Nine Lives

by Gregory L. Norris

About the Author: Gregory L. Norris is a full-time professional writer, with work appearing in numerous fiction anthologies, national magazines, novels, and the occasional TV episode (and, so far, one produced feature film -- Brutal Colors, which appeared on Amazon Prime in 2016). He once worked as a screenwriter on two episodes of Paramount's Star Trek: Voyager series and is a former writer for Sci Fi, the official magazine of the Sci Fi Channel (before all those ridiculous Ys invaded).

Excerpt

9.

Andrew Billings didn’t know that he had died, and so he went about the morning as planned. After lacing a loose sneaker, he started down Juniper Hill Road, picked up Willow, and then headed toward town, his usual five-mile jog on that comfortable May day no different than any other, at least on the surface.

Less than two miles into his routine, Andrew received the first of the calls. He felt the phone vibrate in the pocket of his jogging shorts, missed the next call a tenth of a mile later while crossing the street, and ignored the third. By the sixth, he sensed something serious was afoot and answered.

“Billings here.”

A deep inhale sounded over the steady cadence of his heartbeat, broadcast in his ear, and the whisper of the wind as he continued forward at a dogtrot.

“Drew, thank God,” said Bella Carson. “When I heard the news …”

Her voice hitched with a sob. He imagined her cheeks, red from rosacea, now damp from tears.

“Bella, what’s wrong?”

“Tell me I’m not speaking to a ghost, please,” she said.

Andrew wiped the back of his free hand across his forehead. The sweat was warm and plentiful. Still, a shiver cut through his body heat, a sensation he hadn’t suffered in some years but was too intimate with to deny or ignore.

“Bella,” he snapped.

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