Chapter 20 More than meets the eye.

Katherine remained seated on the floor, her eyes still fixed on Jonathan Blackthorn's corpse. As her mind struggled to process what she was seeing, a new detail stole her breath, a layer of frost slowly spreading across his dead skin.

It wasn't much. Just a slight discoloration, barely perceptible, as if the body were freezing in slow motion. But Katherine had only seen that kind of supernatural manifestation in ghosts that were ancient and deeply resentful.

While she was still processing and before she could react, Lucía leaned in slightly over the corpse. Something was unsettling about the way she examined the wounds, as if it were nothing more than a puzzle waiting to be solved.

"Interesting," she murmured, her tone more curious than horrified.

Katherine forced her gaze away from the body just long enough to notice something unnerving. Lucía was far too calm. The way she studied the scene with ease was something no ordinary person should be capable of in a place like this.

Lifting a finger, Lucía traced along one of the scars on Jonathan's torso without touching it. She observed the twisted gashes with a sharp eye. "The cuts aren't clean. They look like claw marks, but they're too uneven. Whoever did this wanted to rip, not kill. That's not something an animal would do."

Katherine's breath caught in her throat. "How... how do you know that?" she asked, her thoughts beginning to spiral.

Lucía clicked her tongue softly. Her faint smile carried something unreadable. "Luke and I used to go hunting. I've got some experience with tracking and reading this sort of thing."

It made sense in theory. Lucía definitely gave off the kind of vibe someone with that hobby might have. In the U.S., gun permits were easier to come by, so it wasn't out of the question that she had the experience. It sounded plausible, believable,and maybe just a little too convenient. But Katherine decided she'd unpack that later, somewhere far from a possibly aggressive spirit.

Then the lights flickered. Just once. It was a sharp flash that turned the morgue into a shattered maze of shifting shadows. The illumination returned almost immediately, but the feeling it left behind clung to Katherine's skin like tar. She noticed Lucía shuddering ever so slightly, as if trying to brush something invisible off her body. The girl had felt it too.

"It's cold..." The voice returned, softer than before, but no longer suspended in the air. A faint echo vibrated through the metal. It came from nowhere in particular, slipping through every surface, closing in on them from all sides.

Lucía lifted her head. Not in alarm, but as if listening for a second sound beneath the silence. "Curious," she whispered, barely loud enough to hear.

Katherine swallowed hard. Her muscles locked up, reacting to the growing unease. The noises were faint, betraying. They sounded more like a subtle pulse in the refrigerators or the soft quiver of metal against metal. Not footsteps. Not knocking. Something else entirely.

The morgue's air detonated into a freezing blast.

There was no warning. The attack didn't follow logic. It was as if Jonathan had been wrenched from death, consumed by fury, clawing blindly at the world that had taken his life. His vengeance was wild, formless, and unstoppable.

The lights blinked again. This time, they didn't come back. Darkness settled across the room, fragmented only by the gleam of sterile instruments and the ghostly light of frost blooming over the corpse. Katherine barely had time to react before she felt it.

"I'm so cold AND IT HURTS SO MUCH!" Jonathan's voice howled across the room. It didn't sound human. It boomed through every surface, shaking everything around it. The temperature plunged as an unseen force raged, ripping papers from desks and making every tool quiver in its place.

Something moved past her. Not a physical blow, but something undeniable. A presence brushed her like a violent breeze made of cold fire. Katherine screamed. She stumbled back, clutching the rosary at her neck as the warmth drained from her chest. The weight of death pressed against her skin, sharp and suffocating.

Before she could collapse, Lucía was already moving. Her reaction was swift and instinctive. She stepped in front of Katherine without hesitation, placing herself between her and the storm bearing down on them.

Even without a direct hit, the force hit Lucía like a truck. Her back arched from the impact of something she couldn't see. Her breath was ripped from her lungs in a silent gasp, a warning that whatever this thing was, it had no intention of stopping.

"Make it stop... IT HURTS!" Jonathan's cry tore through the room. His twisted, spectral face flickered above the corpse, his agony echoing off every wall. The ghost circled, hunting the warmth and life that still existed in that space.

"Oh, god dammint... Look, I'm sorry, man, but I'm fresh out of aspirin," Lucía muttered. In one practiced movement, she revealed the small vial still clutched in her right hand and hurled it down.

It shattered on the floor. A burst of salt erupted outward, defying gravity as it traced a perfect circle around the two of them. The moment it touched the ground, something changed. The air didn't calm, but the pressure stopped at the boundary, held back just outside the circle's edge.

Lucía breathed heavily, her arm still held defensively in front of Katherine. "Talk about salt in the wound. I don't think he liked that, though it looks like it's holding him back a bit. Please tell me you can see this thing," she growled, eyes locked on the surroundings.

Katherine trembled, her face buried against Lucía's back, her hand gripping the rosary so tightly her knuckles had turned white. "I... I can see him," she said, grounding herself in both her faith and Lucía's warm, protective presence.

Lucía exhaled like someone confirming an important fact. "Good. Then tell me if he's gearing up for another attack. And while we're at it, any idea how to calm him down?"

"I can try talking to him," Katherine replied. She struggled to catch her breath, her fingers clutching the rosary as if it could channel strength into her. Jonathan was trapped in something deeper than death, something tearing him apart from within. But if he was still capable of suffering, then maybe something of him remained. Something that could listen.

"Jonathan..." Her voice shook, barely a whisper amid the chaos. "Jonathan, please... listen to me."

"I'm cold, I'm alone, and it hurts."

The words boomed like thunder, warping with an unnatural echo that filled every corner of the morgue. Refrigerators vibrated. Tools scraped across the metal tables. Jonathan appeared caught in a trance, only repeating the same phrases he had been screaming before. He didn't understand. He only felt.

Katherine shut her eyes, trying to shut out the creeping cold, the pressure in her chest. "Jonathan, you're not alone. You don't have to suffer like this…" She kept trying to reach the ghost of her former friend, unwilling to give up so easily.

But her voice couldn't reach him. "It hurts... STOP." The words drowned in a fresh explosion of noise. Katherine felt his presence swell and grow more unstable. He wasn't listening. His agony was louder than her words.

The wooden floorboards beneath the salt creaked beneath the pressure of the spirit. Lucía tensed again, ready to react if the attack returned, while her free hand quietly reached into one of Katherine's pockets, something the redhead didn't notice.

"It's not working," Lucía growled, her golden eyes scanning for an exit, a plan, anything that might stop this. Internally, she cursed her luck for only bringing a single vial of salt for emergencies. Still, it was better than nothing.

Katherine couldn't give up. She couldn't leave Jonathan trapped like this. He had been her friend. Time and loss had pushed them apart, but she still remembered with warmth the days she'd spent playing with the Blackthorn siblings, back when the world had been simpler.

"Well... It's now or never," she murmured, reaching for her final card. It was something she had only done once before, in a desperate attempt to calm old Jenkins' ghost before it could strangle her.

She held the rosary in both hands, feeling its weight against her skin like an anchor in the chaos. Into it she poured her faith, and from it she drew her courage and strength.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." The words left her lips before she could think. Familiar verses, the kind she'd heard at countless funerals, the ones meant to bring peace to the living as they said goodbye to the dead.

"He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters and restores my soul." The pressure in her chest mounted, her heartbeat weakening with every pulse. It wasn't just fear, or even the cold sinking into her bones. It was something deeper, something draining from within.

"He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake." Whether it was the sacred meaning of the words, the strength she had placed in them, or the way they carried fragments of her own identity, it didn't matter. There was power in them. Or at least, that was what Katherine needed to believe.

Jonathan stirred violently. His presence quivered in the air, a fractured fury spinning itself into confusion. For a moment, something changed, the morgue's atmosphere wavered, torn between holding onto pain and responding to the call of someone who remembered him.

And then Katherine felt it. An invisible weight pressed onto her chest, something that didn't belong to her body, yet made her heart feel weaker with every second. Was it her life burning away with each verse, or something deeper she couldn't name? She didn't know.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..." Her voice faltered. Something was slipping from her with every word, something she couldn't understand. The heaviness in her chest deepened, and her vision blurred.

"Katherine." Lucía's brow furrowed, though her stance remained steady. "Are you okay?"

Katherine gripped the rosary tightly, her hands trembling. Lucía's concern, her presence, brought much-needed warmth. Another anchor. Another thread of strength to hold onto. "For you are with me..."

"You are with me..." Jonathan's voice echoed, less violent, more broken. The pain and madness that once twisted his face had given way to a look of confusion. All of his attention now rested on the spring, green-eyed girl before him, who seemed on the verge of collapse. "Katherine?"