Justin, Tony and David were in the middle of a hand, when Justin saw Jerry pull up in front with Aiden’s new truck. He laid his cards face down and went to open the bay door.

When the new storage box for the back of Aiden’s truck had been delivered, Jerry had come to get the truck to install it. He’d left a note, so that Justin wasn’t worried when he got back from lunch.

Justin was a little surprised to see that it was practically spotless inside when Jerry got out. “Yeah. I went ahead and had it detailed, too,” Jerry told him.

“How much do I owe you?” Justin asked, reaching for his wallet.

Jerry rolled his eyes. “I put it on the shop account. Duh.”

“Oh, yeah, right. Sorry, I wasn’t thinkin’.”

“I know. It’s OK,” Jerry said sympathetically. “I’ll see ya later!” He went out to his car, which was parked out front, and Justin closed the bay door. Then he positioned the bow on the hood.

“So, guys...” Justin said, going back inside. “Jerry just brought back Aiden’s new truck. Think we oughta give it to him now?”

“Led ‘im sleep,” Tony said.

“And sit down and play...or fold,” David told him.

Justin sat down and picked up his cards.

By the time Karen pulled in around 5pm, Aiden was awake. He had food spread out on the kitchen table, and was eating some of it straight out of the plastic containers, rather than wasting time putting it on a plate.

He’d had a little to eat before going down to ‘meditate’ with Master Naka. But now that he’d caught up on his sleep and woken on his own, he was ravenous. It looked like anything that didn’t move away fast enough would have gone in Aiden’s mouth.

Justin got up from the ‘poker table,’ and hugged Karen. Then he went to the kitchen. Aiden had taken a break from stuffing food in his mouth to wash it down with a sip of beer.

“Come on. I’ve got something to show you out in the garage,” Justin told him.

Aiden wiped his mouth. “Did’ja finish with my truck?”

“Sort of.” Justin held the door open for Aiden to go through. The new truck was parked right in the center of the bay.

“So, where is it?” Aiden asked, looking around and not quite understanding.

“Right there.”

“But...I can’t let you buy me a truck!” Aiden objected immediately, noticing the bow on the hood of the new truck Justin pointed at.

“Then you can finance it and pay me back. And the old one is posted on AutoFinder. I got it running OK, but it wasn’t good enough anymore for the guy who keeps saving our lives.”

“How much?” Aiden asked, eyeing the brand-new-looking truck.

Justin told him what he’d paid for it.

“What’s wrong with it?” Aiden asked. He knew that was way too cheap for a truck in this condition.

“Nothing. I checked it out myself.”

“Come on. Even I know that’s too cheap.”

“The guy who owned it died,” Justin finally admitted.

“Oh, so it’s haunted?”

“No,” Justin told him, and explained about the kid dying in Iraq and his mom selling it.

Karen was standing in the doorway, watching. Justin had been ‘geeked’ about surprising Aiden, and she liked seeing him joyful like that.

“Karen?” Aiden asked, looking from her to the truck.

“Nope. Nothing. No ghostly body in the driver’s seat, no spirits trying to get between you and the truck....”

Aiden climbed inside, and started playing with the seat adjustments. Justin stood beside the open driver’s door and listed off all the bells and whistles the truck had, both the ones it came with and the ones he’d added.

When Leigh hadn’t come home by 6:30, Justin, Karen and Tony decided they should go get dinner then head for the rectory. They didn’t want to wait too long to, hopefully, finish this thing off and free Uncle Jerzy for good.

“I’ll stay here with your uncle,” David offered.

The three looked at Aiden and Master Naka. “It might be good if we have a little more help,” Karen suggested. “We’re not exactly sure it’s definitely the pipe we’re looking for, and that it’ll still be where Gramma N. thinks it is.”

“I’m in,” Aiden said. “I’m tired of just hanging out here and sleeping.”

“I will go with you,” Master Naka agreed.

Tony ran to the workshop and came back with a small five-pound sledgehammer in one hand. “Fer smashin’ da t’ing when we find it.”

The five climbed in Justin’s truck and went to get something to eat, first. By 7:30pm, they were climbing back in the truck to go to the rectory.

That was about the same time Leigh got back to the clubhouse. She’d spent the afternoon with Grandma N., having tea and cookies, chatting, and trading recipes. She hadn’t realized just how late it was getting until she noticed it getting dark outside. By that time, Grandma N. was starting to nod off anyway; so Leigh thanked her for a wonderful afternoon and left.

The clubhouse was quiet when she got there, the only light coming from the security monitors and the stairwell to the basement. She checked the monitors and found David sitting outside Fr. Jerzy’s cell, cards spread out on a TV tray in front of him.

“Have they left already?” Leigh asked, coming down the stairs.

“Yeah. They were going to get something to eat, then heading for the rectory. They left about 6:45. Tony had a sledgehammer.” David snickered.

Leigh went to the kitchen and got something she could eat in the car on her way to the rectory, then left.

It was shortly before 8pm when Justin drove up the driveway between the rectory and the church. It led to the large parking lot behind the church. Another driveway came into the lot from the far side of the church, running between the church and its original graveyard. There was a detached garage along the edge of the lot directly behind the rectory.

Justin parked behind the church, about halfway between the driveways, so that lights from passing cars wouldn’t spotlight the truck. The five got out and went to the side door. Tony carried the sledgehammer in front of himself with both hands like he was cradling the hammer of Thor. Justin got the keys out and put them in the lock, then hesitated.

“Think we oughta wait for Leigh?” he asked.

They could hear the sound of tires on damp pavement, and they froze. The sound faded off into the distance.

“Now that we’re here, we probably shouldn’t waste too much time,” Karen suggested. From the moment they’d pulled into the driveway, Karen had been trying to open up her senses to catch some feeling of the Apostate before it spotted them and hid itself. She was being careful, though, since she knew that there were a number of ghosts hanging around the church, too. She couldn’t afford to allow herself to be overwhelmed by feeling them and end up missing the Apostate.

Justin turned the key and twisted the knob. The sound of another car coming up the street made them all freeze again. They weren’t really doing anything wrong. As Justin had pointed out earlier to David, they had the key. But just knowing that Berowski might try to prevent them from taking his things made them nervous and hyper-vigilant. Only Master Naka appeared calm and relaxed.

When the headlights passing the church turned into the driveway, Karen’s heart climbed into her throat. She could feel it pounding, and her breath got shallow.

Then she recognized Leigh’s car. Leigh waved as she went by, and she parked beside Justin’s truck. A moment later, she joined them at the side door.

Justin had already opened the door and gone in, Karen right behind him. Tony was next through the door with Master Naka following. And Leigh followed Aiden in, closing the door softly behind herself.

The six stood and got their bearings in the dark. It was freezing cold inside, at least 30 degrees colder than it felt outside. They could all see the fog of their breath as it left their mouths. Fr. Jerzy had mentioned, in passing, that the new deacon who’d been assigned to the parish was away at a conference. But, even so, they wouldn’t have turned off the heat, since Jerzy was still home.

A thin beam of yellowish light cut its way between the front room curtains and slashed across the rug...the light from the mercury vapor street lights. Across the front hallway, that same light left orange and purple gashes on the rug in the parlor, colored by the stained glass windows in that room.

They listened for any sounds, but the house was deathly quiet. Karen almost felt like talking, just to break the oppressive silence; but she was afraid to open her mouth.

The unexpected sound of tires on wet pavement, that sound like tape being stripped off a roll, made all of them but Master Naka jump a little. Oddly, it sounded farther away than the 50 feet or so that separated the front of the rectory from the street. Other than that, the only sounds they could hear were their own hearts pounding and the blood rushing in their ears.

Suddenly, Justin had a thought. He slipped the keys into his pants pocket and started checking all his other pockets, at least any that might even remotely be large enough, for Drew. Somehow, the cat always seemed to show up in the most unexpected places. And this was one place and time that he didn’t need that furball with the razor sharp claws getting spooked.

It took Karen a second to figure out what he was doing and begin searching her own pockets. The others looked at her curiously. “Drew,” she whispered. They all checked their pockets. No sign of the little cat.

Back at the clubhouse, David was sitting and playing solitaire on the TV tray when he felt a tug on his pant leg. He looked down to see Karen’s little black cat looking up at him. “Wanna play poker?”

Drew jumped onto David’s lap and began pawing at the cards on the tray. David gathered them and began shuffling.

Justin moved toward the stairs to the second floor. Master Naka began to follow him, but noticed that the other four weren’t coming. They all seemed to be looking at something he and Justin hadn’t seen.

They weren’t looking at something so much as feeling it. All the hair on Tony’s body stood on end when he sensed the Unknown presence in the house. If he’d had his shirt off, he would’ve looked just like an angry cat, puffing itself up to intimidate a rival. Karen, Leigh and Aiden felt it, too...that heat like they were standing in front of an open, hot oven.

And Karen could tell that this wasn’t just some random, disinterested Unknown creature passing by. It was malevolent, it knew they were there, and it was anticipating their deaths.

The four looked at one another, understanding that they’d all sensed the same thing, but that Justin and Master Naka hadn’t seemed to. They moved to join the two men at the bottom of the stairs.

“Leigh,” Karen whispered. The others all looked at her. She signaled that she was going to raise a Mental Shield. “Save yours, in case we need it later,” she told Leigh. “This will only last a minute, so let’s get this done as quickly as possible,” she said to everyone.

They looked up the stairs into the darkness above. Justin started to pull out his flashlight, and Tony said, “Why not jus’ turn on da lights?”

Of course. They were so used to going places where that wasn’t a option that it hadn’t crossed Justin’s mind. He flipped the switch at the base of the stairs.

As the compact florescent bulb in the fixture at the top of the stairs grew brighter, Karen spotted a figure on the landing. He was fairly old, thin but ramrod straight, dressed in the cassock that priests used to wear early in the last century. And it was definitely not Berowski. He smiled sadly down at her.

“Do you know why we’re here?” Karen asked, looking up at him.

He gazed down with an infinitely sad look of understanding.

The others clustered behind her. “Who is it?” Leigh asked Justin from the back of the group. “Is it Berowski?”

“I don’t know. Someone I can’t see...” Justin told them.

Without taking her eyes off the priest, Karen described him to the others.

Justin looked at the framed photos lined up one wall of the stairwell. The photos had been hanging there forever, it seemed like; but he’d never really taken an interest in them before. He studied the first, then moved up a stair to look at the next, and then the next.

“Can you help us with what we need to do?” Karen asked the old priest.

He held his hand up, palm toward her, as if to say ‘wait here.’ She told the others what she’d seen.

Justin continued up the stairs, looking carefully at each photo. They seemed to be scenes from various parish functions over the years. The first couple were from within Justin’s own lifetime, one from the retirement party of the last pastor, the other from the celebration when Uncle Jerzy was made pastor of the parish. As he continued up, the photos got older.

At the very top of the stairs, there was a sepia-tinted photo showing the priest Karen described, along with several other men in clothing that he’d been told during their first case was from the 1920s. All the men were holding shovels, and the earth in front of them looked freshly turned.

“I think he must be the first pastor of St. Lads,” Justin told them. “This picture looks like it’s from the church’s groundbreaking.

“I know he told us to wait,” Karen said nervously, “but the Shield is going to go down, and I don’t think we should hang around too long after that.” She began moving up the stairs, and the others followed.

Justin was already on the second-floor landing, so they were all shocked when the bulb and fixture above them exploded with a bright flash and a rain of sparks as Karen got to the landing. They were thrown into pitch darkness.

There was a rustle of clothing as everyone dug for their flashlights, then the clicking of everyone trying to turn them on. Not a single flashlight worked.

There was a SCHINK and fwip as Justin flicked open his Zippo and lit it. The flame flickered, but held.

Leigh held up a box of matches. “I have these, too,” she said, lighting one. The match flared up, then wavered as Leigh adjusted her grip on the wooden matchstick. A moment later she had to blow it out, before it burned down to her fingers. “Are there any candles?”

Justin thought for a second. “Yeah, on the table....” He pushed past the others on his way down the stairs. “Nobody else move until we get these lit. They’re over here, Leigh.”

She followed the flame of the lighter to a small table that had a cluster of decorative candles. Justin lit one and handed it to her. She used hers to light another, while Justin lit the third one, then closed the Zippo.

On another table at the opposite side of the room, they found a fourth candle and lit it, then carried the candles over to the group. Leigh handed one of hers to Master Naka.

Justin sniffled. “Great. We’re fighting Evil to the scent of Lilac, Vanilla-Spice and Peach,” he grunted, taking the stairs two at a time to the top.

He handed one of his candles to Karen, then rubbed his nose to stop the sneeze that had been threatening since he picked up the second candle. The others followed him up and they gathered around the panel that hid the stairs to the attic.

As they stood there, some of them noticed the slightest film of fog drizzling out from under the panel and flowing down the stairs. It was very thin, but it swirled around their ankles like a cat rubbing against them.

“Da youse guys see...?” Tony asked the others, not sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

“The fog...?” Leigh said.

Tony nodded.

“Yeah, me, too,” Justin told them.

Karen nodded and moved closer to Justin. Master Naka looked from one to another. He did not see any fog, and was convinced that their fear was beginning to delude them. And they had not yet even reached the attic.

Aiden didn’t see it himself, but he trusted the others. He tensed, expecting an attack.

“Here,” Justin said quietly, holding his candle out to Aiden.

“Be ready for anything,” Karen whispered to Master Naka. “We have no way of knowing what other powers It has.”

Master Naka looked rather bemused at the warnings and the sense of tension among the others.

Aiden took the candle and Justin slowly moved the panel aside.

The attic stairway rose ahead of them, narrow and steep. The stairs were bare wood, and the fog oozed thickly down them. Even Aiden and Master Naka could see it now, as it gathered around their legs. It was as thick as the fog created by machines, for stage productions, but without any smell at all.

In the flickering light, Karen signaled the others that she was prepared to raise a Sphere the moment they needed one. “When I do,” she told them, “I’ll keep it up as long as I can. But let’s not dilly-dally.”

Aiden handed the candle back to Justin, and Justin started up the stairs. Karen was behind him with her free hand touching his back. Tony was behind her, the sledgehammer held like a ward in front of his chest. Master Naka was next, then Leigh, and Aiden bringing up the rear.

“We’re looking for a trunk, maybe a little bigger than a footlocker,” Justin said over his shoulder, describing the trunk for Master Naka and Aiden, who hadn’t been at lunch with them.

When Justin got to the top, he took a couple steps to one side, to give the others room to come up. Karen moved next to him, and Tony stepped to the opposite side of the stairwell. Master Naka followed him, and Leigh moved next to Karen.

As Aiden stepped into the attic, everything suddenly went black.

Karen raised a Sphere, and within the 20-foot radius the still-burning candles lit the space again. “Come on,” she told them, moving further into the attic.

They clustered around her and began looking for the chest Gramma N. had described. The chest held all Fr. Berowski’s belongings; and the last time she’d seen it, it was at the far end of the attic, she’d told them.

The boxes and furniture stacked here and there around the attic were covered in dust and cobwebs. Gramma N. may well have been the last person to actually clean up here.

Master Naka couldn’t believe his eyes. Though he’d been able to feel the heat from his candle, it’s light, and that of the other three candles as well, had been snuffed out. Then, just as suddenly, the candlelight had come back, but it lit only the small space around them.

He went to the edge of that space and plunged his free hand into the darkness beyond. Fascinating! His hand disappeared completely, though he could still feel his fingers moving. He pulled the hand back and pushed the other hand and the candle out. It’s light disappeared along with his hand, as if he’d blown the candle out! He pulled it back in and saw the candle still burning.

Leigh concentrated her energy, and used her Art to raise the perception of her teammates as they searched for the trunk.

Karen moved slowly forward, looking around, while the others searched to either side of her along the long narrow attic.

At the far end, Justin and Tony finally spotted the trunk under a pile of other boxes. Tony pushed the top box off the back, and they all heard the crash of glass breaking as the box hit the wall and then the floor.

“Works just as well and just as quickly to lift ‘em off and set ‘em down,” Justin told him, moving the next box off the stack.

The others crowded around the stack of boxes, and in less than a minute they had the trunk uncovered. Justin handed his candle back to Aiden, and grabbed the handle on one end of the trunk, while Tony grabbed the other. The two lifted it and the six fell into a line with Leigh at the front. Karen was behind her, then Justin and Tony with the trunk; then Master Naka and Aiden. The four carrying candles held them up to light the way for Justin and Tony.

As they got to the stairs, they began to notice that it was no longer dark beyond the edge of the Sphere. Justin, Aiden and Leigh glanced at Karen. She shrugged. She could feel that her energy level was dropping, but she hadn’t ended the Sphere yet. She mentally prepared herself for another attack.

At they approached the second floor landing below them, Leigh and Karen suddenly saw a very angry-looking man in a clerical collar, with long-ish hair in a ‘comb-over.’ He glowed with a bluish light. They paused....

He raised his hand and pointed at Leigh. Rage twisted his face. “STOP!” he commanded in a voice like a thunder clap. Even the guys, who couldn’t see the apparition because of the steepness of the stairs, could hear him.

“Go, GO, GO!” Tony urged them.

Justin had his hand on Karen’s shoulder already, to steady himself as they came down the stairs. He could see that she was looking a little paler, in the wavering light of the candle she carried, so he restored as much of her energy as he could.

The six hustled down to the landing below. When they didn’t stop as he’d commanded them, the spirit of Fr. Berowski dissipated.

On the landing, the team took quick stock of their situation. Master Naka was surprised to see that Karen looked so pale, as if she’d been running a marathon and her blood sugar had dropped too low. She hadn’t looked like that when they’d first gone into the attic. Whatever had happened to her had happened quite suddenly.

Aiden, Tony and Leigh noticed it, too. Leigh was ready to put up her Sphere, expecting Karen to have to drop hers. But Tony set the sledgehammer on the lid of the trunk, leaned forward to put his hand on her arm, and restored some of her energy.

She looked a little better now, but they could see the flame of her candle waver as her hand shook. “I’m afraid I’m going to drop it,” she whispered, blowing the candle out.

Aiden squeezed past the trunk and put his hand on her shoulder, restoring more of her energy. She nodded her thanks to Tony and Aiden, and squeezed Justin’s hand. “We should get going,” she whispered.

They started down the next flight of stairs. About halfway down, Karen stumbled. She tried to grab the railing to stop herself, but felt her knuckles slam into it instead. The candle she’d been carrying tumbled down past Leigh’s feet. Karen closed her eyes and braced herself for the fall...

There was a THUD as Justin dropped his end of the trunk and leaned forward to grab his wife’s belt with one hand.

Then a couple more THUDs as Tony dropped the sledgehammer, sat back on the stair behind him and braced his feet on the stair below, and grabbed the trunk handle with both hands to keep it from sliding down into the back of Justin’s knees.

Justin jumped down beside Karen and grabbed around her shoulders with his other arm, then threw his back against the wall to keep himself from falling too.

“Are you carrying her or am I?” Aiden asked, sliding past the trunk with his butt on the railing.

“Grab the trunk,” Justin grunted, pulling Karen against himself. Karen grabbed Justin’s arm with both hands and leaned back into him, panting. Her grasp felt much weaker than normal to Justin. He let go of her belt and turned her so that he could slip that arm behind her knees to pick her up. She put her arms around his neck and let him.

At the bottom of the stairs, they regrouped again. “I..can’t hold it any longer,” Karen whispered, and her Sphere went down. She felt awful, like she was abandoning her friends.

Leigh raised hers immediately. “Mine’s smaller, so stay close,” she warned the others.

Justin led the way to the back door and turned the knob with one hand, then nudged the door open with his toe. Karen leaned a little more into him, and Justin turned to go through the doorway and down the three stairs to the driveway. Leigh was right behind them, with Aiden and Tony carrying the trunk next, and Master Naka at the rear.

Justin had taken two steps toward the parking lot when he stopped. Was that newspapers rustling across the parking lot, pushed along by the wind?

Leigh came up beside him, and Aiden and Tony came around to his other side to pass him, not realizing that Justin had stopped for a reason. It wasn’t newspapers....

It was a small army of crawling and squirming and wobbling body parts coming right towards them...disarticulated arms, legs, hands, feet...even a head.

Leigh’s mouth fell open, her eyes got wide.... Her brain froze in panic at the unexpected sight...and then she dropped like a stone, the Sphere going down with her.

Tony and Aiden exchanged a quick glance and set the trunk down, taking their eyes off the army of body parts for only a split second.

Justin turned and set Karen down behind him. She took a step backwards, her eyes as wide as Leigh’s had been. But she didn’t pass out or run or scream. She didn’t have enough energy left to do much of anything but stare in horror.

Justin pulled his gun and slipped the silencer from its pouch. He didn’t say a word, just screwed the silencer onto the barrel and looked for a target.

They weren’t moving very quickly, their movements awkward and jerky. The head rocked from side to side, the jaw opening and closing, going only a fraction of an inch with each movement. The hands crawled, inching themselves forward by digging in with their fingernails. The feet did the same, but more slowly. Legs and arms moved by stretching and bending at their joints, advancing only slightly more rapidly than the head.

But all moved toward the team unceasingly, without pause, no matter how slowly. If they’d come from the church’s small graveyard beyond the parking lot, then they’d been doing so since the team arrived, unnoticed while the living searched the attic for the trunk.

Master Naka spotted the...things...when he stepped off the last stair. He bent forward and slipped his hands under Leigh’s armpits. He dragged her back a few steps, then moved in front of her and took up a defensive posture.

Aiden just stared. He almost couldn’t believe that the things made a noise as they moved, a scratching, slithering, dragging noise, kind of like the zombi that Reg had spiked to the ground in the alley behind O’Malley’s Pub, but smaller and...more. He wouldn’t have believed it was possible except that he was hearing it with his own ears...and it made him want to be sick.

Leigh rolled onto her side and put her hands to her temples. She had a splitting headache, but she was coming around. She opened her eyes and saw Master Naka standing protectively in front of her. She looked past his legs and saw the...the things. She pushed herself to her knees, then lurched to her feet. She swayed for a second, then got her balance.

Tony looked at the body parts, then down at the trunk, thinking. He set down the sledgehammer and opened the trunk lid. They should’ve just gotten the pipe out in the attic and crushed it there. But the others weren’t willing to trust their instincts–that the pipe was the object they needed and that destroying it was the way to kill Berowski.

He squatted and began digging through the trunk, looking for anything that looked like it might hold a pipe. There were 4 small boxes about the right size. “Eenie, Meenie, Minee, Moe...” he said quietly to himself. He picked up a box and opened it. Wrapped in a soft cloth was a heavily carved pipe. ‘Baroque,’ he thought to himself, remembering an art history class he’d taken as an elective back at State.

A moment later, he knelt there in front of the trunk looking confused. The last thing he could remember was leaving the clubhouse with the others. They were going to get dinner, then coming to the rectory. But why? For the life of him, Tony couldn’t remember why they were there or why he was kneeling in front of an open footlocker.

Justin aimed at the three closest body parts. FOOP! The first bullet hit its mark, and the Thing exploded.

Now that Leigh was on her feet, Master Naka moved forward and began attacking body parts, moving around to one side of the tiny army, out of Justin’s way.

His movement drew Leigh’s attention back to the ‘battle,’ and she also moved up to attack.

Karen shuffled over to stare at whatever Tony was staring at. Somewhere in the back of her brain, she knew that there were things she should be doing, helping with. But it was like her mind was going in 20 directions at once. Were there more body parts in there? Why would anyone bury them in a trunk in the attic?

FOOP! Another body part exploded on impact. “Found that pipe yet, Tony?” Justin asked over his shoulder.

“Uh...wha’ pipe?” Tony replied.

Karen was wondering the same thing. Weren’t they looking for body parts?

Justin’s shoulders sagged. Something must’ve scrambled Tony’s brain...more than it normally was. “The one we need to break in order to kill Berowski and stop him from possessing my Uncle Jerzy.”

Slowly, the CF bulb warmed up over Tony’s head. “Oh, yeah!” He grabbed the pipe, and set it on the ground beside the trunk, then grabbed the handle of the sledgehammer.

FOOP! One more down....

Leigh focused on the head, wobbling its way toward her. She pulled back her foot and booted the thing into the air. She lost sight of it as it flew up past the dusk-to-dawn light that lit the parking lot.

Master Naka stomped on a hand and felt a rather distasteful crunch as the bones broke under his heel. He moved on to a foot, fully mindful of the texture of the flesh and bones compressing against the pavement. An interesting meditation on impermanence....

Before Tony could raise the sledgehammer and bring it down on the pipe, a ghostly bluish hand plunged into his chest, squeezing his heart. He dropped the hammer and clasped his hands to his chest, gasping for breath.

“Tony!” Karen screamed, drawing Justin and Aiden’s attention.

Justin grabbed Tony’s shoulder and pulled him away from the trunk, not exactly sure what had happened. He could see the pipe lying on the ground...

Aiden grabbed Tony and lowered him to the ground, then felt for his pulse.

Justin knelt and pressed the end of the silencer against the bowl of the pipe. FOOP!

He covered his eyes with one arm as the pipe shattered into dozens of pieces, and the Envoys all turned to look....

There was a brilliant flash of dark bluish energy. In the afterimage, they could see the visage of Fr. Berowski, enraged and frustrated, like he was being torn apart by the explosion of energy. The flash spread out in rays, and Berowski’s mouth opened as if screaming as he was shredded.

Then it got very quiet. They could hear the dripping of moisture from leaf to leaf, and Tony still gasping for breath.

Justin spun back to face the army of body parts. They laid motionless now, some nothing more than smears of flesh and fat on the pavement.

Leigh rushed to help Aiden with Tony. She had suddenly realized, in the near-silence of the aftermath, that her Sphere had gone down when she’d passed out.

But Tony wasn’t actually doing too bad. Berowski’s hand plunging into his chest had certainly been a shock, but it hadn’t done as much physical damage as it felt like. He pulled up his t-shirt and saw a large bruise spreading across the center of his chest. Heh! Chicks dug guys who were tough enough to take a hit like that and walk away.

Aiden stood and went into the rectory. It took a minute, but he finally found what he’d been looking for. He came out carrying a broom.

“What about shovels?” Leigh asked, surveying the mess spread across the parking lot.

Aiden went back in and came out with a snow shovel and a garden shovel. “Are you OK?” he asked Leigh as he handed over one of the shovels.

“I will be,” she shrugged. Justin came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, restoring some of her energy before she could object. Her color came back a little, though it was kind of hard to tell in the shadows between the buildings. Justin went over and held out his hand to help Tony up.

“Not if yer gonna do dat ta me,” Tony objected, pushing himself to his knees. “I don’ need it. Jus’ some sleep an’ I’ll be fine.”

Aiden confirmed it as he headed toward the parking lot. “He ain’t perfect; but it didn’t look like he needed much Healing, either.”

Master Naka took the broom that Aiden had leaned against the railing. He was fairly certain that what he’d just experience was NOT special effects. He began sweeping up body parts, letting go of his thoughts as he focused on moving the broom. This was not unlike cleaning at the temple...except for the matter he was sweeping up....

Aiden came up beside Leigh and put an arm around her shoulders. He hugged her, and she felt the warm glow of energy being restored. She and Aiden began using their shovels to scoop the body parts into a pile.

Justin came up behind Aiden. “How about you?” Aiden turned around, and Justin was surprised to see that he looked fine. Interesting. If he managed to keep from Healing people, he could actually avoid draining himself too much.

Aiden, on the other hand, realized that Justin had been expending a lot of energy helping everyone else. He put his hand on Justin’s arm; but when he tried to focus on restoring Justin’s energy, he instead felt the energy sucked into himself. He got a head-rush, like he’d been laying with his feet up for too long then stood up too quickly.

Justin gasped and put a hand to his head. All of a sudden he felt dizzy and a little nauseous.

“Wow...that was weird,” Aiden said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Justin. I...I’m not sure what that means....”

Karen shuffled over and wrapped her arms around Justin. “Maybe...um....” She paused for a second, trying to gather her thoughts. It was like herding cats...or body parts. “A...um...no...I mean...a Shield!” She said it triumphantly, like getting the thought to come out had been a major achievement. And right now, it was.

“Uh, I probably shouldn’t right now,” Aiden told them, feeling uncertain of himself and his abilities after that major screw-up.

“I’ll do it,” Leigh told them. She focused her energy for a moment, and raised the Mental Shield. It wasn’t a cure-all; but it should dispel any lingering mental effects from everything they’d just been through.

Tony stood and tipped the trunk lid shut. Then he grabbed the handles and lifted it, and started waddling toward the back door.

“Where are you going?” Justin asked him.

“Puttin’ dis back in da attic.”

“Maybe we should take it with us, just in case,” Justin suggested.

“I’m not sure we need it anymore,” Aiden said. “Maybe it’d be best to put it back.”

“Why don’t we finish cleaning the parking lot up, and then worry about it,” Leigh told them.

The others nodded agreement. Tony set the trunk beside the stairs. Then he and Justin went to the garage to look for more shovels or brooms, and a tarp or something for moving the pile of body parts back over to the graveyard.

Karen watched the others working. “Ya know...” She shuffled over and squatted down beside the growing pile, seemingly unaffected by the sight and smell of decaying flesh. “I think I can figure out which grave each of these came from, so we can get them back where they belong....”

She reached out to pick up a hand...

“Here, hon!” Justin said, grabbing her arm and helping her up before she actually touched it with her bare hand. He thrust another garden spade into her hand. “I think it’ll be fine if we just put them all in a single hole. Maybe you could start digging one...?” He gave her a gentle push toward the graveyard.

“Oh! Sure...I suppose...but....”

She tried to turn back, and Justin urged her away from the pile again, with a hand on her arm. He took a few steps with her, knowing that if he could just break her focus away from the body parts, she’d forget about them.

It wasn’t often that she pushed herself this far, but he’d seen her like this once or twice. She usually got a little goofy, kind of like he got when he’d pulled too many all-nighters in a row back in college.

He turned her slightly, putting himself between her and the head Leigh had kicked, which had splattered across the back corner of the lot when it landed. “Come on, hon...why don’t you dig us a hole...right...here.” Justin found a good spot in the graveyard, out of the way, where people shouldn’t notice the freshly turned dirt and ask questions.

If there was one thing his wife was good at, it was digging holes. By the time the others had gathered all the body parts onto the tarp and carried the tarp over to the graveyard, Karen had a perfectly rectangular hole started. The sod had been carefully peeled back and set to one side, and the 3-foot by 5-foot hole was about 6 inches deep. More importantly, the process had kept Karen busy doing something basically productive, and out of their way.

“Here...let us help,” Justin said, taking the spade from her. He and Tony started digging deeper.

“Wait! Be careful!” Karen stepped forward trying to stop them from making a mess of her test pit.

“It’s OK, Karen,” Leigh told her, taking her arm. “We already know the top layers are sterile. We won’t start hitting artifacts until we’re down about three feet.” This seemed to satisfy Karen enough that Leigh was able to lead her away. They discussed what they might find in this pit while the guys worked, getting the hole dug, the tarp of body parts in, and dirt thrown back on top.

Leigh kept an eye on their progress. As they got the hole filled back up, she told Karen, “Maybe we should cover the pit to protect it from the rain, and come back in better weather.”

Karen looked up, and a drop of rainwater from a leaf hit her in the forehead. “You’re right. We should probably wait.”

Leigh led her back to the hole and they helped the guys reposition the sod. When they were done, it was hard to tell a hole had even been dug there.

Tony had gotten the hose and Master Naka the push broom, and they were scrubbing down the smeared flesh-paste that they hadn’t been able to scrape up with the shovels.

The team stood in the parking lot and looked around. When they were satisfied that it looked no worse than when they’d arrived, they went to the trunk. After a few minutes of debate, they agreed to return it to the attic.

Tony and Aiden hauled it up, and Justin, Leigh and Master Naka straightened up elsewhere...carefully sweeping up the remains of the exploded CF bulb and wrapping it tightly to take for proper disposal, returning the candles to their places, straightening the frames along the stairway.

Karen sat and watched the others work, part of her wishing she could be useful, part of her wanting only to curl up next to Justin in bed.

Justin picked her up gently and carried her out to the truck. Master Naka rode with them, and Aiden and Tony rode with Leigh back to the clubhouse.