Chapter 3
'After a moment of hesitation, I bit my lip and asked myself,'
"Can I still buy that apartment?" I asked.
"Mr. Lewis already bought it, and he even reserved a few similar ones nearby," the agent replied.
The agent handed me two brochures.
He said, "Miss Lewis, you might want to check out these properties.
"The prices are about the same as the previous one, but they're a bit further out..."
"I'll go with this one," I said, tapping the brochure without much thought.
Then I pulled out the 3 thousand dollars I'd just gotten paid and handed it over.
There were some superstitions in our business.
Since we dealt with a lot of spirit money, we always used real cash to ward off any bad luck.
That was why our salary was always paid in cash.
Maybe it was not every day he saw someone pay for an apartment in cash like I did.
The agent looked at me oddly and pulled out a money counter.
He counted the bills one by one, making sure they were legit, then finally handed me the contract.
This time, I didn't even glance at the details. I just flipped straight to the last page and signed my name.
The agent hesitated.
"This one needs an extra 6 thousand dollars for the down payment. Did you notice that?" he asked.
"Yeah, just give me a little time. It's not like it's going anywhere since I've already put down the deposit," I replied.
The agent sighed.
"I just don't understand you and Finley. You're family. Why do you have to make such a fuss?" he said.
Middle-aged guys just can't help but give you a piece of their mind.
I didn't want to hear it, so I grabbed my bag and walked out, calling the funeral home director.
"I'm coming in to work today," I said.
He was surprised.
"Didn't you say you were taking two days off?" he asked.
"Not anymore. I'm not taking any days off for the next two months," I replied.
"Alright, just come in as usual," he said.
After hanging up, I tried to reach Naomi.
She didn't pick up, so I had no choice but to apologize to her on WhatsApp.
I lost count of how many times I said sorry.
Finally, she replied with just one line: [Whatever, let's just act like we never knew each other.]
When I tried to message her again, my text was blocked.
I just sat there, clutching my phone, totally spaced out for ages.
I didn't drag myself to work until the afternoon.
The funeral home was pretty empty.
As soon as I walked in, I saw Kelsey and my mom.
They were both holding an urn, crying quietly.
It must have been Tollie's ashes.
I quietly looked away and walked toward the work area.
Earlier, the boss told me my only job today was to help move a body.
I found the deceased's family right away.
With their help, my coworker and I lifted the body.
But just as we were about to put the body in the coffin,
Out of nowhere, I heard Finley behind me.
"Maddison! Why the hell are you still working here?" he yelled.
Before I could even process what was happening, someone yanked my arm hard.
My grip loosened, and the body hit the ground with a heavy thud.
It hit the ground with a heavy thud.
The body landed headfirst, and his head split open.
He must've just passed away, the blood hadn't even started to clot.
Thick, dark red blood oozed out slowly.
It was eerie and downright creepy.
The funeral home was eerily quiet, the kind of silence that sends chills down your spine.
None of us expected something like that to happen out of nowhere.
After a stunned moment, the deceased's family was the first to snap out of it.
"You bitch! What the hell are you doing?" the man shouted.
His eyes went bloodshot with fury, and he suddenly lashed out, kicking at me.
He caught me right in the small of my back.
I stumbled back several steps, then crashed to the ground in a mess.
Before I could even scramble up, two women closed in on me, raising their hands and started raining slaps on me from both sides.
"You bitch! You cracked my dad's head open! What the hell were you trying to do?" the man shouted.
They slapped me over and over, and my forehead was slick with cold sweat from the pain.
I quickly threw my arms up to protect my head.
"Stop it!" Finley burst out, shoving the two women away and throwing himself between us.
"She didn't mean to! You can't just hit her like that!" Finley snapped.
No way the furious family was going to listen to that.
They closed in on him, surrounding him from all sides.
Finley's bodyguards rushed in to protect him.
Everything descended into chaos.
The boss rushed out, practically begging for forgiveness and trying to smooth things over.
The family kept making a scene, refusing to back down, while Finley stood his ground, stone-faced and unyielding.
Things were getting way out of hand.
I gritted my teeth, holding my side as I managed to stand up.
I fell to my knees in front of the body with a dull thud.
"It's my fault! Please, stop hitting me!" I cried out.
After that, I gave the deceased a deep bow.
Then I took the charm from the boss and set it on fire right there.
That meant I was offering up ten years of my own lifespan, turning it into years of longevity for the deceased in the spirit world.
When they saw me burning the charm, the family finally calmed down and stopped shouting so much.
My mom stepped in, kept apologizing, and offered to make it right with some compensation.
She was really respectful, and the amount she put up was pretty generous.
The family didn't have much else to say after that.
They just pointed at me and yelled a bit, then left with the coffin.
As soon as they were gone, Finley immediately reached for my hand.