Yeah, I’m back-dating this one. This concludes the story started with “Bloody Mary.” I’m not sure you need to have read that one to get this one, but you probably should read the story before this one, “Old Friend, New Places“. Well, this might conclude the storyline… Or we might meet Alora again… Who knows?!

Effie and Alora set out the next day in their Honda Fit. “Okay, this is weird with you in the rear-view mirror,” Effie said.

“This whole thing is weird,” Tracy agreed from the mirror.

They started in front of Madison’s house. “So, this is what the place looks like on the outside! Sure as shit better than that shack of a place Trenton lived in…” 

“Sometimes gentrification has its benefits,” Effie looked around at the nearly identical two-story houses.

“Whole bunch of Stepford Wives here,” Alora said.

“How do you even know about Stepford wives?” 

“I watched it with you!”

“Oh… yeah…”

“Wait,” Tracy said, “Original or the one with Nicole Kidman?”

“Original,” Alora said.

“You’re a good mom,” Tracy approved. “Let me get my bearings here… everything looked so different…” in the mirror she turned around as if looking out the windshield. “Okay, yeah, let’s head out towards 99.” 

“North or south?” 

“South.”

They drove in silence until the perfectly manicured HOA’d suburbs gave way to low-slug houses with overgrown yards and then finally the houses disappeared completely as grazing land swapped with geometrically lined fields of lettuce, and fruit trees. After half an hour Tracy broke the silence saying, “Here! This exit! Then go left!”

Effie took the off ramp and then back over the freeway. They followed the road as it meandered into forestland, the trees rising up around them as the road followed the serpentine of a small river.  “Here,” Tracy said in a serious and low tone. “That dirt road on the right.”

“Yikes,” Effie said turning down the rutted road. They didn’t make it more than a few hundred meters before the Fit groaned as the ridge of a deep rut scraped along the underside of the sedan. Effie slowly backed up and surveyed the road ahead of them which only looked worse. “I think we’re going to have to hike it from here,” she said. “How far is it, Tracy?”

“Not too far,” Tracy said standing outside the drivers side door.

“Holy crap!” Effie started. “Tracy… you’re… not in a mirror!”

Tracy gave them a wan smile, “No, there’s a lot of energy here. I can manifest on my own here.”

“I like you better in 3D,” Alora said.

“Thanks, Al. This way,” Tracy started deeper into the trees.

Effie could hear the creek getting closer. Suddenly there was a rustling and Alora grabbed her mom’s hand as they both froze as a voice came angrily from the bushes ahead of them. 

“I swear to god, if that’s that damn racoon again I’m going to slap it so hard it’s going to have an ectoplasm tattoo!”

Tracy giggled. “Tina! It’s me!”

“Tracy? Hey! I thought you were haunting Jerkface’s house.”

“I was. Well, it turns out his house was torn down. I was haunting the house that’s there now. It’s a long story, but I got in touch with friends,” she gestured to Effie and Alora. 

“Hi,” Effie started nervously, “I’m Effie and this is my daughter Alora.” 

“You can call me Al,” Alora told her. 

“Really?” Effie asked her daughter.

“I’m… trying it on.” 

“Looks good on you, kid,” Tracy winked.

“Hi,” Tina said gaping. “Sorry, I’m just… I can’t believe you got two living people out here, Tracy.” She blinked back tears. “We’ve been guarding you for so long.”

“Guarding?” Alora asked.

Tina sniffled and nodded. “We’ve been taking turns.”

“We who?” Effie asked.

“You remember how you said the FBI were asking about Trenton?” Tracy asked. “He’s a serial killer. I was the first, but he killed eight more women after me.” 

“I was the third,” Tina said.

Effie stared trying to figure out what to say. Finally, “I’m so sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” Tina said. “It was a long time ago. My sister and I still get to hang out.” 

“Was she killed too?” 

“No, thankfully. She can see ghosts.” 

“Convenient!” Alora said.

“Right?!”

“Take turns?” Effie brought the conversation back around.

“The other women. We call ourselves the ‘A-Force’,” Tracy said.

“Well, some of us call ourselves the ‘A-Force,’” Tina corrected.

“What’s the A-Force?” Effie asked.

“It’s the female version of Marvel’s Avengers, mom,” Alora said.

“Yeah,” Tracy said. “You need to meet Samantha. She’s a big comic book nerd. She suggested the name.”

“Do we really need a name?” Tina asked. “I just see us as… family.”

“Yeah…” Tracy said. “That too,” she smiled.

“Our found family,” Tina smiled at Tracy, “take turns watching over Tracy’s body.”

“Watching over?” 

“Yeah,” Tracy knelt down to a slight bulge in the dirt. “Trenton buried my body here. Pretty shallow, too – a couple feet is all. I don’t know if he wanted animals to get to me or what, but that’s what would have happened. I kept them away for the first few months. Until I got… company…”

Tina knelt next to Tracy and rubbed her back supportively. “Trenton got more methodical starting with Sarah. He didn’t bother burying the bodies. He actually staged us to be found. He’d pose us in the hotel rooms he tortured us in with an unlit cigarette in our mouth.” 

“What a sick motherf…” 

“Alora!”

“Am I wrong?” Her mom shook her head sadly. “Wait, this Trenton guy is the cigarette slayer?”

Tina sighed. “I hate that name, but yeah.”

“Why do you hate it?”

“Because it reduces him to a caricature,” Tina said. “It gives him one of the things he wants – infamy.”

“What should we call him?” 

“Nothing. Talk about us who are gone,” Tracy said.

Everyone stood silent. 

“Better yet,” Tina said, “Let’s nail this bastard!”

“How?” Effie asked.

“Get the cops.” She pointed to the dirt. “We’ve been protecting Tracy’s body because it’s the key.”

“I don’t understand…”

“She was the first…”

“I prefer ‘prototype,’” Tracy smiled.

 “Heh, sure, Tracy,” Tina laughed. “After he killed Sarah, she haunted him. I met Sarah after I was killed and we all kind of… bonded. Trenton came out here once when he was in town…”

“Creepy,” Alora said.

“Girl, you don’t know the half of it. Anyway, that’s when we met Tracy and we figured out this killing is different. She’s got a cigarette in her mouth, too – inside the garbage bag under here – but where ours were unlit cigarettes, this is one he smoked and put in her mouth still lit.”

“It’s got his DNA on it!” Alora said.

“Girl’s good,” Tina said to Tracy.

“We’re so going to Small Town Murder when they come around, Mom!”

Effie smiled at her daughter, then to Tina, “But she’s been here, what, fifteen years?”

“Fifteen years, three months, two weeks, five days, and seven hours,” Tracy said. “But, you know, who’s counting?” 

“I don’t mean to be macabre,” Effie started.

“You’re in a forest talking to two ghosts standing over a shallow grave and now you’re worried about macabre?” Tracy asked.

“Okay, you’re right. But… is there anything left but bones down there?” she gestured to the ground.

“That’s why we take turns,” Tina pointed to Effie. “We’re keeping the critters away.”

“Like the racoon you were going to slap?” Alora asked.

“Like all the critters. This ground is deader than Tracy.” 

“Hey!” 

“Well, it’s true.”

“Holy crap,” Effie said in understanding. She reached for her phone, “No signal.” She looked back towards the car. “We’re going to go drive until we get signal and get the cops out here. Alora, let’s go.”

“Mom,” Alora said, “I want to stay here with Tina and Tracy.

“I’m not going to leave you in a creepy forest, Alora.” She looked up at Tina, “No offense.” 

“Look,” Tracy said, I’ll go with you. Al can chill with Tina. Tina will kick the ass of anything that could  hurt Al.” 

“I am a ferocious babysitter,” Tina said with a gleam in her eyes.

“Okay, I guess.” Effie said reluctantly. “I’ll be back shortly.” 

As Effie and Tracy walked back to the car, Alora started, “So you still get to see your sister?”

“Yeah, she married this cop. You could say I set them up…” 

The headlights of the Fit shone into the darkening forest. “They’re back, Al,” Tina said sitting cross legged on the ground with Alora.

“And she’s got company,” Alora said pointing to the four police vehicles with their strobing blue and red lights casting weird shadows through the trees. She looked to her right and Tina was gone. “Tina?” 

“I’m here, Al. Just, you know, not visible.” 

Alora stood and hugged her mom when she showed up. To the lead officer with the Maglite behind her she said, “She’s here,” pointing to the ground. 

“So you’re daughter’s a psychic?” the tall officer said suspiciously.

“She is,” Effie said winking at Alora. 

“Not the strangest thing,” he said. “Dave?” he motioned to an officer behind him carrying a shovel. 

“Not too deep. Be careful,” Alora instructed. 

It didn’t take long. Alora and Effie were immediately led away and back to the station as the lead officer called the FBI.

“They arrested him,” Effie said to Alora at dinner. A month had passed, but Effie felt like it had been a year. Repeated police interrogations and depositions for both her and Alora. Alora as the “psychic” was grilled ceaselessly about how she knew what she knew. She had perfected her flat stare and perfect delivery of “I commune with the dead” with the perfect amount of gravitas. Effie told her repeatedly how proud she was at how Alora weathered it all. 

“I saw,” Alora said over a bite of orange chicken. “Rat bastard. What took them so long?”

“It took some time to get the DNA from that cigarette and ID him. And he’s a long-haul trucker. I think it just took them that long to just catch up with him.”

“I heard the medical examiner couldn’t believe how well Tina’s body was preserved.”

“Like medical-mystery couldn’t believe,” Effie said.

“What can I say,” Tracy said. “I aged well.”

“Well, you had some help from your family,” Alora said to the ghost sitting between her and her mom.

“A-Force,” Tracy smiled.

“Fair.”

“Is there any fear that Trenton is going to, you know…” Effie canted her head to the side and stuck out her tongue. 

“Pull an Epstein?” Alora finished.

“Let’s just say we’re taking turns watching him now,” Tracy said. 

“I’m glad you got to stick around, Tracy,” Alora said.

“Well, who’s going to help you with your whole communing with the dead thing?”

Alora blushed, “Yeah, well… it was a fun line to say.”

“Oh, no, I’m actually serious,” Tracy said. “Hanging around with Tina and me? If you start seeing people who aren’t really there… it’s a thing….”