Fifty shades of gross……

Lisa was slumped in her chair. She had finally stopped vomiting, although her stomach felt as if it could begin again any second. Mitch was cleaning up the mess she had made, his face scrunched into an expression of disgust. He couldn’t believe that she had eaten so much. It wouldn’t have bothered him so much, blood and death, shit and vomit, were all by-products of his job. But Lisa had redecorated his kitchen with gobs of undigested food, and that was something that Mitch could not deal with. No one had ever been allowed in his home before, and having the very first person ever to enter to throw up all over everything, NOPE, NOT acceptable!

“I’m sorry”, Lisa’s voice was soft and miserable. She felt awful, not only physically but for making such a mess. Mitch had been nothing but nice to her, he had done whatever he could to make her comfortable. But she had to make a hog out of herself and then turn into some type of vomit fountain. She was mortified. She couldn’t even look him in the eye, of course that would be difficult right now anyway, seeing as how he was on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor with a scrub brush. He’d cleaned the sink and the counters, he’d scrubbed and bleached almost every surface in the kitchen.

Lisa didn’t understand why he didn’t just wave his hand and make it all go away. Being Death would have afforded him that particular ability, along with untold others. But he choose to clean by hand, something Lisa wouldn’t do if there were an alternative.

Standing up and stretching, Mitch walked to the trash can, peeled off his gloves and toss them into the bin. He stood staring off into space for a few seconds, then turned to face Lisa. Her face was tinged with green, not the ghoul green that had graced her skin after her death, but the slight green that was unique to humans when they were ill.

It was heartwarming to see.

“So, now that we’re done with that, what say we go outside and relax for a bit?” Mitch was doing his best to keep the amusement from his voice. Although it had been pitiful to see her so ill, it was a sure sign that things were progressing nicely.

Lisa raised her head to glance at him. She still felt sick, but at least she wasn’t spewing like a Crown City fountain. Shaking her head, she slowly climbed to her feet.

“You want to go ‘relax’? That’s all you have to say after I redecorated your kitchen?” Lisa quipped sarcastically. “I want to die. Oh wait, been there, done that!”

Mitch burst out laughing. To hear her smart ass remarks made him positive that he’d made the right decision hiding her from Lucifer. This little woman would be either the salvation or the destruction of them all.

Grabbing her hand, he half dragged her out of the house and onto the patio. Fresh air had always helped Mitch to feel better, hopefully it would have the same effect on Lisa. Watching her face as she breathed in the fresh, sweet air, Mitch felt a tug of emotion, one that he hadn’t experienced in centuries. He was beginning to have feeling for this little female, and feelings were always dangerous.

Reluctantly dropping her hand, Mitch gazed out over the beautiful land surrounding his home. When he had first settled here, back before the white man had invaded and forced the original peoples out, it had taken an extreme amount of energy to keep his home hidden from the view of the few humans that wandered by. Now, after so many centuries of keeping his home hidden from view, it didn’t take much effort to accomplish the same task. It had become child’s play to keep this place hidden from any who dared to look.

Mitch glanced over at Lisa. Her color was returning to normal, well, to normal for a living being. He knew he was going to have to explain things to her soon, but he wanted to enjoy a few moments of quiet before venturing into that territory.

Lisa knew Mitch was gazing at her, she could feel his eyes on her and it made her uncomfortable. It had been decades since a man looked at her with that intense, interested expression. She had pretty much given up on that elusive emotion that some called love. She had found out from experience that normal men don’t ‘love’ dead girls, and the type of man that does love dead girls are not the type of people you want to spend time with.

“What are you looking at?” Lisa quietly asked. “I’d think in your line of work you’d seen plenty of dead girls.”

Mitch chuckled. Even though Lisa was miserable, she still had that sharp wit and sharper tongue.
“Yeah, I see my fair share.” Mitch admitted.

“Speaking of dead, am I still dead? I mean, undead or whatever it is they call something like me.” Lisa’s voice held a hint of desperation. “Should I continue to dig my dinner out of the local cemetery or what?”
Mitch wasn’t sure how to answer that. There had never been a being like the one standing before him. That bitch Fred had caused one hell of a mess this time.

“I’m not really sure.” Mitch said. “I don’t have any experience with, well, with whatever it is you’re becoming.”

“Whatever I’m becoming?!?!?! What the fuck does that mean? YOU don’t know what I am?” Lisa was angry. And scared. “If you don’t know, who the fuck does? Momma Fred? Should I be asking her? Or that shit-heel Lucy?”

Mitch guffawed. Hearing her call Lucifer ‘Lucy’ was entirely too funny. No one had the guts to refer to the big, bad, evil businessman as ‘Lucy’ except Momma Fred, who did so in order to throw him off balance, and this little woman, who didn’t realize who, or what, he was.

“No”, Mitch managed between chuckles, “I doubt either of them would have any answers for you.”
Lisa turned away from him, her stance stiff and tight. She stood as still as a statue for a long moment before turning back to him, tears streaked her face, tears that were tinged bright red with blood.

“Then who has answers? You say you don’t know, that Momma Fred or Lucy don’t know. Someone HAS to know what I am.” Lisa’s voice was tight with anger and underlying fear. Reaching up, she swiped the dampness from her cheek. Looking at her hand, she noticed the redness of the tears. “And what the fuck is this? BLOOD?? You’re shitting me, I’m crying blood???”

Mitch just looked at her in complete helplessness. He could see that there was blood tingeing her tears, but he had no answers as to why. He had no answers for any of her questions, and he didn’t believe anyone else did. Hopelessly he shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s it??” She screamed, “That is all you have? A should shrug? What the fuck does that even mean? You don’t know? You don’t care? What the fuck, man! I thought you were my friend, but I guess there are plenty of young woman who followed you into traffic only to be run over by a bus, right?”

She began to pace, seeming unable to contain the anger and fear that surged through her body.

“Fuck! One day I’m a young woman with a life ahead of me, walking home from work when I see this gorgeous man. YOU were that gorgeous man, in case you’re wondering, but I know you’re not. I follow you, just on the chance that I might be able to just say hi, maybe catch your eye, maybe….hell I don’t know, meet you? Then WHAM, I’m slammed into by a cross town bus! No pain, just fear and the though OH FUCK, then nothing.”

Lisa stopped and whirled to face him.

“Next thing I know I’m lying on a table, naked as the day I was born and surrounded by candles. What the holy fuck?? Then I find out I have to eat HUMAN meat in order to maintain some semblance of normal human appearance, after years of that my nose decides to fall off and I eat some fucked up sandwich from the bitch that brought me back and here I am now. Oh, I forgot, I was held hostage in an office building by a man I can only guess is the big, bad Lucifer from Biblical times.”

Silence descended. She crumbled to the patio floor and curled into a ball, effectively shutting down.
Mitch stood quietly, unsure of how to proceed. He wasn’t used to dealing with emotional women, hell he wasn’t used to dealing with women at all. He caught their souls as they met their ends and moved those souls to their place of waiting. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. No conversation, no emotion, no anything. That was the reason he drove the taxi, he had discovered that he needed some interaction to stay sane.  Not that he thought he was actually sane, just saying.

When Lisa’s tears had dried and her breathing became even and regular, Mitch bent down, picked her up like a mother picking up a sleeping child and headed back into the house.

He would lay her on the couch and let her rest. It was going to be a long, long day and she needed all the strength she could muster.