A tear trickles down my cheek as the mortician woman falls to her knees. I do the unimaginable and catch my tear in the palm of my hand before it hits the ground again. If I want to win this, I can't cry. If I could squeeze that tear back in, I would. This tear is me balancing the insanity I have been thrown into.
I help the woman in her fall, so she doesn't hit her head against something. She stares at me with a horrified expression, unaware of what happened to her. The absence of a grin on her face tells me the Cheshire left her body.
Why not? He wants me to suffer the guilt of hitting an innocent woman.
The mortician keeps sobbing uncontrollably, more in need of an explanation than to mend her wounds.
The corpses have stopped singing and zipped themselves back into their death bags. I can't see the Cheshire anywhere.
"Who are you?" The woman starts to shake me hysterically. Her leg is swollen and bleeding.
"Please calm down," I tell her. "I need you to trust me. There is an evil presence in here."
The woman's eyes are wide open. She scans me from head to toe and then stops at the string wrapped around my toe. Slowly, she raises a reluctant finger, pointing at the empty death bag. "You're dead..." she stutters.
Before I can explain further, she faints.
I help her to the floor and pat her. I can't complain. She did me a huge favor and saved me a lot of time.
Turning around with the mallet in my hands, I look for the Cheshire. I don't know how his soul-possessing works, but he must be in the room because the door is still shut.
What kind of game is he playing with me now?
I walk slowly toward the door, the corpses supposedly resting in peace at my sides. Holding the mallet as if it's a sword does give me confidence somehow. It's amazing what fear does to you when you decide to finally face it. My bare feet and my body are still exposed to the chilling cold of the morgue.
Closer to the door, I hear my footsteps echoing. It's unexplainable, but I keep walking.
If the Cheshire has the ability to be invisible, then I really don't have a way to fight back.
Why am I hearing echoes of my footsteps?
I keep limping to the door with a mallet in my hand. Horror movies aren't even close to the condition I am in.
Closer to the door, I realize that what I am hearing aren't the echoes of my footsteps. They are someone else's. And they are approaching from the other side of the door.
How did the Cheshire leave the room without opening the door? And why is he mirroring my footsteps? He must be trying to scare me, that's all.
I grip the door handle, my mallet ready in my other hand. A deep breath helps me to lower my blood pressure, just enough to think straight. All I have to do is pull the door open and then hit hard. That's it. I hope I am really thinking straight. I have no combat training, after all—or if I did, I don't remember it.
I grip the door tighter and then pull.
I didn't expect that. But like the Cheshire said, the door is locked.
The keychain in the mortician's hand!
I turn around to fetch the keys from the woman's hands, only to see her standing on her feet again. There is a slight problem with her posture now. She has her head chopped off and holds it in one hand. The other hand is holding the keys.
"Looking for these?" She grins.
The Cheshire is back. Who was approaching the door from the other side?
The horrible scene chains me for a moment. But I am about to run full throttle against the Cheshire and hit him. Let's get done with this.
The door behind me suddenly flings open.
I close my eyes, as I suppose another Cheshire-possessed human is behind me. How am I supposed to kill him? Am I supposed to kill the nine of them?
"Alice!" a voice calls from behind me. "Here you are!"
A hefty smile forms on my face. The voice behind the smile is so dear to me. It's Jack Diamonds.