The Remains

XXXII - Jess

It was morning now. The pool of blood had almost reached the edge of the lino. Aunt Rosia was lying in the middle of her kitchen. Her wrist was covered in half congealed blood.

The family tree was missing from the table. Albane must've taken it, along with the knife she'd dug into her wrist.

More time passed. Someone knocked on the door, then peeked through the window. He yelled, and then the police arrived.

The first officer who walked through the door saw Rosia lying in her kitchen, and took off his hat. He sighed.

I swirled a little in the corner. The officer walked over to the note on the kitchen bench, and wiped a few stray drops of blood off the note. He folded it up, and tucked it away into his pocket.

I floated over, and rested on his shoulder. I needed to know where he was taking that.

He walked outside, and threw up. Another officer showed up, and rested a hand on his shoulder. The first officer sat down on a bench, and unfolded the note. He nodded to himself, before walking back inside.

The officer squatted next to Aunt Rosia, and gently unclasped the necklace around her neck. The pendant was a circle, with a flat spike on the bottom. The spike had been pushed into the skin around her throat.

The officer pulled the spike out of the skin on her throat, and wiped away the drops of blood with the dishcloth. He lifted it up into the sunlight, then tucked it away into his pocket. I lifted my pieces of ash from his shoulder.

He turned to the other officer. "I- I need to drop this off at the orphanage. Rosia wanted Cecilia to have this, and I don't... I don't want to do it later."

The other officer shrugged. "No problem. You're good to drive?"

"Yeah. Maybe a little fresh air will do me some good."

The other officer knelt down, and craned his head to see the underside of the couch. "Drive safe, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Light flooded into the container.

A piece of my ash was tapped out of the iron container. Into the sunlight. A face was watching me.

Something cold and metal grabbed me. The face appeared above me again. The piece of ash was far away, almost too far feel it.

A hand appeared over me. It was holding a dropper, filled with a silvery liquid. Albane's face appeared over me again. "Hello again, Jess. Thank you for reminding me about that little piece of ash I grabbed at our little meeting."

The grey liquid splashed on the ash flake. Mercury.

Every part of me was yanked towards that mercury. The pieces of ash in Aunt Rosia's living room. The little piles, sweeping through the other town. Every piece in every crack and fissure. All being dragged towards the mercury.

Albane sat back, and laughed. "Now, let us see if we can't just get you all put back together." He pulled out a small iron box.