"Babe, babe, babe," I said. I stopped walking. Wait, I thought. I looked around at where we were.
"How did we get home?" I said as I looked around our small foyer with the pastel orange and yellow walls.
"I drove us," Zen said as they closed and locked the door behind them.
"Right," I said. "Sorry."
"Its fine," Zen said. "You've been in your hyper-focused state since you got back from the restroom." I was? I thought. They walked to me. They grabbed my hands and looked me in the eyes.
"What were you going to say?" Zen said.
"What?" I said. "Oh yeah. I was right."
"With?" Zen said.
"With Bea being alive," I said.
"Seriously," Zen said. "You're still at this." They let go of my hands and turned to their right into the living room.
"I swear," I said as I turned left to follow them.
"Come on, we talked about this already," Zen said as they sat down on the sofa at the middle of the room. "We we're done with it."
"Yes but something happened," I said as I sat down beside them. Zen looked at me.
"Fine," Zen said. "What happened?" I crawled closer to Zen.
"So in the restroom," I said. "When I was in the cubicle, the light turned off. I went out of the cubicle then the lights flickered. During that flicker, I saw someone standing by the door, wearing a black hooded robe. I ran back in the cubicle because I was shocked. When I got out, no one else was there. And I'm sure I heard the door pushed open at some point."
"Okay," Zen said. They stood up and paced slowly in the circle. I pressed my lips together.
"Okay, okay," Zen said. "Let's say what you said happened is true, how would they have snuck in and out of the funeral home when the place was swarming with body guards from the company?"
"I didn't think of that," I said. "Maybe they exited through the other side of the funeral home?"
"Sadly, its a dead end," Zen said. "There's a wall." Fuck, I thought.
"Then I don't know," I said. "But I know, what I saw."
"You may have hallucinated," Zen sighed.
"No," I said as I stood up. "I know what I saw."
"Then explain to me how the person you allegedly saw got past through the intense security at that time," Zen said.
"I can't," I said. "But still, I know what I saw." They sat back down beside me.
"Okay, let's say they're able to get past security somehow," Zen said. "So what would they be doing in there?"
"I don't know," I said. "To spy on us, to follow us, to check if we're following what they told us to do on the note we got - so they know whether or not keep Bea alive." Zen sighed.
"Baby," Zen said. "Can you hear yourself right now? We just came home from Bea's wake. We saw her body in that casket."
"I know I sound crazy right now," I said. "But its true. Someone scared the shit out of me in that restroom." They hugged me and started rubbing my back.
"Everything's going to be okay," they said.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I understand what's happening," Zen said. "This is part of your grief." I pushed Zen off me and stood up.
"No its not!" I said. "Why can't you believe me?"
"I want to believe you," Zen said. "But it doesn't make sense. We were the ones who found Bea's-"
"I know," I said. "But please, trust me on this. I'm not going crazy." Zen leaned back on the sofa and looked up. Yikes, I thought. What are they thinking?
"So what do you want to do?" Zen said.
"Really?" I said. I sat down beside them.
"Yes," they said. "You're so insistent on this so I might as well be there to protect you than you doing things on your own." They sat up. Awwww, I thought.
"Sorry for pushing you," I said as I grabbed their hands. I pulled them towards my face and made their hands slap my cheeks repeatedly.
"Its fine," Zen said. "But, promise me that you're going to stick to the plan that we brainstorm and not go rogue."
"Babe," I said. "
"Its for our safety," Zen said. "We know that whoever did this is capable since to kidnap a superstar is serious work."
"What if there's new information that comes up?" I asked.
" We revisit our plan," Zed said. "Okay?" They grabbed my hands and interlaced their hands with mine. I nodded.
"Thank you," I said.
"So what do you want us to do first?" Zen asked. The sound of the doorbell filled the air. Zen and I froze. We looked northwest, towards the front door. What the? I thought.
"Were you expecting someone this late?" Zen asked.
"No," I said. "Were you?" The doorbell rang again.
"No," Zen said. We looked at each other. We stood up.
"Stay behind me," Zen whispered as they tiptoed in front of me. We slowly creeped towards the front door. It must be them, I thought. When we reached the door, I let go of Zen's hand and grabbed a long umbrella from the bin beside the door. I put it up in the air to prepare to swing. Zen put up their hand.
"3,2,1," Zen mouthed. Zen opened the door. What? I thought. Zen sighed.
"Whoever it was, they backed out," Zen said.
"Yeah," I said as I put down the umbrella.
"Or," Zen said. They squatted and grabbed something from the porch floor. Fuck, I thought.
"They needed to leave this," Zen said as they turned around to face me. They were holding a box by on of its corners. Its dripping, I thought.
"That's blood," I said. "Don't bring it in yet. Wait." Uhm, I thought as I looked around. Okay whatever. I quickly pulled the rest of the umbrellas out of the bin. I grabbed the bin and put it under the box. Zen let go of it. It fell inside the bin.
"Who would send this?" Zen said.
"Well," I said. "The ones who kidnapped Bea." I sat down on the floor. I unwrapped the box and opened it.
"Fuck," I said. "We're running out of time. This is fresh." Zen sat down across of me. Together, we stared at the severed finger laying at the bottom of the box.
"Shit," Zen said. "Are we sure that's Bea's?"
"We can't really confirm since we can't bring this to the police," I said. "They can't know."
"Ugh," Zen said. "What's that?" Zen grabbed the bin and tilted it.
"We're waiting ," Zen read.
"We need to go get those albums soon," I said.
"This sketchy though," Zen said as they put the bin down. "Why are they doing this just to get some signed albums?"
"Guess they're a fan," I said.
"A deranged fan," Zen said. "So where should we put this?"
"Let's just throw this a small trash bag and put it together with the other trash," I said.
"And if someone finds this?" Zen said.
"They won't be able trace it back to us," I said. "We didn't touch the finger directly. The box sure but they can tell we didn't cut the finger off."
"Fine," Zen said. "I'll go get the trash bag." They stood up and walked down the hallway behind us. They're serious about this huh, I thought as I looked at the severed finger.