DYING MOURNINGS, original

fifteen : spaghetti dinner

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𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 : 𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐆𝐇𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈 𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐑

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I woke from my small nap to the doorbell ringing. I had a few texts from both Pandora and Ace so I knew that they were the ones knocking and ringing instead of anyone dangerous, like my suspicious unknown caller and all of Crow's men.

When I opened the door, Pandora and Ace were smiling with two paper bags in their hands. Before I could ask, Pandora walked in and said happily, "Picked up dinner from that old Italian place in town!"

And just on cue, my stomach growled. I followed them into the kitchen and we divided the assortment of spaghetti, salads, and garlic bread before we sat down at the island to talk and eat.

"Okay, so was the psychic today really all that? Be honest, did she seem real or was she just a fake?" Ace asked, twirling noodles against his fork.

"Seemed real, acted real at least," I told them. "She knew who I was before I even walked in and she seemed to know a lot about my dad, the Morticianers, and Archer Crow." I decided to leave out the part where I found a bloodied image of Cage to myself, since the little note on the back had not so discreetly told me to trust no one. Although, I was pretty sure I could trust these two but it was better safe than sorry.

"What'd she have to say that we don't know already?"

I gave them the rundown of all that happened, mostly just about the information on Cage and Crow. How we identified the man in the first photo I had found, and how badly it scared her. I mean, it even scared me, but I tried to not let it show. I even told them about the conversation with Cage I had earlier this afternoon when I got home, the deadly revelations about how truly dangerous the Morticianers were. How they hadn't aged a day and how their connection to the devil may run deeper than we all thought. I left out the small details about the tarot cards, I'd explain them later after we go through the most important parts of my meeting.

When I was finished, Pandora was the first to speak, sounding unsure of herself, "So, this Crow guy killed your dad because he was a snitch basically?"

I nodded. "Seems like it."

"And he's a demon? Running a secret ring of demon killers that have secret demon workers in the police department?"

I nodded again.

"And your ghost dad told you to kill them?"

I sighed, forcing myself to nod at how ridiculous it was all starting to sound.

"Well shit," she groaned, dropping her fork. "Where do we even start?"

"I'm guessing the church, right?" Ace mumbled with a shrug. "Just like Wrath said and what we've been going on about. The church is the center of it all."

"But it's not like we're going to just sneak in and catch the Morticianers in the act–" She held up a hand to stop him from talking as Ace opened his mouth to counter as she snapped out, "Don't you even say it, Ace! We are not going to go sneaking around that place!"

My phone was buzzing in my pocket and I pulled it out, smiling at the text notification I had received. "We might not have to worry about that just yet." I showed them my phone with a grin, "Looks like Macabre wants to talk."