Romancing the Afterlife

What Lies Above

A loud knock on the side of his cubicle woke detective Brand from his short nap on his keyboard. Angela stood over him holding a piece of paper in her hand. He sat up, looking around dazed for a few seconds. Angela put the faxed information down in front of him, and he looked it over. It was the DNA test results on the severed hand they had sent to Tallahassee, apparently the hand was in a state of advanced decay, but they had found a match. Unfortunately it created more questions than it solved.

It was early in the morning and the sun was rising quickly, it was already too bright for Brand’s eyes. He stepped out of his black undercover police car, and put on some big round shades that he had always favoured, because they were similar to a pair a lead detective wore on a famous crime show he had watched as a kid. The cemetery was quiet and empty, even with the risen sun it seemed a little gloomy. He let himself in the front gate and slowly made his way around, nonchalantly looking at the names on each and every gravestone or marker. He hadn’t counted them but knew that he could be here awhile before he found what he was looking for. Almost every stone was the same, some sort of shiny plaque or standing gray stone with names and dates on them, only a couple really stood out from the rest. One gravestone had a carved muscular arm coming out of it brandishing a big stone curved sword, it was extraordinary but a serious hazard. He was observing his sixty-fourth gravestone when an older man in overalls carrying a pair of hedge trimmers approached him.

The man took a dirty glove off and put out his hand, shaking with detective Brand he introduced himself as Jeffery Omery the caretaker. “Hello Jeffery, I’m detective Brand.”

“Good saves me the trouble of coming down to the station.” Mr. Omery said.

“Well you can make your complaint after you help me find someone in here.”

“Sure no problem,” he answered and started walking away from him towards the back of the cemetery. Brand stood where he was watching the caretaker walk away, thinking he must be confused, but Mr. Omery surprised him turning back and telling him, “She over here near the back.” Brand caught up with him and followed him to a grave near the back east corner. The marble stone read, 'Lucy Little the heart of her hometown 1998 – 2016’. The grass on top of her plot looked loose and all broken up, almost like somebody had dug it up and reburied it. Jeffery Omery stood across from him with a polite smile on his face repeatedly nodding to him or maybe just himself. He didn’t seem to be looking at him, but more like right through him and somewhere else in the distance.

“So what happened?”

The caretaker broke out of his trance state, “Oh, I thought you knew. Yeah was some kid, night before last. Used to be kids came to this grave all the time, I’d be clearing their beer cans from the area every morning. They stopped coming a while ago though, guess they just got tired of partying with a dead girl. I imagine the dirt here has had a pretty high alcohol level going,” he laughed to himself, but carried on when he realized that Brand was not as humoured by his joke, “ummm …well the was a kid here the other night, he still comes sneaking in here sometimes, usually early Monday mornings just sits here. I don’t think he realizes I live across the road.” Brand himself hadn’t noticed a house across the street. He looked back out towards the entrance, and did indeed see some old hovel across the road that most would probably have assumed was abandoned. He suddenly felt both sad for the old man and a little creeped out by him. “The other night he came in the middle of the night, had a shovel with him, saw him digging her out.”

“You saw someone carrying Lucy’s body out of here?”

“Well …..” the man scratched his head clearly having trouble remembering, “don’t think he was carrying nothing, he buried it up and booked it out his secret entrance over yonder,” he pointed over to the west corner where the fence was broken and bent over, “I should really get on to fixing that. But he ran out like the dickens, left his shovel on the ground. Something spooked him maybe.”

“Do you know who the kid is? Could you identify him in a line up?’

“Probably not, it’s dark at night you know.” Brand sighed, wondering to himself why every step forward had to be so hard and confusing. The caretaker noticed his frustration and produced a flask out of his overalls. He took a big swig for himself and handed it over to him.

“I don’t drink anymore,” he told him. He thanked Mr. Omery for his help, and turned to leave so he could go find another clue.

As he started walking away Mr. Omery said, “You should see if it’s that kid that’s supposed to be obsessed with her, heard the dead girl’s mom talking about him once. Teenagers scare the living s**t out of me.” He heard the slurp of Jeffery Omery taking another swig of his flask as he walked back towards the entrance.

Cain and Lucy spent the day exploring their newfound love for eachother. Cain showed her all his favourite books and explained to her what they were about. Lucy played all her favourite music for Cain and explained to him what it was about, and also how to dance and not look like a total fool. She went through all his clothes in an attempt to show him what was cool to wear, which resulted in almost nothing to wear and a recommendation to buy new clothes. He showed her the basketball net his dad bought him but he barely used, he tried to impress her by beating his dad at a game of one on one. After she took them both on and made them look like chumps wheezing on the ground. They discussed possibly spending another night in The Box together, for the sake of privacy. It was all sweet fun, and blushing, and affectionate touching and staring.

Their day had been really special and enjoyable. The two of them were helping his mother set the table and put the finishing touches on dinner, when there was a loud unfriendly banging on the door. Mr. Lewis opened the door and a few seconds later called over Cain. When Cain came to the door he saw three police officers, the leading officer introduced himself as Detective Brand. He had come to arrest Cain for desecrating a corpse and suspicions of inciting a riot/public anarchy. Cain gave the police no trouble while they handcuffed him and put him in the back of one of their cars. Lucy watched as the police cars left with a sad and frightened looking Cain.

Mr. Lewis was only a couple minutes behind the police on the way to the station, he brought Cain’s girlfriend Julie with him due to her insistence that she could help somehow. They arrived and were told to wait, as they were in the midst of processing him, and then had to take him to questioning. Mr. Lewis paced back and forth on the phone doing his best to secure his son a lawyer. Julie Walker chose to argue at the desk, urging the officer at the front desk to tell them that there was a misunderstanding and she needed to see him, she could possibly offer more information based on the specifics of why he was brought in. She was told to sit down until further notice.

Det. Brand was not a total jerk. He offered the kid coffee, a pop, water, even a slushie, only for him to deny any beverage. He only wanted to be let go, which wasn’t currently an option since he was the only suspect. He explained the situation to the boy. Forensics had come back on a dead person’s hand that was found at the scene of an incident involving mass hysteria over a supposed zombie. The hand though now in a rapid state of decay that was beyond the experts’ understanding, was identified as the late Lucy Little’s. Upon inspection her grave appeared to have been dug up and reburied. They also had a witness who claimed that Cain Lewis was well known to be obsessed with Lucy Little, and also that they had heard from a reliable source that he had been with the zombie in question pre-beach attack, and were threatening a friend of theirs at her home.

The tape recorder started and Cain made his official statement, “Bruce Holden used to date Lucy Little. He was the last one to see her alive. Also you should be investigating him because he probably shot my friend’s girlfriend. I was with my girlfriend at his friend Amber’s house, they had an argument over the ownership of a pair of shoes and Amber eventually gave them up. Unless you have someone that says they saw me at beach then I wasn’t there. I don’t know why people think Julie is a zombie, she looks perfectly fine and has both her hands.”

Det. Brand didn’t know where to go with this one. He knew something was wrong, someone wasn’t being totally honest and he would hold onto Cain and his friend Bruce for as long as he could, in the hopes something else would come up. But it turned out that the possible zombie was in the front lobby requesting him, and he brought her in and had Bruce Holden identify her. Strangely her fingerprints came up inconclusive. They did a DNA swab on her and it was getting sent to the same forensics lab, so they could get results hopefully before it got dark again. Brand had her put in the same room with Cain, hoping they’d reveal something and he’d catch it on the camera in there, while he waited for the DNA results.

Cain was excited to see Lucy again, but he wished it were under different circumstances. She told him about the DNA test, if they proved her to be Lucy Little she would become a media sensation. She worried now that it would be for negative reasons, and would ruin her new life. She feared being a lab rat and possibly being dismembered for the sake of science. Cain felt bad he had brought her into this life, never predicting things would have gotten this far out of hand. He knew a way he could prove she wasn’t Lucy Little, but it would cost him. They sat in the room for almost two hours mostly quiet, when a disappointed Det. Brand came in and told them that Cain could go home but they would hold Julie until proof could be shown of her I.D. and that she wasn’t the apparent zombie. Cain had no choice but to use his proof.

The dirt piled up with each shovel full Mr. Omery lifted from Lucy Little’s grave, each one getting Cain and ‘Julie’ closer to absolution. They stood around like a small mourning party, Brand, Cain, Julie, Bruce and two other cops. Julie had not had the chance to ask Cain what he was trying to show them in private, but Cain wasn’t eager for her to see it anyway. Brand waited patiently looking pensive but a little confused as to what this was about. Bruce looked excited and angry. He repeatedly gave Cain menacing looks, anticipating watching Cain get taken down. When the coffin was uncovered, Mr. Omery looked up at detective Brand for his permission to open the coffin. Cain leaned over and whispered in Lucy’s ear, “I’m sorry.” Brand nodded and Omery opened the coffin, dirt fell in but the body of Lucy Little was distinctly in there wearing the same dress she had been resurrected in, except this Lucy’s dress wasn’t ruined. Julie/Lucy was in more shock than any of them, looking at her own face resting in its coffin. She knew in her heart that this was the real body of Lucy Little.

The charges against Cain and the suspicions against Julie Walker were dropped, upon seeing Lucy’s actual corpse with both hands, it was obvious that Cain had not removed her and Julie wasn’t her. Cain claimed that he had dug the grave under the same suspicion that the incident had involved a zombie version of Lucy Little. A call to forensics revealed the hand had practically disintegrated and Julie’s DNA swab was inconclusive for some mysterious reason. Brand urged them to get her I.D. as soon as possible, for any future questionable behaviours they might be a part of. He was henceforth banned from ever being in the cemetery again. He would also be doing community service in the future for his presumptuous unsanctioned investigation. Bruce was also going to be let go, but he wasn’t satisfied with being told that the zombie that bit his piece on the side was a hallucination, especially when Cain Lewis was escorting the monster out of the building. His anger got the best of him as Cain and Julie left and he shouted at them in the lobby of the police station, “I know it was you b***h. Next time I shoot at you, I won’t miss and it’ll be your head with a bullet or two in it.” He was immediately taken into custody based on his confession.

Lucy said nothing to Cain the whole drive home. They listened to Mr. Lewis complain about the parking ticket he got while he had waited all day in the station. He apparently planned to fight it. Cain knew a hard conversation was coming. They both told Mrs. Lewis they were no longer hungry when they arrived home, and retreated to The Box. Cain sat on the futon, waiting for Lucy to say something.

“What am I? That was Lucy Little, so what or who am I?”

It was the question he had been going over in his head since he had dug up the coffin to get the stone, just differently worded. He told her the truth, “I don’t know.”

“But you did know!” she accused him, “This morning and all day.”

“Yes,” he admitted in defeat, “I was surprised when I got the stone and saw you lying there, but in a way it explains why you didn’t crawl out of your grave. You just appeared”

“Because I’m someone else?!” She knocked over a set of action figures, posed to look like they were in a fight.

“I think you are you,” he held up his hand to stop her from refuting and then continued, “You told me when you came back you had vague memories of the afterlife, even if you don’t remember now. What if you are you and it’s just the body that’s new?”

“I’m Lucy’s soul in a Lucy clone body,” she translated to herself. It was the geekiest statement she would ever make. She was quiet for most of the night, he did his best to show his support and reassure her things would be okay. He opened a small bottle of gin Jonas had hid for a special occasion, and they drank it together until Cain passed out.