Skeleton in the Closet

"What did you do to me, Meredith?! What did you do?!"

"Please... Chandra... I didn't do anything... I'd never... You know I'd never..."


"Don't lie to me, Meredith! Don't try to hide from the truth! I know what you did... I know what you'll do!"

"N-n-no, no, this isn't right, please, believe me, Chandra--"


Chandra began to clutch her stomach. stumbling to the ground as she turned her eyes up to Meredith. "You... can't... lie... to me..."

"I'd never-- please..." Meredith began to sob, watching as she saw blood trickling over the dying woman's fingers.

"You'll... Pay for this... With everything... Everything you've taken from me..."



Meredith backed away, stumbling over a tree branch, but the fall didn't stop her. She kept scuttling away on her palms and feet, watching in horror as a cloaked shadow approached from the darkness. It raised it's bony fingers, holding a long scythe within it's grasp as it uttered some raspy words... and from Chandra's ailing body, a wispy form emerged.

"Please, don't take me!" She pleaded with death, her voice turning into ghastly breaths with each more moment she spent in corporeal form. "I don't deserve to die! Give me another chance! Please!"


Meredith tried to cover her face with her hands, holding back the tears and heavy, wretching breaths. But through the small gap in her fingers, she watched as the glowing ghost of the dying woman turning to her.

"If you wouldn't do this, then why are you letting me die, Meredith?! Save me! SAVE ME!"

.......................

"Meredith, are you alright?"

Meredith awoke to the soft touch of Jebidiah's hand on her shoulder. Her heart was racing, her breath heaving in and out of her chest with increasing speed. "Nightmare," she managed to stutter out, reaching a hand to clutch her chest. She felt there, and on her pillow, that she was covered in sweat. Great.

"I'm gonna go get a drink of water," she said as she climbed out of the soaked sheets and threw on her robe. But, when she turned to look back at her husband, he was already back asleep.

She weakly descended the stairs, doing her best to stay upright as she approached the kitchen and turned on the lights. After taking another deep breath into her aching lungs, she grasped the faucet of the kitchen sink with a shaking hand and filled a glass, and knocked it back into her dry mouth. Rinse, repeat. When she decided she was finally calm enough to go back to bed, Meredith returned the glass to the dishwasher, trying not to make too much noise as she shut the washer door.


Her eyes turned to gaze out the window. For a moment, she was confident her eyes were playing tricks on her. She blinked. This couldn't be. Her heart began to start racing again, but her body was frozen solid -- there, outside the window, was a glowing shape that was distinctly familiar.

"It's just another dream," Meredith chanted to herself. "Just. A dream. You'll wake up soon."



But as she turned to walk towards the stairs, the recognizable floating figure began to descend upon them, seemingly oblivious to Meredith's presence. "No... This can't be! This just can't be!"

She remained there, stiff with fear, until the ghost of Chandra Hawkins was no longer in sight.

---

It was already morning, so there was no use on going back to bed. Jebidiah didn't seem to remember his wife's chaotic dreaming, and it relieved her that he didn't. She tried everything to focus on forgetting what she'd seen; but she was caught up trying to  explain how the ghost was a dream... unless she was still dreaming. The questions arising in her mind kept her from focusing on anything else.



Travis didn't even make it out the door in time to catch the bus, since Meredith had completely lost track of time. He had to race to catch it, but it was no use; Jebidiah was not pleased that he had to drive his son to school, but Meredith barely even registered Jeb's words to her about the matter. There were more important things on her mind.

Jebidiah's mind wasn't completely clear, either. He'd finally gotten a case that wasn't a normal person's idea of a practical joke, and it was keeping his brain fully occupied. Holly Greenwood's car had been stolen, and she wanted to know what'd happened to it.

Well, Jeb knew exactly what kind of people stole cars and why -- and he'd done his research when he first decided to take on this job. He knew exactly where the main criminal activity was located... All he had to do was throw on some convincing clothes, and talk to someone that was a little loose with their tongue.



"Cheap little car, old model, dingy red paint job? Naw, not sure I'd tell you even if I did hear anything about it. But if you're lookin' for answers, you pry wanna check out the beach. No one in their right mind goes there at night, if you know what I'm sayin'..."


Jebidiah took what little a lead that was, and somehow, surprisingly enough, there was a set of tire tracks that he bet anything would match Holly's car make.


At home, Bradley was playing with a car of his own...


... while his mother was searching for her own answers. Unfortunately, she found none. Nothing about Chandra appeared anywhere. She wasn't surprised -- Riverview was 8 days drive from Twinbrook, which seemed like a whole world away -- but she was desperate for any news of whether or not the woman's death had been publicized... Or if anyone even knew she was dead at all.


After some careful observation, Jebidiah had found where the tracks led... And it was no where good. The car had hit a dead end, but it had clearly been totalled -- there was car debri everywhere. The car body itself had been towed away, but that made it a lot easier to track down -- from the junkyard, to the towing company, he was able to track down the car thief...

And luckily, only their mojo was injured. They agreed to pay up as long as the story didn't go public, and no one revealed any names (see, I'm not revealing any either!) so Jebidiah got the money to hand over to Holly... Which she practically gave right back to him, afterwards.

"I was planning on selling the darn thing, anyways. Our family is going green, you see. Good riddance of it!"

At least she was positive.


After he'd wrapped up Holly's case, he gave Meredith a call. "I'm at the library," she said briefly before hanging up. He went to go check out what she was doing, and what he found was a bit of a surprise -- reading a book on ghosts and ectoplasm? Was this town rubbing off on her?

"Sweetie, it was just a nightmare, you're making a storm out of a raindrop," he said as he approached her and patted her shoulder. "C'mon, let's go home. I'll cheer you up, alright?"


And cheer her up he did. At least a little "rolling in the hay" would get her mind off things for a while, and it was about time that Jebidiah got to do a little more proving of just how much he loves his wife. They both desperately needed the connection, as well... It had been far, far too long.


But it was back on the job for Jebidiah soon after. When you don't get paid the full worth of an honest day of work, you've gotta stretch your hours as far as they'll go. However, after seeing Meredith's schnazzy new body art -- which turned into a marvelous surprise for Jeb during their Woohoo! -- Jebidiah decided it was time to spend some of their extra Simoleans on a buff tattoo for himself. Or two or three.

A man needs to splurge when he needs intimidation factor for his job!


He didn't bother changing back into his Investigator gear for his next case, though: some kid bothered to call and ask him who was messing with his toothbrush. Or mouthwash. Heck, Jebidiah didn't care that much, so neither did I -- but he came by the boy's house nonetheless, to at least talk with the kid and find out how he'd gotten his number. "I think my dad is playing jokes on me. I bet he did it," Parker Prudence told him. So, Jebidiah decided to ask...

... but after Phoenix denied his son's accusations, Jebidiah was too frustrated with these @%$!$@ cases to take any more @#&*%@$ from anyone! The people in this town needed to stop hiding everything, especially from him! He was undefeatable, irresistable, the dark knight, the rogue detective, the...

"Um... Mr. Kane sir... I just made it all up... Can you stop beating up my dad now?"