The Spirits Knew Who Was Lying Chapter 10

The Spirits Knew Who Was Lying Chapter 10 Ashes

Three more days passed. I came back from my trip Gavin found me before I even unpacked.

“Lily’s dead.”

I waited.

“They found her in the hospital bed. Her whole body-” He stopped. “She looked like a dried husk. Nothing left of her. The hospital panicked. Called the family. Had her cremated immediately.”

I let out a long breath.

When you call the dead and fail to deliver, they collect their payment one way or another. Lily had promised them peace and given them nothing. Now she’d paid with everything.

Her family came to me after the cremation. They handed me her phone.

“This was the only thing she cared about in the end. We want you to speak to her. Find out what she wanted to say.”

I didn’t refuse. I quoted them a price-five thousand dollars-and they paid without hesitation.

I burned the phone. As the smoke rose, I saw her. Standing in the haze, her body still broken, her eyes hollow.

Iregret it. I regret everything.

Her voice was thin, distant.

Lore. I want to come back. Bring me back.”

I looked at her. Then at the smoke curling toward the ceiling.

She was ash now. You can’t unburn a body any more than you can uncook an egg.

I shook my head. She screamed as the smoke pulled her under, back to wherever she belonged. Back to the price she still owed.

Gavin approached me afterward. He had a proposition.

“Listen. You’re the biggest name in the business now. The spirit market-I’ll give you a stall. Free. All you have to do is draw people in. Bring some life to the place.”

I thought about it. The spirit market sat on the threshold between worlds. It was quiet, cold, exactly the way it needed to be. The dead didn’t visit places that burned too bright.

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

He looked disappointed, but I meant it. I’d work online. Keep my distance. Stay where I belonged.

Let the dead do their work. Let the living do theirs.

And let the world spin on, pretending it all makes sense.

May there be no regrets left unfinished.

Cherish what you have while you still have it.