Once the priest is awake, they set up in the church's basement. The area is both where the Sunday school and homeless shelter run. The pastor tells Ambrose it is September, and those without housing do not usually seek cots to sleep on until snow. Then again, they've had snow as early as the first weeks of October.

The walls are painted a cream colour that peels, revealing a slightly darker shade of off-white below. The walls have posters, none of them new since Ambrose was last here, not even including the years he's been dead. The chairs down here are small and placed in a circle. Ambrose begins to stack them, putting them off in a corner.

"How many... you said twelve cots?" the pastor asks.

Ambrose nods. He goes into the next room and helps bring in some of the cots. They are light, made to be transported easily. His shoulders and legs ache from the walk. He is not tired, but he knows sleep is something that he ought to do. The pastor moves to help him, and after minutes of dragging metal across the ground, the cots are set up, with mattresses and blankets on top of them.

"Who else is coming?" the pastor asks. He lifts his sleeve to check his watch. "Do you know their names?"

Ambrose says nothing, making his way back up the stairs. He sits down in the main room and waits.

With the three of them piled into a cop car, Clare, Leo and Ajay are the first to arrive at the church. At the time, it had seemed best to touch base with the others. Whatever they may be. Clare opens the church doors and spots Ambrose in a pew.

The three of them, having the training that they do, scan the room for others. There is one other man, sitting on the steps leading up to the pulpit. They can see his black robes from here. He looks up at them, though he does not approach them at first.

Leo is the first to speak to Ambrose, "did none of the others come by yet?"

"No," Ambrose says. He continues to sit in the pew but points to a door nearby. "Cots are downstairs."

"I think we've been sleeping long enough," Ajay smiles, and if Ambrose were better at reading people, he would be able to tell that the smile is not genuine.

Clare walks towards the front of the room, approaching the pastor. Leo is tempted to follow; he doesn't like the idea of not being the centre of the investigation. He rubs his chin, feeling the same toughness on his face.

"Where is the bathroom?" Leo asks Ambrose.

Ambrose gestures to the door again.

Leo heads down the stairs.

Once Clare reaches the pulpit, she looks at the pastor, who turns his head to see her.

"Officer Canosa," he says.

Clare did not know the man prior to their death. He seems to recognize them, however. Clare's parents were very relaxed Catholics. This Church is the Anglican Church. There is a Catholic Church just outside of the other end of town, but as far as Clare understands, they would not have extra cots for her and her associates to sleep in.

"I don't believe we've met," Clare tells him.

He exhales, "forgive me. You are quite the martyr around town."

Clare blinks, and in that blink, she swears she hears a gunshot. Her head pivots, but none of the others seem startled.

"I wish I could remember," they tell him.

The pastor stands, "I had better call my wife. I had fallen asleep at my desk. I'm sure she is already worried sick."

With that, he leaves for a room beside the pulpit. Clare watches each step as he heads off, his eyes darting behind him to watch them.

The last thing Clare remembers is a gunshot. Perhaps they are imagining things. Really, there was the static of the walkie-talkie, and then a bang. They look back, and notice Leo is gone.

In the bathroom, Leo turns on the light. He is not easily startled. If he were, he would have lept out of his skin. There is a burn, all along his face. His skin is slightly red but mostly disfigured. It is bumpy, though he doesn't touch it in case it is healing. He begins to unbutton his shirt. He checks his skin, and see the burn run down his shoulders and his left arm. The dragon tattoo along his arm is a burn as well.

Something happened to Leo.

The church doors open again. Barry and Eva walk in together. They aren't speaking; they have very little to speak about.

Ajay is the closest to them, so he approaches.

"The police think we died, just as you suspected," he says, to Barry, while still not knowing the man's name.

"Is Lydia here?" Barry looks around. They have spent their time without her. Every second was agonizingly long. They will find her again, and figure out how to ease her back into their relationship.

"Only Clare, Leo and I are back," Ajay says. He seizes the opportunity, sticking out his hand. "I'm Ajay."

"Barry," Barry is stiff.

"Eva," she sticks out her hand. "Do you have a dart?"

"No," Ajay says. He's is, or was, trying to become a doctor. Cigarettes aren't known for being good for one's health.

"I'm going to McFreakin lose it," she says, balling her hands into fists that shake at her side.

Clare finally reaches them, "where did Leo go?"

"Bathroom," Ambrose is still sitting in the pew about fifteen metres from them, but he is listening. "Downstairs."

"This is fucking miserable," Barry mutters to no one but himself.

Eva nods in agreement, and he side-eyes her. Barry was a custodian at the opera house, not an actor, and so the disdain and disgust are clear on his face. He rubs his hands on his face.

"Is there like, an LCBO around?" Barry asks.

Ajay looks at him, "it's the middle of the night. They don't have LCBOs outside of Ontario."

"He's from Toronto," Eva explains.

Barry does not know where to walk away. It's cold outside. He thought Toronto was cold, but this is colder. Barry hates the prairies so much. If he had any money, and he had Lydia by his side, he would get someone to take them to the airport or even a train station and make his way back out to central Canada.

"What are we going to do?" Eva says. The sobriety she achieved from their walk is killing her.

"There are cots downstairs," Ambrose reminds them. He points out the door once more and then turns back in front of them.

The others mistake his behaviour for prayer, but Ambrose is not praying. Instead, he is waiting. There is no reason for his sudden departure from this world. He was driving. His brother would know. Perhaps he ought to pay his family a visit.

The front doors to the church open once more, and Fallon comes in. Her legs ache, from the trek she has just made. She wandered for quite some time, trying to discover where she might go. All roads led to the church, unfortunately.

Fallon looks exhausted. Clare doesn't ask her about it, but they don't want to be asked about the last few hours either. Clare explains that there are cots downstairs, and Fallon, wordlessly, heads down.

The staircase is narrow, and on her way, she runs into Leo. Since they cannot walk past one another, the two head downstairs together. Fallon avoids eye contact with him. As she understands it, Leo is a member of the RCMP. The police haven't historically treated lesbians well in the country they call home.

"Did you find out anything?" Leo asks. There is no telling where she has been and who she has told. For all they know, their information could end up in the papers tomorrow, and that would complicate, perhaps even compromise, the investigation.

Fallon lies down on a cot. She hasn't slept alone in a long time. It feels weird, not having Corrin's body beside her.

"No," Fallon says.

"Did anybody see you?" Leo presses.

Fallon scoffs. She turns her back to him, staring away, "I wish."

With that, Leo heads upstairs.

He makes it back just as the door opens again, and Kaia steps inside. She sidesteps around the group, heading deeper into the church.

She hates spaces like this. It's not Catholic either, but Anglican. Buildings like these carry too many harsh memories. Somehow, now it is supposed to be the place she is living. No buses come into Chelster. She'd have to hitchhike along the highway, which is not very safe in this part of the country. If she had the money to rent a car, or a license, or any proof she existed at all, she would be out of here.

"Do you think we are all the people who have died in Chelster in the past ten years?" she asks, looking back at the others.

Clare shakes their head, "Chelster has a pretty significant elderly population. A few go every year. Why?"

Kaia looks up at the pulpit, not wanting to share that she fears, in her last moments, she killed Rory. Kaia does not know how she died, but cannot imagine a scenario where she didn't take Rory out with herself. She heads towards the pulpit, hoping to somehow be closer to a God she doesn't believe in.

"Are you Australian?" Eva shouts out.

Kaia looks back and rolls her eyes. She takes off her jacket to reveal the long tattoo on her arm, "I'm Māori. A kiwi."

"Why the hell would you come here when you could be in New Zealand?" Eva smiles and almost laughs. "It's cold as balls in Chelster."

"Yeah, it hasn't fucking escaped me," Kaia snaps. "Jesus fucking Christ would you stop asking asinine questions?"

Eva frowns, her fists still balled. She goes to step forward, and Ajay blocks her from moving toward Kaia.

Ambrose almost smiles to himself. He's never heard so much profanity in the church.

The others make themselves scarce. Eva heads outside, to go sulk, and Barry finds a spot by the pulpit, where he can watch the doors without having to stand. Leo, Clare, and Ajay whisper in one of the pews near the front, trying to figure out the plan for the police. Kaia heads down to the cots as well. She hears Fallon crying from the other side of the door and makes a big show of banging into the door before walking into the room, to give Fallon some privacy.

The two young women do not speak about the lovers they have lost.

The air is beginning to get warm when Nico finally stumbles back into the church. They look around and approach Ambrose.

Barry looks up, but it's not Lydia who has come so they do not approach.

"Hey, you're from Chelster, right?" Nico says. "Do you know a Kye Campos? Or like, the Campos family?"

Ambrose shakes his head.

Nico wanders deeper into the church, looking around at the others. They aren't tired. Even when they rested on the park bench, they couldn't feel any exhaustion start to carry them away. Nico heads over to the three as well, and then to Barry, but none of them have heard of Kye's family, and could not tell Nico where they lived.

Nico eventually makes their way into a pew. They aren't used to occupying themselves. Nico thrives when others are smiling and laughing, and the mood is too sombre. They sit alone, their head in their hands, hoping for a change tomorrow.

The last three make it back when the sun is rising. They walk through the doors, and Audrey's leg gives out in the doorway. Este only barely manages to catch her.

The three plotters lookup. They gave up talking a long time ago, but none of them have moved away, or gone downstairs. Este heads past Ambrose and over to them, once Audrey has their balance.

"We found our graves," Este tells the three of them. "Audrey, Lydia, and me, anyway."

"So, unless this is some elaborate hoax..." Clare looks at the others.

Ajay knows it makes sense, but cannot fathom how he died. He was just walking, on the sidewalk even. There aren't many sidewalks in Chelster, but he happened to be on one anyway.

"So, what's the plan?" Leo asks.

"We let the police investigate," Clare says.

Leo scoffs, "we are the police."

"We were the police," Clare corrects.

They see Ajay staring down at his lap. They are about to say something, but he gets up and walks away, trying to calm down.

Audrey sits down in a pew, staring forward. A small smirk climbs its way onto her face. She may not know how she died, but now she has a second chance. Maybe she won't be able to go back to Yale, but she will be able to do something. If anyone is going to die, they are lucky to come back to life.

Standing alone, Lydia makes her way up to Barry, his smile flashes at her, and something about it feels familiar. She stops for a second, her normally strong and controlled breath wavering. Then, she takes another step forward, and another.

"You were right," she says to them.

Barry looks up at her and stands from his spot. He wants to kiss her, oh how he wants to kiss her so badly. However, she won't turn to putty for him if he comes on too strong. Instead, he lets himself get close enough that she has to look up at her.

"You found you, I guess," they say.

She nods, "yeah, I did."

He goes to move past her because that's the best way to keep her wanting. It was his trick at the opera house. He always let her approach him.

She goes to step after him but then lets him walk away. Lydia knows that chasing Barry down after rejecting him so abruptly is going to make her look desperate.

Now, she is not desperate. After all, her parents must think she is dead. Rather, Lydia is free.

~~~~~

... ignore how long this update took. Instead, let me know what you think your character's next move is, or a thing you would like to see happen! I like doing more collaborative stuff. I find it's easier to write, and also does your characters better! Let me know!

Also, feedback on this chapter? It's been a while, so I'm open to suggestions and things I might have missed. I can't wait to update again!