Page 16 of Dread’s Beloved

Kitty

My head pounds as I jolt awake at the sound of my alarm clock beeping in my ear.

Ugh. I drank too much last night. My tongue is thick and my mouth feels like someone filled it with cotton. I rub my eyes and glance around my room. Morning has found me too damn soon, but I’ve got work at the mortuary. There’s a wake tonight and I have hair and makeup to do. My job is morbid, but I take pride in what I do. Caring for the dead matters. Families trust me to present their loved ones as close to what they appeared like when alive as possible. Especially for open-casket viewing.

It isn’t always possible, but I take my job seriously. Even went to school for mortuary cosmetology at the Grave Prowlers School of the Dead. Learned how to hide injuries and even do hands to give them a more natural appearance.

I made my peace with death and the after part when I was a child. My babysitter was murdered a few rooms away when I was six years old. I’ve never been able to scrub the sight of Mellie laying lifeless on the kitchen floor with blood seeping from her head.

No amount of therapy could burn that from my memory.

It’s early. Early enough that my father and Pricie are still sleeping. I get dressed in my black slacks and sleeveless black top with small ruffles bunched down the center, then slip on my black ballerina flats.

I somehow manage to pile my hair into a messy bun and to brush my teeth without getting any toothpaste on my top.

I grab a coffee-flavored energy drink from the fridge. Not the healthiest choice to start my day, but it will wake my ass up.

I make a stop in the shed and grab some graveside flowers and tiptoe through the cemetery, careful not to wake the dead. Pricie swears the spirits like to sleep in and if I disturb them, they will start haunting the house again.

I place the bouquet on the grave and wonder why my life was spared twenty-years ago. Donavon Miller could have killed me, but he didn’t. He shot my babysitter in cold blood but didn’t harm one single hair on my head. Maybe he had a rule against killing kids. I don’t know, but I’ll never forget him or the scar on his cheek.

Thankfully he’s rotting away in a jail cell for the rest of his life. Most days I forget that it happened, but with Dark bringing it up and the anniversary of her death next week, its all I can think about. Well, besides Dread kissing me last night. If I can even call it a kiss. He touched his lips to mine for a couple of seconds. Then I finger-banged myself while thinking about it. Man, I am seriously messed up. I’m thinking about death and finger banging in the same stream of consciousness.

“Hey Mellie. It’s me. Kitty Adams Hayes. Well, it will be back to just Kitty Adams once my divorce goes through. Zane cheated. With Blair of all people. Can you believe that? I guess I should have seen it coming. In some ways, I knew Blair was jealous of me. Of my relationship with Zane. I just don’t understand why her. Why him? She knew things were going sour between us. She let me cry to her when she was the reason things were going bad. Okay, not the whole reason, but she didn’t help. Anyway, it’s been nearly twenty years. I just want you to know that I will keep coming for our chats.”

I say my goodbye to Mellie and continue walking through the cemetery to the mortuary.

It’s a heavily foggy morning. I can’t even see the tops of the hills and mountains our town sits between, but I could walk this graveyard blindfolded. When we were kids, Dark and I would play hide -n- seek. I’d always hide in the mausoleum that belongs to our family because Dark would never want to enter it. Said it gives him the creeps. He’s never been a fan of the family business outside of the club. He hates going to the mortuary. I think it mostly has to do with us losing Mom the way we did.

As I’m walking through the back door, I see the coroner van pulling up to the bay. Not good.

“Hey sugar,” Dolly, our mortician, greets me. “You should go into town and pick up some coffee and donuts. Maybe get a tray of combination sandwiches. Lurch can drive you.”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“You should let Lurch take you into town, honey.”

Behind the coroner is the sheriff’s cruiser.

The coroner exits his van, and Lurch comes up to stand next to me. He’s the gravedigger and Dolly’s husband and also a member of the MC. Sherrif Caudill approaches us. “Kitty, you were about to be my next stop.”

“Me? Why?” Dolly squeezes my hand in hers. “What’s happening? Who is in the back of that van?”

“Maybe we should discuss this in the office,” Dolly suggests.

“Where were you last night?” Sherrif Caudill pulls on his belt.

“Tonky’s then home.”

“And where is home these days?”

“With Pricie. Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“A neighbor went to let her dog out this morning, and he took off. She chased him to the next building over, where he ran into the residence of Zane Hayes and found the occupant deceased along with a female companion. At this time, we suspect a murder-suicide.”

I hear his words, but they aren’t making sense. “No.” I shake my head. “No. Zane wouldn’t. Blair wouldn’t.” Fat tears roll down my cheeks. “They can’t be…” I can’t finish my sentence as I drop to my knees. Dolly and Lurch try their best to pull me back to standing, but I can’t. My legs aren’t working. “There’s got to be a mistake.”

“I miss you,” Zane’s voice sounds in my head.