Dating the Dead • lrh

44. hope

The graveyard looked different. Felt different.

Usually, the translucent people were abuzz. Murmuring at least, talking all at once, at most. Today, they're just silent. Dead air.

I couldn't even breathe properly. If there was any buzzing happening, it would be in me. I felt it everywhere in my body. Everywhere.

Shelby held my shaking hand and seemed unfazed by it. I looked at her, half expecting to just know it was her even if her face was always a blur. I'm mistaken.

There she was, smiling lovingly at me as if she knew I was seeing her clearly. Not that clear. Shelby was just as translucent as everybody else in the graveyard.

Why?

I looked down at my other hand, the one she wasn't holding, and it looked pretty solid to me. I can't see anything through it. But I can't be too sure.

We walked towards the angel statue where Lukey was napping next to the tomb inscription. He woke up and hissed. At first, I thought it was me but I realized, the cat was agitated with Shelby.

Shelby looked  unbothered, though. Lukey scurried away, giving us a full view of the inscription even though I didn't understand it. I recognized the letters but not as a whole.

"Angelhearse," Shelby's voice echoed inside my mind because her lips hasn't moved at all. Her eyes fixated on the angel statue.

Looking closely, the angel was kneeling on one knee, had his head bowed, and wings outstretched. He looked like he just landed. "Azrael," Shelby's voice echoed.

I turned to look at her but she was gone. Actually, everything was. The graveyard faded into pitch black, one second, then it was blinding white the next.

The scene shifted into a more tolerable light. A soft buzzing helped me regain focus. "Ow," my mouth moved on its own. But even as I felt I said it, there was no pain of sorts and I sounded a bit feminine.

The buzzing stopped for a moment then continued. I was led to look at the person huddled over my extended arm. Another soft cry of pain from my mouth that's not really mine.

Whose memory was this?

"And done," the tattoo artist said in a tight accent. The person didn't look at him but at the tattoo on her slightly translucent wrist.

I've seen this before.

The huge, yellow Maccas sign flashed in my mind. A person in blue suit was standing in front of me. She waved a hand at me, the cuff sliding down a bit enough for me to see a tattoo on her wrist.

Shelby.

Then I was back to seeing the black wing tattoo and the black polished nails that were in contrast with the translucent skin.

The tattoo artist held her hand and covered the wing tattoo with a bandage. I could only make out the letters JCH on the back of his hand as it was printed in black. But it wasn't what Shelby was interested in.

After the artist secured the gauze with a  tape, the she flipped the guy's hand so she's looking at the tattoo of wings on his wrist. "Lucky," she said, and I felt my mouth move, too. She ran a finger on the wings, tracing the swirls of ink.

"Yeah well, Samael wasn't too happy about it," he said, pulling his hand away.

"Azrael was," she muttered, looking at the artist. I stared back at a pair of dark eyes. I've seen those before, too, but no name came up.