Page 41 of The Scrooge Effect

“Warn me about what? Where are the guys?”

“Oh, them? They’re currently talking with Cash.”

I looked around the basement, but didn’t see anyone else. “Cash is here?”

“Well, not here. I mean, it’s just you and me. For now.”

“And there was a woman.”

“Zoe,” he nodded. “Yeah, she’s getting the film set up.”

The film. What the hell was he talking about?

“Lock, we’re on a job. We have to finish this and get home.”

“Oh, we’ll get to that. But first,” he said, getting up from the table, “We need to get to the bottom of something.”

“And what’s that?”

A smirk spread across his face as he pulled out a checklist from behind his back. I rolled my eyes as he started reading through what was no doubt a long list of things we needed to cross off before we headed home.

“We don’t have time for this!” I snapped.

He looked up and cocked his head at me. “You’re right. We have exactly…” He looked at his watch, then back to me. “One hour. That’s not a lot of time to get through this.”

“Get through what? The job’s over. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Like I said, I did warn you.”

“Warn me? Warn me about what?”

“About what I would do if you died.”

That dizzying sensation was back. Only now, the whole room was spinning as I stumbled against a table and took in his words. “What…what are you talking about?”

“That hit to the head,” he chuckled. “You didn’t think that you were awake and alone in the church, did you?”

Confused, I took in my surroundings. “But I am in the church.”

“M-hmm. It would appear that way. Zoe’s good, isn’t she?” he grinned.

“Zoe, but what does she have to do with⁠—”

“Are we ever going to get on with this?” Zoe asked.

I spun and looked her over from head to toe as she tapped her foot on the ground in annoyance. Her friend Lark leaned against her, examining her nails.

“How much longer is this going to take? I have an appointment with the film studio about this.”

“About what?” I asked Lark. “What the hell are you talking about?”

She grinned at me, walking over until she was right in front of me. “This is the story of your life, Edu. See, we decided that instead of a normal funeral, we’d do a flashback of your life. Let it all play out so you could see how it’s going so far.”

“So far…” I hedged. “So, I’m not really dead.”

“Not yet,” Lock whispered in my ear. I spun around, freaking the fuck out as he stood right there, gray as death and covered in what looked like old prison clothes.

“What the fuck, man!”