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“You’re fading, Daphne. More and more of you is gone. I can see through you now.”

“It’s getting harder.”

“How many more times?” Iris asked.

“I don’t know how it works. I’d only be guessing.”

“You’re a scientist who was, apparently, working on something that brings people back from the dead, and now, you’re… you’re a ghost, and you’re here talking to me. Guess.”

Daphne smiled and said, “No one ever gets to see this side of you. I wish you’d show it off more.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re so strong, sweetheart. You can easily command a room of people, but you don’t. You let everyone think you’re a demure secretary, taking dictation and making sure everyone has their coffee, but you’re so much more than that. I love you so much.”

“Stop that,” Iris ordered. “Don’t act like you’re going away and you’re saying goodbye. We’re going to do this. Just tell me how much time we have.”

“If you had to guess at a percentage, the first time you could see me being a hundred, until now, how much have I lost?”

“You mean, how much I can see through you now?”

“Yes.”

Iris looked at her and saw the shapes of their bookshelf through Daphne.

“Fifty percent,” she said.

“Then, I have maybe three more visits left before you can’t see me.”

“I don’t want to not see you anymore. I need to be able to see you, Daphne.”

“Then, we need to finish this and get to the storage facility.”

“How will I get in?”

“You can get into the main part of the building. There’s no key access there during the day. In the main office, you’ll go through the two doors at the back and take a left. Are you getting this?”

“Yes.”

“The second door on the right is usually unlocked. Inside that room, you’ll find a desk. There’s a key in the top drawer, and another one is in the office next door in the bottom drawer on the right. Get both keys. You need to go unnoticed. Then, come back here. You can’t go in until the night, when everyone is gone. The silver key is for the main door. The brass key is for the lab. If they did this right, my body is in the lab’s cold storage room.”

“If they– You don’t know for sure?”

“We made an agreement.”

“But you can’t… visit them or see the lab?”

“No, my love. My theory is that it’s only because of my intense connection to you that you see me. When you don’t, I’m still here with you. I can’t go anywhere you don’t go. And I only have so many trips left if my translucency is any indication. I want to spend every moment I have left here with you.”

“Tonight,” Iris said. “Is it done? You said it was done.”

“There are a few more parts you’ll have to add at the lab. There’s a core that goes inside that door you made today.”

“You’ll be there with me?”

“I will do everything I can to be there with you, my love, but let me tell you how to finish putting it together and what to do with it, just in case.”

That Night