Stranger in the Night

Smack. Schlorph. Crunch. The normal, everyday sounds of cleaning up after the latest batch of rituals. It wasn't commonly spread around, but the release of a spirit from a corpse was... not pleasant for the corpse. Fortunately nobody was actually using it anymore. Furthermore, it made sure that nobody in my line of work would be using it themselves. Most people considered that a bonus, even if the means were on the messy side.

What this meant was that every necromancer shop had one of the world's largest biohazard boxes out back. There was an entire industry dedicated to picking up and safely disposing of the various and sundry components remaining after our work. Naturally, it was always performed in the dead of night in unmarked vehicles. Can you imagine the reaction if people knew the local corpsetakers were flitting about? It was bad enough they had to be officially licensed nowadays.

Or so Mr. Jevol liked to tell me, anyway. He had been in this business way longer than I had. Way, way longer.

Anyway, I was schlorping my way along in my waist-high mud boots to the disposal box outback, reveling in the sound of a city gone to sleep. I loved the peace out here. Any other part of the city, I would feel scared being somewhere this dark and hidden. I had learned early on that nobody of a criminal bent ever came near this place. It gave this alleyway it's own sort of calm.

At least until somebody cleared their throat behind me, at which point I jumped, tried to spin, dropped my dripping bag, and promptly fell over backwards into a pool of blood. My second attempt to turn was more successful, if messier, and was met by a bright light that blinded me as my eyes adjusted.

Once the dazzling subsided, I saw a figure. A woman, I thought, dressed in white robes. The whole of her was the source of the light, especially her eyes. She stared at me with a look combining pity with contempt. She gave me a secretive smile, raised an index finger before her lips, and vanished.

Every night, I couldn't wait to get home to wash myself down after work. Something about the look she gave me made me want to scrub until I bled.