To most people, a cetery is not a pleasant place.
Even if their loved ones are buried there.
It’s not just because it’s a resting place for the dead, or because every headstone is a reminder of the remains lying beneath, creating the unnerving sensation of being watched.
The main reason is that the morgue is located on the cetery grounds.
In that sense, a morgue is far more terrifying than a cetery. After all, a cetery holds only remains, and the headstones, at best, display photographs of the deceased in life. The morgue, however, is where they deliver the cold, stiffened bodies.
Belfast, St. Father's Quarter. The Cetery.
Green buds, having just broken through the bare branches of the trees lining the road, added a touch of life to the bleak and oppressive landscape. Beyond the shadows of the gnarled branches, rows of headstones of varying heights stretched into the distance, enclosed by a low iron fence.
The carriage stopped at the cetery gates. Lu Li stepped out, opened his umbrella, and headed down the rain-slicked path.
Headstones lined both sides of the paved walkway, so leaning askew from the wind and rain. Dusk was approaching, and distant objects were already dissolving into the growing darkness, their forms becoming blurred. The long rows of graves, too, vanished into the gloom.
At the end of the path stood a large cathedral, topped by a spire with a statue of a two-faced deity that looked as white as if it were brand new.
This was precisely why Anna had imdiately refused to co.
No matter how useful churches were in tis of disaster, for a ghost, being here was as uncomfortable as a rat in a den of cats.
Lu Li found a nun and requested permission to enter the morgue to examine Claire’s body.
“Forgive , but you are...?” the nun asked politely.
“Lu Li, an officer from the Sentry Post.”
With Deputy Sheriff Valentine backing him, Lu Li had nothing to fear.
“Very well, please wait a mont.” The nun stepped aside, and soon the muffled sound of a conversation could be heard.
“Officer David, this is Sister Agatha from the Church of the Holy Father. There’s a police officer here nad Lu Li who wants to... Yes, I’ll ask him now.”
“Is your na Lu Li?” Agatha put down the receiver and addressed Lu Li softly. After receiving an affirmative nod, she picked it up again. “His na is Lu Li. Very well, Officer David, do you know him?”
Silence fell on the other end of the line. After a few seconds that stretched into an awkward mont, a voice finally ca through. “I just spoke with Deputy Sheriff Valentine. He said he sent this officer to the morgue to investigate and asked that you provide him with any assistance he needs.”
“Of course, I will do so.”
Hanging up the phone, the plump Agatha, wrapped in a spacious nun’s habit, returned to Lu Li. “Everything has been confird. Please, follow .”
“Thank you.” Lu Li closed his umbrella by the tall doors carved with angels and followed the nun into the cathedral.
The cathedral was vast and lofty, its walls dominated by stained-glass windows. Parishioners sat on the pews below, so in worn-out clothes, others in bright attire. They had their heads bowed, murmuring prayers. The voices echoed under the high vaults, creating the semblance of a mass.
They passed the rows of pews and approached the confessionals near the altar, but walked past them, venturing deeper into the cathedral.
Finally, Sister Agatha stopped before a heavy, silver-colored iron door.
Lu Li glanced back. At the end of the corridor, he could see a rear door that led out to the cetery.
It seed one could get here without entering the cathedral at all.
“Wait here a mont, I’ll fetch the key.”
“And the morgue’s body registration log,” Lu Li added.
“Of course.” Agatha smiled gently, turned, and walked away.
Perhaps it was his strong prejudice against religion, or the fact that the nun’s appearance and figure didn’t quite match his idea of a nun, but Lu Li remained on guard. A few minutes later, Agatha returned with a ring of iron keys and a parchnt scroll.
Lu Li took the scroll, thanked her, and unrolled it. Claire, Compartnt D6.
He easily found Claire's "whereabouts."
Tapping his finger lightly on the na, Lu Li looked at Agatha. “Please open it. I’ll go in alone. You can wait outside.”
“May the Lord protect you.” Agatha traced a circle in the air before Lu Li’s chest and turned to open the tal door.
Creeak... groooan...
The door slowly swung open, and a cloud of white mist billowed out of the morgue, a wave of cold washing over his face. The ceiling was lit by the familiar bright glow of white lamps.
The temperature was very low; it seed the bodies in the morgue were well-preserved.
Agatha remained outside. Lu Li stepped into the morgue. All sounds were left behind the door; inside, there was only cleanliness, cold, and a dead silence. Suddenly, he sensed sothing and listened intently.
In the cold, dead silence of the morgue, a faint weeping could be heard.
It seed to co from beyond the wall, from the cathedral, yet at the sa ti, it didn't.
Rows of tal cabinets, radiating cold, lined the walls. Lu Li walked past them, heading for section D.
Click.
As he passed one of the cabinets, the sound of a chanism clicking echoed behind him.
A buzz.
The white lamps on the ceiling flickered violently, strobing between light and darkness.
Lu Li turned to see that the handle of one of the cabinets was now in the open position.
But when he had walked past it, the cabinet, like all the others, had been closed.
Screeech...
With a slow, scraping sound, the cabinet door began to open, a gradually widening gap appearing.
A long hand suddenly shot out, grabbed the door, and slamd it shut.
Feeling resistance from the other side, Lu Li narrowed his eyes, unfastened his holster, and took the flintlock pistol in his hand.
In that mont, Lu Li felt the malice surrounding him and the presence of nurous weak ghosts in the morgue. There were perhaps seven or eight of them, maybe more.
“Quiet,” Lu Li growled.
The resistance on the cabinet door vanished instantly.
Click.
The handle turned on its own, and the sound of a locking chanism engaging ca from within.
Lu Li holstered the flintlock, cast a aningful glance at several of the cabinets, and wasted no more ti, proceeding directly to Compartnt D6.
He turned the handle, pulled out the tray, and lifted the white sheet.
Before him lay the desiccated, mummified body of a woman.
Lu Li had never seen Claire, but that didn't stop him from identifying her by the distinctive features.
Lu Li silently examined the body, which resembled an ancient mummy, when his gaze suddenly fixed on Claire’s forehead.
On her head, where almost no hair remained, there was a strange crack in her forehead.
The crack looked more like a hole. It didn't resemble the mark of a bullet or a sharp object. It was half the width of his little finger, and through it, he could see her brain.
Sliding the tray back into the cabinet, Lu Li walked over to the one next to it.
Knock, knock, knock.
Lu Li rapped on the door and asked curtly, “I have two questions. First, do you rember the body I just took out? Second, if you do, did she have a ghost?”
A few seconds passed, then ten, then half a minute, before a slow, cold, elderly voice finally ca from behind the door. “...No... no.”
Two "no's"—one for each question.
“Alright, thank you,” Lu Li said and, without turning back, walked out of the morgue.
Soon after he left, whispers arose in the morgue.
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