Flashfire

Ch34

"I'm—I'm sorry," Liam stammered. "When you started scrying unintentionally, and I could see what you were seeing, it wasn't only that."

Caleb pursed his lips.

"Remember how I told you that I was sad and scared?" Liam physically shuddered. "That's exactly how I felt when it happened—when I—"

He couldn't bring himself to say what he had done.

"Did you know this entire time?" Caleb asked in a fashion that wasn't exactly lacking accusation.

"No." Liam hesitated, wringing his hands. "Yes? Sort of."

Caleb narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Liam looked at the ground. "I knew...it was something awful. Whenever you asked me, I got this like, urgent, panicky feeling."

Caleb's shoulders slumped as Liam continued.

"I didn't lie outright. I would never lie outright to you, babe. It was just more about the fact..."

"What?"

Liam spread his arms and looked at the ceiling. "Knowing that you're dead and this is only temporary? Being afraid to be out and about because it makes my tether weaker, and I became sort of floaty, like my mind separated from my body, and it was hard to just be here, physically? Fearing that if Paul or someone saw me accidentally they'd freak, and the guilt of that scenario? Knowing that any time you try to think about how you died, it sends you into a pit of sadness that I don't think I could possibly describe in words?" Liam looked at Caleb and put down his arms. "It's all been rather disgusting."

Caleb seemed to finally be experiencing empathy. He knew it was hard on Liam, but for the first time, he actually heard and felt it.

It was crushing.

"I am so, so sorry Liam—"

Liam sort of laughed, and then shook his head. "I know. And I'm sorry for what I've done to you. Our time to be sorry is over, love. Check the sink."

Caleb blinked. "What?"

Liam, with a trembling hand, closed his eyes and pointed at the sink. "I think—no, I know—I put something by or in the sink."

In two long strides, Caleb was at the sink. Minutes on end he looked around, going so far as to grab a screw driver and tearing up some of the tiles at the base of the sink. When nothing was found, he checked cabinets, tossing the contents onto the floor haphazardly. It was only when he started to take apart the faucet did Liam speak.

"Beneath," Liam said, his eyes closed, voice sounding far away again like it had to traverse a long way. "Look under the sink."

Caleb squatted down. He threw open the door to view the underside of the sink. Cleaning supplies and cobwebs. Disappointed, he grunted, leaning back on his haunches. "Are you sure? There's nothing here."

"Keep looking," Liam said, his voice taking on a deep, eerie quality. Caleb, disturbed at the sound, looked over his shoulder to Liam.

Liam was softly glowing, his brow taught and wrinkled in concentration. He was still very much corporeal. Lips parted in surprise, Caleb swiveled his head back around. "Liam, I'm telling you, there's nothing—oh."

Tucked up between where the pipes met the bottom of the sink, wedged against the wall, was something plastic. Caleb almost missed it, just the corner of whatever it was poking out. With just a moment's hesitation, Caleb tugged on it and came away with a ziploc bag containing a piece of paper covered in brown blood.