Jack sprints down the pavement, approaching the fallen Flynt and Avery. He stops just before the two, bloodied and bruised, laying against the curb. Avery pulls herself to her feet, shaking for a moment before standing tall. Flynt props himself up against the side of the curb, regaining his usual posture. They stumble away from the building, peering through its shattered window. The bird-like attendant is nowhere to be seen.

  “Hey, Jack... I believe you.”

  “What?”

  “I believe you. The evidence is irrefutable and shit.”

  “Pardon?”

  “That bird-woman asshole came back to life and shit.”

  Avery scratches her head.

  “So, if you’ve got shit to say about souls, I’ll listen.”

  Jack suppresses a smile.

  “Avery, I appreciate that!”

  Avery turns away, stuffing her hands into her pockets.

  “Yeah... No problem. Do you know what just happened or not?”

  “Oh, she became a revenant.”

  “Huh?”

  “Well, every once in a while, people just come back, detached from everything else.”

  Avery rests her head in her hands.

  “I don’t get how that works.”

  “However you choose to rationalize things, it is fine.”

  “Lame...”

  Jack peers behind him, at the hail-lashed ridge overtop the petrol pumps, and at the rickety car. Deagon lies passed out in the passenger’s seat, his arm hanging out the window, grasping the flask. A shadow presents itself, circling around the back of the car. A pale woman in an unkempt uniform steps into the light, her eyes darting about without focus. She strides toward the group, stopping just before the curb.

  “Welcome, Jack! It is so nice to meet you.”

  “Pardon me?”

  “I have some great involvement with your situation. Do you understand what I mean?”

  “I am not sure.”

  “This sounds kind of stupid as fuck.”

  The woman adjusts the collar on her unruly uniform. She looks up at Jack.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “You must’ve met Braellyn by now!”

  She leans in close to Jack.

  “Remember that name well. A good friend trusts me with that name, so I would rather you didn’t make light of it.”

  “What?”

  She turns away, stumbling away from the group, arms crossed. She snatches Jack’s collar, pulling him behind her. Avery saunters after the woman, swiping at her. The woman evades her, and she grabs Avery, throwing her backwards, smashing the top of her head against the curb. A stream of blood flows down her scalp.

  “Braellyn was — is a good friend of mine!”

  The pale attendant stares down at the concrete, guiding Jack further into the parking lot. Jack glances behind him, toward Flynt. Flynt marches toward the two.

  “And Flynt! Don’t you know Braellyn is still alive? She’s in the bed of my truck, and you can have the honor of meeting her in person!”

  Flynt slides Braellyn’s knife from out of his sweatshirt pocket, and he lunges at the woman with the knife in hand. In an instant, she grabs him and hurls him against the ground. The attendant grimaces. Blood seeps down Avery’s forehead as she tears herself off the concrete. Flynt springs up to his feet. The attendant swipes a gun from out of her pocket, swiveling around to face Flynt. Flynt freezes in place, while the woman guides Jack backward. Avery props herself up against the side of the curb. She lets out a hoarse cough.

  “Hey… Are you fucking crazy?”

  The attendant stares past Flynt, raising an eyebrow at Avery. She glances at the surrounding pumps.

  “Wow! Are you fucking stupid?”

  Flynt shrugs.

  “That’s a myth — Did you believe... Here, let me show you.”

  She redirects her pistol toward a gas pump a few spaces down the line. She pulls the trigger several times with a thunderous crash. Jack flinches, covering his ears.

  “See?! It’s fine! No explosion!”

  She swivels her arm around toward Flynt and pulls the trigger once more, with a dull click.

  “Fuck —”

  Jack tugs himself away from the woman, sprinting toward the station. Flynt lunges at the woman, snatching at the gun in her hands. She bashes the pistol upside his head until he falls to the ground. She gazes down the path, back toward the building, where Jack stands against the front-wall, beside a splotch of shattered glass. Avery pulls herself to her feet, and she steps in front of Jack. The pale woman stops in front of Avery for a moment, glancing up and down. She lurches toward Avery. Avery leans backward, grabs the attendant, and smashes her head against the brick-wall of the gas station. Eventually, the attendant slumps over onto the concrete. Avery tosses the woman’s bloodied body aside, strolls down the parking lot, and extends an arm out to Flynt. Flynt slides backwards, grabs the curb, and pulls himself up. A thin stream of blood drains from his nose.

  Deagon leans across the front seat of the car, hanging his hand out the driver’s side window. He beckons Flynt and Avery toward the car, Jack following close behind them. He throws an arm to his side and rummages through a bag, whipping two folded up envelopes at Avery while she stands and stares. Flynt reaches over and snatches an envelope.

  “That’s your pay. I’m going to need one of you two to drive us where we’ve got to go. We’ve gotta take Jack back to my house. Stay away from Jack’s house. We’ve got one more stop. I’ve got shit there —”

  Deagon’s eyelids fall shut as he collapses back into his seat. Flynt and Avery glance between themselves as Deagon slinks back into his chair. He returns to snoring.

  “Damn, I’m appeased as shit.”

  Avery turns away from the car, walking toward the curb. Flynt follows behind her. The front doors of the petrol station fly open. Flynt and Jack stare across the parking lot, toward the figure that strolls out. The beaked-woman, holding her arm over her face, wincing at the brightness of the lit-up overhang, creeps into the center of the parking lot. She scampers up toward the attendant’s bloody body, just beside the building, and she kneels down beside the woman. Braellyn drags her back toward the gas-station, leaving behind her a wide trail of blood, jolting the woman over bumps in the pavement. She drags the woman through the open glass doorway, letting it fall shut behind her, under the force of the wind outside. She paces into the back of the building, obscured by its shadows. The power comes back on. The vibrant gas-station lights, its neon signs and its buzzing fluorescents, cast a blinding glare over the parking lot.