The rain was running a small stream along the gutters. I looked out the hotel window. It was styled with the parking lot facing most of the rooms on the second floor, almost like a motel. We had a second floor room until my first sleepwalking episode with the skull. After that we moved downstairs, mostly for Isidore. We had to go through the lobby to get outside. Since Isidore was nine months pregnant we wanted to be on the ground floor.

That night, when she was asleep, I followed Detective Winters all the way outside to talk. He smoked a rolly that looked like he had put some time and thought into it. He had refilled his lucky zippo and used it to light it. Then he spoke:

"You were quite happy to despise me for giving Ghanat the serum he created." He breathed smoke into my face; as the rain poured just beyond us.

"I am sorry." I tried to apologize. He shook his head and shoved me up against the wall, holding my chin with his hand. He leaned in very close and I almost thought he would kiss me on the lips.

"You gave that thing back its skull. You could have just kept it."

"I had to." I tried to say. He squeezed my cheeks.

"Why on Earth would you have to do a thing like that?" Detective Winters let go and leaned back. He kept smoking and looked away. "Don't even bother."

I left him there and went back inside, feeling humiliated and ashamed. I found Isidore asleep and I tried to crawl into my own bed and somehow she woke up.

"Come here, it's kicking." She uttered sleepily. I took that, instead of my idea of my own bed. I laid there facing her, holding her belly. I could feel it kicking. After she fell asleep I went back to my own bed. I was afraid I could have bad dreams and move around in my sleep. I was scared I could hurt her in my sleep after all the living nightmares I had witnessed and fled from.

"Goodnight, my love and my little love." I kissed her forehead and her belly before I went to my own bed. Cory purred at me and said in plain English:

"You found a mate. Seems like a good deal, she is obviously fertile." Cory said.

"She has my child in her." I corrected him.

"I doubt that her child is actually yours. You mean to adopt it." Cory said. As he spoke English it was hard to remember he still thought like a crow. A person saying such things would have some objectionable motives. Cory meant no harm.

"It's mine." I stated. "Amen."

Cory just made a clicking sound in Corvin that meant that he had nothing more to say on the matter and had said everything he could say.

I wondered if he was right. A tear formed in my eye. I was looking forward to meeting the baby and Isidore insisted it was mine. I decided to trust my woman; not some little bird telling me things. Even if Cory was right, I could just ignore him, nothing would change. I decided to ignore Cory.

After breakfast we took Isidore to her doctor's appointment. Evidently we had a week or two, still. Back at the hotel, I walked her to our room. I had left Cory with Detective Winters outside. Inside, I hugged her and I was about to leave.

"I heard your bird talking to you." She wasn't looking at me.

"Don't." I turned back and lifted her chin with the side of my finger until she was looking at me. I said it again, much softer: "Don't say anything."

"Oh, Lord." Isidore spoke, disobeying me, and then she accepted my kiss. She held me and kissed me right back. Her eyes had watered and I could feel our child's joy as it kicked me.

I had to leave her to go to work with Detective Winters.

We were at his desk for most of the day. Then he got a call to come and take a look at a body they had found. We rushed to the waterway.

A small boat was pulled up and as it rained the policemen worked in black and yellow ponchos. The corpse lay bloated and naked on the twigs of the shore. Cory squawked nervously.

"What is it, Cory?" Detective Winters asked my bird.

"The smell of evil lingers very fresh. Something is ready to rise." Cory spoke in plain English for Detective Winters.

"I see." Detective Winters unlocked the shotgun he had in the trunk of his car and loaded its drum with some kind of tactical ammunition in dark green shotgun shells. So armed he led me and Cory down to the body.

It didn't get up and try to attack us, or anyone else, and I was almost surprised as it lay still.

"What's up with the shotgun, Streetsweeper?" Another policeman asked Detective Winters.

"Cannot be too careful. Booby traps shaped like corpses." He was watching the handling of the pale, bloated remains. He never blinked or looked away.

"Is that what happened to Ventura?" The questioning policeman sounded jaded, asking the way he did.

"No. Ventura was murdered by a dead body. It wasn't a booby trap." Detective Winters didn't feel like he should have to lie. Especially not when he was holding a big gun.

"People are at their worst when they are unaccountable." The policeman objected to the attitude he was picking up from Detective Winters. Then he walked away.

The body was carefully inspected and documented where it was and then it was sealed up in an extra large body bag they had to wait for. It took considerable effort to lift it and transport it up the steep embankment to the examiner's vehicle. The examiner's assistant was there to drive it back and gave Detective Winters a cigarette.

Suddenly the examiner's assistant, Frank, shouted in alarm and rushed to unzip the body bag. "It's moving!"

"Get back!" Detective Winters put one hand one Frank's arm and moved him clear.

Stolen novel; please report.

"What are you doing, they're alive!" Frank objected at the aimed weapon.

"Exactly. You saw that thing." Detective Winters waited for a few seconds for the examiner's assistant to realize that the body should not be moving.

"My Winters, do not open the bag with your weapon. The enemy will spill out." Cory lifted himself to the air and went to a branch for safety. Then he called in Corvin: "Must go now!"

"That bird just talked." Frank pointed at Cory.

"They all do." I told him. "Cory is under an enchantment: that is why you can understand him."

"I suppose you can understand crows?" Frank was sounding less and less surprised with each thing he observed in sequence. He was beginning to deny the presence of such strangeness.

"I can only understand Cory. Now everyone can, though." I replied. I stared at the shifting bulges of the body bag.

"What is in there?" Detective Winters asked Cory, calling up to the branch with his loud voice. Policemen and forensics specialists that were around us and packing up, looked to the commotion. I could hear other crows warning us as well. At least one of them was chastising Cory. He was exiled, banished, an outcast; condemned among his people.

"It is trapped." I watched it moving.

"Get it into the vehicle. We will follow behind." Detective Winters directed.

"Let's get going." I called Cory to me.

We got in the back of his car and Detective Winters drove after the examiner's vehicle. At the examiner's the body was unloaded and we went with it to ensure the booby trap in this corpse didn't give Frank a battlefield promotion when the bag got opened by the examiner.

I blinked when I saw her. The examiner was not what I expected. She had a severe 'undead queen' thing going on, with her morbid vibe. She crossed the floor to her newest guest. I realized that I was naturally attracted to her; that I was charmed by her chaotic beauty.

"This one is lively. Our magic crow says it is dangerous to open it." Detective Winters told her. He had his big shotgun aimed casually at the dead. Then he noticed I was staring at her and introduced me to her: "Dr. Leidenfrost: this is Lord. He has a pregnant wife."

"Let me know if you need a break. You may call me Heidi." Dr. Leidenfrost offered me her hand. Her skin was very warm and she held my hand instead of shaking it, she looked into my eyes for a few seconds until I looked away. Then she smiled. "It's okay."

I stepped back from her and said nothing. I realized her ways were different from mine. I said: "Dr. Leidenfrost, it is an honor to meet you."

Her smile was still there, but it changed instantly to a professional one. She showed no sign of dejection. She did sound slightly disappointed as she told me: "Lord, the honor is mine".

"She wants to mate with you." Cory advised me in plain English. She overheard this and looked at my crow very curiously. She looked doubtful:

"Is that ventriloquism?" Dr. Leidenfrost wondered, fascinated.

"It isn't. Nor is it mimicry." Cory looked at her and said.

"That is a neat trick. I have no idea how you are doing that. I would totally mate with you." Dr. Leidenfrost grinned.

"Heidi, can you focus?" Detective Winters interrupted her examination of me and my crow and pointed at the waterlogged body.

"Detective, it is most likely some sort of aquatic creature." Dr. Leidenfrost finally stopped flirting and adopted her most professional behavior. Except she kept blushing and looking at me, like she had a split personality. Which part of her was in control varied from moment to moment, it seemed.

She opened the bag slowly. Then she lifted back the body bag's flap and looked up at us and shrugged. Frank came into the room pushing all of her equipment, all of it neatly arranged and ready.

"I guess we can wait at your desk." Detective Winters realized she was about to prepare to examine the body.

"She says the water is not water." Cory was facing the corner near the body. I looked at that corner and there was nothing there.

"The ghost?" I felt my flesh prickle in fear. My fear of ghosts was entirely instinctive. Their appearance and presence had always frightened me. I stared at the empty corner. Cory hopped down, facing the invisible presence.

"She says it wanted to drown her. She says it hates us." Cory looked at me.

Behind me I heard a splash. This was followed by the sound of cascading, dripping water. Then the sound of sneakers on the wet floor, squeaking loudly. This was followed by a gurgle and a thump. I turned just as Dr. Leidenfrost's scream pierced the air in horrified alarm.

The water filled corpse had deflate as a tentacle of water had reached from the mouth and incision. This formed a crude hand, an arm of living water suspended and clear. It had engulfed the head of Frank and pinned him to the floor. He could not grip it to free himself, nor escape its strength. His hands merely splashed through it and it held its shape, pouring with force through the air. It was smothering his face, engulfing his head in a penetrable bubble of water.

Dr. Leidenfrost was screaming in agonized terror. She staggered back and fell, her tight lab coat making it hard for her to get back up, so she crawled away backwards, sobbing and chortling. Then she stopped and rolled over and got to her knees facing away from the horrible sight. She tore at her jacket, exposing her breasts to the wall of corpses.

I was watching her and could see her reflection in the stainless steel drawers where the bodies were kept. Then I looked back to the weird water as it drowned our friend Frank and he struggled helplessly against it. I was panicked and surprised and did nothing. I just stood there.

"My Lord, will he die, then?" Cory clicked at me several times. Then he said it in plain English.

I realized I was doing nothing and yelled for Detective Winters. Perhaps he could shoot it or something. I wondered absently what he was thinking; since he had not responded to any of Dr. Leidenfrost's cries. He came around the corner with a scowl and the big gun he had carried around since he had taken it from the trunk of his car and loaded it.

He shot the corpse to tiny pieces, unloading the entire drum from the automatic shotgun. The slugs ripped apart the stainless steel exam table, disintegrated her dissection instruments and put a series of staring black holes in the shiny wall of the dead. The water was nowhere to be seen.

"It is escaping!" Cory flapped around and called out dramatically.

"That's good!" Dr. Leidenfrost hugged her exposed chest and laughed with spilled mania. That sight of the water killing her friend was not acceptable to her consciousness. She laughed and then began to cry. This became a wailing noise. Finally the recoiled mind quieted.

In my thoughts I envied her for behaving so dignified as she accepted the madness of a new reality. She did her best to cover herself back up and climbed to her feet. She kept her eyes closed, refusing to look at any of it. She simply felt her way along to the exit.

"I am going to my car. I need to get some fresh air." Dr. Leidenfrost spoke shakily as she found her way out.

"There!" Detective Winters pointed to where the water was receding into a drain on the floor. As we watched, it vanished.

When the horror was out of sight I ran to Frank and began chest compression. I skipped the ventilation, recalling from wherever I learned this, that a drowning victim needs compression first. There was no water inside him. I breathed air into him and returned to compression. Detective Winters came over and took his pulse. He let me keep trying.

"Stop. He is dead." He said after I was already just about done.

We went outside and found Dr. Leidenfrost smoking.

"I had quit. I wanted to get pregnant and take two years off from work. I've changed my mind." Dr. Leidenfrost was still trembling from the shock.

"Don't do that. Don't let this ruin what you wanted." I told her.

"It was going to be Frank." She said quietly. "He loved me, even though I am like this. Just the best friend, in the whole world, that a girl could have. You can't understand what he meant to me."

"You are right: I can't understand. I want to, though. I care about the pain you suffered from what we brought you." I said.

"Heidi." Detective Winters held his hand out to her. She pulled her pack out of her shirt pocket and it ended up in Detective Winters's hand. He seemed to be confiscating it. She nodded.

The ambulance she had called arrived. It was too late though. Detective Winters gave her a hug and we left Dr. Leidenfrost there.

"Will she be alright?" Cory looked out the back at her as we drove away.

"The end will always be alright." Detective Winters decided with some optimism. He dropped me off and decided to go fill out the inevitable report. "You two spend some time together. Don't wait up, this report will keep me very late."

I returned to the hotel and went to our ground floor room. The hotel manager caught up to me and explained that Isidore had gone to the hospital. He offered to call a cab to take me there. Then he added: "Her water broke."