The Perfect Place to Die by Bryce Moore

Author:Bryce Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

It was into this kiln that I induced Mr. Warner to go with me, under the pretense of wishing certain minute explanations of the process, and then stepping outside, as he believed, to get some tools, I closed the door and turned on both the oil and steam to their full extent. In a short time not even the bones of my victim remained.

Ruby was waiting for me in my dreams two nights later, sitting next to my bed on a chair, a lone candle in the room casting a flickering light over the scene.

Her blond hair had lost much of its vibrancy, and it had begun to fall off in pieces from her scalp, leaving her head with a patchy look, like a rag doll whose yarn was fraying. Her skin was decaying much faster now as well, turning green and black across her entire body to the point that, if I hadn’t seen her in my dreams earlier, I never would have recognized her.

Though her dress—that I would have known. The same red dress she’d worn to countless parties and dances. The same fine fabric she’d taken such care of, brushed and pressed and pampered. The one she’d panicked over when she’d spilled vinegar on it.

It hung loosely, the red soiled and wrinkled, the material ripped and tattered so you could see through it in places to more exposed bone and peeling skin beneath.

She didn’t seem to mind.

“I told you to stop coming, Zuretta,” she told me after a moment. She had yet to look at me, her lanky hair shielding her face as it hung down. Her voice was soft, but recognizable. It sounded resigned.

“What choice did I have?” I asked, sitting up in bed. The room was just as it had looked when I’d fallen asleep. There were my slippers by the bed. There was my dress laid out on the dresser, waiting to be worn. “I had to find you.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I warned you against it, but I suppose it makes sense. You never were good at doing what you were told.”

She jerked her head up to stare me full in the face, revealing two holes where her eyes should have been. Her lips were dry and withered, flaking apart to reveal swathes of teeth and a swollen black tongue. Her nose flapped to the side, like a door left ajar, revealing more of her skull beneath.

I flinched back, and as I did, hands reached out to grab me and pull me in close to the wall. Other women and girls, each of them rotting to nothing but still strong as iron, their hands loose skin around sharp bones. No matter how hard I struggled, their grip only tightened. The stench hit me like a wave: rancid meat and decay so sweet I gagged.

Ruby stood, gazing at me with a blank expression.

“You’ll join us,” Ruby said. “And your beautiful skin will peel and crack. It won’t be long before you smell the same and lose all hope of salvation.

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