Nearafter (D.E.A.T.H. bk. 1)

Chapter Eight [Gustav]

There was a new body in the refrigerator unit. A fat guy with fresh, third-degree burn scars on his lower neck and chest. Including this newcomer and Jenny, there were now a total of six cadavers available to him, one body for each of the six stainless steel compartments that dominated one half of the embalming room.

Gustav sat on the worktable and stared at the giant metal container, contemplating. He ran an indecisive hand over each of the metal latches before giving in to his urge, his new power, and pulling them all open. Six bodies lay frozen under thin white blankets.

He traced a lazy finger along the edge of Jenny's cold metal gurney. He pulled back the sheet and stared into her eyes. He realized immediately that his father hadn't yet embalmed her. The man must have gone straight to bed after returning home from Whilman with the fat guy. It was no surprise really. His father didn't look well when he'd left for the night, and the man had probably been too tired to do anything when he got back.

Regardless, joy surged within Gustav's chest.

With the brooch wrapped around his hand and the glass vial still cradled in his palm, somehow Gustav still reeled with the excitement of the events from earlier. In particular, the part where he'd been able to bring back the two dead jocks that Jeremiah had so viciously slain in the alley. It had not been so long ago but already that rejuvenating feeling was dissipating. The walk home had sobered him some. Pulling back all the sheets now and staring into each of the faces of the five other dead people, Gustav realized that he had to do it again.... He had to bring someone else back. He did not know why exactly, or how, but bringing back those guys in the alley had revived some otherwise dead part of him. And now that part of him was again already starting to go numb.

He squeezed the glass vial in his hand until he felt the skin split open. Blood trickled down his arm as he raised his hand, preparing to complete the ritual, with his thumb resting only inches above Jenny's forehead, when he stopped. Gustav was hesitant.

He wanted Jenny back the way he remembered her. The two jocks he'd brought back were brainless idiots who staggered around aimlessly. He didn't want that for Jenny. He wanted their reunion to be perfect. He wanted her more alive than those two. The man Jeremiah had explained to him that he could create more lifelike resurrections with more blood and with more practice.

Gustav frowned and drew his hand away. He wasn't yet ready for her. She would have to wait until he was better, much better. And then Jenny would be his masterpiece!

Blood continued to drip onto the floor, spattering in small blossoms of bright red like tiny roses in bloom. Though it pained him, he pulled the bright sheet back over her face and pushed her body back into the compartment. He pulled the sheets up over the other bodies and pushed them in as well, locking all the hatches, too, and flicking off the lights before heading upstairs for a shower.

As the hot water poured down over Gustav's head, all he could think about was resurrecting more bodies. Ribbons of red streaked long down the bottom of the tub to the drain. He'd been coated in a layer of blood by the time he stripped down and turned on the faucet. His clothes sat in a bundle by the door. The brooch hung from the medicine cabinet mirror, leaving the little glass vial to dangle before its reflection.

This night had been very unusual. It was all still half-real to Gustav. Jeremiah, the brooch, his blood possessing the power to reanimate the dead. None of it seemed real. How was this even possible...? he began to wonder. It didn't make any sense. But Jeremiah said that it was his 'blood rite'. Gustav wondered if that meant that it was hereditary. Was it a trait passed down in his genes? Still, none of it seemed possible. He tried to imagine his great, great, great grandmother on his mom's side huddled down over a fire with the brooch in her hand, hissing spells in Russian, and making the flames explode before her eyes. Gus the Necromancer...!