May 2025 Short Story of the Month

Harry shuffled the deck of cards and pushed it across the table. “Deal,” he said.

“One more hand,” I agreed. It was a way to pass the time. More importantly, it was a way to avoid talking about the dead body in the next room. We were given instructions to wait for someone to collect it. We weren’t to touch anything or leave the premises. We were trying to distract ourselves from thinking about it, but it was hard to let go.

In all my years working with Harry as a TRT, transition retrieval technician, for supers bodies, I’d never seen anything like what we’d just encountered. Normally, our job was boring. We bagged the body and took it back to the morgue. Of course, our morgue wasn’t like a standard morgue because the bodies we picked up belonged to all sorts of supernatural creatures, but normally when they passed, it was just a body pick up.

This was different. This was messy. Messy wasn’t good.

Our walkies beeped.

Harry picked up. “TRT Three and Four speaking.”

“Three and Four, One is on her way,” said the voice through the walkie.

“Thanks,” replied Harry. He stuffed his walkie back on his belt and sighed. “It’s going to be a long night.”

One was coming to us. This was a first for me. “Is that bad?” I asked.

Harry just nodded and studied his cards carefully.

I glanced over my shoulder to where I knew the body was waiting for pick up. When a supernatural creature transitioned to a new body, they behind a flimsy human looking sack. We bagged those, and they went to the morgue. Supers, as we called them, were immortal, but in order to live in this world with humans, they had to maintain the appearance of a human body. The bodies wore out over time. They weren’t real bodies, just something made to look human. But, they aged and broke down, requiring the supers to move on. It worked because it was like they were aging and allowed them to fit more seamlessly with other humans.

The supers that weren’t allowed to live with humans had to stay in their world. Those were the rules. From the looks of the body in the next room. A super was not playing by the rules.

The body in the next room was not only in too many pieces to be a natural passing, but the super was dead inside of it. They were immortal. They could only be killed by other immortals. As far as I’d seen, none of the supers who lived with humans would do something like this. They were happy to live and be a part of the human world.

A super murdering another super was something above my pay grade, and quite honestly, not something I was looking forward to hearing about for the next several days. I’d been warned when I took the job that when things got out of hand, which wasn’t often, the humans were often the collateral damages, and that included me and Harry.

He seemed oddly calm though. He’d worked for TRT longer, so I assume he’d met One before.

I was going to ask him if there was anything he could tell me about her before she arrived, but the door to the house swung open slowly, creaking and squeaking as it came to rest against the wall.

One walked in. Actually, if I could call it anything, I wouldn’t call it walking. She glided in. Her stride was long and graceful. I know I was staring, but I couldn’t help it.

She was stunning. I couldn’t believe she was real. Her skin was beyond pale. Her eyes were pink, and her hair was bright white. Her entire outfit was also a bright white. She was over six feet, and thin as a rail.

I opened my mouth to ask a question, but I didn’t get a word out. She turned her eyes on me. I felt them piercing straight through me. Could she read minds? I didn’t know. I should have asked Harry about her before she arrived, but it was too late now.

“Boss,” said Harry, nodding in One’s direction. “Body’s in there.” He pointed to the room over my shoulder.

She nodded. She glided the rest of the way into the room and passed me. I just stared. When she was out of the room, I finally blinked and shook my head.

“She has that effect on people,” said Harry smirking. “One of those things that supers do to us lowly humans.”

I shook my head again trying to clear the fog away. “What did she do to me?”

“It’s just a side effect of being in the presence of a super of her age. It’s like a moth being drawn to a flame.” Harry shrugged. “There’s some fancy magic name for it, but it just draws you to them and puts you in awe.”

“I felt like I was looking at a godlike creature.” I rubbed my forehead. “That’s very off putting. I suddenly felt like I was in love.”

“My apologies,” she said, joining us once again. “It’s always stronger the first time we meet. I would have thought Three would have warned you.” She scowled at Harry.

He smirked again.

She glared at him for a couple of seconds longer just to drive home the point that he was misbehaving.

“You two will have to wait a bit more. I want the investigators to see everything just as it is. Once they’re done, do your best to collect the remains and get them to the morgue as fast as possible.” She stood very still, listening to something we didn’t hear. “That is them. They shouldn’t take too long.”

That was the only information she gave us. She swept out of the house, leaving me slightly stunned and at a loss for words.

The investigation team came in. They barely spoke to us as they started taking pictures and labeling things.

“We’ll wait on the porch,” said Harry.

I followed him outside, still in a state of shock.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. This has been a strange night.”

“And it’s going to be a mountain of paperwork.”

That snapped me out of my stupor. “Why didn’t you warn me about One?”

Harry chuckled. “I didn’t want to ruin it for you. The first time you run into one of the old ones, it’s a trip.”

“No kidding. I still feel strange, like I’m in a daze or hungover.”

Harry nodded. “Sounds about right. It’ll wear off.”

The investigation team came stomping out the door. They had their cases and a box of evidence bags. They didn’t say anything to us until they loaded all their gear in their car.

One of them approached. “Sign here. Scene’s yours.”

Harry signed. We watched as they drove away. “Now to the fun part,” said Harry.

I glared at him. He was really pushing my buttons tonight. “Let’s just get this done. Wouldn’t want all that paperwork to sit unfinished for too long.” I scowled at him as he walked inside.

We didn’t speak much. We put on gloves. We gathered up the parts that weren’t attached first and put them in a smaller bag. Then we worked together and placed the body into the body bag. We loaded both bags onto a stretcher and put them in the back of our transport van.

“I’ll do the cleaner,” said Harry.

I nodded and waited in the front of the van. The cleaner was a magical device that we used when we were finished at a pick up. I didn’t know how it worked exactly. It was magic after all. It looked like a silver urn. We would sit it in the house and press the top. Then it emitted a bright light that swept through the whole structure. When it was done, all traces of an immortal and whatever magic they left behind were gone.

Harry was gone for a long time, longer than he should have been. I sat there, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel. After twice as long as it should have taken him, I started watching the house. There was no glow. There should have been one.

I pulled out my walkie and radioed Harry. I didn’t get a response. I sighed and rubbed my forehead. Tonight was not the night for this.

I walked slowly from the van to the house. I still hadn’t seen the flash of light. On the porch, I hesitated. If something had gone wrong, it wasn’t likely to be something ordinary, considering everything else that had happened.

I didn’t have to open the door. It was still wide open. I walked in and looked around. I didn’t see Harry. I went to the room where we’d found the body.

No Harry. This was not good. Not good.