I hung up and stared at my phone. The sky outside was darkening. Only a couple more hours at this rate…
Chapter 10
The window was still cracked open. I took the vial out of my stealth kit bag, dabbed some of the liquid on my neck. Almost half the vial came out in a huge splash. I stared at it dripping down my fingers, and grimaced. It stunk, like ammonia…
I had parked my rental the next neighborhood over, dressed all in black, and readied my audio equipment before hot-footing it over. Then said some prayers that I would remain unseen. It seemed like the only rational thing to do.
The window was still cracked, and it squeaked open when I moved it. I winced, then slipped inside and closed it back behind me. My phone said it was 11:35. I was early—hoping to have plenty of time to get myself hidden and get my equipment set up. If I could catch them saying something blatant, something incriminating, it would be all I needed. I could just stay hidden until they cleared out, and then slip back outside…
I slowly pushed open the women’s room door. There was nobody in this hallway. Odds were they met for their meeting on the second floor. Wasn’t that what Mel from the shop had said? That would explain why Brother Aleister was so cautious about me staying on the ground floor…
I heard movement before I saw it one hall over. The only hiding space was under a hallway display table with a floor-length tablecloth. I hunkered down and squirmed, gasping in shallow breaths and watched the shadows through the floor.
Two sets of footsteps. Parishioners? Early attendees for the meeting?
“Oh, barf,” someone said—it was a younger woman’s voice. “What smells like rat pee?”
“My nose isn’t what it used to be,” another voice said. This voice was scratchy as if there were parts of the speech that the vocal cords just couldn’t form. All I could think of was a piano missing some keys.
“Are you sure it’s not something you have nesting in you?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “That would be embarrassing. You know I’ve been good about maintenance since the maggots.”
“I know. God, I’m sorry, that’s just an awful smell.”
The two voices retreated into the distance, and when enough room had passed, I scrambled to a crawl and walked my way towards the second story steps at the far end of the corridor, eyes wide.
The steps seemed to tattle on me, creaking as I took each one. So much creaking! Like the undead had never heard of hinge grease or decent maintenance. The floorboards seemed tuned to whine. Still, there was nothing for it but to move onward.
The steps turned and went up another wall, leading to a second-floor landing in disrepair. The floor was rafters barely covered, a thick layer of dust everywhere, with bare LED lights flickering here and there as if for construction purposes. Exposed boards gave me a bird’s eye view of the main worship chamber below.
All the dust had a reason, though. There were footprints that carefully wound their way through the boards. I carefully stepped on them, testing each new foothold one by one before I put another foot down. I checked my phone when I hit a steady-looking doorframe. Shit. Getting closer to time…
It was almost comical, the way that they had it set up. The most well-cared-for-door up here was clearly the entrance to the conference room. It was like they didn’t even want to hide it. I strode right in, thanking each of my lucky stars that there was nobody else up here, and then shut the door behind me.
“Stacey?” I heard.
I turned around. It was Eddie.
* * *
We stared at each other for a moment that seemed to hang into eternity.
“Stacey?” he asked. “What are you—oh, ugh. What are you wearing?”
“I might have stepped in something downstairs.” I was beginning to suspect that witch had given me rat piss in a vial.
“Why are you here?”
“I had to find you,” I said.
He looked at me, his face falling. He looked lost. Yet still, his eyes traveled over me, like searing laser beams, and again, I could feel my consciousness start to blossom out, as if there were great billowy clouds in my head…
“Stop it,” I said.
He jerked back. My brain started to sharpen up again.
“Stop what?”
