Grave Danger by K.E. Rodgers

years though.”
    “ She cares a lot about you Richard. I get the
impression that you can’t accept the idea that someone might
actually like you for yourself. I know it’s not really my place to
say this, but here it goes. You need to move on, whatever happened
in your living past it’s not the same anymore. You’re not that
person anymore.”
    Richard frowned, looking down at his plate. “That’s
easy to say to someone when you can’t even remember your own past.”
He looked up, giving her an unfriendly smile. “And don’t think I
don’t know that. You might have flashes of memories, but it’s
nothing concrete. Do you even know how you died, Clarissa?”
    “ No, I don’t. I don’t even know what I did for
a living when I was alive, or remember anything about my family. As
far as I know they could all be dead as well. I don’t have a past.”
Clarissa fidgeted with her napkin on the table. It was true. She
had no memories to haunt her. However, it was the lack of a past
that haunted her, just as Richards past haunted him now.
    “ Then don’t try to tell me how to handle my
afterlife when you can’t even begin to figure out yours. I know
you’re just trying to help, but don’t. Some things aren’t worth
fixing and I’m not worth the trouble.”
    Richard stabbed the steak on his plate in
aggression. He could feel the other ghost’s interest in their
conversation. He had made a spectacle out of himself trying to turn
a potential dangerous situation into a farce. And he would be lying
to himself if he believed he hadn’t been scared there for a few
moments. If Clarissa had actually known her own strength she would
have done more than knock the proverbial wind out of him.
    “ Shows over folks,” he called out over his
shoulder to the other patrons in the restaurant. “You can go back
to your meal. There’s nothing else to see here.” After a few
minutes, most of them took the hint, either returning to their own
table conversations or leaving the restaurant all together. And
Clarissa and Richard were given a measure of privacy.
    “ What do the flesh-eaters have to do with the
town meeting tonight? You said earlier that you believed they might
somehow be the topic of discussion.” Clarissa asked this question
only because she wanted to distract Richard from his own melancholy
thoughts. He wasn’t quite as immune to them as he would lead others
to believe. He might behave outrageously most of the time, but
Clarissa suspected it was a way to keep people away from him. His
worst fear was to have people pity him if they knew his past, to
feel sorrow for the poor soul no one had ever cried over in life or
death; unloved and unwanted.
    “ I know what you’re doing, and thanks.”
Richard took another sip of his soda before he began. “It isn’t
like this comes as a surprise to any of us. It’s in their genetic
make-up to kill. But up until now it’s never been like this, or so
they tell me. There have been more unnecessary deaths in the past
two months than in the past ten years and it’s getting worse. If
something doesn’t happen quickly I have a feeling there’s going to
be a war of some kind; dead against dead to see who would get the
control of the city.”
    “ I’m not going to say I told you so because I
think that might be bitchy of me,” Clarissa began, her face
twisting in a humorless smile. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if that
didn’t actually come true. These creatures have to be stopped.
We’ve let them use this city as their feeding smorgasbord for too
long and it’s time to put the natural balance back in our
favor.”
    “ As far as I know there aren’t too many death
dealers waiting around for a phone call so they can swoop in and
take these creatures out. The fact that we have been able to
negotiate with them at all is a miracle in and of
itself.”
    Clarissa scrunched her face in confusion. “What do
you mean by death dealers, what’s a death dealer?”
    Richard