Paranormal Agency BOOK 2 : THE FUNERAL HOME.

The morgue came into sight about fifteen minutes later. It was about 1:00 in the afternoon because Elizabeth was apparently afraid of the dark and didn’t want to come at night. Josh pulled the car into the empty parking lot and parked.

“You guys ready,” he said, letting out a breath of air.

Alison thought it was cute seeing Josh get all nervous. It was kind of charming, even.

They climbed out of the car, and Josh went into the trunk, digging out the cameras and flashlights. “You wanna carry something, Liz.”

“Yeah, I’ll take the camera,” Elizabeth offered.

He set the digital camera in her hands. “What about you Alison? Need anything?”

“I’ll take a flashlight, actually,” she said, thinking it may come in handy.

“Think I should bring this too?” He held up the voice recorder. Greg floated up behind him, motioning at it. “What’s he need all this garbage for anyway. What a loser. Who does stuff like that? But whatever, he’s your boyfriend, Alison.”

Trying to ignore him, she said, “you can do whatever you want.”

“I heard you can catch voices on a sound recorder. You just have to hold it up in the room and press record and see if you pick anything up. Even something the human ear can’t detect, the voice recorder might. What do you think?”

“Are you sure about that?” Elizabeth asked skeptically. “That sounds like an awful lot to carry. Why don’t you just bring the video camera. It records sound too, anyway? Then you don’t have to carry both.”

“Oh, good point.” He dropped the recorder back into the trunk and lifted the small video camera in his hand. “Okay, I’m ready. Anyone need a sweater? I brought a sweater.”

“Hmm, I might need it,” Elizabeth said. She hugged her arms in front of her. Looked like the tiny thing got cold pretty easily. “Yeah, I’ll take it.”

Joshua gave it to her. “Here, sweetie.”

“Thanks.” She put on the overized gray sweater and buttoned it front. “Looks like we have everything we need then.”

“All right then, let’s go,” Alison said. She walked in front of them, letting them follow behind her. They went to the front door of the morgue and Alison pulled the front door open. “Anyone here?” she called in. “Jeffrey?”

“You mean we have the place to ourselves?” Elizabeth asked, furrowing her brows, the black digital camera dangling from her right hand.

“Looks like it. I thought he’d be in today but I guess not.” She motioned for them to come in. “Come on. It’s in here.” Might as well lead them straight to the bathroom and scare the shit out of them with the zombies in the mirror. Which was the whole point of this trip, right? Hopefully, they’d show themselves and put on a good show for the three of them.

She led them to the men’s room and pressed a hand to the door. She glanced back at them. Greg was hovering a few feet behind Josh and looked bored. “Okay. Here we go. Be careful, okay?”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Elizabeth chuckled, sounding a little nervous. “Right, Josh?”

“Of course.” He turned is video camera on. “If we see anything at all, we’ll be lucky.”

Alison pushed the door open and went inside. Josh went in after her, followed by Elizabeth and Greg who floated straight through the closing door. The bathroom was dark. Alison brushed her hand against the wall, her fingers hitting the light switch. Bright white lights filled the restroom. They headed to the mirror over the sink.

Josh came up behind her, his camera on, filming the entire area. Alison noticed that he was zooming in on Alison’s face. “What are we looking for here?” he whispered.

Elizabeth snapped a few photos of the room. “I don’t see anything.”

“Shhh,” Alison said. She pointed to the long single rectangular mirror above the sinks. “You have to wait,” she said in a low voice. “You’ll see them in the mirrors.”

They waited.

A few minutes passed.

“I don’t see anything,” Elizabeth complained. “Where is it?”

“They were here last time,” Alison promised. “Just be patient. You’ll see them.” But she was started to feel unsure. Was this some kind of game they were playing? There had been so many of them the last time she had been here. Where were they?

A black image flashed in front of Alison’s eyes and she jumped back, bumping into Josh’s chest.

“What’s wrong?” Josh asked. “You okay?”

“You didn’t see that?” Alison asked, confused, her eyes shooting from Josh to the mirror. The black image was still there. It began to swirl and shape itself in front of her. Alison’s mouth dropped open. Oh shit. Not now. Not here. The darkness swimmed in front of her eyes. It was death.

“Alison,” a voice spoke, echoing out from the mirror. “The Soulless are here. You must be careful.” The voice faded away and so did the black figure. It was replaced by the faces of dozens of decayed faces that stared at her.

“Oh shit!” Elizabeth screamed. Her camera flashed as she took a picture.

“I can’t believe it.” Josh sounded aghast.

They could see the faces too. Amazing.

But Alison wasn’t listening. She couldn’t possibly pay attention. Her eyes were transfixed on the staring zombie eyes. She felt hypnotized by them. Their wide eyes looking straight at her, piercing through her soul. She had never felt so confused in her life. She couldn’t think of anything else but their dead black eyes. Their mouths opened and they shrieked in unison. “Come here, Messenger! Come to us!”

Their hand all shot out of the mirror at once grasping at Alison’s shoulders and arms with cold, clammy hands. She screamed as they yanked forward, ripping her towards them, her body shooting into the mirror and disappearing through it to an alternate dimension inside the glass. The purse with her athame that she had been holding had fallen out of her grasp and was left behind in the bathroom. She could hear Josh yelling from behind her. When she looked over her shoulder at him, he was pounding at the glass of the mirror as if trying to reach her. Elizabeth’s hands covered her mouth, her eyes terrified, and Greg looked as if he was trying to enter the dimension through the mirror as well but couldn’t.

"Messenger,” the walking corpses whispered, throwing her on the ground and pinning her down by her arms and legs. ”We finally caught her.”

Alison was shaking. She had no idea what they were talking about. She struggled to break free from their cold grasps but failed. Shit! What was she going to do? She never should have underestimated them. She never should have brought Josh and Elizabeth. It had made her drop her guard and treat the job as if it were a joke. Now what?

In front of her, the zombies parted, making a path for something. Their tattered clothes and rotted flesh smelled foul and stunk up the air. Alison felt herself gagging on the smell. A black liquid-like creature appeared and moved towards her, wobbling forward in uneven movements. Her eyes widened. Oh no. It was the Soulless? But she thought she had killed it. She was sure of it. She had stabbed it and seen it die with her own two eyes.

It moved closer to her, its dark liquid jaw dropping open. “You killed our companion." The words rolled out in a low and raspy voice. ”You must die.” The creature wobbled forward, leaving behind scorching hot foot prints behind it. It fell over her, its slimy hands grabbing her wrists. Its mouth opened wide until it was as big as Alison’s entire face. It shrieked loudly before diving forward and stuffing her head into its mouth. Alison tried to scream but couldn’t. She felt she was suffocating in the monster’s mouth. She couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t move.

“Let’s find out who you really are, Messenger.”

The voice echoed in Alison’s head, loud and sharp as it pierced through her brain. She squeezed her eyes shut. What was going to happen to her? Was it going to eat her? She tried to breathe but couldn’t. She felt dizzy. Already, she was blacking out.

“Let’s find out who she really is.”

Alison continued to struggle against the hands that held her down and the monster that had its mouth around her head. She felt nauseous. She was becoming delirious. She opened her eyes. Pictures flashed in front of her face. She was seeing something.

She felt far away.

All of a sudden, she didn’t feel like she was there anymore. Where was she then? Was she dreaming?

Images flashed in front of her as if she were sitting in front of a movie screen in a movie theater. What was going on?

“I can see into your mind, Messenger. I see the real you. The you that you tried to forget. I see a little girl. A scared little teenaged girl. You’re barely recognizable. You were so different back then. Nothing but a scared little girl. Nothing like the woman you are today. What happened to you to make you change so much? What happened that made you so different? Let’s see what changed you.”

“Alison,” Death’s voice rang in her ears as the images shifted and changed in front of her. “The Soulless are here. You must be careful.”