The Fungus Among Us

She always felt as though she was a friendly person, outgoing and empathetic. On a daily basis she always tried to help where help was needed; from an open ear listening to the latest baby daddy drama to being the DD to people who didn't invite her to the "awesomest party". She didn't hold grudges, well much anyway, and her friends all thought she was "nice." She had a comfortable life, normal friends and a semi normal HS life. She didn't dress weird, look weird or talk weird. She kept her head below the radar and didn't "rock the boat" per se. She liked normal foods like fast food from "Da Arches" as her best friend Abby calls it. That was their place. They would cut English class fourth period with Creepy Mr. Johnson and go get fries and a Strawberry milk shake and laugh at the "old biddies" with blue hair and crocheting club that always met in the back corner of the dining room every day, something all Upstate South Carolinian women did…promising each other they would "never be like that."

Her world, as she knew it, imploded on February 29, 2000. It had been a frigid night and she had forgotten her gloves in her haste this morning. She was trying to avoid the bore brigade at home, her grief-stricken dad and brother, moping around the house looking forlornly at her, so she snuck out the side door. She immediately regretted this decision as she saw her breath, thick and hanging in the morning air. As she walked away from the house, the tips of her fingers were becoming red and frozen, so she tucked them into her black sweatshirt sleeves poking out from her hot pink puffy winter jacket, while she walked and waited for her bestie, Abby to join her.

She didn't want to see her dads face this morning. Ever since the full moon 10 days ago he has been depressing and a bore. Mom died on a full moon. So what?! It's been 10 years now... get over it. But he didn't get over it. Every full moon the same damn thing! Moping and sobbing... asking her if "she needed to talk" and that it wasn't "normal" for her not to grieve. She was irritated and so lost in thought that she hadn't realized that Abby wasn't there. She stopped mid step and looked around in stunned silence. Abby never missed walking with her... like never. It was at that very second that it dawned on her that the street wasn't empty either. Instead, it was bustling with black shiny unmarked detective town cars and police cars most with their lights on. She sucked in her breath.... gasping for air as memories of ten years ago came screaming into her memory. Her eyes widened and her vision closed into a pinhole and immediately her eyes welled with tears as panic and dread filled her chest, her heart pounding ridiculously hard as if trying to escape its tiny prison of her chest.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That day. That horrible, terrible day. She hadn't seen her mom's body. Her dad had found her, or what was left of her after the forest floor had reclaimed her. There had been lines of volunteers, looking for her and calling her name. She could hear the voices echoing off the forest edges and drifting off into the fog, slowly reaching her as she sat in her darkened room reading the newest article about Trent Reznor. He had tried to tell her about her mother, finding her, but her grandmother stopped him by slapping the back of his head hard and dragging him to the dining room by his collar, whilst his arms were flailing and feet tripping over themselves in a comical and ungraceful dance move desperately trying to keep up with this terrifyingly strong older woman; as she whispered hissed curse words at him the entire way thinking the girl couldn't hear, but she did. "Holy shit Dave, what the hell?! I really don't think an 8-year-old is ready to hear how her mom was turned into bloody f**king mushroom food, do you?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The word "you" were echoing in her brain like the haunting call of a nightbird as she just stood there in the middle of the sidewalk, transfixed and looking horrified. "Oh..." the word stuck in her throat grabbing at her vocal chords and then gently trailed out of her mouth sliding off her tongue like pond sludge as she grabbed frantically for a nearby tree limb to regain her losing battle with balance. "Oh... NOOOOO!" she started wailing and screaming, grabbing her long brown hair in her hands as she fell to her knees. The commotion turned a few heads and raised eyebrows, as well as the attention of a rookie cop who jogged over to her with a slightly expectant look on his face. "Oh please let her be a freak!" he thought whimsically "I need something fun to do!" As he neared her though, he noticed her eyes; the wild and horrific look in them and immediately threw his inappropriate thought out. She was really scared. "Where's Abby?!" she screamed over and over "Where's Abby?" He leaned down to her, kneeling on one knee and looked into her eyes to get her to calm down a little. "Who is Abby?" he asked as he took her arms in his hands to steady her. She looked at him and with her big terrified brown eyes and with a clear but wavering voice said "She's my best friend and she always walks with me every morning and she's not here and I'm afraid she's dead like my mom and I need Abby!" It all came out in a rush as if the words were racing each other to see which ones would come tumbling out first. "Where does she live?" he asked her all the while looking around to see if there was going to be any back up coming. No such luck. Three uniforms looked away quickly as if caught looking at dwarf porn. He frowned and turned back to the girl in front of him. "On this street! This street! Number 57 on THIS STREET!" she wailed as the tears came streaming down her rosy frozen cheeks, making wet little lines of sweet, pure sadness on her otherwise terrified face. At hearing her words, he smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled reassuringly at her and said "Hun, we just talked to her and her parents. She's fine. You can go to her if you want."

Her face went crooked, almost crinkled, as she tried to comprehend what the officer was saying to her. "Wha...?" was all she could get out of her non-working mouth. He pulled her up to her feet on wobbly legs and pointed to the obnoxious electric blue colored house that was Abby's place. She and Abby had said they would paint the entire house with one exception; they would be able to choose the colors. So they did; Electric blue for the house and bright white for the shutters and borders. The house ended up looking like a freakish birthday cake, but Abby's parents loved it. As she looked over, she saw her best friend, looking anxious and sad and happy all at the same time. She was looking towards the forest, away from her, when her parents noticed Abby's friend and turned Abby around by the shoulders to face her friend down the street. "Oh my great googly moogly! Luc!!" Abby yelled as she flew from her porch, her jet-black pony tail swishing side to side behind her as she ran, wearing her all too familiar bright purple puffy winter jacket that made a funny "swish zip" sound when she walked, now it was making a hilarious sound as she ran and Luc almost giggled in a frantic relieved yelp as Abby fell into Luc's hug, "I was so scared that you were dead when I saw all the cops" Luc said. Abby looked suddenly very serious, her crystal blue eyes wide and hissed "Not here! Clubhouse! Now!"

As the girls slinked away behind the line of houses to an old treehouse that some neighborhood boys had built ages ago and abandoned, wrapped in each other's arms for more comfort than warmth, they stopped at the base of the ancient 60-foot oak tree and climbed the ladder nailed into the tree trunk up to the clubhouse. The girls had fixed it up with moving blankets that they "permanently borrowed", (Abby's way of saying stealing with maybe an intention of giving back... someday) from a moving truck that was left unattended. The blankets were fixed onto the walls with nails to keep the cold out and there were some on the floor. They had brought up a bunch of old bed pillows and bean bags that Abby's brothers didn't want any more after they had moved out for college. The clubhouse wasn't warm, but it wasn't cold either, so the girls were comfortable. Abby looked at Luc with a seriousness that kinda freaked Luc out and then Abby fell back into an overstuffed beanbag with absolutely no guile and blurted out "Oh my god! The cops found a body in the forest!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The shock of what she had just said to his face, his FACE, jolted Dave. "A b-body?" he muttered. He looked blankly at the female uniformed cop at his door. "Yes sir," she said matter-of-factly "almost directly behind your house, 1500 yards into the forest." She ruffled through a small black notebook, looking perturbed, as if she wasn't finding some scribbled notes she wanted, and then opened a file she had tucked under her arm. Her face took on a grave look as she read, then looked up at him and said "Actually, the body was found exactly in the same spot as your wife's body...10 years ago." Another jolt. This time, quite visible to anyone with eyes. "What?!" he demanded, almost vehemently, then reigned himself in like a tuna fisherman with a big bite. The female uniformed cop didn't miss a beat. Her dark brown eyes studied him with a sharpness that made Dave uncomfortable. She continued. "Yes, it seems that the body was found last night, and it looks like it has been there for about..." she paused as she re-read the report, more for effect, than for fact finding. "Yes, here it is. 10 days." That was it, the straw... the final straw that broke him. He fell straight down, his face gone completely slack, eyes rolled completely back and crumpled like an unmanned marionette as he fainted.

Officer Olivia Mendez stared at the man on the floor in front of her for a second, dumbfounded, and then snapped into action and knelt before the man checking to see if he was ok. Breathing...good. She would definitely have to ask him about that reaction later, but for now, she turned and motioned for a couple EMT's to give him the once over. She left the scene once they let her know he was ok and she walked to the back of the house. Looking towards the forest, where the body was, her eyes caught sight of two girls in highly colored puffy winter jackets walking towards an enormous oak tree. She watched them, wondering what they were doing, when she saw the tree house and smiled. "Oh cool!" It's being used! Her brother had helped in making that tree house when he was 17, just before he shipped out to join the Air Force. Once Javier had left, most of the boys had followed suit, and the tree house was empty for some time...or so she thought. She didn't realize she was walking towards the tree house until she was halfway there.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"A body?!" Luc whispered "No freaking way!" her eyes went wide with wonder and fear. "Yup" Abby said matter-of-factly "and you are NEVER going to believe this next part." Luc sat forward with anticipation, her heart pounding. "It's not so much as they found a body," Abby said slowly and concisely, "It's WHERE they found it that is freaky as shit." Luc sat back slowly and started to panic and tremble. She knew. Somehow, a little voice had been telling her that mom dying in the forest had always been wrong. Like, not wrong in the moral sense, but wrong in the freaky sense. Abby didn't continue. She was watching her best friend in the entire f**cking universe deconstruct before her very eyes. Luc looked up at Abby, absolute fear in her eyes and whispered "her place."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hello? Can I come up?" both girls jumped out of their skins when they heard the voice from below and both scrambled towards the trap door opening and lifted it to see a female cop at the bottom of the ladder, smiling weirdly. They looked at her for what seemed like forever until Abby finally perked up and asked "Why?" Luc spun her head to Abby and gave her a frown. "She's a girl she can come up." Abby gave her a reproving look and admonished "Yeah and a cop." Olivia, again never missing any body language piped up from below and said "My brother helped to build this house. As a kid I wasn't allowed in so I never got to see the inside. Can I come up and see?" With that admission, Luc felt her heart melt and Abby, badass as she was, also felt a teeny pang. "OK' Abby said. "Come on up." Olivia had almost hoped the girls would say no so she wouldn't have to climb the 20 feet to the tree house. She inwardly yelled at herself the entire way. "What the hell dumbass, you're not 17 anymore. If you fall, a 40-year- old doesn't usually recover nicely from those." She grimaced as the motion picture horror flik of her falling played over in her head. As she reached the trap door opening, she smiled a huge smile. For one, she made it in one piece and for second, these girls had made this house theirs and it was cool.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave came to. His vision was blurry and his head felt like a horse had kicked him, but otherwise, he was alive. Well, that was stupid, of course he was alive. Why wouldn't he? He looked down at his hands in his lap. Strong hands, not working hands, no callouses, but strong none the less. A little voice started in his head, just a wee little thing, like a little itch you can't reach...not quite annoying but noticeable. "Because" it whispered, its gravelly voice sounding muffled and strangled "she's back." Dave looked up, his body shivering as if he were outside with no jacket and catching his reflection in the living room mirror was horrified to see her reflection staring back at him, her eyes empty sockets, except for the black slimy fungi growing out of one and her mouth a gaping "O" as she screamed a silent scream and jumped out at him. Dave screamed and fainted once more.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Olivia made herself comfortable sitting "Indian style" and propping herself up with an overstuffed bean bag. As she looked around at the posters, Nine Inch Nails, and some other bands she had never heard of, she kept saying how she liked what the girls had done to the place. She finally looked at both of the girls and sighed. "I came up here because I saw you two walking over to the tree house. To be honest I was curious, but also a little upset that someone was using the house" she continued as the girls sat silent "I also needed to talk to both of you about what was found in the forest last night" Abby gave Luc a side glance and Luc returned it. Olivia caught the eye action and continued by pointing at Abby "I know that you are Abby Knightworthy of 57 Kingdom Drive. You are 17 and fond of purple and Nine Inch Nails." She motioned her hand to the posters, almost lazily and referenced her notebook once again "Your parents are Judy and John Knightworthy and you have three brothers, all away at college." Abby nodded and affirmed that she had spoken with an Officer Davis earlier today with her parents. Olivia turned her head to Luc and said "However, you, I don't know." Luc looked sheepish and said "My name is Luc Mannington. I'm also 17 and I live at 22 Forestview lane. My dad is Dave Mannington and my mom died 10 years ago." Olivia stopped writing after the girl said her last name and she started to lose her grip on her pen. She looked up at the girl mystified that this was THE girl she had been looking for, and that she had just happened to fall right into these girls' laps. Olivia was lost in thought when Abby said "Hello? Are you ok?" Olivia sat up with a start. "Damn!" she said "Yeah I'm sorry...a lot going on ya know?" She finished writing the info down in her little black notebook and looked at Luc. "Is Luc short for anything?" Abby sighed loudly because she knew Luc hated this question. Not for the question itself, but for the answer. "Yes, " she admitted "Its short for Lucretia. I was named after my grandmother." "And she hates it!" Abby inserted rather loudly. Luc nodded. "Yeah, not so much of a hate, per se, but more of a "WHY?" she added. Olivia nodded as if she understood and said "Well, that's understood. My mother's name was Gertrude. Everyone called her Gertie. My name is Olivia." The girls seemed to visibly relax and Olivia was glad because the next few minutes were really gonna suck.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Officers Davis, Jones and Randall were walking the perimeter of the crime scene tape, looking at the ground taking iddy biddy steps. Using their high intensity flashlights to make sure they didn't miss even a "spec of dog shit" thinking back to what Detective Mendez had barked at them an hour earlier and when she barked, everyone listened. "I don't see dog shit" Davis said in his relaxed tone "but I do keep seeing these mushrooms. They're freaking everywhere." Jones let out a sigh and added "Yeah, it's a forest, duh." Davies replied back with "No shit, but this many?" Randall kept his eyes locked on the ground and did in fact notice more mushrooms. They were a white color with cute tops that looked like a corduroy topped umbrella. His daughter would have called them "brella fun guys" and this made Randall smile despite himself and the location. It seemed to him that it was getting darker even though his watch told him it was only a quarter past 11 in the morning. Randall stopped in mid step. He had strayed a bit to the right of the other two and his eyes widened. In front of him were millions upon millions of these mushrooms and on top of them, woven between them... his mind couldn't compute what he was seeing. He was tired...delirious, he needed verification. "Uh, guys? You might want to come see this." Davis and Jones looked up from their paths and headed over to where Randall was. Davis was the first to react. "Oh sweet Jesus!" Jones didn't even blink but yelled in a clear loud drill instructor bark "Bodies! We found more Bodies!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Olivia was about to ask some of the hardest questions that she had ever been forced to ask a 17-year-old about the worst day of her young life and she was delaying it as much as she could by asking dumb shit like "What were you doing last night around 11:45 pm last night?" even though she knew damn good and well, the body was 10 days old. She was about to ask another dumb question when she heard Jones' voice clearly say off in the distance "We found more bodies!" Both girls jumped out of their skins and Olivia sat shocked and asked herself in a dumbfounded voice "Did he just say "Bodies" like more than one?" She tried to hide the immediate concern by looking for her walkie, which she had turned down. She hadn't wanted the girls to hear all the morbid details and chatter of the officers. When she found her walkie, she turned it up and hit the talk button. "Jones, did you say bodies? As in plural?" when she released the talk button, she and the girls' heard lots of voices all chattering at the same time. You couldn't make out any one thing but every second or so you could hear someone yell out "three over here" or "one more over here". Olivia tried hard not to show her horror, but realized she was failing miserably when Luc said quietly "You should go to them. She's back." Olivia looked down at Luc and was about to ask who "she" was but Jones yelled over the walkie "YES!!! Oh my freaking god! Hundreds of them!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luc watched Olivia fly down the ladder as if she just levitated down. She continued to watch as the female officer literally broke into a sprint that was very impressive for a... how old was she? 40's maybe? Abby watched Luc with a shielded look that hid a grimace. Abby knew that her bestie knew things and felt things. She knew that Luc wanted to be as normal as French fries, but sometimes the other worlds had different plans. Luc turned to her pensive friend, watched her as she was going through thought processes that absolutely had to do with her and... HER. Luc had been having dreams of her mother now for about 2 years. Horrible, garish, blood curdling dreams where she's walking through to where her mother was found. Every time she gets to the tree with the large knot and face in it there is always a woman waiting for her. Her ghoulish face decrepit and empty sockets where eyes should have been. What had been flesh was barely hanging on and there was nothing left of what was once a body...just a few torn rags of what had been a white dress. Luc knew it was her mother from her hair.... or what was left of it. Her mother had beautiful chestnut hair. not quite red, but not really brown. It was so long it reached her waist when she wore it down. Every time she saw the woman, she would reach one hand out, palm up and display the ground sweeping to one side like a ghoulish Vanna White. Luc would always look and each time there would be more mushrooms. Just a few at first, but as each time she had the dream it was more and more until the last time she had the dream, last night actually, there were mushrooms as far as the eye could see. Last night was different as well because her mother was beautiful. She stood as she did in life, beautiful and glamorous. Her white dress reminiscent of what Katherine Hepburn wore in "The Philadelphia Story" in the 40's. Luc and her mother loved watching black and white films together. Luc figured she was wearing that because that is what her mind remembered most. This time her mother looked at her and smiled, briefly, then her eyes took a look of warning, like she was afraid. Then, she put her hand out as she has always done in her dream, palm up and swept to one side. Cue Vanna White. This time though, she started to open her mouth, as if to speak, and to Luc's horror, mushrooms started flowing out of her mother's mouth. Like a horrifying deluge, they just wouldn't stop. Luc watched, screaming as her mother was starting to fade away, not from site like a ghost, but in flesh and bone, until she was nothing but a mound of rotting filthy dirt. Luc could see the dirt moving just under the surface and as she continued to watch, mushrooms sprang up, but these were black and stunk of rotting flesh. A hand grabbed Luc's shoulder and spun her around. It was her mother, as she saw her the first night, dead and decayed. Luc tried to pull away, but her mother held her fast and looked straight in the eyes and screamed "RUUUUUN!"

Luc sighed and told all of this to her bestie Abby. With each breath Abby gripped herself in a tighter hug until she couldn't grip any more. When Luc finished, Abby was in tears and Luc was exhausted. "We can't tell anyone." Abby breathed. "Your mom is sending a warning, but of what, for what... I don't know." Luc sighed again... deeper this time, as tears streamed down her face. She started wondering if now, after 10 years, she was finally starting to grieve.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Olivia got to the officers in record time, checking her watch purely out of habit. Davis was behind a copse of bushes puking his guts out and Randall didn't look like he was that far behind him. Officer Jones was tight lipped and had this haunted look in his eyes. Jones was a decorated combat veteran, had seen more action in two years than most see in 12. He had been in Fallujah and she had read his records. The man was scary. But the man she saw now.... her innards trembled at the thought of what could shake this guy. Her question was answered the moment she looked past him. Bodies were everywhere, in all different stages of decomp. She looked around wide eyed and aghast because dammit, they weren't here this morning when she first got on scene! A scream rose from about 50 feet away and a rookie cop, barely 20 something came tearing off from the forest as if his hair were on fire and Satan himself were chasing him with the extinguisher. Olivia jumped back as he ran by, and yelped when she saw his face. His mouth was stuck in a scream and his eyes...oh my god, they were all white!! He was screaming about something being born from the ground. "What the hell!! Who is that?" she barked Jones answered "Some green boot called to help with collecting evidence I guess. He's not one of ours though. I think he's from the 2nd." Olivia scoffed "The 2nd?!? Who the hell called those dumbasses?" Jones looked at her, frowned and said "You saw his eyes and his scream and THAT is all you're gonna say?" She was about to answer Jones with a highly rude comment when the kid screamed a blood curdling scream, stopped mid run and Olivia watched in horror as his head exploded like a watermelon being hit with a 50 cal round. Olivia slowly turned to Jones and said calmly and very softly "Get every single cop out of here. Get every person in a hazmat suit. Full protection level 5.... right f**king now. And call the CDC... and a priest!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roberta Johnson gave herself one final review in the full length before she left her house for the airport. Her 5'7" frame, curves and all fit very nicely in her black travelling suit and the white blouse with oversized collar made a very impressive statement. Her flaming red hair done up in a double victory roll was only partially concealed by her travelling hat. It was a recreation number made by her friend. She had shown him a picture of herself from the 40's in a travelling outfit and the hat. Roberta Johnson was a world-renowned medium who claimed to be the reincarnation of Rita Hayworth, 1940's Hollywood icon. She suddenly frowned just a little. No matter what she did however she couldn't shake the comment from her last client that she looked so much like her favorite star Gillian Anderson. Really? Agent Scully? She turned to see her side view and smiled again. No way. She faced the mirror again, fixed her crimson red lipstick, and winked at herself. She grabbed her red roller luggage, grabbed the front door closed and walked out to her waiting cab. Once in the cab, she took out her phone, set the house alarm and locked the doors. "Where to ma'am?" She smiled. She always chose A-1 taxi because they always treated everyone like they did back then...with respect. The cabbie had gorgeous blue eyes, black hair that was combed back almost like a false pompadour and a scruffy face which gave him a bad boy look. She gave him her biggest sexiest smile and said "Airport, US Air. Apparently, I'm needed in South Carolina."

The flight to Charlotte NC was uninspiring. She read up on Upstate South Carolina just to familiarize herself with the physical terrain. Her connecting flight to Greenville South Carolina was a lot more interesting. US Air had what she called "puddle jumpers" and it was basically a prop plane on steroids. Coming in for landing they flew over Greenville. It was very reminiscent to flying into LA over Pendleton. She was pretty amazed that she had never been to the Upstate before. Most of her clients had been in Charleston, the haunted South Carolina. She loved getting new jobs. She didn't get them the traditional ways, meaning she was contacted by the dead for help. The living usually never knew about their "Guests" until she arrived. Being a medium of her caliber, she could communicate with and see the dead and vice versa. This time though, yes, this time was different. It was a mother that had contacted her. She had been gone for some time, under very "hinky" circumstances. She was terrified for her daughter and things had been happening as of late that were not of any dimension or plane of existence.

Before she left home, Roberta had contacted her team to meet her in Greenville. Whenever they met in a new state or city, they always met at the airport and then sonics for a chocolate and peanut butter malt. She was really looking forward to that. She saw "The Revs" Blue Town and Country van and waved towards it. Reverend James McIntyre waved back and pulled up to meet her. As she looked inside, she saw that he was dressed in a leather jacket, jeans and a white T shirt. "Really?" she said cocking an eyebrow towards his attire. He gave her a cocky side grin and said "Retirement has its privilege's ma'am." she giggled and acknowledged his quip with both hands up in an unspoken "ok ok I give" hand statement. He grinned a huge grin, put on a pair of aviator sunglasses and said "Come on in little lady"

As they were pulling away from the airport, a blue psychedelic painted van with a unicorn jumping over a rainbow pulled in behind them. The rev looked in the rearview and make a sucking sound with his teeth. "I really wish Mark would find a more suitable van... or at least paint it." he lamented. Roberta looked over her shoulder and waved at Mark and Mary who was in the front seat next to him. Mark Sandoval was a 34-year-old savant with Camera and video equipment. His 6' tall Spanish frame with dark locks of hair and blazing gold-colored eyes made him a presence to be reckoned with. He had won awards after awards for his video journalism in Nepal when he was younger. It was when he was asked to film a mother grieving for her dead son and he caught the spirit of her son behind his mother seemingly trying to comfort him... well his world suddenly became very much an entirely different place. Roberta brought him on because she suspected him to be an empath, because no one else saw the boy on the film. Mary Bridgers was her only other permanent member of her group. From Scotland, Kilmartin, Argyl to be exact, she spent most of her time at the Duntrune Castle speaking with the dead and writing a concise history of that area from the viewpoint of the actual people who lived it. It was a brilliant idea and Roberta loved it. Mary was only 22 and amazing sketch artist and the only clairvoyant Roberta had ever met who could talk to and see the dead and vice versa. Her very short 5'2" frame was topped with the blondest shock of natural almost white hair... totally natural as well. Her Brown eyes always took people aback, for she always seemed to look right through you. It took Roberta about a year to be able to understand what Mary was saying for her accent being such a thick Scottish brogue that now it was like listening to a Californian to her. The one member not seen, but she knew he was in the back on the sleeper, probably listening to some Nine Inch Nails song drowning out the world was Jerry "Ears" Sanderson. He was the audio expert. Barely 5'7", he was a skinny, bald and tattooed 27-year-old. He could hear at a level envied by the moth, and that was a fact the kept him smiling since moths hear better than bats. As far as Roberta knew or could tell, Jerry didn't have any otherworldly gifts, but since he was still fairly new to the crew, they still had a lot to be seen. Jerry wore sunglasses he called "his Locs" she had no idea what that was but assumed it was the name brand. She had but one rule for the crew. No cursing.

As they were driving down to Sonics for their chocolate peanut butter malts, Jerry was listening to an old Favorite "Ring Finger" from NIN's early work, a brilliant song and loud enough to keep the world sounds at bay. By world sound, he described it once to Roberta by saying "it's the same kind of sounds that your stomach makes after you eat, it's the low digestion, growing, moving sounds that the earth makes." After hearing that Roberta was very curious as to the sounds an earthquake makes or if he can hear the sounds in space as well. "Later" she thought, "now we have a new dance to attend." All of a sudden, over comms she heard a voice growl out "what the hell?! Goddammit!" instantly she yelled out "Language!" but Jerry was yelling and howling in pain and didn't hear what she said. The can pulled over and the rev pulled over as well. Roberta jumped out of the Mini Van and ran back to the Unicorned themed monstrosity and threw open the sliding door to see Mary hunched over a writhing Jerry holding his ears crying out "Oh my god shut her up!"

Mary was in the middle of a nice conversation with Mark regarding some of the spirits that she had talked to in the past and their historical accomplishments, when her eyes suddenly got big and her lips closed tight. Mark was in the middle of a sentence when he noticed the silence from an otherwise chatty Mary. "And so I was thinki... Hey Mary? You ok?" Mary was being contacted by a terrified woman, a woman whose life was ended but not too long ago. She called them " Shortly Deads" and some of them didn't know they were dead, some did. This one did. "YOU HAVE TO STOP THEM!" she screamed "COME QUICK, COME NOW" over and over.