My Peace and Serenity (A Jeff The Killer Story)

Chapter 23

Where are they...?

I walk along a narrowed dirt road, a vast array of dead bodies scattered on both sides. The sight of them has grown on me, but it still makes me uneasy when one of their grimy, bloody hands reaches for me, their nails clinging eagerly. But I have no time for them, I never do when I visit.

Pacing along the road underneath this forever night sky, not decorated with the usual specks of stardust I'm used to back home, I can begin to see the thrones of the inhabitants of this deformed palace.
Their thrones have mounds of corpses as the base and various clumps of bones and dead animals making the rest, matching perfectly to the headress of teeth they wear.

In a circle they watch me approach.

"Aww~ Tobias has finally decided to visit us."
I didn't even have to look to know Koba had said that. He's the leader of all of them and a grade A smart ass. He was killed during an excursion around the Mayan time. Everybody he knew believes he was crushed during an avavlanch, but he says that he was tied up at the base of a cliff when he was crushed. Far worse, it was his wife who'd done it after having relations with his brother.
His body and Mayan clothes are beaten and battered, blood and broken bones still showing here.

"Isn't it obvious? He wants something" Another spits. It's a woman, Camile. She was wrongly accused of witchcraft and burned during the Salem witch trials. A nasty burn to the stake later and here she is. Even at the foot of her throne I can smell her burnt flesh:
black and charred.

"What could he possibly want from us of all things?" The final Soul gurgles. Ardith, a teen that drowned at sea with his sister when immigration was first legal. No matter what the circumstances are he's always somehow soaking wet.

"I came here because I need to have control!" I demanded "you've had my body far too long!"

"Didn't we have this same conversation a while back? The answer is still the same, Tobias. When you're strong enough to resist us alone then you can have your body back. We've all tried to let you have some freedom but somehow you always tried to die. Probably trying to join her no doubt"  Camile rises from her bloodied throne and walks towards me, her burnt skin crackling.

"That's not the case...not anymore. Besides, you don't have a choice. I need brief time with my body or I'll die. You don't want that...do you?" I grit. They look to each other, obviously trying to figure out what to do.

"What is it that you need it for? Planning for another suicide attempt?"

I pursed my lips, knowing the favor I'm about to ask is asking for persecution from them.
"I...just need to see her again"

Camile frowned, her cheeks sizzling.

"If you won't give me my body to visit her, then you owe me"

"The only thing we owe you is the gentle reminder that without us you would be dead-!"

"Camile..." Ardith warns. "You're making him angry"

Looking over at Koba, it's clear he's not pleased with Camiles outburst. His eyes aflame with orange, showing his rage. Camile, seeing this, sinks back in her chair, eyes cast to her lap in submission.

"You wished to talk with your wife did you not? Well, we did make a deal after those...unfortunate circumstances with her death. Camile?"

She flinches at her name.

"What was it that we ALL agreed to? My memory is so troublesome nowadays"

We all know he remembers. Koba never forgets.