Grave Danger by K.E. Rodgers Page B

today. Clarissa was still wearing
the clothes she had woken up in at the hospital; the clothes she
had died in. Shopping was a task that irritated Richard. He had
made clear that he would rather die all over again than be forced
to go shopping with Eleanor.
    The Eidolon community had several dressmakers on
hand who catered to a specific dead clientele. Just because they
were dead didn’t mean they couldn’t be up on the last trends in the
fashion world. Like the food they could create, the ghosts had to
have clothes specifically created for their non-corporal forms
using an alternate technique from the living, again with the use of
magick.
    “ That is true,” Eleanor answered. “But you
have to understand that when they come over that bridge they have
only one objective, to feed.” Eleanor knew quite a bit about the
supernatural beings in this world. She did her best to try to
understand them even if their lifestyle abhorred her.
    “ Why don’t they stay on their side of the
city, on the island? Why do they come over the bridge at all into
the downtown area?” Not that that would be any more acceptable. The
livings on either side of the river were in danger from these
undead flesh-eaters.
    “ They prefer to have access to the city and
downtown area on our side and to use the island purely for housing.
The feedings are only in the downtown area so those on Anastasia
Island are safe, I guess, from their appetites. It’s like that
phrase I’m sure you’ve heard about, not eating where you do your
business. In this case the flesh-eaters remain on the island during
the day and cross over the bridge at night.”
    “ I still don’t get it, but I know what you’re
saying. So they cross the bridge at full dark and come into our
city and consume our people, then when the light comes they go back
across the bridge and spend the day on the beach.” What was it that
forced someone to consume another human being? It was cannibalism
at its worst. Clarissa voiced her thoughts aloud. “How can they do
that people?”
    “ It’s an all together consuming need they have
that drives them. We don’t completely understand their species, but
we know that without constant ingestion of living human flesh they
will break down and become mad until there is nothing left of them,
without a soul they would crumble into nothingness. Really, they
are more like animals than humans. The flesh-eaters in our city
co-habitat as a clan, but sometimes they move about alone. In
either case, nothing can stand in their way when that appetite for
flesh takes over their systems.”
    Eleanor glanced over to see Clarissa’s drawn face.
“I’m sorry. I’m just as bad as Henry. You’re not afraid, are you?
You just need to remember to take certain precautions when dealing
with the others. If we stay out of their way, they won’t get in
ours.”
    “ How can you say that? They’re eating the
locals and more likely the tourists. If they really are these
demonic-like soulless beasts, what is stopping them from coming
into our homes? There is no such thing as staying out of their way,
pretending like they don’t exist and letting them eat innocent
human beings. If they wanted to they could take over the
city.”
    Eleanor shook her head. “No, they couldn’t. This is
our city,” she said emphatically, stressing each syllable, her
words staking a claim on what she believed was her right of
ownership. “The flesh-eaters only control a portion of the city and
only at night. They cannot enter our homes or businesses, nor are
they allowed to overindulge on our livings. They do not eat
children or innocents as far as I know.”
    Eleanor continued. “If people were disappearing
right and left, don’t you think the media would catch wind of it,
making it into a story of rising crime in the area? We already have
enough of that as it is. If that happened the tourism would drop to
almost nothing and then where would they be? It is for their
benefit that