Flashfire

Ch9

"I don't think Epsom salt is quite the same," Caleb murmured.

His voice sounded too loud and a million miles away all at once. Liam could hear every wheel of a shopping cart go around, every crack in the intercom like it was trying to bust through his skull. He wanted to dig out his eyes, the lights above boring into his sockets. He hated this place when he was alive and he hated it now.

"Is it? No, uh..." Caleb peered at the dark blue bag as though looking at it long enough would give him what he really wanted.

Liam pulled at his clothing and ground his teeth restlessly, rocking on the balls of his feet while Caleb looked carefully in the medicine aisle. Was this the end? Would he float from the ground that didn't seem to be there at any moment and go back to...wherever it was that his soul went? Hell sounded preferable to Walmart.

Caleb, could we please hurry?

Caleb looked momentarily spooked, blinking up suddenly from his entranced state at the Epsom salts that, really, were not all that fascinating or what they were looking for.

"Did you know that Epsom salt is not really salt?" Liam asked.

His voice sounded deadpan, though he didn't mean it to be.

Caleb pushed his brows together.

"It says it is," he said.

"Well, it isn't," Liam said. "So it's not what we need, even remotely."

"Aren't I the one helping you?" Caleb said.

Liam forced a grin hard as if he were an actor, yet every action felt robotic somehow. Yep, this was definitely the end. He was not long for this plane, what a sweet relief.

"I am sure that I can find what we're looking for," Liam said.

He needed to get out of this place as fast as possible, and he needed to calm down at the same time and think. The wall of pickle jars looked very tempting to smash and so he pulled away, disturbed by this destructive thought. What if being tied to his body as a spirit was so wrong that it made him do bad things? How much longer could his own reality be held together by Caleb, by a thread?

"Maybe we should ask someone," Caleb said.

Why did that terrify Liam?

"I don't need to ask for directions, Caleb," Liam said proudly.

"Me too," Caleb said.

"Let's try the baking aisle," Liam said.

His eyes went wide as he saw someone that he thought he knew, but when they turned around they weren't even the right age or gender to be them. Liam felt as though the air were knocked out of his lungs and then it occurred to him, stupidly for the first time; what if someone that he knew before he died saw him wandering around the Walmart on a Wednesday night looking for the salt?

He swiveled and took an unsteady step forward, then practically floated on his feet with Caleb behind him, who was equally strong headed and assuredly had no idea what he was doing. Neither of them needed to ask for what they were looking for, after all. They looked hopelessly up and down, picking through the shelves containing the margarita salts. Liam thought that it was all he would ever need, and it was the only reason he ever came down this particular aisle.

Caleb wandered down the aisle and all of a sudden, Liam felt as if he were frozen and unable to move a muscle should his entire existence fade. He felt as if his bones were hollowed out as waves of that sensation that he was not attached to the ground hit him. Caleb came back an indeterminate amount of time later from the deli with a bloody nose and some kind of spice mix.

"What the heck!" Liam exclaimed. "Why did you leave me?"

He shivered as the blood ran down Caleb's lip and he wiped it with a sleeve.

"This has what we need in it," he said.

"Are you kidding me? Are you seriously saying that bottle of seven herbs and spices is what we need," Liam said.

"It has what we need in it," Caleb reiterated. He tapped the bottle with a grin, then shoved it in Liam's face.

Liam took it with a mildly annoyed look and then read the label despite his tunnel vision. Upon closer inspection, it was a spice blend specifically made for seafood. His brows quirked up, then his mouth. Natron was high on its ingredient list. "Huh."

He turned the bottle to the front and burst into giggles.

"What?" Caleb laughed.

Liam hid his eyes behind his hand, blindly shoving the bottle toward him. The brand showed a picture of their mascot on the front, a narwhal.