Alexander Death (The Paranormals, Book 3) Read Free

Carter!”
    “I said wait.” Seth led his mother away, and an officer escorted them through a door, away from the front area and out of sight.
    Seth glanced at the strange old man beside him, but the old man didn't seem aware of Seth, or of anything much that was happening around him.
    Seth trembled, wondering what his parents were doing, and what Carter looked like after the accident. He thought about the bird he'd healed, about four years ago, and how Carter had told him to keep it secret.
    Seth felt his hands growing hot. He could do it again, he realized. Maybe he could heal up Carter and bring him back. Then everyone would know about Seth's secret, but who cared? He had to bring Carter back, or it would be his own fault that his brother was dead.
    Seth jumped to his feet. Nobody told him to sit back down, so he walked toward the door through which his parents had left the room.
    “Hey, kid,” the cop at the front desk said. “You can't go back there.”
    “But my brother's back there. I have to help him,” Seth said.
    “Sit down and wait for your parents. Now.”
    Seth hesitated a moment—you were supposed to do whatever the police told you, but this cop wouldn't understand what Seth could do. Seth charged through the door.
    “Hey!” the cop shouted after him.
    Seth ran down a corridor, ignoring the desk cop's shouts. He hurried past a group of cops who were talking in low voices, and one scowled at him.
    He reached an intersection with another corridor and hesitated. Fortunately, signs were posted here. One of them said “MORGUE” with an arrow pointing to Seth's left. He gulped. The morgue sounded like a scary place, full of dead people and maybe zombies and other monsters that might grab at him. But that was where he would find his parents and his brother.
    Seth moved down the hall, which was dark from so many overhead lights being burned out. Those that remained were flickering, creating an unsettling strobe effect as he ran towards the big double doors labeled MORGUE.
    Seth pushed a door open and ran inside, holding his breath—he expected to be surrounded by dead bodies immediately, corpses piled up to the ceiling and staring at him with cold, sightless eyes. And maybe their heads would turn toward him, and their hands would reach for him, like the undead in those horror movies on cable that Seth wasn't allowed to watch, but sometimes did anyway.
    The first room was just an office, though, with filing cabinets and two desks. A heavyset black woman dressed like a nurse sat at one desk.
    “Excuse me?” she asked. “What are you doing here, kid?”
    “I gotta find my parents.” Seth looked around the room. Only one door led out of the room, besides the one he'd just stepped through. That had to be where everybody was.
    “You don't want to go in there,” the lady said. “Why don't you sit right down—” She gestured toward the empty chair at the other desk, but Seth blew right past her and shoved the next door open.
    “Damn it, kid!” the lady shouted after him.
    The next room was large and freezing cold, like a big cave, with a stainless steel autopsy table right in front of him. Rows of metal cabinets stood against the back wall. One of these cabinets was open, the drawer inside fully extended, and it held a body covered in a white sheet.
    A morgue attendant in scrubs stood on one side of it, holding up a corner of the sheet. A suntanned man with a mustache and tie was beside the morgue attendant, gauging Seth's parents, who stood on the other side of the drawer, looking down at what the attendant had unveiled from under the sheet.
    Both of Seth's parents were as pale as ghosts, and Seth's father seemed to slump, as if life and strength were draining from him. Seth's mother stared without moving.
    “That's him.” Seth's dad nodded.
    The morgue attendant tried to cover the body again, but Seth's mom stopped him with her hand. She didn't say anything, just kept staring.
    Seth ran toward them,