After returning home to check on the cats and get out of her business attire, Carmen raced through Brittle Brush to The Gilded Ghost. She’s thrown on rain boots, ripped jeans, and an oversized maroon sweater—she was so tired of dressing for a funeral, even if it was her job. She headed toward the steps to Sam’s office but was stopped when the large demon ducked out of the speakeasy door wearing a hoodie and jeans that were somehow more ripped than hers.

“Annoying meat sack,” he called.

“Yes, moronic tomato man?” Carmen asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sam went to stay something snarky, finger lifted with shock, but he simply huffed out a plume of thick smoke from his nostrils and rolled his deep red eyes. He headed back inside, Carmen followed.

The dark interior of the speakeasy felt cozy and gilded, which was appropriate for its namesake. It was full of gold tassels and deep purple velvet curtains. Demi was behind the bar drying glasses, they waved with a smile before pointing to Link who was sitting at the bar with an incorporeal cocktail.

“Hey, so, uh… I think my boss might be a witch? And I think he saw Link yesterday?” Carmen said.

“Why are you saying it like a question? You’d be the only one who’d know,” Sam said as he locked the door behind them.

“’Cause, like, I don’t know! It’s weird and I’m tired and he’s in the hospital—”

“H-he is? What happened?” Link asked as he turned to face her.

“Sounds like he has pneumonia. Thankfully he’s staying and they got him an IV and meds, but he was in a hospital gown and he’s covered in tattoos. Which like, I mean, a hot older Irish guy with a goth job should have tattoos, it would be weird if he didn’t, but these were like… familiar,” Carmen replied with a shrug. She slid her hands in her pockets, her oversized sweater slouched off of her shoulder some. “He did, however, admit that you two were together. That he did plan to propose, he was just really scared about something happened to us since we were handling the autopsy. He misses you.”

“Thank you,” Link said quietly, his spirit turning grey again.

“He did have a certain… feeling about him,” Demi mused.

“Yeah, but a feeling that felt… off,” Sam added.

“Off how?” Carmen asked.

“Dull,” the Oddfellows replied in unison.

Sam smiled and leaned over the bar to kiss his partner, tail wiggling happily as he did.

“What does that mean?” Link asked.

“As if his supernatural energies were clouded,” Demi elaborated.

“So not like mine where they’re weakened because of my reaper status?” Carmen asked.

“Correct. You have magical threads and a lovely shade of purple in your aura, they’re simply faint. His felt suppressed, muted,” Demi replied.

“Hidden,” Sam added.

Demi nodded. “Blackened. His aura was blackened. I’d never seen such a colorless aura before but it was so small, almost like dust traveling through a stream of sunlight.”

“And you didn’t say anything… because?” Carmen asked but quickly lifted her hands. “N-not that you had to, it just felt like something I’d probably need to know.”

“Because that’s not uncommon, dear. Even normal humans can have supernatural auras, they’re simply thin and untapped. That’s why some can see ghosts or have a draw toward certain elements. It would be odd for a man as old as Lionel Kingfisher who has worked in such close proximity to Death for so long to not have some aura with the amount of spirits around. But the fact that you saw possible sigils changes things,” Demi replied.

“Especially after what I discovered last night,” Sam replied as he grabbed a bottle of bourbon from the top shelf.

“Which is?” Carmen asked.

“Patience, tiny annoyance, let the dramatic flair have its moment,” Sam chided. “We had a busy night here at the bar after we came back home.”

“Quite busy,” Demi replied as they picked up another glass to put away.

“When I was helping close out the till I noticed something quite peculiar on one of the receipts,” Sam added as he slid the piece of paper across the bar. “Looks familiar, huh?”

Carmen approached and looked at it. It looked like a normal receipt for a few expensive cocktails. She flicked her eyes up to Sam with question for a second before she stopped and turned back to the receipt. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through the photos until she found the one of the note they’d discovered in Link’s mouth.

“Oh… wow, how did you notice something so small?” Carmen asked as she set the phone down beside it.

“It’s my job to notice things like that,” Sam replied with pride.

“W-what are we looking at?” Link asked wearily.

“The signature on the receipt is from a demon, they usually sign stuff with their demonic names in their old language, lots of swoops and sigils and weird looking markings. See the way this section of the sigil on the paper we found matches this signature? It’s the same handwriting,” Carmen explained.

“That’s… impressive,” Link mumbled.

“So you think whoever killed Link was in the bar last night?” Carmen asked.

“I’d say that’s plausible. Sadly we were so busy last night that neither of us really paid attention to the patrons, nor did we handle the registers, so narrowing down who will be quite hard. I’d venture a guess that our perp was here, though. We tried to scrub through our security footage but it didn’t help much,” Demi replied.

“And the order is pretty generic, sadly. No timestamp, either,” Carmen replied, noticing the single glass of cider from Kline Vineyards in Wylder Wood. Judging by the amount of bottles featuring that label along the bar it was a popular drink.

“It’s not as if most folks return a glass of hard cider,” Demi said, almost apologetically. “We mostly use the receipts as a way to ensure our books are correct and to gently remind our patrons to tip.”

“All of that to say, you—” Sam pointed to Link, “Really need to stay hidden. We don’t need your murderer seeing you still floating around.”

“Indeed, it would be wise to hole up in the apartment for a while until we can make a proper game plan. If the demon who ended your life is living here in Brittle Brush the last thing we need is them putting your soul, and Carmen, in danger,” Demi added.

Sam huffed out a dark plume of smoke. “They could break in while you’re asleep—”

“Sam, dear, hush,” Demi interrupted. “The point is, this is closer to home than we thought and there are too many unknowns happening so please be careful. I would suggest Link stay here with us tonight since the town will be busy now that the sun is going down, cut down on the chances of him being seen going home.”

Carmen nodded. “Whatever we need to do. I did call up the head Wylder and asked for some advice on how to help him stabilize some. They said to try some sage and crystals, the usual, but they also recommended calling a ward witch in Broochport—Miss something or other—and the spiritual studies department at Penny Dread for advice. I didn’t have the time but it did give me an idea since they’d mentioned a few things that got my reaper senses tingling,” Carmen said with wiggling fingers. “If his death wasn’t ordained by Death, and She has no idea he’s dead since no one’s come looking to send him to the hereafter, then maybe if we could get a hold of his contract we’d learn something. I can’t do that, though, so that was all the more thought I really gave it.”

“I can look into that. I have contacts, ones outside of town so we won’t raise suspicion,” Sam said.

“If I wasn’t supposed to die, though, what would you gain from that?” Link asked.

“Quite a lot, actually. Since no one has come looking for you, even though you’re in a town with three reapers, that means your contract had to have been messed with in some way. Otherwise, we’d all be freaking out. And every contract, no matter who it belongs to, has to be signed and dated whenever anything happens. Each contract is, essentially, a timeline of a person’s life. An angel signs off on the birth, a reaper signs off on the death, any near brushes with Death also get notated. Eat shift has to be noted, otherwise it can get corrupted and it would definitely send ripples through the supernatural world,” Carmen replied.

“Which also means that, if you want to hide something, you’d have to have a reaper adjust it,” Sam mused, catching onto what Carmen was suggesting.

“So unless you were somehow always destined to be merc’d by a demon, someone got their hands on your contract,” Carmen added.

“Fascinating, I suppose that does also mean one of our other reapers might be involved. We’ll all need to be quite careful. I’d suggest heading out and getting as many cleansing and protection items as you possibly can tonight, Carmen. We’ll keep Link upstairs with Sam so he’ll be safe and have some company. We need to get ready to open so it might be best for all of you to leave,” Demi suggested.

“Sounds good, I’ll swing back by if I find something that might be able to help keep him stabilized, if not I’ll check back in tomorrow. Things may be a bit hectic this week with Mr. Kingfisher in the hospital but you can call me whenever.” She turned her phone around. “Put your number in so I can call you.”

Sam nodded and did so. Carmen worried he’d crush the phone in his massive hands but he handled it with more care than she’d thought he would. She turned to Link who had finished off his drink.

“How’re you doing?” Carmen asked.

“I’m doing okay, I think. That you for taking care of Lionel, I’m glad you’re here,” the quiet writer replied.

Carmen smiled and nodded. “Of course, I made sure he stayed put so he’ll be right as rain in no time at all. I promise. Call me if you guys come up with anything, I’m off to go peruse the witches’ wares.”