Gluskin & Ichor Family Funeral Home

Part 14 (The art of Necromancy and fistfights)

Tammy was told a simple thing, Wren went to the coroner's office with Sasha, to look at another body, she didn't know who, and frankly, she didn't want to know at this point. 

She drove there and saw her boss's car parked haphazardly in the small parking lot, oh boy, Wren drove there herself. Yikes.

She walked in, nobody was there, at least so she thought, she heard muttering coming from the end of the hallway, she made her way down, slowly, assuming it was Wren and Sasha talking to each other or someone else.

"Hey, guys what's up" Tammy paused, noticing that only one person was in the room, neither Sasha nor Wren, but Heidi, "Oh, Heidi, what are you up to, another autopsy?" Tammy took one good look at the body on the table and knew immediately that it was no regular autopsy she was performing. "Hey, uhm, what-what are you doing?" 

Heidi approached, slowly... turning slightly, to go to a nearby sink, taking off her bright blue rubber gloves, she washed off her arms of the blood still left. It was already dry, it had been a while that she was just staring blankly at the body on her table.

Wren watched anxiously from the window in the closet, Sasha barely peeking over her shoulder, he watched with jittery vigor, in case he needed to step in.

"What's going on?" he asked barely able to see over Wren's shoulder.

"Shh!" she whispered almost silently, "Just watch, she knows she's been caught, look."

Sasha looked for any signs in Heidi's body language, a blank stare. Ok, that's nothing new...  he thought. She changed her gloves... why?

"You seeing what I'm seeing Sash?" Wren murmured the question to him.

"What is she doing?" Sasha kept watching, fingers fidgeting with the box of pictures in his grasp as he watched the scene in front of him intently, he felt a wave of protectiveness flood over him. Feeling like he needed to keep a close eye on Heidi when she was in the same room as the woman he loved.

"She better not try anything-" Sasha barely finished his sentence before the unthinkable happened, Heidi shut the door behind her, locking herself and Tammy, or so she thought just the both of them inside the autopsy room.

"Heidi, what the hell..." Wren whispered under her breath "She locked the door, she's definitely up to something."

Sasha felt his blood begin to boil, fingers gripping the box harder, he had to be out there, stopping whatever was about to happen. Maybe Heidi was just going to tear into Tammy for interrupting her, or worse, only patience could tell. And Sasha was running thin on it.

"Let me out there, Wren. " he insisted. "Now."

"Not, this is crucial evidence, we could finally have eyewitness evidence of Heidi being the killer!" she loudly whispered.

"NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF TAMMY'S SAFETY WE'RE NOT," he said aloud, maybe too loud. Sasha slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes darting to Heidi, seeing if she heard his little outburst, Tammy sure did, all but locking eyes with him as a thin piece of linen-covered his face from the outside world.

Tammy was cautious of Heidi's every move, watching her intently to see what on earth she was doing. She changed her glove, locked the door, then unlocked it. Tammy was baffled at what was happening. Out of nowhere, Heidi pushed her back against the door facing Tammy.

Tammy's ear twitched as she heard what she thought was Sasha loudly whispering about someone's safety from a closet, she brushed it off. She had to focus on Heidi's weird mannerisms right now.

"You interrupted me, Tammy, I wasn't expecting guests," Heidi stated blankly.

She was talking more formal, no cuss words within the first sentence, calm almost.

"I was told Sasha and Wren were here?" she straightened her posture, trying her best to look confident. "Wren's car and Sasha's cars are outside, so where are they?" she asked, trying to remain calm.

"Not a clue honestly, I saw their cars too, but I don't know where they are." she shrugged. Slowly approaching the autopsy table again, placing a gloved hand next to the person's head, looking directly at their lidded dead eyes.

"Who is that exactly?" Tammy questioned.

Wren looked away for a second to hush Sasha, only to be snapped back into reality by a loud crash coming from the main room, she flipped around, staring through the curtain at the sight of Heidi sitting on Tammy's chest, hands around her neck, Tammy fighting back with all her might to no avail,

"SHIT." Sasha mumbled loudly, "What do we do?!" he started panicking, quickly trying to find a solution before the situation got any worse.

"Camera." Wren realized suddenly, "Use the camera!"

Sasha threw open the shoe box, fishing out the old polaroid camera, handing it over to Wren with lighting fast speed.

"I'm assuming there's a film roll in here, but when I take this picture," she quickly explained, "I throw open the curtain, she'll see the flash, you run out and tackle her off of Tammy, NOW GO!" she commanded.

Wren sprang up, throwing up the translucent camera, aiming it directly at Heidi and Tammy. The flash lit up the room, there's no way she could have missed it, she didn't Heid looked directly at them.

"SASHA, NOW!" she yelled aloud, flinging open the door for Sasha to run out. Promptly, Sasha bolted across the room, using his arms and the brunt of his shoulders to tackle Heidi off, hitting the ground with a loud thud and an even louder grunt of shock.

"Urgh-" Sasha rumbled, trying to keep his weight on Heidi, to no avail, the woman was fast, fast enough to make it out of the room before he could even get up. Wren was busy helping Tammy up off of the ground, which she stopped doing, sprinting after her down the pale hallway of the coroner's office.

She was too far ahead, making it out of the door and out of sight before Wren was even close to reaching her, seeing a black car pull out of the gravel parking lot the moment she got outside.

"Son of a..." Wren heaved, the first signs of darkness showing on the horizon, clouds beginning to darken with an approaching thunderstorm the smell of rain tickling her nostrils, the sky darkening by the second as the evening soon approached.

"Are you okay?" Sasha worried, leaning down to help Tammy up off of the ground after Wren left her to go chase after Heidi.

"I'm fine, really, she just knocked the wind out of me is all, still just a little bit lightheaded." she huffed, lifting herself." Ouch, that sure did hurt my back though." her voice sounded raspy and hoarse.

"Tammy, oh my God, your neck is so bruised!" he pointed at her neck, purple splotches beginning to form on her neck, she lightly tapped at her throat, flinching at the sudden onslaught of pain she felt.

"Maybe she did a little more damage than I thought..." she groaned.

"Let's just-" Sasha realized he left the box of pictures and the camera in the closet. He quickly grabbed the box, throwing the camera inside, "Let's go." he concluded.

"What is that?" Tammy rasped, motioning to the box.

"A death sentence in a box." he laughed to himself. "Now let's get out of here."

Wren noticed Tammy and Sasha finally approaching her, she leaned off of the side of the building. Facing them in defeat.

"Where's Heidi?" Sasha asked, confused, the box of pictures tucked under his arm. "Where did she go Wren?" he became more serious.

"I have no idea, she's gone, but I don't know where she's going."

"Ah well, at least we're in the clear for now..." he sighed.