that they had lost a fellow student who had not been murdered. 

Me. 

I crept around to the registration office and slid through the door. There was a notion in the back of my head that said there would be papers or some file that would tell me what happened to this person. 

Or better yet, who the hell this person was. 

I think it was safe to say that I had not woken up in the greatest of moods. Back off Godzilla, there’s a new chick in town. 

My hunch proved correct. I found useful papers in there that directed me to the city morgue. Not what I had hoped for this fine morning but there you have it. You can’t choose you future, as I had realised from past experience. 

The papers didn’t give me any name, just the date of birth and death. It didn’t even give me the cause of death. This death must have been supernatural otherwise it would give that information. 

Curious. 

And sneaky, whoever this killer was he sure was good. Either he must be brilliant or I'm starting to get slack in my duties. 

I hoped with all my heart that it was not the latter. That would suck. 

Big time. 

I dawdled on the pavement, thinking about the time when I was the best at my job. I was the happiest person at that time. Not so much anymore, not after what happened…  

An arm was suddenly thrown over my shoulder. I spun my head around to face the person who had their arm slung over my shoulder when I came face-to-face with Nathaniel. 

Dammit. 

I cursed under my breath. How did I not hear him? 

“Hello my fair, sweet angel of light. Where are you going?” He squeezed my shoulder and smirked down at me. 

My back stiffened and I shoved his hand from my body. How dare he touch me?  

“Still playing hard to get are you?” He dropped his hand from my shoulder but caught my fingers between his, maintaining physical contact. 

Just like a soul-sucker would. I decided to try and experiment on him. Just to be sure…you never know…even the popular high school player could be a demon in disguise.  

I lifted his hand untwined with my fingers and hovered it near my mouth. I breathed in, smelling his scent and comparing it to the soul-suckers I smelt a few nights ago. 

I expected to be blown over with the disgusting smell of death and rot. But it never came. There was a slight whiff of death but that was only to be expected.  We had both been in the school where person had been murdered. I expect I smelt of death as well. The thought made me shiver. 

“Ooooh, daddy likes.” Nathaniel winked at me and I instantly felt a red hot fire spread through my body. 

Yes, it was passion. 

No, it was not a romantic feeling. 

 I threw back my hand and slapped his face. It made a satisfying ‘Whack’ as my hand connected with his cheek. I couldn’t help noticing how his cheek felt under my hand; it was slightly rough, as if he hadn’t shaved in a while. 

“Leave me alone.” I hissed at him before stalking away. I heard him laugh behind me, but thankfully he didn’t follow. 

The bloody jerk. 

I wanted to tear him apart! He was infuriating. 

I talked myself out of following him, reasoning that he wasn’t the soul-sucker and wasn’t to blame for anything, other than being his usual obnoxious self. 

By the time I crept into the city’s morgue, I was close to boiling myself over with fury. But I tried my hardest not to snap at anyone. 

Seriously, I tried. 

I always thought that the morgue would be heavily guarded by teams of people wanting to check your relationship with the deceased person you were inquiring after. 

Obviously not here. I just strolled in, asked if there were any bodies brought here today. The teenage boy at reception was too busy eyeing my chest to thoroughly check who I was.

I blew him a kiss as I pushed open the doors to the freeze room. He’ll have to have a cold shower for that when he gets home. 

There were four bodies brought in today, one was over seventy, the others were woman younger than thirty. 

I pulled open the first trolley and removed the white sheet covering the head of the dead person. 

It was a blonde. That much I could tell the rest was indescribable. It looked like half her face had been torn away by an animal or something. Glancing at the tag on her left foot, I saw that her name was Anna Partland and she was twenty-seven years old at the time of death.

No one from the school then, unless it was a teacher…

I moved onto the next body. A man who had a fine crop of chest hair, rather disgusting.  I quickly moved on. 

The last body that matched the time of death. I breathed out slowly, knowing that I was more than likely going to be face to face with someone who used to attend the school. 

Without a second thought, I reached out and flung the sheet back from the head area. 

I gasped and backed away. I felt sick to my stomach, at the sight on the table. It had chilled me to the bone even more than seeing the blonde with no face.

This was awful. Worse even. 

The woman under the sheet was the girl who had offered me her book the first day of school.

Tiffany. 

My stomach heaved. 

My mind was racing through different thoughts faster than I could blink. If I had accepted her friendship, then maybe she wouldn’t have ended up in this state. 

My mind kept travelling back to the image forever imprinted in my head. Tiffany lying on the table, her eyes glassy, never able to see again. Her skin was deathly pale, almost chalky looking. It made me want to throw up at what I had done. 

I was a selfish bitch unable to befriend anyone. I sank to the floor; my head in my hands, willing the world to swallow me up and never spit me back out. 

It didn’t take me long to restore back to my usual self. Not many people would notice just how many cracks ran under my tough exterior. There were many cracks. 

Too many…

 I slowly covered Tiffany’s face with the sheet again. It was all that I could do for her now. 

So sorry…

As I walked out from the room, I was back to my usual self. I winked at the boy as I made my way out of the morgue. 

I felt better as the cool wind touched my face and fondled my hair. It blew away the cobwebs that clouded my mind. 

I needed it…