Chapter Eight
Sylvie
Obudai Island, Hungary
A corpse can decay in a few days,
especially in summer.
Organs putrefy. Gasses expand. Bodies explode.
Mind your community.
People who live alone, die alone.
They depend on you to find and attend to them.
You are the caretaker of the dead.
~ The Bloodwalker’s Book
Sylvie turned the plastic bag of flesh over and over in her hands, unable to believe what she was seeing. From every angle, the truth assaulted her. The broken bones bore human tooth marks. A dark chasm of shock opened inside her. She’d prepared many bodies for burial but never a child’s. Her eyes began to sting, and her throat closed up.
The death was horrible enough, but this poor child’s remains were in a shabby camper, wrapped like trash. No one had cared for the body. N
