Integrity Funeral Home - In the Middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Crystal walked into the dark funeral homes back door, disarmed the alarm, and made her way towards the front, turning on lights as she went. flipping the switch for the showroom, she noticed a little old lady laying peacefully in a rose colored casket.

"Hello?" She called timidly, she wasn't expecting to see anyone this early, and since no alarms were triggered, she figured this was the soul of a departed.

The woman's eyes fluttered open for a moment and glanced at her, then she closed them again and remained silent and still.

"Ma'am? Can I help you?"

Silence filled the air, giving and uneasy feeling to Crystal, "Ok, well if you want to talk, I'm here." she turned to walk away, and jumped as she almost walked into Katheryn.

"What are you doing?"

"Aye, your a wee bit jumpy ain't ya? She wont talk, hell she wont even talk to us."

"Any idea who she is?"

"Not a one. Just thought you should know." Kathryn gave a brief waive and faded into the distance

"Well this is one hell of a morning already." Crystal said as she finished up her rounds and turned music on.

a loud clatter emanated from the chapel around the corner, and she figured she would stick her head to see what happened, a large group of men stood in a circle near the middle of the room, their clothing ranged from eras and styles, all still mostly Sunday best attire.

"yes Gentlemen, I feel this would be a good place for evening cards." On man said to the group, as he was applauded with rounds of "here here" and "but of course's" The man turned and looked towards the door to see Crystal.

"Young lady, what are you doing here? This is a gentleman's only group." The man said stiffly, his mustache twitching as he spoke with purpose.

"My apologies, I am just making my rounds, we are opening up soon."

a few of the men gasped and looked at him, "I will not be talked to that way from a mere woman, you will address me with respect!"

His opinionated tone was starting to get on Crystals nerves "And how, dare say, am I to address you with respect if I do not know who you are?"

He stiffened up and stood up taller, "I am Sir Charles, and I say it would be best for you to learn it, and your place!"

"Well excuse me SIR Charles." she waived her hand to brush it off, "But my place is here, in this funeral home, and right now my job is to open. Now if you don't mind I will get back to my task at hand." she turned and stormed out

"The NERVE"

Crystal could hear the mustered up gasps as she left the chapel.

"Some Nerve indeed" she mumbled to herself as she rounded to corner to her office.

Crystal opened her computer and pulled up the emails while she started the schedules for morning meeting, when repeated DINGS started invading her computer speakers, she flipped back to the email to see the wave of calls that had come in over night for pick ups.

"Oh my god....." she scrolled through them, "Ten calls, just since last night... All of them COVID positive?!"

she started adding them to the list and counting, "that makes, thirty cases this week." she stared in disbelief her mouth hanging open.

Crystal grabbed her stacks of papers, coffee cup, and breakfast bar and ran down the hallway to the meeting room, her shoe slipping off as she slid into the room,

"Sorry, didn't mean to be late. lost track of time." her eyes darted around for her shoe.

"Its all good, we were just discussing the wave of calls that came in." Sarah said bringing her mug to her ruby colored lips, "Rediculas isn't it? this variant is mind blowing, we were not this busy with the first round of COVID, but Delta is a killer." she looked up for a second and smiled, "Pun intended."

Mathew and Frank rolled their eyes collectively,

"Good one boss ma'am" Mathew said sarcastically

"Hardy Har Har." Frank mumbled as he doodled on his note book

Sarah's lips turned up at the corners, her dark brown eyes laughed behind themselves as she glanced around the room. Her slender but firm figure seemed content with the room as she laid back into her set, and pulled her shoulders back, the loud cracks the emanated from her back gave the sound of relief that paired with her sigh.

"Alright team, Amelia is out today, so the front lays in Crystal's hands, we have a lot to do, and not a lot of time. luckily only a couple appointments today, but with as many calls as we have received, there is going to be a lot of phone and computer work." Sarah looked around, "Remember team, these people need our love and support, its why we are in this business.

"Can we hold any more calls?" Crystal asked

"A couple more, we might have to rent a truck.... but we will do what we can, even if that means we are working through the night to cremate and embalm."

"Yikes."

"Not Yikes for you, you get to go home." Frank said sarcastically, "Its Yikes for all of us."

Crystal smiled at Frank and poked him in the arm, "HA HA."

side eyeing her he grumbled but then a sly smile broke the side of his lips.

silence over took everyone for a couple moments while they looked over the schedule and sipped on their coffee, the loud TICK TICK TICK of the clock echoed through the room, giving the sensation of time slowing down. Everyone was tired and exhausted, and completely content with sitting in silence for a few minutes, versus getting up and getting things going early. Sarah looked up and opened her mouth to start speaking when a loud CRASH rang throughout the building.

"What in the name of Bob was that!?" Crystal yipped as everyone jumped

"No clue! Ok everyone spread out and find the source of the crash" Sarah directed as everyone jumped up and bolted out of the meeting room.

Crystal rounded a corner and saw a large gathering of spirits standing in the main hallway, she slid up to Katheryn and whispered "What's going on?"

"Aye, someone broke in!" she replied

Crystal looked up and saw a small group of homeless crawling in through the door sized windows, shocked, she turned and ran back to the double doors to the back and waved at everyone to come. Once they got within ear shot Crystal wispered about the group, and everyone ran.

"What are you doing?!" Sarah Screamed at the invaders who all jumped and turned to her.

A scraggly woman stepped forward, her hair a tangled up mess, her clothes dirty and torn, and obvious pick marks littered her face and arms, "Who are you in MY house!?"

Sarah stood her ground, "YOUR house? this is a place of BUSINESS, and a place of REVERENCE!"

one of the men with the woman tugged on her sleeve, but she brushed him off, "No, this is my home! I am tired of being forced to sleep outside in the cold and rain outback, while you intruders galivant around in the warmth. I am taking my home back." She stood up and straightened her back, "I am Mira! And I am the Queen of this group!"

Sarah laughed, "Mira huh? Are you the one one who has broken the water spigots? Ripped the outlets out of the wall? Used the bathroom in the stairwells? Or dispersed garbage and drug paraphernalia all over the place?" Sarah gave a side glance to Frank, who slipped out unnoticed.

"The Queen shall do as she wishes with her property!" someone screamed from the group.

"God, it's almost like a pack of vampires." Crystal whispered to Mathew.

"Right? that's what I was thinking."

"Listen Mira, we don't have time for this, either take your minions and leave now, or have the cops called on you." Sarah negotiated

Gasps rang out from the group and Mira laughed, "Go ahead, call the cops, cause YOU will be the ones arrested, for your perverted things you do with the corpses. I bet you create them yourselves!" she spat as Sarah and started coughing,

"Oh I do not have TIME to get a Covid test you mite infested maggot!" she screamed, starting to step forward, anger fueling her, when Crystal and Mathew grabbed her arms and pulled her back, just in time to catch the flicker of red and blue outside of the window.

Frank stepped back inside, followed by numerous heavily armed cops, who flanked the side of him and spread out to surround the homeless group.

"NO! THIS IS MY HOME!" Mira screamed as two cops stepped up to her, "MINE!!!"

"Ma'am, please, lets not make this any harder than it needs to be, you and your group need to leave here, you are all officially trespassed from here."

Mira hauled back, arched her neck and launched a large mucus wad on the officer, "Fuck off you swine!"

"Ok, well now your under arrest." he said plainly, as he wiped the spit off of him with a hanky from his pocket.

As the officers went about arresting the group, and taking statements from everyone, and assessing the damage and writing reports, Crystal stood back, this was a crazy event that kept getting weirder.

"Aye, not an everyday occurrence here, that was a hoot to watch." Kathryn said popping up next to Crystal

"Yea, I would not expect that at a funeral home to be honest."

"Fair, that was a little to lively for the normal groups that wonder here, both spirit and solid."

"Solid?" Crystal questioned, turning to Kathryn

"Aye, it's what we call you living folk. It helps some of the newer spirits grasp what is going on."

"Interesting..." Crystal was cut off by the screams of Mira, as she was dragged handcuffed out of the funeral home

"I WILL BE BACK FOR MY HOME! YOU CAN'T STOP ME!"

"Well, thats enough excitement for one day." Frank said joining Crystal in watching, as Sarah and Mathew followed behind them

"Not everyday this happens, Ok, Crystal take care of the front, Mathew your the director on right now, Frank lets go see about fixing the window?" Sarah said as she caught up with the group.

"OK... Break!"