Glamorous - A Grace Bishop Novel - Chapter 37
© Denise Bossarte
While the rest of the
Paranorms were working the floor, Grace ran to pick up decorative boxes to hold
the ashes of all the girls. It took trips to three different discount stores,
but she finally found enough boxes with flower patterns for each girl to get a
separate box. She wanted to make sure they were all regarded with dignity and
respect in this last treatment of their physical remains. She thought having
their ashes buried in beautiful flowered boxes would please them.
When Grace got back the other Paranoms were gone. Fuoco was
still moving from one mound to the next. He was controlling the fire he wielded
to reduce the remains to the smallest amount possible but also ensure none of
the ashes mixed between the mounds. Grace was happy Fuoco was willing to spend
the extra time working with such care instead of blasting the entire room at
one time.
While Fuoco finished the last mounds Grace worked on putting out
the boxes, one beside each of the piles of ashes. Fuoco noticed what she was
doing but only nodded and continued his work finishing the last of the concrete
forms.
“Danny, can you get the
girls to come out and help identify which mound belongs to whom? I want to
identify each one before we take them to the cemetery.”
“Sure, Grace. They’re
curious about what you’re doing. Now the others are gone I don’t think they’ll
be shy about coming out to help.”
Grace knelt by the side of what was once one of the mounds and
waited as the girls followed Danny back onto the main floor.
“I got each girl a special
box for her ashes,” Grace explained, holding up a box to show them. “Where we can, I want to put the right name
with the ashes to bury them with their names. Does anyone object?”
All the ghosts shook their heads “no” while coming closer to see
the boxes she put out.
“Is everybody happy with
their box?” Grace wanted them satisfied before she added the ashes to the
boxes.
They all were pleased enough with the selections and Grace
started moving from one box to the next. She noted the name of the girl with a
black marker on the lid of each of the boxes. For about half of the remains
there was no ghost to tell them which name to use. Instead, Grace added the
name of a flower to the lids in honor of the unknown girls: Rose, Lily, Iris,
Daisy, and so on for her favorite flowers. Her mother would be pleased having
this garden of boxes and girls with her. Grace could imagine her looking over
them and keeping them safe by her on the hill.
She paused from her work when Fuoco finished and came to find
her.
“All done, Grace,” he said. He looked tired but pleased at what
he had accomplished.
“Thank you for all your help, Fuoco. It will make a huge
difference for the girls to be out of the warehouse and somewhere safe.”
Fuoco looked down at the growing collection of filled boxes at
Grace’s feet.
“I think what you are doing for them is fantastic. I’m
embarrassed to say that it never even crossed my mind to do something like
this. I was concerned about removing every trace of evidence that could
implicate Paranorms in what happened here.”
Grace looked at him curiously. “If you were that worried, why
didn’t you burn down the entire building instead of only what is inside?”
Fuoco laughed. “We try to keep things to the necessary minimum.
Burning down the building would take a tremendous amount of energy, and it
would risk someone noticing the fire. That could lead to an emergency response
and a whole lot of Norms coming to the location in a hurry.
This way we can take care of the evidence without the Norms
being the wiser. If anyone ever does stumble onto what we have done here, it
will look like a fire happened in the building but it never got strong enough
to take out the building.”
Grace nodded in understanding. “Necessary minimum. Makes sense.”
“Do you need me for anything else?” he asked.
“If you wouldn’t mind staying until I am finished? The Glamour
is still out there, and possibly an accomplice. I wouldn’t want them coming
back to the scene of the crime and catch me off guard while I am finishing up
with the girls.”
“Sure, I can stay until you are through. I will make a circuit
inside the building within earshot while you work. Let me know when you are
ready to leave.”
“That would be great, thanks!”
Grace turned back to her work
with the girls’ ashes as Fuoco began his guard duty. It
took some time to work her way around the room, labeling the boxes and adding
in the ashes. Sabra followed Grace around to each of the girls’ places, keeping
a sharp watch as Grace moved the girls’ remains into their named boxes. When
they reached the mound with Sabra’s body, she finally spoke as Grace began to
write her name on the top of the box.
“It ok ta use ma real
name?” she asked, the most timid Grace had ever seen her.
“Oh, Sabra isn’t your real
name?”
“Sabra’s ma streets name.
Ma true name’s Shawtell.” Sabra said in a meek voice as if she was afraid
of how Grace would react.
“It’s a beautiful name,
Shawtell. Yes, we can certainly use it for the box,” Grace assured her and
wrote the name in a flowing cursive script.
Sabra peered at the new name on the lid and smiled. Grace smiled
back at her.
“Thank you for sharing
your real name to help me put it on the box. I’ll take the boxes to the
cemetery as soon as I can and get them buried.”
Once she finished, she put the boxes into the trunk of her car.
She returned to the warehouse to find Danny and the girls waiting for her.
“Are you ready to get the
Glamour’s knife, now?” Danny asked.
He had been waiting impatiently for her to finish. He was ready
to start work on the next phase of the plan.
“Yes. It’s time for us to
learn more on the Glamour and his accomplice. If they both touched the knife we
can find out who they are.”
Danny led her to where he and
Sabra hid the knife by the back corner of the building. Under their direction,
Grace moved aside several stacks of old crates. She dug through about four
inches of dirt and detritus covering the floor in this part of the building.
“I told you the knife was
safe,” Danny said pleased with himself.
“I’m glad you did such a
great job of hiding it. Thank goodness I was already a mess before having to
dig this out again!” Grace said.
She wiped her hands off onto the legs of her jeans and stared
down at the knife at the bottom of the hole.
Danny had the foresight to wrap the weapon in a cloth before to
keep the knife as uncontaminated as possible. She recognized the material as
one of the girl’s blouses from the discarded items at the Glamour’s torture
table. She was happy the table and all the clothing were now burned to ash.
Grace lifted the covered knife out and sank back to a seated
position on the ground, working to get comfortable. She looked up to find the
girls had gathered in a curious bunch around her and Danny while she was busy
excavating the knife.
“I’m going to find out
more about the Glamour by reading the knife he used to hurt you girls. You
might not want to be here if it is going be too painful for you.”
At her words, a few of the girls moved away but a dozen stayed
to watch her.
Grace unfolded the cloth away
from the metal until she was holding it directly in her hands. She brought her awareness to her hands. She visualized a dark
material sliding away from her fingers and palms and up her arms, leaving her
hands in direct contact with the knife.
Grace found herself sitting in a car on a city street late at
night. Most of the people on the sidewalk appeared to be prostitutes, with a
few men talking with them and a few cars cruising down the street. The person
glanced into the rear view mirror and she saw the face and gray eyes of the
Glamour looking back to her as he smoothed his hair back and inspected his
teeth.
He turned back to surveying the crowd. Grace felt a wave of
possessiveness flood her as his gaze fell upon one of the girls. But there was
no sense of desire for the girl, only a sense of ownership and a need to get
the girl into the car as soon as possible. She sensed no anger or maliciousness
directed at the girl. Nor the mental imbalance she expected from the attacker.
Only a sensation of pleasure as the object of his effort came toward him as he
willed her closer.
All at once things shifted, and Grace found herself back in the
warehouse. The man was standing over the girl again, who was tied and gagged on
a table. He was holding the knife in his hand, turning it back and forth,
appearing to relish watching the light reflecting off the surface. She caught a
small piece of his reflection in the blade as it turned, seeing his face again
but this time he had brown eyes.
Grace felt what she expected from the beginning. A gleeful anticipation
of the pain he was about to inflict, the beauty he was about to take for his
own. Her skin crawled at the malevolent intent filling the Glamour as he turned
his gaze down to the girl. The girl was alive and writhing in terror on the
table, unable to move far due to the ropes binding her.
“Robyn has done his job well, once again. You are magnificent
and will make a fine addition to my creation. Never fear, my dear, the pain and
suffering you will soon experience is all for the greater good. It is now time
for the Master to begin his work.”
At the Glamour’s words the girl thrashed against the ropes, her
screams muffled by the gag in her mouth. The Glamour chuckled and leaned in
with the knife toward the girl.
Before he could use it, Grace
wrenched herself back into her own body. She quickly visualized the dark
material sliding back down her wrists and hands, cutting off her connection to
the cold metal. She threw the knife to the ground as she scrambled to her feet
and propelled herself a few steps away from it.
“What happened, Gracie?”
Danny asked.
Grace shuddered and took in a deep breath. “That was the worst reading ever! At least the creepiest one,” she
said.
“Did you see something
helpful?” Danny probed.
“Not too much. But we have
the answer to who the second Paranorm is, at least.”
“Who is it?”
“The whole eye color changing thing has
puzzled me ever since I read Beth. I thought at first she was imagining it. Or
under the influence of the Glamour to see something that wasn’t there. But I
saw the identical thing for myself when we confronted him on the street.
When Eli and I
discussed there must be two people involved to explain the multiple abilities,
that scenario was the only one that made sense. But now I’ve read the knife, I
realize we are not dealing with two people, but two people in one body.”
“What do you mean two
people in one body?” Danny asked.
“I’m talking about
multiple personalities; two distinct personalities instead of the usual one
personality per body.”
“Wow, that’s weird! But what
about the multiple abilities?”
“When I was studying
psychology in college, we learned about multiple personality disorder, they
called it Dissociative Identity Disorder in the text books. They are people
with multiple personalities. Often they are not even aware of the other
personalities. The different personalities are able to do remarkably different
things. One could be a gourmet chef and another could be a musician, neither
having the talent of the other.
What we’re seeing
is the Glamour is a multiple personality. The two personalities have two
different abilities. Robyn, the one with the Glamour, is not taking part in
hurting the girls only luring them. The second is the one hurting the girls and
making the creature.”
“What does that
mean as far as a plan to stop him, or ‘them’ rather?” Danny asked sounding a bit confused.
“Our original plan
of enticing the Glamour out, challenging him to meet me one on one, is still
the best plan. We now have more ammunition to get his attention. We know about
his multiple personalities and multiple abilities. That means rather than two
people to worry about and hunt down, there is only one body. Maybe we can use
these personalities against each other somehow once we get him where we want
him.
But I’ve enough information to force him to meet
with me, now.”
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