Crimson Rivers

4) A Fitting Farewell

The murmurs of Sadie's group grew louder as Sadie descended the steps to the burner, nearly tripping in the darkness.

"How the hell could it be broken?" Craig groaned.

Sadie expected to find her group illuminated in the glow of the roaring flames of the burner, Beth's soul leaving one last impression on their bare skin. Instead, she found Beth's grey corpse slumped on a table as Craig peered into the vacant burner. Jerry stood next to Craig, hands at his side, his eyes critiquing whatever Craig did.

"What the hell are you even looking at?" Jerry asked, shoving Craig aside to look inside himself.

The rest of the group leaned against the wall, chattering. The room was dimly lit due to the two candles resting on the table, serving as the only light sources.

"Sadie!" Martha's head peeked out from the vague darkness.

"Hey." Sadie weakly waved at her and noticed Fran leaning next to her.

Sadie stepped towards the broken burner and the two grumpy old men.

"How did we forget about you?" Fran asked, shaking her head.

Sadie wasn't offended. She knew firsthand that The Beast could easily affect their thoughts or cloud somebody's judgment as easily as breathing. He probably made the others forget about Sadie so he could have her all to himself. He truly was a jealous god.

"Don't worry about it." Sadie murmured.

The smell of Beth's corpse crept Sadie's way, trickling up her nose, and churning her stomach. It wasn't unbearable but it certainly wasn't pleasant, much different than Beth's normal aroma of BO and expired perfume. As Sadie breathed in the remains of what was once a woman, she thought, We'll all smell like that one day.

"What's the issue?" Sadie asked, stealing her own look at the burner.

"Ah, the fearless leader, come to save the world once again! We can see how that worked out the first time" Craig snickered, motioning towards Beth's lifeless form.

"Relax, Craig," Jerry said, always ready to be Sadie's knight in stained jeans.

"Just ignore him, honey. He's going through his own issues." Fran sighed.

Clearly. Sadie thought.

"Did anyone ask you to talk?" Craig said, his face pinched at his wife.

"Okay, that's enough." Sadie weakly said, her mind still reeling from what happened above.

"Whatever, I need to get out of here anyway. The smell is getting to me." Craig shoved past Sadie, heading upstairs.

Fran rubbed her tired eyes and stepped towards the stairs. "I don't want him alone."

Sadie wanted to tell Fran to stop, tell her that she deserved better, but stopped herself. With how things were going, Sadie didn't want him alone either.

"Good luck," Sadie said, and managed a smile, and watched Fran step into the dark, followed by the metal groaning of the stairs as she ascended.

"Alright, so what's wrong with it? We never had any issues before." Sadie said, kneeling.

"The thing won't fire up. Seems like a fuse burned out, but I honestly have no idea what I'm looking at here."

Jerry's humility was a refreshing surprise for Sadie. It takes a lot for a man like him to admit when he doesn't know something. But it didn't matter what he did or said, the person he watched die with glee laid a few feet away from them. Rotting there, unable to even be given a proper send-off, no one deserved that.