0.7

A Year Later or Thereabouts…

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My stay at the bed & breakfast was shorter than I expected. At least it meant that I got to play my guitar in peace in a trailer home. My new partner didn’t mind.

Yes, even my rebound relationship with Heath needed its own rebound.

There weren’t too many older women in Moonlight Falls, and when I saw how many of them avoided garlic and sunlight, I understood why. I was an anomaly. Human, elderly, and yet, also undead. I sometimes introduced myself as a “perfect zombie”, and even when I described the land of the dead, no one seemed disturbed by it. I got one ask to say hi to Barry if I saw him again. He made a big impact on people.

I think that had to be the reason a few werewolf children cornered me at the grocery store one day. There was some sniffing going on, but soon they asked me their real question: would I go on a date with their grandpappy? He needed an “appropriate” partner.

And a simple date at a tavern with Pappy Wolff got me a place to stay forever…and a boyfriend too.

“What kind of crazy is he?” Honestly, it’s better not knowing. I’d go mad too if I turned into a lycan once a month, with all of my own insane monthly business well behind me. The mindset of being a dog lingered in Pappy’s head the whole time.

Also, he had an adult child but forgot which one it was. “They all have freckles so it’s hard to tell!” I was ready to believe that sibling marriage was simply a given in his pack.

“What’s a lycan anyways?” I think it’s hard for me to answer.

He disappeared into the night with his pack whenever he was in his form. They would hunt and cause ruckus. It also made me figure out why the town’s dogs went mad every full moon: it wasn’t just the dogs.

That being said, he brought in treasures when he was back to himself. Mostly copper to sell to metal recyclers, and mushrooms, which I liked to fry up. He threw out truffles though, which somehow grew here, and also could have sold for hundreds a dollars a ‘shroom. Or I could have had them on pasta at least.

“I don’t trust something that doesn’t see the sun,” he said. So why dig them up? I blame his older grandson, he seemed like a boy who appreciated fine dining.

“Is his name really Pappy?” No, he just loves being a grandfather that much. Though I choked when I heard his real name.

“Spot? Like a dog’s name?”

“No, for the spots on my face, did we have the freckle conversation yet? It’s gonna be a doozy…”

And I never figured out which name suited Spot the best. All I could think is that I was thankful that werewolves after him got real names. Nothing wrong with being a Dwayne or a Waylon.

“What about your family?” Pappy’s was closer, so I ended up going to a lot of family dinners. They loved eating around the firepit outside. Most of my grandkids had no connection to me, and that was understandable. But as for Heathcliff, I never answered his calls and he took the hint quickly. It seemed like he changed his phone number quickly.

They televised the Christmas performance of The Nutcracker every year. I had to watch Heathcliff perform in it every year in Twinbrook and somehow never got tired of it, so clearly he could at least make the cut for a Mouse King. I watched for him there and elsewhere too. They televised old ones like The Enchanted Forest anyways.

It was easy to spot Heathcliff on any stage. He was so warm and vibrant and always had a strand of hair that escaped his bun and flowed in the air. His face also took to stage makeup well. Maybe kabuki or drag would have been better callings. But he did not make the cut for the ballet, and I was getting worried about his other options.

Maybe he’d marry a rich man instead, I always wondered why Matthew Hamming never wed after all. Though if he asked for my hand instead, I’d have some bad news for Spot!

Even as a bad grandma, I would never forget about Heathcliff. If I found out I was dying, I’d make the trip to Bridgeport myself and either apologize or ask him when his next performance was. Plus I’d probably get better care at its biggest hospital. But for a while, I had to forget. There was a lot to admit to him that was uncomfortable. About how I acted for the most part, but I would have to explain Spot as well.

Maybe I lamented about how I didn’t spend any of my new life running away from Twinbrook, torturing myself in the Ironstars’ shadow. I was told I could never leave, but I never tried to either.

My time with Spot was precious. We took bets on who would die first and how. I said I go first with cardiac arrest, not unlike all the men in my family. Pappy said killed by a Van Gould vampire and dying as a martyr. I told him I wouldn’t accept it.

Besides that, we mostly had lazy days. I got lazy with repairing clothes and dyeing out my greys, so why not go even further? We’d go fishing sometimes or to the nearby beach, but I had to admit that cuddling and plucking on my guitar was the best, especially when we ended up falling asleep instead. The perils of being old…

“We’re here with the Lowell Sun for an interview about illegal hiking…”

“Damnit Spot, where did your pack go last week?” I asked him, jostling him from his nap. The voice sounded familiar but it was something I had trouble placing.

“What? No trail is off limits! I’m giving these Yanks a piece of my mind.”

“Surely you’d rather have me speak,” I said. I at least knew several werewolves.

“Not in a million dog years.”

Of course, he got stunned the moment they opened the door. I was about to run to the bathroom to hide when two voices called for me. The same one that boggled my mind, and the one that I would never forget.

“You didn’t have to say you were from the Sun,” I told them. Barry and Cara were back, though dressed as they were when they lived on Earth, or so I thought. Cara always liked shades of green and blue, like the algae that bloomed on the delta. Barry opted for jeans, a white shirt, and a colorful tie. He also used to wear glasses and had a lot of curly hair that he usually his beneath a hood.

Perhaps Sun reporter was his past life. He held a notebook like all my words would be used against me.

Words like: they were both gorgeous holy balls. I had a lot I could say about that.

“I’m sorry about your boyfriend,” Cara said. “That was Barry’s stun gun…though that’s the nicest thing I will have to say now.”

“Well, if it’s my time to die, so be it,” I said. “It’s been nice here.”

“You know me, I deal in the opposite just as much now,” said Barry. “First resurrecting my daughter’s favorite band and now some things you don’t wanna hear.”

“I mean…I’ve listened to you before. I don’t know if it’s made things better or worse for the world, but then again, it didn’t make the tabloids and that explains so much…”

“Let’s go somewhere quiet,” said Cara.

I looked over at Pappy, by my feet. Nothing was broken, and he was still awake enough.

“Go smooth this over…”

“I really didn’t want to drag you to our world again, you’ve been through too much already,” Cara said to me. We held hands as we walked towards the road.

I blushed as she carried me away. “Oh, if only you knew.”

“Yeah, no one asks to be the only human handling the essence of zhesomili,” said Barry. “I’ll grab it and keep it safe, that stuff stinks when you break it.”

The elixir that Heathcliff gave me was the only one I held. If nothing else, I liked that Barry would safely dispose of it. And that he could find it in my drawer? I didn’t think it smelled like anything in the bottle. He had to have known how, meanwhile Heathcliff didn’t even know what it was made of.

Moonlight Falls had two beaches: one close to Pappy’s trailer home, and one on the other side of town. He could still drive but I wanted to leave him as far out of this as possible. Maybe a werewolf was as weird as a daemon, but they were forged from the lunacy of the Earth instead of from a supernova.

And we had another firepit lunch, since Barry brought marshmallows.

“So I did meet Louise around a year ago,” I told Cara. “Nice girl.”

“I couldn’t say no to having her work with her grandparents.”

“She must have joined right after I came back.”

“Yeah…I was shocked too,” she said.

“And whatever we’re here for feels like a Barry idea,” I said.

He went for a second helping of marshmallows instead.

“He met with Heathcliff a year ago,” Cara said. “That’s what he doesn’t want to tell you.”

“Louise did,” I said.

“See, that’s why I like that kid. And I mean, we don’t mind the immortals. We like the idea of what they’re supposed to do and we meet with happy mortal helpers all the time…when they die, but people are honest then. So it comes from a different place for us, and I think that’s what Heathcliff thinks too.”

“And you let your family go through that?”

“Yeah, probably,” said Barry. He had a mouth full of sugar though.

“We know some but we couldn’t get them to come with us,” said Cara. “Whatever. What happened to you wasn’t normal. I wish there was something I could say that would convince you.”

“I mean…I get that Vega wasn’t normal and nothing good comes from her…but you’re not the ones running mortals around. And it’d be nice if you were, but I know I kept you busy.”

“We’re busy, but you’re not. Does it really take an hour to get to the point now?” said Barry. “The world needs immortals no matter what. I’m tired of the selfish and lazy ones too, and I didn’t bring you back for shits and giggles. They asked for immortals and I figured I would test you out.”

“That’s awful, I hope you know that,” I said.

“But you’re only here because an immortal let you be.”

That one stung. It stung for my whole life and always rammed me right through the heart. My mum would say it when I asked why she decided to spend the rest of her life with Vega. But I never thought about who else was on earth because of her too, even people I loved more than anything. Without Vega, there would be no rejection from Screwtape, but yet, there would be no Heath.

“I mean, it’s nice to make sure people can have families,” I said. “You really think I’ll be a good immortal?”

“You’ll be the best immortal, if you ask me,” Cara said. She and Barry surrounded my chair even though it seemed better and better to escape them. Even if they were both hot.

Barry rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna go that far.”

“But she’s been through a lot!”

“Is that the criteria for it?” I asked.

“Well, it changes your outlook a lot if you’re hurt or have lost someone. That’s probably why they found Heathcliff,” she said. “You need to understand what people are going through. And, well, you’ve lived two lives already.”

“And how many lives do you want me to live now?”

“I don’t know if that’s important…”

“Guys, you’re asking this old bag to serve you for eternity. It can’t happen even if I want it to, even if you make it sound appealing, I just cannot.”

“Sounds like an easy problem to fix,” said Barry.

“No? They’d have sold it at a premium if it was–”

It happened quickly. One second, my feet stung with glass and my boots became wet and heavy. The next, I was as young as the day I became a legal adult. My skin tightened up, my hair was jet-black again, and I was…kind of beautiful? I never really had a chance to admire myself. It was always done for Screwtape.

It was so overwhelming, though…

“Easy there, can’t have you fall in the sea after all our hard work.” Barry held me under the arms and I didn’t move another inch. Who knew how heavy souls could be.

“Listen, I know what you’re gonna do now. I have to do this so you didn’t waste your precious potion.” I started to free myself of Barry, or did he free himself of me? What was their schedule supposed to be like again? “And I have so many questions.”

“Too bad, no one can stop murphy bed accidents,” Barry said. He walked away and his trusty scythe appeared out of a hole in the sand.

“Wait, this is it?” I was only stopped from clinging onto him by the warm embrace of Cara. Hopefully no one died on her watch. “You’re leaving me out to dry! You never even told me why you want this.”

“I can’t believe it,” I muttered. “What am I even supposed to do? And if Heathcliff found out–”

“He doesn’t have to,” said Cara. “You can find him when you’re comfortable with it.”

“That still doesn’t explain anything about being immortal. I don’t know the rules or what you want me to do for 500 years, or any of that! Vega wouldn’t tell me.”

“Yeah…that sounds right.”

“And do I have to do it from Spot’s trailer?”

“No, uh, this is gonna be a doozy but Barry’s son-in-law had a huge house here! Sorry for the excitement. We went to so many Halloween parties and seances there and as always, I treasure the memories,” she said. She grinned like she had done many of them before. “I can vouch for it but it’s been empty since he left it.”

“He died?”

Cara shrugged. “I watched you die too. Nothing’s as permanent as it seems.”

Oh, how I was cruel too.

If nothing else, I was in a setting I wanted to live forever in. I easily turned my summer in Moonlight Falls into a year, planning where I’d be buried and who’d get my money. They wouldn’t have approached me anywhere else if they even hoped for this to work.

It was mean to blame Barry for my hesitancy, but he was like an annoying coworker. Cara was the woman who was supposed to be my best friend. When I looked in her eyes, I knew she was aching for the chance to do it right. I was too. I didn’t think I was making it subtle either, since I leapt into her arms when she resurrected me.

“I am going to need a crash course and the one thing I was too scared to ask…at prom,” I said. I still remembered her first embrace.

“I can’t marry you.”

“I know that.”

“I don’t want you to feel like how Screwtape made you feel…even though he was kind of cute.”

“Wasn’t he?”

We agreed on a kiss pretty quickly. Cara leaned in for it so I didn’t feel like I was the one making the decision. I treasured every second of it, but there was even more to treasure: more time with Cara. She would help me buy the house from Barry’s family and clean myself up.

“You’re right,” she said. “There’s a lot to do.”

As long as Pappy wouldn’t mind.

My old plaid shirts from Heath were turned into something better to wear, for starters.

“Oh, and Barry got rid of the lead paint ages ago…”

I didn’t know what to expect from the house, but it was massive. Cara promised a book inside that explained everything that we didn’t talk about. Though we talked about a lot as I aired my grievances about living with Vega. I wasn’t allowed to move out so I could be monitored and guided better, but most mortals actually liked it. They valued the stability. Daemons valued idols and physical symbols, so that’s why they commissioned so many portraits and sculptures. Plenty of humans were immortals too, so I wasn’t special.

Someone had to learn how to cook ambrosia, though I could choose who.

Most importantly, I finally figured out I was bisexual that day. It was a feeling made to be an “issue”, but whoever I married wouldn’t be an issue. It could be Pappy. It could be the woman who lived in the haunted mansion nearby. Being bi just opened my world up more. But it also meant I shared a trait with Vega, so maybe being bi was awful.

Oh, as if I could forget her short relationship with Alhena’s aunt. I do blame Screwtape for making me fear the half of me that could forget him and his kind entirely.

The best part was that it meant I could be with…

“…slow down, you gotta get used to life without me,” Cara said while she leaned away from me.

“Not even one for the road? And I don’t know where to begin.”

“Well, begin with telling Spot the news.” She walked away. “And it’s a vending machine accident.”

“Wait what?”

Cara was right with her busy life. Maybe there was a taboo with a servant of Death being so close with someone who now wouldn’t die. I wouldn’t want her to be threatened. I didn’t know her boss, but I feared them either way.

The worst part was her being right about Spot, especially as his life was winding down. I mean, I had to start with how I was gone for two days with a mysterious pink woman!

“See, I can smell you from five miles away! But you’re all young and cinnamon-y now.” I came to love Pappy’s hugs, even when he dug his nails into my back a little. It was a werewolf thing. “Are we upgrading?”

“We are…it’s gonna be a long story.”

“Well at least I’ll die in the first chapter!”

He wasn’t even mad about the thought of that, but I wouldn’t let Pappy’s legacy slip through the cracks. I was beholden to make every last day his best, even before meeting with my two favorite daemons.

Maybe Barry had a point with choosing me after all.