0.2

“If we cannot find Vega, it will cause grave harm to you as it will to us, even if you did this for the love you have for me,” said Screwtape. He had not calmed down, and Vega wasn’t anywhere to be seen once he pushed me out of the house. She basically disappeared into a vortex of selfishness. If she was beamed back to her home planet, then I’d be the happiest undead woman in the delta. “We never harbored hatred for you, we simply were too incompatible for a relationship.”

“Sure, but you said you loved me and then knocked up my sister-in-law,” I said. “Anyways, I’ll be checking out the hotels around here.”

“Not during tourist season! It is impossible even for an Ironstar.”

Oh no, he was right about tourist season. The weather was mild by Twinbrook’s standards, much nicer towns nearby had cherry blossom blooms, and it was also spring break. I had never been homeless before. Even the cradle of death was a home, in a way, if I forgot about the sluggish ghosts I shared it with.

“Go see dad,” Marco said, taking a seat next to me. He was older than when I left him, with dyed hair and a face that told the real story. But he also had a new child with Alhena.

“He’s still alive? But how?”

“The seventeen year age gap?”

“And you took after me, didn’t you,” I said to him. Alhena, Screwtape’s granddaughter, would have needed a spouse eventually. Vega had to arrange all marriages in a dwindling pool of “descendants of my trusted friends.” I guess she was desperate enough to consider even my son.

“Alhena might not let you see our son, but I love her,” he said. “His name’s Heathcliff though, uh, you have more grandkids than that.” I loved how that rolled off the tongue…and honored Heath too. How did he feel about being a grandparent? What did I miss out on? Who was the mother of the rest of them anyways?

“Your dad still lives in the same house, right?”

“Just make sure he’s not at bingo instead.”

“Oh, god help me if he doesn’t want to date a zombie! I didn’t even think about him.”

“You’ll be fine, you know how chill dad is,” said Marco.

My son needed to be right. I dreaded running in those heels for a good reason, but I couldn’t get up the hill fast enough. His mother and the kids got a large inheritance from their fathers, from art or stolen goods or a little of both. It was the right amount to buy a creepy mansion with. It was creepy enough for kids to vandalize when I was in school. The paint peeled and half the yard had turned into a miniature swamp. I was afraid of it too until I learned what was inside: Heath, and a warm and loving family unlike my own. Even my sisters-in-law were kind.

But then again, even the old Racket mansion was a better place than my old home. And they had dead bodies in there! It was a shame I couldn’t just change my name and join anyone else. I wondered what was even stopping me.

Just a dash of Stockholm Syndrome, as usual.

I figured that most of Twinbrook was used to bizarre happenings. There were grey people, and red people, and also some of our water may have been radioactive. So I wasn’t even considering how to explain myself coming back to life. It was the next chapter in this town’s wacky tale.

But Heath didn’t get the memo.

He didn’t hurt himself by falling, but I worried that he did. He wasn’t that old at all when I passed away, but how much time had passed? I should have been suspicious when he didn’t join my spirit. I always pictured couples having an afterlife like that. It is how I liked to picture my parents.

I helped him up, and that was when reality dawned on him. Heath squeezed my hand and looked me in the eyes.

“It’s a long story, and it’d be easier for everyone to stay dead, but I couldn’t. And not everyone wanted me dead either,” I said. “Did you ever meet my friend Cara? This whole story starts with her.”

“Who?”

“Well, I’ll explain it one day.”

“I missed you a lot,” Heath said. “I realized there were a lot of things we never did together.”

“Like get married?” I asked him.

“I was thinking about retiring in Sunlit Tides with you!”

“I wish I could have done that instead. Maybe both, I…I let myself be influenced by the wrong people, and I should’ve questioned that. I don’t know how much time is left to make it right.”

Heath sighed. It was a good sigh, like dropping yourself onto your couch after work. “I’ve heard of couples with less time I guess. No one’s sick or anything, I’m just sad all my friends are dead and the grandkids don’t call.”

“Well…I’m probably not allowed to see Heathcliff either, I guess we can complain about it before bed every night.”

“I’d love to, but with Scrabble and TV too?”

I cried into the sleeve of his shirt. I hadn’t been hugged like that in decades, considering that Cara had a life beyond me. It was for the better if my fiance was still alive, though.

“We can get married as soon as City Hall says we can,” I said. “I promise this time.”

“Thanks, Sheila.”

I’d need a week to rent a dress and a tux and tailor both, but everything else was easier than I expected. Heath had kept all my old clothes and even some of my money. He felt so bad about getting rid of it and figured it would be handled after his death. And of course, I could move in. It was a big house, creepy or not.

And being married to Heath was about as beautiful as I imagined it. He fit into his suit like a glove and the years made him no less handsome. We wed under an overcast sky, in full view of the beautiful old City Hall building, and the spring carnival too. I missed the carnival too while I was dead.

But the best part was that Alhena didn’t block my invitation to Marco. And to Heathcliff too. The Ironstars coddled their babies and barely let them on the porch, let alone elsewhere in town. That mindset rubbed off on me when Marco was born too. He was very sheltered, though he ended up sheltering himself as he got older. I was glad to see him break the cycle with his son.

We told Marco that he and Heathcliff were welcome at any time. No call or warning needed, the crib upstairs was always going to be empty. Marco always enjoyed his father’s house. If I had to be honest, Vega was a horrible interior designer. I didn’t see so many open spaces even in her people’s void-like corners. Cara couldn’t boat me around without me bumping into cattails. But Heath’s mother and owners before her made the house cozy, if eccentric.

As in, I should have hated that wallpaper and all the pink everywhere, but I didn’t.

All Marco had to do was avoid us, watch TV, and care for his newborn. Over supper, he filled me in on the past twenty-plus years. His high school girlfriend, Amelia, was the mother of two of his children. Another was born to Cody Carlton. And I thought my son had good taste! But then again, no one was good enough for him. I think he agreed and would prefer to die alone, but he had time to figure it out.

Those were some fine tales, but I preferred the sole company of my new husband. I never had a wedding night. The two of us were a lot more scandalous with our son born out of wedlock. As it turned out, my secret dream was boring monogamy and Heath in a tux. We felt twenty again…or twenty and thirty-seven, as it actually was when we first met.

It was so easy to be alone in his house, even if someone else lived there, which I was sure no one did…

“Oh to hell with it, I thought you moved out or died!”

I never liked to think about Heath’s niece, Carisa. She glowed in daylight with her shiny grey skin and rocked the short-haired look she always had. His sister, the now-late Kate, was her mother. But it could have been anyone because Carisa was her father’s daughter right down to her daemonic bones.

Screwtape was friends with the Bull family too, which was fine with me. It helped me meet Heath after all. Their parents were not wary of Vega in the slightest, his dad even boarded with us for a time but I barely noticed. I never figured that he had feelings for either of Heath’s sisters, neither Kate nor Meghan.

So when his wife died, I had hope. Not only because the house became a lot more pleasant without Clarissa picking fights with everyone. When Screwtape said he loved me, I held it in my heart for decades. I held it even when Heath said the same thing and meant it. And I figured the best thing to do was wait.

The worst part was that Kate said that she wasn’t the one to come onto him. I’d forgive the both of them if it was her seduction alone, she was at least very pretty like her brother.

According to Heath, Carisa was in Lucky Palms for two weeks.

“Have all the desert sunburn and gamble away my husband’s money all you want, but you’re the reason Screwtape never loved me!”

“Please, that implies he loves me too,” said Carisa.

“Is this something I’m supposed to know about?” Heath asked.

It wasn’t like he could stop his sister…or Screwtape. Before I died, he swore that he didn’t know about any of it until it was too late and Carisa was about to be born.

“It…it doesn’t have to be. I’m sorry,” I said.

“Just get along with my niece, okay? She owns the house too.”

My promise to Heath must have stuck, because the rest of the night was a normal wedding night. I had to be careful with him like never before; I never imagined I’d know Heath as an old gentleman. Though his only complaint about aging was not being able to run after the grandchildren anymore. At least his love was still there, even though my heart was now rotten from the inside too.

And of course, Heathcliff wouldn’t be walking for another year.

We both fell asleep quickly, or I tried to. I felt younger than I did when I passed away, somehow. There was truth to the great chasm between being 70 and being 80, I had just forgotten about it. And those 8PM bedtimes disappeared so quickly…

Then again, I still would have stayed in bed if my grandson wasn’t in the next room. If Alhena was going to be stingy with visits, I needed to make all the memories I could!

Marco didn’t have the same feelings about his cousin that I did. They weren’t close in age, but he must have had to chaperone her sometimes, especially with Alhena. What a strange family dynamic.

“…so you see, I think children are the best way to test a relationship,” said Marco.

“And I’ll be single my whole life then, no worries.”

“Can I see my grandson?” I asked him. “Not every baby gets to meet almost all the grandparents.”

“As if anyone wanted to meet Beck?” Carisa asked, with a grin. I may actually warm up to her after all.

Heathcliff wasn’t asleep, but wasn’t crying either. He was still pink-tinted and awkward like his dad was as a newborn too, with puffy lips and huge dark eyes that ran on the other side of his family.

In fact, he looked identical to his mum as a baby, and that was my only complaint. It also made him too beautiful to stare at directly as well. It was a weird bloodline.

“Oh, I’m so proud of all you guys,” I said, gently picking Heathcliff up from the pink cot. “Now you have to stop hiding the rest from me.”

“In due time,” Marco said. “After we settle everything in court.”

“And Carisa? I’m sorry about what I said.”

“Whatever man, we’ll talk about it over breakfast. I’m gonna die one day anyways.”

I had the chance to rock with Heathcliff until he cried again. At least he wasn’t asking any questions about my life, but I’d be happy to tell him everything when he got older. For once, I had a little bit of trust in the Ironstar line. Not because of me though, I trusted Heath a lot more as a grandfather.

But it was nice to see it for myself.