Note: suicidal sim.
Three weeks later
“Thank you, Bob, for that… interesting report. I wait with bated breath to hear if there really are pixies living in the Glimmerbrook Grand Hotel. And now, on to some real news.
“Police have issued a fresh appeal for anyone with information on the death of Sandy Moss’s daughter’s friend, Faith Splodge to come forward. They are still seeking the last person to be seen with Miss. Splodge, a man known only as ‘Seth’. They ask again that anyone with information on his whereabouts, or that of April Moss and the other one, who have been missing since May, to come forward.”
“The other one,” Melinda muttered, turning off the TV. “Joy! Hurry up! We’re going to miss the bus!”
“Thanks for doing this, Mel-uh – Maude,” Adina wandered in from the kitchen where she had been preparing something that Melinda’s mother had insisted that she have. It smelled dreadful, but at least it was some kind of food. Melinda got the feeling that Adina and Joy weren’t getting enough of that, lately. “Joy could really use a day out and I’ve not been up to it since Faith—”
Melinda placed her hand on Adina’s shoulder, silencing the older woman gently. Hearing those words was still like a knife to her chest. “I know.”
“It’s hard for Joy to really understand that her sister is gone for good.”
Melinda felt the same. “I understand.”
Adina squeezed Melinda’s hand, managing a small smile. “Hopefully, a good trip to the park and a big greasy burger will perk her up a little bit.”
“Hopefully it’ll perk us all up a bit.” Melinda hesitated before adding. “We might swing by Funhole afterwards, if that’s OK? Joy said she wanted to watch the new Voidcritters movie.”
“Voidcritters, is that some sort of horror—”
“Oh, no, they’re, like, cute little creatures. It’s a kids movie.”
“Then sure. Funhole. Faith sure likes that place. Liked…” Adina whispered to herself.
“She did,” Melinda said softly. She chewed her lip. “Hey, did you know that she had the high scores on every machine in the arcade?”
Adina laughed, despite herself. “She swore that she worked late every night – I knew she was just larking about on those machines after her shift.”
Melinda managed a watery grin, not wanting to confess to Faith’s mother what her daughter was likely doing after her shifts. She chose to change the subject. “Is Mum popping by later?”
“Yes. I’m hoping that she’ll accompany me to the cemetery. I wanted to lay some fresh flowers today, check everything is clean and in order for my baby.”
Melinda nodded but she had to wonder how much flowers could wilt and the gravestone could become dirty in the five sunny days that had passed since Faith’s funeral. Still, she could sympathise heartily with Faith’s mother and knew that she needed to do what she needed to do to keep going.
“I think Mum would be happy to take you.”
Adina nodded. Silence fell between them.
Eventually, Joy bounded into the room, with the energy, exuberance and ignorance that only a child could possess, shattering any awkwardness that had begun to develop between the two women whose mutual contact was absent.
“Ready?” Melinda asked.
“Born ready!” Joy grinned. “Now, it’s movie and a burger, right? You’re not skimping on the burger?”
“You definitely get a burger,” Melinda promised.
Joy did a giddy little dance. “You’re the best babysitter ever, Maude! Is Amy coming too?”
“Yep, she’ll be there.”
“What about Wyatt?”
“No, he can’t make it this time, he’s really sorry. That reminds me. “She reached into her inventory. “Now, you need to do something before we go, okay? You need to drink some of this.”
Joy looked at the bottle full of green, shimmering liquid. For a moment, her eyes went wide as she took in the swirling, iridescent concoction and then she rolled her large, suspicious gaze up to Melinda’s disguised face.
“Why?”
“Um…” Melinda looked to Adina, who smiled down at her daughter and said, “Because it’s a magic potion that will stop vampires from biting you!”
“Vampires. Yeah right.” Joy rolled her eyes, but took the beaker and gave it a cautious sniff. “Smells kind of yummy,” she deduced and took a sip, which turned into a big gulp and her emptying the flask within three swigs. “That was really nice!” She licked her lips. “But what was it really?”
The two women exchanged a mirthful look and Melinda shrugged. “Just some special apple juice that Amy made, just for you.”
“Apple!?” Joy said, aghast. “That’s a fruit. Ew! You tricked me!”
“Hate me later.” Melinda grinned and ushered the now very stinky little girl towards the front door, any passing desire to bite her gone in an appley cloud of pong. “We’ll be back by five,” she promised to Adina, who had once again turned on the TV and only offered a small wave as a response.
Melinda reached for Joy’s little hand, but the rebellious small one quickly pulled away with a look of disgust. “You don’t need to hold my hand – I’m not five! What do you think I’m going to run into the road or up a tree or something?”
Melinda half-laughed, half-sobbed at this little reminder that Joy was so very like her older sister, and slipped into babysitter mode before Joy could feed off the sadness.
“Fine, no handholding. Now, do you have everything?”
“Head, check. Body, check. Clothes,” Joy looked down and around. “Check.”
This time, Melinda’s output was definitely a laugh.
The pair started walking towards the bus stop. The autumn sun felt glorious on Melinda’s magically adjusted face. She tilted it up, eyes closed, allowing the warm rays to penetrate her eyelids, turning her whole world orange. After three weeks of solid crying, she could really use some brightness.
They all could.
Every step was agony.
Seth had limped up the stony path back to the Galloway Manor, his muscles straining, his bones slowly knitting together with every step he took back to that godforsaken place. He hadn’t had any intention of returning, not since that night…
But these were desperate times.
The door swung open as he approached and, as if she had been waiting for him, Kitty was framed in the doorway to the sitting room.
“Seth, you are back,” the words caught in her throat as she took in his disjointed frame and obvious limp. Her hand shot to her bosom. “I was so worried, you have been gone for weeks, I could not trace you, I—” she looked at him a little more keenly as he struggled to stand. “What happened?” she finally asked, her voice soft and full of genuine concern that made him want to vomit.
“A little fall can take her but a goddamn descent from the water tower can’t claim me?!” he spat, dislodging some black fluid and a loose tooth.
“The water tower?” Kitty repeated, her hands flying to her mouth. “Oh! Seth! She was a fledgling, scarcely past human. You are much more… durable.”
Was. She was.
Suddenly the pain in his limbs paled compared to the pain in his chest.
He pushed past her into the firelit room, and sank to the nearest sofa, his broken leg no longer able to support him. Kitty slinked to his side, gently stroked his face as he swiped at her with his lesser-hurting arm.
“I’m not here for your sympathy, Kathryn,” he snarled.
She winced at his use of her full name, but made no comeback. “So why have you returned?”
He rolled his blank eyes towards her and he knew, from the pallor that passed over her features, that she understood his request.
“No,” she said softly. “No, I shall not.”
“Fine,” he muttered, trying to stand. “Freight train it is.”
She took his hand and he didn’t have the strength to move it. He glared at her as she shook her head, her soft curls falling into her eyes. “No,” she said firmly. “You cannot. I will not let you. You will move past this, Seth, we all will.”
Seth snorted around a cheerless laugh, the very action causing his fractured body to wilt, as he interpreted ‘all’ to include the prize idiot. “Caleb—”
“Is remorseful.”
“He’s never remorseful.”
Kitty chewed over this for a second. “This time, I believe he is truly trying to be. Faith meant a great deal to him, also.”
Rage roared in Seth’s ears like a freshly-lit fire. “He didn’t care about her; he raped her.”
“Then by reason, Seth, neither did you care.”
He rounded on his Mistress. “I loved her.”
“You killed her.”
“I… I…” Seth sank his head into his hand with a pained groan, replaying the events of that night like he’d been doing constantly since he’d lost her.
“What happened that night?” Kitty asked after a pregnant pause, fondling his gloved hand; an action that irritated him to no end but that he couldn’t seem to fight. “How did you—?”
“I’d taken her only power from her and then inadvertently used it against her,” he cut in, through gritted teeth. “I as good as pushed her off the goddamn roof. She… she… her thoughts at the last, I…” He couldn’t finish his sentence, playing through her memories again like a movie he couldn’t switch off.
I could smell his aftershave ages before I could see him.
He’d find that bastard. He’d rip him to shreds.
Kitty nodded. Her voice so gentle that it seemed to caress his ears. “Oh, the poor girl. Where did you take her?”
He swallowed hard, recalling her lifeless weight in his arms, the place where he’d left her – a beauty spot she’d have no doubt loathed, but on a well-walked path where she’d be found.
And she was swiftly found. He had made sure of that.
Kitty nodded. Only then did Seth feel her lurking at the fringes of his mind.
“So, you siphoned her power. Her so-called ’blasty brain’,” Kitty said slowly, playing catch up. “Oh, Seth! Do you even know what that power is?”
“No,” he muttered, feeling the rebellious energy rise inside him at his admission, contorting his body with its unruly vigour.
Kitty sighed. “Neither do I, entirely, but I do know that it was in an immature format. It was imprudent to be so impetuous.”
Understatement of the century. Seth squeezed his temples, which caused another reverberation of pain throughout his entire being.
Kitty noticed; her gentle caress of his fingers became a firm grip on his hand that caused him to wince.
“We should have left,” he said quietly, to himself. “But I had to play the goddamn hero. I should have just taken her and left.”
He made to rise on limbs that protested, collapsing back to the sofa in a broken heap.
Kitty visibly wilted, reaching once more for his hand and placing her lips gently against his leather-covered knuckle. “Please, do not go. Not yet. Stay here, with me. I can help you move forward; we can master this wayward ability together. We can heal, together.”
“Kitty—”
“Please?”
He growled low in his throat. But really, what choice did he have? He could barely walk; he hadn’t had a drink for days so he surely couldn’t mist. He was stuck there, stuck in the vice-like grip of his Mistress’ talons.
It was, he realised, exactly where he needed to be.
She cooed at him, as one might to a kitten, and folded him into her arms. It was so tender, so unexpected, a kindness he didn’t deserve. As his head came to rest on her bosom, his body finally shook with all the complicated feelings he’d been fighting for three weeks, and he collapsed into her.
“Oh!” she startled, pulling him tight into her embrace. “It is all right. I have you. We can get through this.”
“Kitty, I don’t even know where to start, I—”
She shushed him, softly. “We will figure it out. It will all be all right,” she sang, rocking him gently as he sobbed. “Oh, my poor darling. My poor, sweet baby.”
He set his jaw at her use of that moniker, but for once in his life, he didn’t protest.
For now, perhaps, he needed to be her baby.
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Almost Eternal 