Orpheus - Haunting the Dead.pdf - Dice

HAUNTING THE DEAD
ALLEN RAUSCH
Eileen turned and faced the driver. “Why is this a
bad place? Do you know something about Francisco
Arguelles?”
Although the face of the skeleton didn’t—
couldn’t—change, Eileen suddenly got the impression
that the grin had disappeared. “I wouldn’t say that
name too loudly, señora.”
“Why? What do you know?”
Marco shrugged his shoulders. “Señora, there are
things that even the dead should fear, fates worse than
merely becoming a Paloma Negra, doomed to forever
reenact the words of a mariachi.”
“Is Francisco one of those things?” Eileen asked.
“The rumor mill grinds the dead too,” the skeleton
replied. “I don’t know anything beyond what I’ve heard
in the last few months—that there is a new movement
among the spirits. Things have been seen and inoffensive
ghosts that never bothered anyone have vanished
without a trace. Look around you.” Marco gestured to
the empty streets. “No living—and no dead—reside
here. Something in this place just sucks them up—you
stay here long enough and you will be, as well.”
“Thank you for your advice, Marco, but I think we’ll
stay.”
The skeleton threw up his hands. “I tried, Señora.
Buena suerte.” A crack of the whip and the hearse was
rattling off.
“Is it my imagination or is he traveling much faster
to get out than he did getting us in?” Teo asked.
Eileen said nothing, merely turned to look at the
large gate that fronted the construction zone. It was at
least twenty feet wide, mounted on rollers that were
apparently controlled from a small guard shack off to
the side. There were also some smaller workers’ entrances
that were closed and locked with big, thick
padlocks. Through the shack’s tiny window she could
see the still form of a man in tan staring at a small blue
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