[IC] Edenridge

[BrutalBx]

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A Ramsey Family Post
(Featuring Mei, Will, Shannon and Reagan)

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The dojo was eerily silent save for Mei’s haggard breath echoing throughout the empty room. The sweat was heavy and dripping from her torso, hitting the ground with a thud like sound of something a million times its size. Her eyes darted up from the ground to see the large foot coming towards her face. Instinctively; she dropped and rolled across the floor before springing back to her feet. Her dark eyes locked intently onto her opponent, a much larger man who was faster than one might expect. He thrust his fist forward but Mei batted it away with an open palm, swung her left leg behind her right and span on the heel, attempting a back fist. Sensei easily sidestepped it before latching onto the demon dream girl's waist and flipping her onto the floor; hard.

Staring up at the wooden beams on the ceiling, the podcaster could feel the wind leaving her lungs. She had spent a thousand nights and two thousand mornings looking up at those old things. When she was a little girl, Mei would lie in the centre of the dojo, just watching the dust particles dance through the light beams, thinking about the world, about life and about how she wished she could move like that. Years of gymnastics and martial arts training had made her an athlete; the Olympics were most definitely on the cards but then Allison happened and her world became just a little darker.

Sensei strolled up to Mei’s prone body. He was a deceptively youthful looking man of Asian descent, with thick dark hair and some facial scruff. He was obviously in tremendous physical shape. He crouched down to the young woman’s level and clicked his tongue. ”You ok down there, kiddo?”

”I’m fine daddy, just watching the huli jing dance upon a pin head”

”’Kaaay” He responded unsure whether his baby girl had hit her head or not. Then again she was a weird child anyway, just like her old man. Will Ramsey was for all intents and purposes like all the other fathers of Edenridge. He was born and raised in town but unlike many others he escaped for a time; spending years abroad. Why? To learn philosophy and build upon his knowledge of the martial arts. Edenridge was a town of bad boys, gangsters in leather with guns and baseball bats. Will’s body was a walking weapon and he taught discipline to those that needed it; yet through it all he was a goofy fucker who loved comics and anime. ”Feedback? Try not to get so worked up. It’s messing with your footwork”

”Knock knock!”

Shannon Ramsey entered into the dojo in her typical fashion; dressed to impress in a sleek business skirt and jacket, with two coffee cups in hand. Mei would kill to look like her mother when she gets to her age. Many have often cited her as one of Edenridge’s most beautiful. Will got up to his feet and made his way over to his wife; kissing her gently as she handed him one of the cups. ”Green tea fresh from Rochambeau” Leaning around her husband, she smiled at Mei. ”Mr Beau sends his love” She returned her attention to her husband and kissed him again. ”Gotta run, I’ve got a client in ten minutes but I’ll bring some food home with me tonight. Love you both” As she turned to leave again, she stopped and glanced at her husband and daughter once again. ”Oh, by the way, guess what I found wandering outside? Shannon disappeared from the doorway only to be replaced by another face.

”Miss me?”

If Shannon was considered beautiful then the woman that now stood in her stead was breathtaking. Reagan Ramsey was their oldest daughter and inherited much of her decorated facial features from her mother. Her long brown hair bounced off of her shoulders as she sauntered into the room, kicking off her heels as she did so. She maintained much of her height, being already tall. Reagan was a model in everything but career; she always had been. Oft considered glamorous; she dressed always in white, carried herself in an almost regal capacity and seemed flawless. In contrast to her beauty, Reagan had an impeccable brain. Hyper intelligent, diligent, and savvy, she showed everyone she was more than just another pretty face by going off to medical school where she currently resided.

”Reagan!” Will embraced his daughter tightly. ”What are you doing here?”

”Well I’m ahead in my classes, so I thought I’d take some personal time, maybe volunteer down at Sinclair Health for the summer. Plus Meiday over there texted me and said she needed her big sister, isn’t that right Mei?”

Immediately a shiver ran up Mei’s spine and a horrible clammy feeling filled the pit of her stomach. She did message Reagan the night before. What had she done? Nobody knew her sister like she did and Mei knew that there was more to the story, not that anyone would figure it out. Reagan was a sociopath; absolutely brilliant but as cold as ice. She was able to smile and offer one warmth and comfort but in reality, behind her dazzling smile and welcoming eyes, she simply was not there. ”Yeah, I had a rough night” Mei finally pulled herself up from the floor where she had been during the entirety of this conversation. ”You really don’t need to stay though Reagan, it's fine. I’m all good now…”

”Imōto!” Reagan rebutted. The Ramsey’s had the distinction of being a multilingual family; with Shannon’s family being of Chinese descent and Will’s of Japanese, so both girls learned both languages as children. When either language was used in the household or usually meant someone was in deep trouble. ”You wanted me here, I’m here and I’m staying” At no point did the elder Ramsey sibling change the tone of her voice. It remained in a constant, mellow calm. She turned to her father and kissed him on the cheek. ”It’s good to see you daddy. Don’t worry about making space for me. I’ve got somewhere to stay. I’ll come by the house tonight” She picked up her shoes and waved to her father and sister before leaving the dojo.

Mei clenched her fists and swung a heel kick towards one of the many training bags dotted around the room. It seemed to her that in a vulnerable moment the night before, caused by Eden’s inherent darkness, that she invited another malevolent force back into her life; her sister, the ice queen, Reagan. Now she had to not only deal with her but there was also Alonzo and the letters. She had sent Jill out to get some breakfast and now Mei instantly regretted that act; she needed her girlfriend right now.

Will dropped down to the floor in a crossed legged position, taking a sip from his tea and letting out a satisfied sign.

”Well that was a bit awkward”

[BrutalBx]

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It had been a while since they had children in the house.

Beau and Colleen danced around the kitchen, quietly making a hearty Saturday morning breakfast for the lost trio that slept soundly in their garage. Beau had been waiting for Colleen’s outburst for the last hour or so, yet his wife of many a year had not said a word. She had gotten up out of bed, saw the kids asleep and began to prepare their first meal of the day. He knew she was beyond annoyed but he also knew that she cared for those children as much as he did and she wouldn’t let them leave without sampling her famous french toast. As Colleen began to sprinkle some chilli extract into her mixture, her eyes darted over to her husband, who was correcting his tie in the mirror. Antoine Beauregard; the only man to wear a pinstripe suit whilst running a coffee shop.

”Antoine?”

If she used his first name; he knew he was in trouble. Spinning sharply on his heel, Beau flashed his pearly whites like a schoolboy trying to look cute before being chastised by his mother. ”Yes, darling, sweetheart, love of my life, most beautiful woman in the world?”

Colleen had long suffered through Beau’s saviour complex. She remembered when they met, all those years ago. She had grown up in Eden, back then she was Colly Clay. She had survived the Camp Eden massacre and after that was desperate to get out of town. When she graduated Edenridge High she was on the first bus out of town and soon found herself at college in New Orleans. One night she found herself in the French quarter, being accosted by some drunk white boys only for both to be knocked out by the most dashing man in uniform she’d ever seen. Antoine had only been on the force for a matter of days but there he was, playing hero already. He walked her back to her dorm and the rest was history.

Too many nights passed where he didn’t come home; most police wives learned early that if their man didn’t come home, he was either dead, in the hospital or fucking around. It was different for Beau though, he didn’t come home because he was trying to make a difference, he was imparting wisdom on these criminals that most police didn’t offer. He was trying to show them a better way. He failed more times than he succeeded but he did succeed. Even when he and Colleen had their own kids, Marcel and Genevieve; Beau still spent time on the street, doing what he could for the community he loved. The man could not turn down a case.

Even after the kids had grown up and flown the nest and Beau himself had left the force, he still ended to help. Which was how they wound up back in Edenridge. Colleen wanted to go home again and a teaching position opened up at the school. Beau did not have a college education but what he lacked in degrees he made up for with life experience and to his credit, a broad vocabulary. The triple threat that now lay asleep in their garage, we’re probably of all of them, Beau’s favourite projects.

”Imma say this only once cos I know you probably ain’t gonna listen” She had had this conversation with him too many times at this point. Colleen knew that he would try to take it on board, that he would try and change but it didn’t matter; her man had a code. You are not a teacher anymore. These kids are grown ups now, they don’t need your protection anymore. I know you love them, I do too. You gave them some good years, baby but it’s time to let them go be who they gonna be”

She wasn’t wrong.

Beau had spent years trying to better the world through the youths he found himself in contact with. When he was police, when he was a teacher, it did what he could with everything he could. Poppy, Jade and Decky were three cases which he had yet to put in the black. They were still the red on his board because he wasn’t ready to let them go yet. They were grown now, pursuing the gift of life in their own ways. Was it really his place to interfere anymore? ”I know you’re right, mon cherie” His booming voice was low for a change. ”This business with Charlie’s books and things, I just felt like they needed me. I know I need to step back, let them deal with things now. They were fractured but now they’re together, maybe that’s a good thing”

Colleen walked up to her husband, placing her hands either side of his puffy cheeks and kissed him softly. ”You are the best of fathers and the best of husbands, Antoine Rene Beauregard. I love you and your stupid big heart. Now go open the shop and make mama some retirement money” She smiled brightly as he grabbed his jacket from the dining room chair. ”Don’t forget, the kids are calling in before you open up. I spoke to them yesterday while you were galavanting with the Gonzalez' boy. Don’t tell them what you were up to for the love of God”

Beau left out of the front door so as to not wake his guests and began the short walk towards the coffee shop. There were few people out and about this time of morning. It was actually his favourite part of the day since he could enjoy the scenery. Usually he’d maybe see a handful of serpents wandering around, Sly in his patrol car, Mei and Jill staggering home or Roddy on a run but mostly it was just Beau and the open morning.

It wasn’t a difficult decision to move her; especially once he found out just how broken the town really was. He immediately felt like he could make a difference. Plus the hundreds of spooky stories made him feel at home since New Orleans was often considered ghost city central and his grandmama used to tell him that they were descendents of a voodoo queen. It seemed like the right decision to make the move. Now there they were, ten years removed from their move and he still didn’t regret a thing.

Beau wandered into Rochambeau and began to turn on all the lights and equipment. The idea behind the cafe was a safe space. A place where the children of the town could come and be at peace, away from their troubles. Even the gangs referred to it as Switzerland. It was neutral ground; nobody fucked with anybody on Beau’s turf. As he awaited all the equipment to warm up, he opened up his laptop and prepared for it to ring.

It would be nice to hear from the kids. Most people didn’t know that Antoine and Colleen had their own children considering how close they were to the broken babies of Edenridge. Alas they had a son and a daughter, both of whom were all grown up now and doing their own thing. Marcel was their first; he came not too long after they began dating; a happy accident. He was a tall and strapping boy; he played football for a while but found more of a calling out on the water. He was in the Navy before joining a yacht crew. Genevieve came a year after Marcel. She was a powerhouse right from the start, flamboyant and carefree; she was now working out on Broadway.

Beau readily wondered if he had been a good father. For much of his life, he had been out being police, missing birthdays and performances. Did they resent him? Was that why he tried so hard with his students? Guilt?

”Hey Pop!”

He was blindsided by two pop windows of his kids, smiling their stupid smiles at him in unison. Even just seeing them, he couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. Maybe he did enough because both of them seemed happy.

Outside of Rochambeau, a man walked by, throwing a cigarette onto the ground…

[LovelyComplex]

_{Featuring: Penelope James and Shannon Ramsey
Small feature: Sylvester "Sly" James}

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The last few years had been busy for Shannon Ramsey.

In a sad state of affairs, a young girl by the name of Allison Davies had passed away several years prior and she did so in the presence of a lot of children even younger than her; including Shannon’s own youngest daughter Mei. It only made sense for the parents to send the kids to be psychoanalysed and see if they were struggling, in trouble or in a dark place. Soon after, the town itself spiraled and more and more bad things seemed to happen. Although she felt awful for the Davies family and the wider Edenridge populace in general, Shannon couldn’t help but be appreciative of the income she was currently making, especially since her elder daughter Reagan was attending medical school which was not cheap. More recently; somebody had been sending letters to the townsfolk, letters that stirred unresolved feelings and posed unanswerable questions.

She remembered when she first started as an intern herself that the office she now owns. The town was in the midst of another pandemic at the time. A new craze had taken over, with the children of the town invoking the names of Edenridge killers of yore like Nathaniel Carlisle, BT and the Hangman. Her mind drifted to this memory for a singular reason, her next client; Penelope James. Poppy was a good girl from all accounts, a rarity for the Southsider but she came from good stock. Shannon knew her father Sylvester very well. The reason she worried for Poppy however was because of the company she kept. If teens were to call upon the names of murderers once more, then there was most certainly only one name that would be on Penelope’s lips; Charlie Decker.

Hearing the ringing of a doorbell; Shannon got up to her feet and straightened out her smart skirt before walking towards the office door. She would recognize the strong silhouette on the other side anywhere. She got herself into character before opening up.

“Hey there.”

With his always ready broad smile, Police Lieutenant Sly and his gentle eyes examined the woman standing before him. In seemingly good spirits, though she would know better (it was the mask he wore in front of his child), he greeted, “Shannon, it’s good to see you.” As he moved his stance ever so slightly to let Penelope through, he praisingly observed, “You never seem to age, do you?” It was clear they had a past and to this day the dashing doof found a way to slip in flattery compliments.

“Well thank you, Sylvester. I do try.”

He and Shannon— they were highschool sweethearts with a complicated ending. To be honest, the fact that she accepted Penelope as a client certainly did surprise the man, but he wasn’t going to question it. Neither he or Victoria had time to drive to Boston and find Penelope a therapist. Shannon was the best in the area and he trusted her. She likely couldn’t say the same with him, but a paying customer was a paying customer, right?

Still, Sly wasn’t one to brood and think of the past. If he did, he would break from the thought of all he lost. It was his job to heal his wife and his daughters. It was his job to protect the town and show southsiders that they can strive for more, like he and Victoria did. That they can survive and make something out of themselves. That they can be happy.

So here he was, trying to aid his daughter in finding her footing after all the heartbreak he had caused. Against Victoria’s wishes, Sly sat down with his ex and started this arrangement because he believed his daughter had so much more to offer and if anyone was going to bring that out it would be Shannon.

“Dad.”

Here’s to hoping he was right.

“Dad.”

“Yes, Penelope?” Bringing his attention from Shannon to his child, Sly was taken aback when he looked straight into his daughter’s determined gaze. Something he hadn’t seen in a long while. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, just wanted to say thank you. For this.” Penelope gestured toward Shannon’s office, which was her way of describing all that her father has done for her thus far. “I know I don’t tell you often, if at all, but I do appreciate you.”

Conflicted, yet proud, Sly pulled his youngest daughter with his arm and gave her a quick, affectionate embrace, while slipping a kiss on her forehead. “Anytime, kiddo.” He wanted to hold onto her words, but deep down, he still knew she hadn’t forgiven him for Charlie’s death. At least, she was talking. This, he would be happy about. He didn’t want her thanks or her appreciation, though. All he wanted was her to be okay.

“I should leave you two to do your thing,” Sly cleared his throat, a little embarrassed after noticing the sharp, attentive stare his ex was giving him, “...Good luck,” He absentmindedly stepped back, dismissing himself (not comfortable in showing his vulnerable side), “Call me if you need me.”

Shannon brushed back her long black hair and smiled. Irregardless of any personal feelings and the past that they shared, she always had the utmost respect for Sly for how he turned his life around and for the man he had become. When they were together, he was a rough and tumble serpent ready to take on the world: a typical Southsider. Yet now he stood before her as one of the few honest police officers on the force, a hero of the town and a good father to boot…plus he was wearing the hell out of those jeans.

“You can trust me. We’re gonna have a good day, right Poppy?” She waved off her ex and closed the door behind him. “Ok Pops, grab yourself a seat, relax for a minute and we’ll get started. You want something to drink?” Shannon asked as she moved towards her mini fridge. “I got some sodas, juice or alternatively I can get my assistant to run out and get some coffee or tea from Rochambeau?” Shannon had done this a million times before; she knew how to make someone at ease in her presence. She was disarming in her manner; apple pie sweet, a soft but firm voice. She was powerful yet graceful in her movement. “Or if you just want to get to the nitty gritty, we can do that too.”

Watching the door close in front of her father, Penelope allowed herself to get pulled into the den that forced her to acknowledge the two wolves, her two selves, that burned inside her. Charlie had told her an ancient Cherokee tale, where a grandfather tells his grandson about the two wolves fighting within each and every one of us. Everyone has a fight going on inside of them, whether it’s anger and peace or arrogance and humility, there is a raging battle going on.

The victor?

‘The one you feed,’ the grandfather said.

Shuffling her feet to the chaise lounge chair, Penelope plopped onto it and shook her head, “Nah, I’m good. Big mama wouldn’t let me leave until I drank all my OJ and ate my grits…” Shifting her hands to her face mask, Poppy pulled it down, which was an improvement from a year ago when she was diagnosed with agoraphobia. She was still an anxious, little thing but whatever she experienced last night seemed to be helping her take the steps she needed to handle social situations again. If not large group settings then certainly intimate one on ones.

With red eyes, having cried herself to sleep, and dark circles, Penelope’s green eyes appeared strikingly vivid, invoking pain and hope. Not only did her sleep deprivation cause her irises to stand out, but the sunlight peering in from the large casement windows highlighted her in the most angelic of ways. “What do you want to talk about? I can’t be here for a full hour... I got plans.”

“Plans?”

Now there was something Shannon wasn’t expecting to hear. Poppy was terrified to leave her room let alone make plans with someone; and the girl wasn’t a liar so she knew that she was telling the truth. Something had changed. Had it changed for the better? That was still to be determined. She moved over to her seat just opposite Penelope and sat down. Pulling her notepad and pen from the energy draw, Shannon’s chestnut eyes fell onto the surviving James girl before she spoke once more.

“What plans have you got Penelope? I’m curious.”

“Mordechai.” The young girl said matter-of-factly, replaying her friend’s words from last night. Even if he wasn’t here, she didn’t want to disrespect him by calling him a name his dead brother used to call him more often than not. “He’s back,” she elaborated, as she turned her gaze to the window, “And he has a family.” There was a subtle emphasis on the last word, with more meaning than she herself realized. A sensitive word, constantly in the back of her subconscious.

After a moment of silence, Penelope absentmindedly rubbed her hands on her jeans, feeling the texture and friction. When she looked back at the therapist, she shrugged, “He wants me to meet them.”

“Interesting.” Shannon scribbled some notes onto her pad before raising her eyes to meet Poppy’s once more. Eye contact was a big thing to pursue when it came to her. It showed that someone actually saw Penelope and she wasn’t just the wraith of a human she had wished to be since the unfortunate events surrounding Charlie Decker took place. “And to use that old cliche; how does that make you feel?” She posed. “It’s my understanding that you were his family. You, Jade…Charlie?”

Shannon tilted her head ever so slightly. Charlie had been a constant theme when it came to her talks with Penelope. She didn’t know the boy personally other than the passing mentions that Mei had made over the intervening years. She remembered his mother during high school: Rhonda. It was a shame what happened to her; in some ways she was a great parallel Poppy. They were very similar in so many ways.

“Are.” Penelope corrected without hesitation. Her gaze sharpened at the mention of Charlie. “We are family.” It didn’t matter that Mordechai left without saying ‘see you later’ or ‘goodbye’. It didn’t matter that he had a child and didn’t let anyone know until now. It didn’t matter he was part of the reason Charlie got pushed to the edge. Scars cut deep. She knew that. He lost his purpose. His little brother. And she knew, he blamed himself. After last night, it’s come to light that they all blamed themselves for Charlie’s downfall and Danny’s death.

As she wrinkled her nose, Penelope slipped her hands into the opposite sleeves so that her hands were no longer visible to the eye. Fidgeting was something she did often as she sat down talking about feelings. Therapy was uncomfortable, especially with someone who considered herself as a professional yet never came across as someone who understood what southsiders went through - always the critic, never the teacher. Penelope didn’t think this was working. She showed up for her parents. And for Jade. She showed up, in hopes to ‘get better’ but still, the walls were up.

How could she trust her therapist? Deep down, Shannon Ramsey would never know how it feels to be stuck on the south of the trackside. Deep down, Shannon pitied her. Deep down, Shannon believed her friends chose to react to their shitty circumstances poorly, instead of being a boulder like Sylvester James, who pulled himself out of the dark. Shannon judged them for not having enough strength to do that.

Most southsiders became exactly what people perceived them to be. Northsiders could offer a lifeboat, but instead they chose to watch the damned drown. It’s just how things are, it’s how things always have been. In all honesty, it took people like Beau, who didn’t judge where you came from, who didn’t project his opinions, and who didn’t force anything onto you, to see your worth.

That all aside, how does meeting Mordechai’s family make her feel? “I’m happy for him. He has a reason to live,” she smiled to herself at the positive prospect of her friend being a father and the hope that what he has could only mean good for him. Her eyes grew distant at the thought of her never having a family with Charlie.

Family.

That word weighed heavily on her.

“He’s been through a lot so to hear he has unconditional love in his life- of course that makes me happy.”

Shannon polished off her coffee as she listened to Poppy’s feelings. She truly was a broken person. Her phrasing very much portrayed the idea that Penelope did not feel as unconditionally loved as her compatriot. In previous sessions it had become clear that the young girl clung to the last breath of a memory, not uncommon by any stretch. The problem was the memory was a dark one; one most Edenridge residents would rather forget.

“Let’s shift gears a little,” The therapist turned the page of her notepad and put pen to paper once again. “The letters.” Shannon spoke somewhat bluntly. “Where are you with all that? What does seeing Charlie’s words, his innermost thoughts, what does that do to you? How does it make you feel?”

With dull eyes, Penelope listened to the questions that she knew were coming. It would be unlike her therapist to not bring up the letters that her childhood friend wrote. There seemed to be a pattern with these sessions and usually they led to Charlie because it didn’t take a brain surgeon to see that he was all Penelope could think of. “I’d like to think I was the closest person to him, so it’s not so much his words that have put me in a weird place.”

Poppy freed her hands from Charlie’s hoodie’s sleeves, getting increasingly annoyed at the thought of Charlie’s journal. “It’s no one’s goddamn business what he wrote. Shit like that is sacred. I don’t care what anyone has to say about him, they will never know him like I did. And seriously, it’s all just stupid. You do NOT fuck with the dead.” It really did blow Penelope’s mind how evil people were, even defiling Charlie’s grave. Did they think that made them a better person for cursing an already dead person? What did that accomplish besides make them assholes? Charlie already dug his grave and they were just showing exactly why he did what he did.

There are no saints in Edenridge.

If people actually paid attention in history class, they would know this place was damned the moment Nathanial Carlisle claimed the land as his own, corrupting all things that were spiritual and good. “How about you? How do you feel about all this? Clearly, Charlie’s words hold more weight than people gave him credit for. Props to Mei for punching ReyRey right in the face last night. Takes a lot of balls to do that.” Perhaps instead of checking on other kids of Edenridge, Shannon should be checking on her daughter.

Shannon bit her tongue and held in her emotions; it was technique she had taught her eldest daughter well but perhaps not so much her younger one, if Penelope’s words were to be believed. As it often did, the invocation of Charlie Decker’s name prompted the highest emotional response from her. Every other session that they held together always ended the same way, the topic of a boy who made an ill fated decision which resulted in heartache for an entire community.

The day itself was etched in Shannon’s memory. She had just gotten to her office when she got a call saying shots had been fired at the school. She jumped into a cab like so many other parents and made her way there. Her baby girl was there. For those few hours, Shannon’s logical mind was transformed into pure irrationality as she screamed, held back by police on the scene trying to get to Mei. She tried and tried to get hold of Will but he was out of state, doing a guest spot at another gym. She couldn’t believe it when she saw her little girl being carried out of the building by EMT’s with blood pouring from her neck. Followed by the near headless body of whom would later be identified as Quinton Woods. Mei was lucky that day and if Poppy’s words were to be believed, she was lucky again the previous night. Shannon did wonder if her little dove’s luck would soon run out; Mei lived a life without fear and she didn’t know how healthy that really was.

“I can respect your frustrations. Miss James and as far as my daughter goes, she’s old enough to make her own choices. Do I necessarily agree with them? Absolutely not. I’m her mother and I will always want what is best for her but you have to give someone space for them to truly find who they really are. She’s a big girl, what she does is what she does” The therapist glanced at the clock briefly before returning her attention to Poppy once more. “What Mei did was a risk and while we’re on the topic; you once told me that Charlie left you a book that you couldn’t open, have you managed to do so yet?”

Space. Look what that did to Charlie. No one noticed he was crying for help. There’s only so much space a child can endure until it seems like no one notices them. No one cares about them. While Penelope didn’t agree with coddling, she also did not think kids should have full reign over their adolescence lives. They still need guidance and support. They still need someone that takes time out of their busy schedule to show they are willing to listen to them and walk with them through their pain and struggle.

What would she know, though? She was a broken girl who cried over a dead boy that her father killed. A boy that scarred the town like no one else had done before. And yet, she still forgave him and loved him. “Why does that matter? It’s not going to have some secret note explaining why his mental health deteriorated. It isn’t going to give anyone enough explanation why he did the thing he did. It’s not going to give the feeling of justice because you, and everyone in this town, need someone to blame for the dark shit happening in this town even before he shot up the school.” Poppy paused at the last statement showing she isn’t a fool. She knew well enough that Charlie chose evil on his dying day. That doesn’t change she saw the good in him. He buried it with hate and she will not excuse his behavior but that doesn’t change how she feels about him. “I’m sure it’s just a book he wrote but never got the chance to publish.” No longer wanting to talk things out with her therapist that only judged her, Penelope stood up, expressing her desire to leave.

Shannon wasn’t like Beau. Her way of doing things was wrong and Penelope knew that this therapy thing wasn’t for her. It didn’t accomplish anything. Whether it’s her therapist’s method or therapy in general, Poppy did not think someone with such a northsider mentality would ever get it. “I’ll read it when I read it. Anyways, it’s been real.” She was over it. “I’m gonna go.”

Sighing through her nose, Shannon pushed up her glasses and placed her notepad back on the table. “I’d rather you not leave, Penelope, but if that’s what you want then the door is open.” She was no fool. She understood that Poppy was closer to this whole situation than anybody else. She was so wrapped up in the looming shadow of Charlie Decker that although she could see everybody else’s pain and acknowledge it, not much of anything other than her own hurt mattered.

There was no north side conspiracy against southsiders. Shannon was not ashamed of her own origins as a south sider. She never hid the fact and when she asked she would talk of the struggle openly but Shannon got out and she got out alive. She knew just how hard it could be and how dangerous the so-called curse affected people on that side of the tracks.

“I’ll see you next week, Miss James.”

“Yeah,” Emotionally unconnected to the woman in the room, nothing held Penelope back. Bonds weren’t made in a forced setting and the young girl made it clear she had her guard up with Shannon, even after a year. As she went to the door, without turning back, shifting her face mask back on her face, she whispered dismissively, “Sure.”

And with that, the youngest James was gone, with better things to do.

[BrutalBx]

Edenridge Presents: The Halloween Special

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“Ladies and gentlemen, I am your host, the demon dream girl herself Mei Midnight and you are listening to a very special broadcast of the Midnight Frequency. Why is this special you ask? Well it’s because tonight I am coming at you live from the legendary Elder Tree that sits by Edenridge Lake. The supposed home to the curse that binds this and forces it to bow to evil. And tonight boys and ghouls, I’m going to attempt to break that curse”

Mei waded through the small six feet of water to reach the Elder Tree of myth; the camera she had set up back on the shore directed towards her.

Everybody local knew the story; In 1670, Nathaniel Carlisle arrived in Edenridge to begin a movement to purge the new township of the native contingent. The man easily pursuaded the infantile settlers to follow his law and decree. He soon became the first Mayor of Eden and stamped his mark everywhere. When Nathaniel caught his very own daughter, Esther with a native girl, engaging in what he would later call black magic but modern historians believe to be a same sex relationship, he went off of the deep end. The Massachusett tribe girl was hung from the very same Elder Tree that sat at the centre of a lake where Mei now was. This act has been cited as the first murder in Edenridge’s soon to be sordid history. Carlisle then put his own daughter on trial for witchcraft, of which she was found guilty by the townsfolk. She was tied to the same Elder tree and burned alive, whilst the tribal girls body hung beside her.

Legend has it that the ashes from both bodies fell to the ground and poisoned the Earth itself. No matter how much the town that would become Edenridge grew, within its borders, an evil festered. Some believe that Nathaniel was going God’s work and that the witches he burned are tainting the souls of the unlucky. For every generation of Edenridge since, a sordid tale has unfolded. In recent years this has been the likes of The Hangman, BT and Charlie Decker but there have been so many more. Some simply believe that Carlisle himself was the venom; that the bile and bullish things he spouted began setting a precedent for things to come. Either way, most agreed that Edenridge was both a beautiful and regretful place to live.

Once she had reached the base of the tree, Mei placed her bag down onto the ground. She had been practicing Wicca for years but had never really attempted any kind of real magic. This was a big task for her first spell. She unzipped her bag and began to take out the ingredients she had collected over the past few months. Was Mei deluding herself into not only thinking there was an actual curse but that she could break it with a collection of bits and pieces which gathered from eBay and Amazon?

Probably.

The demon dream girl lit several candles and began to place them around the fabled Elder. As she did she thought back to why she was bothering to even try and break the so-called “Carlisle Curse” was it for views and likes? In some ways, yes. The main reason was for Jill. Her lover didn’t like to talk about it but the O’Briens like so many Edenridge families had a lot of dirty secrets. Their most prominent and probably the closest to Jillian’s heart was BT; to many just another psycho from the Southside. To Jill, he was family and what he did weighed heavily on the O’Briens even some twenty odd years later. Mei wanted to make it easier for them, for everyone. It was time for Eden to stop being a statistic on the news and start being a community again, no longer divided into the south and north sides; the haves and the have-nots. Once she had returned to her starting point, Mei dug her hand into the earth and began to pull lumps of dirt out to make a small hole.

Reaching into her bag, Mei pulled out a headress and placed it over her head. From the inside pocket of her leather jacket, she pulled a small black cloth pouch and began to fill it with her collective ingredients. Lavender. Sage. Alkanet Root. Howlite Stone. Raven bones and dirt from the supposed grave of Nathaniel Carlisle.

“Bidh mi a ’gairm air a’ bhan-dia, tha mi a ’tabhann na tiodhlacan a thug thu dhut mar pheann”

Mei began to chant. She dropped the pouch into the hole she had made and began to circle the tree. The full moon illuminated the small island in the centre of the pond and peered like a million points of light through the heavily branched tree. From the other side of her jacket, Mei unsheathed an ornate blade and made her way back to her pit.

”Ban-dia tha mi a ’tabhann fuil neach-leantainn naomh dhut”

Gritting her teeth, the young tattoo artist sliced into her palm. Fighting back the tears that were welling up in her chocolate eyes, she plunged her hand into the ground and grabbed the pouch inside, allowing her blood to pool through the mesh and onto the gathered items inside.

”Tha mi ag iarraidh fàbhar dhut nas fhaide na a h-uile càil eile, saor an àite seo den fhòirneart, leig e basachadh ann an solas na gealaich a-rithist, cuir às don ghràin!

She released the pouch back to the Earth and pulled her bleeding hand from the hole; immediately wiping the blood onto her dress and grabbing a bandage from her nearby bag to dress her wound. For a moment, she stared at the tree, hoping, praying for a sign that what she had done had worked or that she had actually done…anything. All there was was a leaf that fell from the tree and Mei let out an exasperated groan. She turned to her camera set up and waved with her now bloody and bandages hand. ”No idea if that worked, doubt it but I tried my lovely netherborns, I really tried. As I drive back to the studio, my lovely assistant Kylee Grimm is going to play you a tune. Stay safe out there kiddo’s and enjoy the sweet sounds of Gunship, Rise the Midnight Girl” Mei blew out all of the candles, packed up her gear and headed back to her fathers car; which she had borrowed for the evening. She felt deflated as she drove away.

A few moments later, from behind the Elder Tree, a figure emerged. With platinum blonde hair and a long leather jacket, his face was twisted and demonic as he lit a cigarette and looked out at the not too distant lights of Edenridge, Massachusetts.

[BrutalBx]

---

---

It was a rarity for Roddy to use the car he had gotten for his eighteenth. Not just because it was a high grade piece of shit but mostly because it was agony for him to be seated for any longer than an hour or two. The rehab center was only in Boston which was helpful but that wasn’t where he’d been on his latest sojourn.

“Robo Rod, my man. You really need to get this radio fixed, can we not like, plug in your Spotify or something?” A voice called from the backseat of the Callahan boys car. “We’ve been listening to this station for soooo long”

Sighing through his nose was the only acknowledgment he could muster to his passengers comment for the moment. Roddy didn’t mind his cousin Clay Costigan…Everyone had an opinion on him. To some, he was incredibly witty. To others, he was an absolute pain in the ass; both were right and wrong depending on the day. Clay was ice cool and didn’t take life seriously. He had graduated a few years before Roddy but the pair were close. He was good to have around when Francis left town. Clay was away at college during the worst of Edenridge’s problems and in some way; Roddy believed that his older cousin felt guilty about that. Perhaps that’s why he was returning to town; having enrolled himself in the Edenridge Police force. Having done some work for Boston PD; he was transferring home and Rod was his ride.

“It’s my friends show; Clay. She does some good stuff”

Clay sat up from his prone position, brushing a hand through his luxurious and somewhat legendary hair. “It’s so…weird, dude and morbid. Spells? Ghosts? A curse? and WHAT THE SHIT?!! As the cousins were conversing, a sudden crack broke their rhetoric as the windshield splintered and shattered around them. Roddy swerved off of the dark road and into a nearby ditch. The young man felt an incredible shooting pain up his spine before he felt Clay’s hand on his shoulder. “You ok Rod?”

Roddy winced and groaned. He held the small of his back as the burning sensation in it slowly began to dull. “I think I’m good,” He responded. As he opened his big blue eyes, the butchers boy’s mouth dropped open wide like a garage door at not only the sight of the cracked windshield but what was hanging out of it…an axe. “Actually maybe not”

“Roddy, stay in the jeep” Reaching into his bag, Clay pulled out a pistol and dove out of the back of the ditched vehicle. He hunkered down low and checked his ammo. He moved around the back side of the car and leaned over the hood; aiming his glock at a figure in the road.

“HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!”

“GET DOWN ON THE GROUND! I AM AUTHORISED TO USE DEADLY FORCE!”

Clay had the masked figure in his sights as it began to charge towards him with a speed that seemed unnatural. He pulled the trigger multiple times and it didn’t seem to stop the advancing behemoth. ”Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck” Clay continued to unload his bullets into the attacker until he reached the car and burst into a cloud of black smoke which drifted into the nearby overgrown woods.

”Clay?”

Clay dropped his gun and hurried to the driver side to help his cousin out of the car. ”Jesus, Rod you’ve put in some fucking pounds. They giving you steroids at rehab?”

The two men glanced around them and looked up at the sign that their jeep had nearly hit. Welcome to Edenridge

“So what in the actual blue hell just happened? Did you lace my coffee with something cos I swear that fucker just exploded into thin air?”

“I was gonna ask you the same thing, bro beans” Clay helped his cousin up to his feet and the two of them glanced down the road where the figure had vanished. It was the road to what was once Camp Eden; site of The Hangman Murders. Edenridge in 1974 was a very different place and it was during a hot humid summer that year that a maniac descended upon their world and took the lives of several young teenagers, including Roddy’s aunt Mary who was the first confirmed victim of the massacre. He was eventually shot to death but his identity remained a mystery even to this day.

“What the fuck is happening?”

[Aces Away]

FT. Mordechai Boaz, Danny Boaz, Penelope James, Charlie Decker^@BrutalBx
Small FT. Maxine James

---

---

"Baby brother," a young Mordechai Boaz breathed out in awe as he stared at his new brother in his 'crib': a cardboard box with ratty blankets thrown in that Mordechai had done his best to make comfortable. "I'll stay with you. I'll protec' you."

The infant giggled in his sleep and Mordechai's responding smile caused his lip to break open again from his father's slap earlier, but he paid it no mind.

"I'll never leave you."

'I Promise.'

~~~

"-cky…"

The world was nothing but streaks and blurs of color as he slowly pulled himself from the darkness.

"-ecky. Wake u-"

The floor was cold and dirty, newspapers and rags strewn under and around him in a mock of comfort. The blankets were moldy.

"-cky come on."

The needle was itching from where it was still in his arm, and he reached blindly to take it out.

"Decky I'm serious, wake the fuck up!"

A slap against his cheek finally had him opening his eyes and lurching into a sitting position, hand going for the knife in his back pocket. He paused halfway there when the face before him finally solidified and came together in his vision. He then promptly turned to the side and got rid of what little food was in his stomach.

Before him sat Daniel Boaz, dressed in Mordechai's old beaten Serpent jacket that he had grown out of, a dark green t-shirt and gray jeans. Mordechai's old boots were on his feet.

Just like the day he died.

To wrap up the macabre little hallucination, if you looked past the curls that fell over his forehead, a small hole was right in the middle just above his brows.

Noticing his gaze, the younger boy's face twisted in embarrassment as he frantically brushed the curls with his fingers to cover more of his forehead. "S-sorry! I thought I had it covered up! But ya also shouldn't stare! S'rude!" The boy stuttered as Mordechai just stared with wide eyes.

"Wh...at?" Mordechai croaked.

"I said starin's rude. Ya taught me that keepin' your eyes down kept ya safe, 'member?"

Mordechai just stared.

"C'mon Decky-" the name made him flinch, and Danny's frown grew. "What? Why are you flinchin'? It's me." He sounded hurt, and that tone from him practically set fire to his previously put out brotherly instincts.

"N-no it's not you! I just haven't used that name since y-" he froze mid explanation as he realized what he was about to say, voice going quiet and shaky. "What is this?"

"Um…'m not exactly sure?" Danny sat back on his heels from where he'd been kneeling. "I just kinda woke up next to ya a lil' bit ago, been tryin'a wake ya up for a while now. Thought ya might've...y'know."

"...Oh," was the eloquent reply. "Um...well I didn't," he reassured weakly. "But I ain't sure m'not still trippin'."

"No no it's me!" Danny chirped excitedly. "It's not just me either! I think it was a lot of us, actually."

"A...lot of ya."

"Yeah! Y'know," he wiggled his fingers and made a spooky moaning noise. "the gravestone crew."

"Right…"

"Anyway! Where're Poppy an' Jade? And Sonny? I'm guessin' since you're usin' again you an' Lanie broke up, so maybe I'll visit her myself later, but I really wanna see everyone so- what are ya doin'?"

The phone was already up to Mordechai's ear, the ringing loud in the silent drug den as Danny stared at him petulantly.

Buried under a pile of clothes, Penelope’s phone began to ring a generic ringtone. She wasn’t one to go out of her way to find a ringtone for people, regardless of how close she was with them. There were folks that put sentimental value in actions like that, but she just saw her phone as a means to contact someone or be contacted. She wasn’t even a romantic and more often than not when people flirted with her, it went over her head. It did not help that she wasn’t looking for affection and nostalgia, either. Not since Charlie died.

Laying on the bed in a daze, not really aware if she fell asleep or not or if she had been staring at the ceiling the whole night, Poppy grumbled to herself when the insufferable ring resonated in her bedroom. Sluggishly, she picked herself up and scanned her room, which was slowly but surely returning to a healthy and clean state, with clothes folded on her bed, belongings and books in their designated areas, and the sight of the floor once more. Still, she had a few piles of clothes to deal with, one pile to donate, one pile to toss, and another pile of ‘maybes’ that her sister would be great at convincing her what to toss and what to keep.

Following the sound, crawling on her knees, she dug in one of the piles, with mild struggle. After making the other person wait for a few seconds, she mutterily answered the line, not checking who it was on the other side, “Hello?”

"Pops thank god, I think I'm fuckin' losin' it here," Mordechai answered in a rush as he struggled to stand up, freezing when he felt the hallucination of his brother helping him. "I-I think my last hit was laced or somethin' cause I'm seeing Boychik and he just helped me fuckin' stand up." He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears, feel his blood heating in his veins as his nerves went alright in panic.

"It's not a hallucination, Decky!" Danny cried from where he threw his older brother's arm over his shoulder. "It's really me, come on!"

He clenched the phone tighter and let out a small whimper. "It's so fuckin' real Pops."

“What are you on about?” Poppy rubbed her face, contemplating how early it was or late. What time was it even? Well, regardless if the sun was up or not, none of that mattered. Her friend was having a mental breakdown. “Do you need me to come over? Are you—” She hadn’t even registered half of the things Decky said, but she did hear a small voice on the other line. “—Do you have someone over?”

Boychik.

“or are you just missing Danny?” After picking herself up, Penelope put her phone on speaker, followed up by placing it on her bed. As she waited for Mordechai’s response, she stretched her arms, legs, and body, not knowing if this was a moment she should panic and rush to his street or be calm, cool, and collected, because he needed that from her. There was no point in having two people freaking the fuck out because of anxiety or grief or whatever mental issues they both had.

"I'm always missin' 'im Pops, I'm just usually not seein' 'im too."

“Jesus woman; after everything you still don’t lock your window? You’re a mad bitch, Poppy.”

Charlie Decker tumbled through the open sash window as he had done from the age of five until the day he died when he was eighteen. He crashed down to the floor as he always did, never understanding how tall and lanky he actually was. Every single time he entered the window he caught his stupid big feet.

He hadn’t aged a day; he looked exactly like he did on that awful day all those years ago, save one thing; the leather jacket that now hung on the back of Penelope’s desk chair. His jet black hair was loose over his face and his fingers were adorned with rings (Decker did like his hot topic bling). His black jeans and Doc Martens were a little bit dirty and his faded band t-shirt was stained with likely cream cheese. As he sprang back up to his full height, Charlie’s face scrunched up as he caught wind of a foul stench.

“It smells like ass in here.” He wandered over to the bed and took a seat on the edge. “Is that…? Stale bagels? How could you waste such a gift?”

In times like these, people had three responses. Fight. Flight. Or Freeze. The voice she had heard come from the window had grown faint over the last year, but still she could remember it like it was yesterday. With wide eyes, she eyed the boy in front of her and the first thing her mind could think of was…

Slap!

Caught up in a nightmare or a dream, Penelope was quick to grab her phone and not take in the boy that should be dead. Instead, she ran to the bathroom, locked the door, and ran into her sister’s room. In complete denial, she convinced herself there was a stranger in her room.

“Uhhhh…. M-mordechai.” As if seeing Charlie wasn’t painful enough, her older sister came out of the closet holding some of her untouched, lonesome clothes.

“You guys seriously haven’t touched anything here. Nothing’s changed, aside from the occasional dust bunnies. Poppy, where's my blue dress? You know the one you wore junior year when you wanted to confess—”

Max…

“MORDECHAI!” Alarms setting off, the first thing Poppy thought of was where the nearest firearm was. Her dad had them hidden throughout the house but the nearest would be her parents' room. Mad dashing, she bolted out of one room, going down the hall, and entering the other, locking the door. Why did her parents have to be at work now?!

Swiftly she searched her mom’s dresser until she found the revolver, as she did so she instructed her friend, “We need to meet. Now. Whatever you caught is spreading. I, I’m seeing… what the fuck is going on? This has to be a dream.” Taking the gun off of its safety, there was a moment where Poppy contemplated shooting herself. That would force herself to wake up but instead she heard a sound and pointed the gun straight to where it was coming from.

Charlie stood by the door with his hands raised. The side of his face was red raw after Poppy’s slap. “I wouldn’t do that, Poppy. Getting shot isn’t as painless as the movies make it seem,” He offered her a smile, a soft one that only she was ever privy to. “You’re not crazy. You’re not dead. I’m here. Max is here too. I don’t have all the details but something has gone wrong and well, I’m here to help.”

There was probably some rational explanation; Charlie didn’t have it at that moment though. He was like a newborn babe, experiencing the world, the warmth and the light for the first time. Yet he remembered everything. He remembered the smell of bagels, the constant tears of his mother, the words of Keats and the way he felt about Penelope James. Even in death or afterlife or wherever the hell he was, his heart always belonged to her. He took several steps forward and placed his hands on either side of her cheek.

“I had to come back to you, whilst I’ve got the chance.”

“Fuck.” As much as Penelope was a fighter by heart, with Charlie or his ghost, she felt the storm inside of her come to a calm. Dropping the arm that held the revolver, she put it back into safety mode, gazing at him with only conflict in her eyes. None of this made any logical sense. There was no rationality behind any of this and the fact that she could feel… his hands felt cold. Still, how could she know this was indeed Charlie Decker? The ghost showed no ill intent as she stood there before him in her pajamas, not an uncommon thing while he was alive.

Part of her wanted to give in, but the part that won, for now, pulled her back, cautious and afraid. “You… you don’t get to do that. Fuck. I need a cigarette.” Stepping back to put distance between her and her dead first love, Penelope spoke into her phone, “Meet me at our spot. Make sure everyone else is okay… bring Danny.”

Then her line went dead.

Mordechai had already begun a stumbling dash out of the den, calling uselessly back to Poppy as she called his name, her tone more distressed each time. He could have sworn he'd heard- but no, it couldn't be! Danny was keeping up with him, and that's another hint towards it being a hallucination because Danny could never keep up with his sprint when he was alive. He almost came to a complete standstill in the middle of the street when she said she'd caught his hallucinations. And, is that a thing, is that possible? But then Charlie's voice was back and Mordechai straight up tripped over his own feet and face planted into the street, Danny's sympathetic hiss loud in his ears. He took a moment to breathe and swallow back the bile threatening to rise in his throat, and then he grabbed up his phone- and the screen is cracked even more, great- just in time for her to summon him-them-to their spot. He didn't even get a chance to respond before she hung up, and he was left staring dumbly down the street with his phone still held to his ear.

"Soooo," Danny piped up from behind him, rocking back and forth on his heels and toes with his hands behind his back. "We get to go see Poppy?"

Silence. Mordechai turned to stare blankly at his baby brother, waiting for an answer to fall into his lap. Finally, with a heavy sigh, he reached out to the boy. Danny happily took advantage of the outstretched arm and ducked under it, latching around Mordechai's torso and smashing his face into his chest. The older of the two stiffened, breath hitching and hands twitching uselessly before he practically melted, folding over his baby brother and holding him tight.

"What the hell is this?" He breathed, his voice cracked and wavering.

"I don't know, but 'm not exactly upset either." Danny whispered into his chest, not letting go. Even with the changes-he's so cold, he feels solid but it's still like I'd slip through if I pushed hard enough, his chest ain't movin' 'cause he's not fuckin' breathin'- hugging Danny was like coming home in the best of ways.

[LovelyComplex]

	x @LovelyComplex & @BrutalBx x

In the Grimm music room, Kylee sat at the grand piano, gliding her hand on the keys, wondering why music was so important to her father when he couldn’t play an instrument. Her late mother, Prudence, didn’t know how to play and neither did her step mom. The only two that could play anything in this room were her and her sister.

Even then, these instruments had been with her and her family before she could even play, back during her young adolescence days in Boston. She was curious… Was there someone in her father’s past that made him go so out of his way to invest in the finest of instruments and take them wherever he went? A sister that he doesn’t want to talk about? A mother? How about a father? Did he have brothers? Why didn’t her father talk about his family?

Sighing to herself, knowing well enough her siblings and her father kept their secrets, Kylee placed her fingers on the keyboard and started playing Can’t Help Falling In Love, by Elvis Presley. She didn’t know why but she was drawn to this song, as it repeatedly entered her dreams. The song was sweet and sentimental, but not her usual speed. She didn’t even listen to Elvis much nor did she connect with this song because she didn’t know what it meant to be in love.

She dated Pierce when she was an underclassmen in highschool but that was not the love this song made her feel. He was her first love, but it was childish, naive, and innocent. When she let her fingers play, as if she were possessed, she could feel something more profound. Something more eternal. A love that would never die.

Dazing in and out of reality, Kylee fought the sleep in her eyes. Ever since she graduated, she found it incredibly hard to sleep which was unlike her. Sure, not getting into her dream college was distressing but it wasn’t detrimental to her life. It only got worse when she met that stupid reporter. There was no sound reason why she shouldn’t be able to sleep -- unless she was completely disconnected from her own depression and anxiety, but how was that possible? She felt fine, just tired.

Returning back to the present, Kylee found the keys moving on their own accord without her help. She looked at her surroundings and realized the room was completely empty, yet unnaturally cold. Standing up and stepping away, she watched the piano perform on its own, seeing nothing on the piano bench that she had left.

Was she asleep?

The feeling of gentle yet icy hands covered her eyes and a sound she hadn’t heard for a few years whispered into her ears, “Guess who…”

“Mom?” Confused, Kylee turned her body as the small ghost behind her released her daughter’s face and took a step back, serenely smiling. “Is that you? Are you really here?”

“Yeah, weird, huh?” Prudence, who was far too young looking to be a mother of four, gleamed at her youngest, as she looked at the piano with sadness in her eyes. “Isn’t this song absolutely lovely?”

“I guess, I just don’t understand how it’s being played on its own…”

“You can’t see…?”

“See what?”

“... oh, nothing, sweetie.” Prudence frowned, curious why the other ghost was hiding their image. Still, she didn’t know how long this dark magic would last and there were a few people she needed to talk to before she went back to her hole in the ground.

Irritated, Prue turned on her heel, seeking out Kylee’s brothers. “I need to give those two a piece of my mind.” When Kylee noticed her mother leaving, she hurriedly followed. The moment the two ladies left the music room, the music stopped.

“Ken and Link?” Ky rushed to Prue, who was a woman on a mission. “Mom, they’re not in town.”

Stopping in her tracks, disappointed, Prue crossed her arms and nervously bit her lip, “Is that so?”

Not knowing how long this dream was going to last, Kylee decided to change the subject, seeking answers to unanswered questions, “Mom, I know this is… random… but, why’d you do it? Why’d you leave me? I know, I know what you did.”

Fixedly staring at the floor, Prue, ashamed and distraught, stammered, “I… I wish I could tell you.”

“Why can’t you?” Kylee demanded, getting increasingly upset. Moving forward, through her mom, she turned around so that they were facing each other. Kylee’s once warm and tender eyes turned distant and irked. Why couldn’t her dead mom’s ghost tell her? Both in death and life, Prue chose to be silent. A coward.

“I promised…” Involuntarily, Prudence faded away, as if her weak spirit could not currently fight the negative forces of the house to keep herself visible in Kylee’s eyes.

“Mom? MOM!” Frantically, Kylee searched the lobby for the ghost she had a full conversation with, only to hear a chuckle and a handsome boy, dressed in a man blouse and black pants, sitting on the large stairs that led to the bedrooms.

“Even I can tell she’s not your real mom, Bunny.” Pierce Mercer leaned back, examining the manor he had frequented many times before. “Yeah, this place is still creepy as hell.”

Instead of joy, Kylee found herself seeing the bloody boy she held onto on his dying day. Bullet holes and all. Shaking her head, the blood and wounds disappeared and he was back to the boy she had loved freshmen and sophomore year. Still, her ptsd caused her to take a step back in fear, “I-I-I-I…”

“What is it, Ky? Did you see something bad again?” The charming singer stood up, slowly approaching her, “What did I tell you about sticking your nose in other people’s businesses?”

“You never told me that…”

“Maybe I should’ve.” Pierce callously retorted.

This was not the Pierce she knew and loved. He sounded spiteful. He sounded malicious. He sounded different,

This was not Pierce.

This spirit… he was dark and could distort her memory. This spirit… had a Cheshire grin and an unnerving aura. This spirit… felt like hate.

Could the house itself conjure images? That’s something the movies would do.

As he reached to grab her, Kylee yelped and bolted to the front door. Running with reckless abandon, she left the Grimm estate, shivering, disoriented, and uneasy. She was going so fast she didn’t even notice the person walking toward her on the sidewalk. Coming in like a wrecking ball, Kylee crashed into that stupid reporter.

Tumbling to the floor, a weight pressed against his chest; Wesley groaned. He looked down to see what collided with him and was shocked to see the visage of one Kylee Grimm. “Talk about when worlds collide…” He quipped as he slid out from beneath the brown haired beauty and helped her to her feet.

Wes looked down to his side and pulled his camera to eye level to see if it had been damaged in the fall. Luckily it hadn’t and he let out a great sigh of relief. He had held that camera since he was a child, one of the few things he got from his deadbeat dad. It’s what inspired him to truly become the intrepid adventurer/reporter that he was born to be.

“You ok?” Wes asked gently. “Did something happen?”

Shit. Out of all the people she could have ran into, she crashed into this idiot. Silently, Kylee observed him handle his camera to make sure it was okay, before he brought his attention to her.

She almost broke his camera…

“I, um, there’s… this is going to make me sound insane.” Kylee stammered. For someone who enjoyed talking, she found it hard to find the words to explain what she saw, anxious of being judged by the man. Why did she even care what he thought? “I’m sorry for running into it.” Her chocolate coated eyes went to his camera before meeting his dark yet kind gaze once more. “And you. Sorry for running into you.”

She stepped back, bringing distance between them, uncertain about if this was worth mentioning to him or if she should call Roddy. She wondered if Mei or Jill would listen but she found herself unable to convince herself that they would. Kylee didn’t trust easily and it was likely because of all the trauma her siblings put her through. Still shaken from what she saw, she looked at Wes like a little girl would look at someone when they’ve had a bad nightmare but expected the worst reaction from the person they were talking to.

“Whatever you saw, it can’t be any more insane than what I think I just saw.”

Wes was having a strange evening of his own. He was out and about, trying to stir up a story when he found himself outside of Edenridge High. As the clock struck midnight on his wrist, a sudden cold crept up his spine like a snake and then flooded through his body. Then the next thing he knew, the man of logic that he was, Wesley was staring at a cheerleader on the steps. The thing was, it wasn’t just any cheerleader, it was the cheerleader, the one of legend; Allison Davies.

Like any good reporter, Wes snapped a photo and took off running like he was back on the track team. He didn’t think of where he’d end up, which was how he ended up outside the grandiose Grimm estate; talk about spooky.

“I doubt that…” Kylee looked over her shoulder, back to her family’s estate. Peering from an upstairs window was something or someone… maybe Prudence, maybe Not-Pierce, or maybe someone else. “This is real, right?” She turned back, still in disbelief that she was awake. “You’re not like… I don’t know, entering my dreams or something? I already saw a piano playing music and my dead mother… or not mother. I don’t know. I ran into my ex but I really don’t think he’s my ex because if he was haunting me the last place he’d visit is my house. He hated it. I think my house is fucking with me. I swear to god I didn’t do any drugs.”

What the fuck?

Wes thought he was tripping balls when he saw Allison and now Kylee was confirming that she had seen something too? What was going on? Was this it? The rapture? The world's end? Had the dead risen to take control of the Earth once more? Wesley was a man of logic, a man of science but even he couldn’t explain this.

He looked up at the window where Kylee herself had just cast her eye and could see a figure there. The reporter had done his research, as he often did with people he knew and the woman in the window was supposed to be very long dead. This all but confirmed that what he had seen back at Edenridge High was not a trick of the mind or some form of hallucination; the truth of the matter was that hell was empty and all the devils were here again.

“I told you during our first interview that I didn’t believe in ghosts. Well to quote the movies, I think we best start believing in ghost stories Miss Grimm, I think we’re in one.”

Usually, Kylee was all about curious cases, even supernatural stories, myths, and legends. They were entertaining to explore and it made her feel like she was part of Scooby-Doo! However, at this moment, the logical side of her brain was in full skepticism, preventing her from completely diving in. “Heh… yeah, okay. I’m totally dreaming right now.”

Pulling out her phone from her back pant’s pocket, she noticed a voicemail from Roddy and a text message asking if she was okay. “I’m going to go…” She looked at Wes, wondering if it was actually a good idea to be alone if this was indeed a nightmare.

“I wouldn’t recommend it, Kylee. If what we both saw is real, I doubt it’s just our own sordid histories that have come back to haunt us.” Wes dubiously put a hand on her shoulder. “Edenridge is a town of psychos, killers and maniacs. I don’t think you being by yourself is good idea right now.”

Stopping before she got ahead, Kylee looked at Wes’ hand on her shoulder then up at him. It seemed he wasn’t going to let her get too far. Dramatically sighing to herself, she stood in place and awkwardly listened to the voicemail next to Mr. Reporter.

“Ky, some weird shit is happening. There's a dude with an axe and black smoke and I feel like I’m in some kind of shitty horror movie…anyway; there’s been an accident, I’m ok but I’m kind of stranded outside Camp Eden. Be careful wherever you are! Something isn’t right out there tonight.”

Fuck.

Seems she and Wes might be spending more time together than she’d hoped. “On second thought, can you take me to Camp Eden?” The young girl was now facing Wes with desperate need. Simultaneously, Kylee texted Roddy ‘omw’ before giving Wesley puppy eyes, “Pleaseeeeeeee, my friend needs me.”

Wesley looked at the girl and ran a hand through his curly hair. He could just go back to his hotel and let all this blow over. What skin did he have in this game? He was a Pinehurst guy but he had all but entrenched himself into the Edenridge world. For the lack of a better term, right now this shit hole was Wes’s home and Kylee was the closest thing he actually had to a friend. Fuck; was he actually considering this? Fuck was he actually going to do this?

Damnit.

“My car is just around the block, let’s go help your friend.”

[AlteredTundra]

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Marco seldom tuned into Mei’s podcast...thing, but as of late, he found himself doing a lot that he hadn’t normally. Not in a long time had Marco truly felt despair knock itself boldly at his door, screaming at him like the wails of anguish that he could remember screeching when Charlie Decker shot him. Those immediate thoughts came flooding back after a bad dream, those thoughts that plagued him in those first weeks in the hospital after he got his surgery. They plagued him like an illness that sapped just about every single light he had to spare.

And they were why he was up almost every night, kicking ass at whatever online game he could get his hands on. Some nights he dove head-first into Call of Duty. Some nights it was League of Legends. It always changed depending on his mood, but for some reason, unlike previous times where he’d just let himself get lost in mindless action, Marco was laying in bed on his side (the leg he got shot in facing up). He laid there on his side, his Bose headphones in and he listened to Mei Midnight speak.

Admittedly, Marco may have tuned her out at some parts. He was drifting into a partial slumber, his eyes heavy as he felt the chill of his fan hit him every three seconds as it blew the cold air around his room. He didn’t have his blanket on so he felt the chills start at his toes and go all the way up to his hair. It felt nice and as he drifted off into a dream, Marco heard a voice.

Marco...Marco…

It was haunting and it kept calling out to him. The voice sounded strikingly masculine but also, as it kept calling to him, beckoning him with misty strings of light, he felt an air of familiarity within it. Not only was the light reaching to him familiar, but there was something about the way that that voice made him feel. It was confident and comforting. It didn’t just call his name but it was patient in how it waited for Marco to acknowledge it.

Around him was nothing. Around Marco was something. He couldn’t tell what it was. He glanced around in all directions. There wasn’t light nor was there darkness, yet he clearly saw the light yellow hues of light that the voice seemed to originate from. It was the only color that he could make out.

And he started to walk towards it.

Correction. Marco limped towards it.

As he walked, he felt a cold breeze touch his skin, which immediately had him shiver, reaching behind him and a black hoodie that he always wore seemed to appear and he slipped it on. No longer feeling the wind hit him in such an extreme way, Marco continued down the path the yellow mist was guiding him to. As he did, he heard sounds that felt like the revving of an engine. He couldn’t see anything, but suddenly he was able to do more than limp. Suddenly Marco felt himself able to run at speeds that he only dreamed of running.

And as he ran, the thoughts of despair came back. He couldn’t stop them just as he couldn’t stop himself from running; similarly, he couldn’t stop himself from getting shot.

All my fault, he kept telling himself. It was all his fault. Being out there after the bell rang. Being out there after knowing the bell had rang.

You didn’t know.

He heard that voice say and a wave of grief long since past came over him.

Of course I did!

Marco didn’t know what he was doing. He was carrying out a conversation as he ran, wind pressing against his face, his dark hair flowing back. And he was having a conversation with the voice of someone he didn’t know, yet something told him he did.

What sense did that make?

It wasn’t your fault!

So what? Now Marco was Matt Damon and this voice was Robin Williams? Was that even the right analogy?

Marco turned around, running in the complete opposite direction. And as he ran, he took a few lefts, effortlessly turning as he maintained the right speed. Before, he felt like he was running on what he assumed was a sensation similar to asfalt, but now he heard echoes -- echoes of his feet.

ClickclickTaptap

And another turn.

And then another and then Marco’s footsteps made no noise -- none that were as audible as before. Now they were muffled, like the brushing of blades of glass when hit by the wind.

Marco Brady finally came to a stop and what was a blissful feeling not experiencing any pain in his leg, suddenly it was so intense, Marco fell to the ground as he held his left leg from the ankle. There was a warm sensation. It was agonizing. Surging through his entire body was a pain that was more than physical. As he started to cry out, Marco yelled:

“Help!”

But there wasn’t anyone.

“Help!” He cried out again, this time screeching at it.

“Nobody is here, Marco.”

There was that voice again, but this time he couldn’t hear them in his head. The voice didn’t echo like before, but rather, as he looked up in the middle of trying not to pass out from the torture he was enduring through, he saw the shadow of someone.

“Who are you?” He asked.

The person had clapped slowly, their form slowly revealing itself. “Who am I? Do you really need to ask that, Marco?” Their question, though it was soon answered, they stepped forward and Marco soon found himself with more questions than he began with.

“You’re —”

“That’s right,” they said, smiling, “I’m you. Or what you could have been.”

Shaking his head, Marco suddenly didn’t feel excruciating discomfort in his leg. It was just the normal discomfort that had him forever limping. “This can’t be happening. This is all a dream…”

“Is it?”

With a gesture, the other Marco smiled and soon the devoid of color that Marco thought he was running in was to be revealed that he was back at the school. Specifically, Marco was in the soccer field and where he stood was exactly where he was shot.

And now he was even more confused than ever. Was it a dream? Was this real? MArco was on his bed listening to Mei’s stream. She talked about...she talked about -- oh, God what was it again? The elder tree or something like that? He wished he didn’t drift off when she was supposed to be explaining the origin of that tree or that he knew more about it.

Every inch of Marco’s mind right now was being spent trying to figure out he was looking at a fit version of himself, brandishing a soccer/Eruopean football uniform and he was on the ground, no longer in immense pain like the cripple he always felt like. Nevermind the fact that he thought he was running, but as he looked behind him, his brother’s truck was there, parked at an angle no less than three feet from where he was laying on the ground. How was any of this possible? Was he dreaming or was he awake and just couldn’t process any of it?

“So if this is all real--”

“Never said that--”

“Okay,” Marco said, getting annoyed a bit with his other, better-looking self. “If this is a dream--”

“I didn’t say that either.”

Marco narrowed his eyes at himself. Just looking at him made him confused and everything that was happening was enough to make him seriously consider checking himself into a mental institution, because it was clear as day that he was going insane if he was having a conversation with himself as he laid on the surprisingly lukewarm grass.

“So then what is going on? If this isn’t real and it isn’t a dream, then what?!” Marco’s voice got a bit intense as he slammed his fists on the ground.

“Marco, it’s alright, okay? I’m not here to cause you confusion or anything close to that. I’m here because there’s something you need to get off your chest.”

“I think I’d know if I needed to get something off my chest,” he retorted back, mumbling something inaudible under a fake cough.

The Other Marco raised his eyebrow at him and knelt down. Marco looked at him with an uncharacteristic jealousy at how easily he was able to do that without groaning. “You are here for a reason. Tonight didn’t happen because you were feeling blue. I know you because I am you. I know you have moments where you can’t keep it together for the people who love you. I know this because I am a projection of your psyche. As I said, I am what you wished you could be, but do you want to know something, Marco?”

Marco tried not to scowl, but he kept his eyes on the other him. “What? You’re going to rub it in my face that I could have been walking if I wasn’t out in this field practicing?”

The Other Marco stared at him, shaking his head with a heavy sigh. “No. I’m here so you can tell me why you still think that was ever your fault to begin with. I’m here so you can say things that you can’t to those you wish you could.”

“Such as?”

“Such as Danny Belmonte. Such as Charlie Decker. Such as everyone you feel looks down on you because you are -- what did you call it? Cripple Castillo?” There was a laugh from the Other Marco and he earned a scathing glare in response. “Remember--”

“Yes, I know. You’re me, so you’re laughing at my--”

“--Our--”

“Right. Our pain.”

It took Marco a few minutes to think. In that time, he saw his other self standing there patiently. That was something they didn’t have in common, so maybe he was a version of himself that he wished he could be. Deep down, he knew everything that perfect version of himself said was the truth. He had a list of things he wished he could say to Danny. He wished he could tell his ex how he truly felt and how he wished they could be together like they used to, but in public as well as private. He wished he could corner Charlie Decker, make him look him in the eye and ask him why he decided to shoot everyone. He wished he could walk without having to limp half the time. MArco wanted so desperately to be able to live that dream.

But he couldn’t. Damn. Damn. Damn!

Why was tonight so special? And why, of all things, did some projection of what he wished he could be show themself to him?

“So what am I supposed to do? Just start listing things? Is that how this process works?” Marco asked as he stood up. The pain surged through his body and his other self held him steady with their arms until Marco was able to support himself. “Well what am I supposed to do? What should I say? Tell you how I hate this. How much I…” As he hesitated, his lip began to quiver and he bit it just hard enough to stop himself from succumbing to the breakdown he knew was well on its way. “...How much I fucking hate being a burden to everyone? Is that what you want me to say?”

The Other Marco stood there, looking at MArco. Watching him lean forward and his hand holding his left calf to keep himself from falling over. The pressure was on his right leg so it didn’t cause immense pain in his bum one. In his eyes, he could feel the feeble Marco’s anguish in every word he spoke, the way his voice cracked with emotion. It hurt him because it hurt Marco; and because Marco hurt, he didn’t have the words to provide him with an answer.

Of course, The Other Marco knew that he felt this because he was Marco. Even if he didn’t show it, he was a projection of Marco Brady’s mind. He was the hopes and dreams that Marco Brady still clung to. In his darkest thoughts, he was the light that brought comfort to him and when he needed a reason to get out of bed, more often than not, he was the one that Marco could visualize and everything would be okay. But of course, this only worked if he didn’t let himself drown in the despair that stemmed from the reality of what could never be.

The Other Marco was this reality that was no longer possible. Marco Brady wouldn’t be like how he was and that was a fact. Charlie Decker took that away from him. And it was Charlie Decker who..

“You need to let go, Marco. But in order to do this, you need to see one more person.”

“Another? Who?” Marco asked, his voice still ripe with emotion, his voice cracked and his eyes puffed up from him trying -- and failing -- to hold back a sob of tears. “Who else is there to see? I thought you were the only person I needed to see. Isn’t that what you said?”

The Other Marco shook his head. “I am the ghost of you, Marco. All the pain you feel, while it is phenomenal that you have made it so far, it is just the internal strife you confronted. What you must face before this night is done is face your external strife. The horror that you know you have to come face to face with, it’s closer than you think.”

“What does that even mean?”

Even though Marco’s plea was genuine, his other self smiled and pointed to his heart. He pointed still until his form faded in the same bright yellow smoke that presented itself to Marco when he thought he was asleep. And even when he was left alone, Marco was still confused about many things. What was happening tonight? What did this have to do with the Elder Tree? And what did his other self mean by the external horror?

He was so confused, but it was something. Marco had something to go off of, but he couldn’t do this on an empty stomach. Somehow, through all of that pseudo-running he did, he had literally worked up an appetite. Maybe it was real or maybe it wasn’t, but all he knew was he could go for a Reuben sandwich right about now.

[BrutalBx]

_{FT. Penelope James, Charlie Decker & Maxine James}

After the initial shock of seeing her dead childhood friend and sister, Penelope allowed herself to suspend disbelief and accept whatever this was. She shooed her ghosts away to give her time to get ready. While Maxine discussed with Charlie her findings in the hallway, Poppy buried her overwhelming emotions to get ready.

Once she slipped on her jeans, her Neon Ether arcade shirt, and Charlie’s leather jacket, she went to her bed where she placed a few items she took out of her parents’ room (which were alongside some of her own items). Holster, check. Glock, check. Knife, check. Pepper spray, check. Binoculars, check. Flashlight, check. Lighter, check. Cigarettes, check. And last but not least, just in case, 2 walkie-talkies, check. If the dead were back, she wasn’t going to wait for something bad to happen to her. She was going to be prepared.

Penelope knew most of these items could be useless toward a ghost, but she wanted to be ready in the only way she knew how. Call it anxiety or paranoia but she knew that if the dead were back, it wasn’t only the dead that people wanted to desperately see. With her gear situated on her body and in her bag, she thought about what else she needed.

Snacks.

Opening the door to see both her first love and her sister, Poppy calmly commanded, “Kitchen.” Her hair was in a messy ponytail and there was only acceptance in her green eyes.

“Actually…” Maxine apologetically frowned. “I’m going to give you two some time together.”

“Wait what?” Was she hearing this correctly? Poppy hadn’t seen Maxine since freshman year and now that the dead were given a chance to rise from their graves or ashes, her sister didn’t want to be here? Didn’t want to be with her?

“Stop that.” Maxine placed her hands on her sister’s shoulders and squeezed them (it wasn’t easy, seeing how Charlie’s jacket was thick and big on Pop’s thin form). “I know exactly what you’re thinking, and that’s not it at all. Whatever is going on is unnatural and I want to cover as much ground as possible. To do that, we need to split. Hey, hey look at me.” Maxine grabbed her sister’s chin and angled her face toward her’s, slightly upward.

For Penelope, this felt all too real.

“I love you and I’ve missed you like crazy, okay? But as long as you have me close to your heart.” Maxine grabbed the teardrop necklace around her sister’s neck and smiled, “I’ll find you. I’ll always find you. Okay?”

“Okay…” Penelope felt her eyes water, but instead of letting herself cry she bit her cheeks. There was a brief moment of silence as the sisters stared at one another before Penelope added, “You too. I love and miss you too.”

“I know.” Giving each other one lasting embrace, Maxine faded away, never one to waste time. Swallowing her feelings, Penelope glanced over at Charlie, her heart dropping at the sight of him.

He was here.

He really was here.

“Kitchen, please.” She was not ready to give him more than a couple seconds to take her in, or maybe it was the other way around with her taking him in. Her heart could barely handle him at this distance. “What do you know?” Poppy asked as she rushed forward to their next destination.

Charlie wasn’t sure how to react to anything at that time. Not only was he with Poppy again, like he had always wanted but he had also done the unthinkable; irregardless of his feelings of guilt or remorse now, he did what he did, everybody knew and now he was back. Maybe this was some twisted penance but he was unsure. He followed her into the kitchen with his hands in his pockets, his head hung like it always did.

“Not a whole lot,” He responded. “What I do know is that it’s not just me and Max. It’s everyone, Pops. It’s everyone who suffered like we did and chose the wrong path. Killers and….victims alike.” That pause. It hung in the air like a guillotine, like his regret waiting to behead him at a moment's notice. “We’re all back for different reasons I think. What they are, I really don’t know.”

“Is that so?” Although she was attentively listening to Charlie, Penelope was also a woman on a mission, packing her backpack with a couple non-perishable snacks, like protein bars, almonds, and pretzels. She didn’t go overboard, just enough to last a day for a small group of people. “And what is your reason?” She looked up from her bag, expectantly meeting his gaze. “You have to have some idea why you’re back.”

“Penance.” Charlie said as he pressed his palms down onto the kitchen. “I’m here to see the pain that I caused, to experience first hand the horror that my actions have inflicted upon people.” If he could go back in time, there was no doubt that Charlie Decker would undo the actions of the first day of senior year, he would take it all back. “And you. I couldn’t rest until I saw you again.”

Penance.

“I couldn’t— well, I can’t sleep on my bed,” Penelope whispered back. Turning away from Charlie, she went to the fridge and retrieved an apple. “I’ve finally started eating better.” She closed the fridge behind her, her voice rising ever so slightly. “Up until recently, Jade’s had to force feed me and even then… I don’t always keep it down.” Walking to her family’s small island, Poppy leaned her elbows on it as she deeply surveyed the fruit. There were so many things she was overcoming, like her fear of social encounters and being able to function in the world again. Being able to live life freely on her own.

“I go to therapy!” Pushing herself off the island, she tossed the apple up, keeping her focus on the fruit instead of the boy, unable to look at him and his face. The old Penelope would’ve been able to look at him right in the eyes as she pleaded for him to stay in her room. Emotional talk? He was her other half. She should be comfortable putting her heart on her sleeves.

That’s just it, though. She wasn’t that Poppy anymore. The apple fell into her hand and when it did so she grasped it. “I was diagnosed with agoraphobia but hey, Mrs. Ramsey says I’m getting better.”

The more she talked, the more defeated she felt. The more hurt she realized she had deeply buried inside her. Dropping her arms to her side, she blankly stared ahead, realizing that seeing Charlie again would only set her back. This would only hurt her. All he’s ever done was hurt her. She always waited and waited and waited for him. Even after death, she waited.

Now he’s back and all she could think about was, “Did I mean nothing to you?” her voice broke, shaking and fighting back the pain. Nothing she could’ve said or done would’ve stopped him that day. Nothing she did helped him in anyway. Everything they had was all in her head and completely one-sided. Always, always with him she felt the need to fight back the tears. She didn’t want to cry over Charlie anymore.

“Pops.”

Charlie Decker had hurt a lot of people, too many people but none more so than Penelope James. When he was alive, she was his heart and in death she still is. Yet he betrayed his heart and everything it represented when he gave into his darkness, to the curse that twisted his soul beyond salvation. Charlie loved her even now, worlds apart but Poppy was what gave his existence meaning.

“You did, you do and you always will mean everything to me.” He was absorbing her feelings, like a sponge. Just being close to Poppy, Charlie could almost read her thoughts and they were filling him with more pain, more hurt but he took it. It was his to take as he was the one that gave it to her in the first place. “I’m not sure what any of this means, Poppy. All I can tell you is that wherever I was…before, I saw you and only you. You’ve always been courageous and I’ve always been a coward but now, maybe I still am but I can say the words now. All the words I wish I’d said the last time I saw you. The words I wrote.”

“What’s the point.” Penelope dejectedly stated. Tightly, she gripped onto the apple in anger, “This. This won’t even last and you’ll be gone.”

All his words left unsaid, what good would that do for her now?

He was a ghost. He was dead.

“You don’t get to say shit like that to me.” She loosened her grip on the apple, dropping it on the counter, in hopes it would calm her down. Instead, her breathing picked up and a sharp pain resided in her chest, a feeling she knew all too well by now. “YOU were MY everything.”

Breathe, Poppy, just breathe.

“I can’t look at my window, my bed, my room without thinking of you. I can’t walk outside without thinking of you. I can’t look at everyone in this fucking town WITHOUT THINKING OF YOU.” Holding onto the counter, using it for stability, knowing well enough she was fighting a panic attack, she shook her head, repeatedly telling herself internally to breathe. To just breathe.

All her life, Poppy convinced herself that she’d have Charlie to walk beside her and all her life, she believed it. Now though? She was a child learning how to walk. She needed to learn to live without him, without the idea that he would show up randomly and be there for her, holding her hand.

Together, she felt whole. He was her world. He always was, he still is. But, for once, she could see a light beyond him. She was finally moving forward. Finally getting somewhere. Finally learning how to live again. If she allowed herself to believe in that again, believe in their love, in him, she would never move on. She would never be happy.

Grabbing her bag from the island, Penelope rushed to the door, walking right through Charlie to get where she needed to go, “I can’t do this. I can’t be alone with you.” Others would use this chance for closure but they were a million worlds apart.

And it hurt.

For once, Charlie was at a loss for words. As someone who was known as a wordsmith, he couldn’t find anything in his thesaurus like vocabulary to steal away what Poppy was feeling. She walked through him. How did she even know she could do that? He didn’t even know she could do that. Regardless of the how, it was the actual why?

It had always been Charlie and Poppy; Poppy and Charlie. Then he did what he did and it was Poppy and the evil spirit that clung to her like rain on skin. And now, just as the sun began to shine, he brought that big black cloud back to sit above her head.

He looked at her with his deep set brown eyes, even in death, still framed by tired purple bags and sighed through his nose. There was a lot left to be said and done but Charlie knew that Poppy needed time and although he didn’t want to leave her side, he had to let her go.

“Be safe out there,” Charlie began. “I’ll try and see what I can figure out but if you need me, just say my name and I’ll be there.” He turned towards the hallway door and began to step through it. He stopped and turned back to his love and sighed again.

“There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.”

Charlie hung his head and faded as he stepped through the door.

[Aces Away]

They were sitting on the ground at their spot, staring up into the evening sky. Danny had his head resting against Mordechai's shoulder, eyes tracing the clouds.

"I let ya die."

Mordechai broke the silence for the first time since they'd settled down, his voice quiet and crackling from emotion. They had gotten his life updates out of the way on the stumble-walk over, and had been enjoying the sounds of nature since, unsure of what to say.

"Ya didn't let anythin' happen. Ya couldn't even really move at the time, I r'member that. Charlie'd stabbed ya and pistol whipped ya- what? Twice?" Danny easily denied him the guilt he'd carried for two years, closing his eyes and leaning further into Mordechai, the older brother actively working not to tense at the cold that radiated from him.

"He was my fault too," Mordechai argued. "He was my responsibility just as much as you were."

"Charlie had 'is own issues, Deck, just like we did. Why is it all on you?"

"I was the decidin' factor in jumpin' him outta the Serpents," Mordechai revealed, shoulders tense and eyes steadfast on the sky. "ReyRey told me he woulda killed 'im if I didn't make the decision. I thought I was savin' 'is life but I just prolonged it enough for 'im to take you with." His fingers dug into the grass beneath him as he spoke. "Some brother I was, huh? Both blood and soul."

"Are ya serious right now?" Danny finally lifted his head to stare at his older brother. "Decky ya may've been a domino in the chain of events but you were not the only reason Charlie cracked. ReyRey wasn't no help, momma Decker bein' sick wasn't no help, losin' his place in the Serpents wasn't either. I still don't really know why…why he killed me but I know I don't blame you. I don't even think I blame Charlie," he admitted, raising himself to his knees to block Mordechai's view of the sky and make him focus on his brother. "He was sick, and alone, and probably scared, definitely angry. If ya didn't have me an' Sonny and then Poppy an' Jade an' Charlie, and then the Serpents, who's ta say ya wouldn't'a gone a bit crazy? What if I never had you? I'da been dead a lot sooner. What if Lanie didn't make ya leave the Serpents an' get clean? What if Beau didn't take us i-"

"What's your point, Danny?" Mordechai interrupted, hugging his knees as he looked away.

"My point, dummy, is leave the What If's ta the dead, we got nothin' better ta do with our time. But you can choose ta move forward and live instead'a survive. I'm stuck here, there is no movin' forward for me. But ya got kids now and you're talkin' ta Poppy an' Jade again. Ya don't have ta get outta the life again, ya just gotta make sure ya still have one ta live." He scowled there. "And since I woke ya up with a needle in your arm and a guilty look on your face, I know you're makin' bad choices and livin' in the past. But all that's left for ya there is us, the ghosts, and we can't help ya figure out how to live. It's not really our thing."

Mordechai stared at his brother with sorrow and grief written into every line of his body.

"It shoulda been me, though," Mordechai lamented quietly, reaching out to grip the collar of Danny's jacket. "You were gonna go places, do things, kick ass and take names all in one. I'm the broken one, I'm the one that always fucks up. No one woulda cared if I'd gone down that da- oof!" He was cut off as he was shoved backward till his back hit the ground. His brother was now sitting on his chest and glaring down at him.

"In this scenario, I'da been alive, so I woulda missed ya. I woulda lost my brother and guardian, the only person I ever loved with all my heart. Lanie woulda lost her boyfriend in a way that wasn't trauma induced abandonment-" and fuck, no one but Danny could say that and retain a lack of judgement in his tone. "-Sonny woulda gone off the deep end, Jade an' Poppy woulda still lost a Boaz! I don't care if ya left the damn state, Decky, ya left your mark on people here just like I did."

Mordechai stared at the sky behind his brother's head, silent but openly emotional. There were tears welling in his eyes and trailing down his face, his bottom lip and chin were quivering as he clenched his jaw defiantly.

"Say it."

"Say what." the flat tone he used barely allowed the words to be a question.

Danny pushed his face closer to his older brother's, face calm and serious. "Say ya matter, say ya wanna live, say it ain't on your shoulders, say-"

"Ya know I don't say shit I don't believe," Mordechai cut in with a bitter smile. "'m sorry it includes all'a that shit ya wanna hear."

Danny huffed out a breath he no longer needed and rolled off of Mordechai to lay beside him, arms thrown to the sides. "I can't believe ya right now. No, that's a lie I totally can, ya've always been like this. I just want ya ta be better."

"No magical one day fix for that, Boychik."

"No, I guess not...Think about what I said though?"

"Of course. For you."

"Good 'nough then."

They went back to watching the stars come out as if nothing happened at all.

[Venus]

A @Venus & @Aces Away Collaboration

---

---

"Maliq?"

"Mornin' momma," Maliq replied, running a hand over his face as he turned over in bed. He looked over at the clock and realized several things at once: his bed was empty, it was thirty minutes passed when he usually awoke, meaning Nat or Jonie turned off his alarm. The fact that either of them awoke before him was surprising enough. The final thing his sleepy mind realized was that he almost always calls his momma first, and that her voice was shaky in a way that he only every hears on That Day. He was awake in an instant. "What's wrong?"

"I promise I didn't take anythin', Baby. I didn't take anythin' but I'm still seein' 'em. I need you an' Jonie ta tell me ain't crazy. Please."

"We're on our way." Creed threw the blankets off and got dressed quickly before shooting out the bedroom door, barely stopping at the sight of Jonie and Nat making out in the kitchen. "Save it for the road, we gotta go see momma." He spoke up, tossing them both their jackets and heading for the door, holding it open for them before closing it behind himself.

“Is everything okay?” Natalia questioned, alarm bells ringing immediately at the urgency in Maliq’s tone.

"What happened to Momma Kam?" Jonie asked as they made their way down the stairwell.

"Don't know, but she's seein' our parents so it's nothin' good." Creed answered, nails digging into his palms as the three of them pressed forward.

"She's what," Jonie choked as they reached the parking lot, taking one of Maliq's hands and twining their fingers together while indicating to Nat she should do the same on his other side. The girl nodded and did as she was instructed. "That's usually more of a…more of an anniversary thing ain't it?" He asked, referencing her use of psychedelics on the anniversary of her lovers' deaths.

"She didn't take anythin', Jone, this is happenin' on its own."

The uncharacteristically silent Natalia had allowed herself to be dragged away from the apartment by her lovers without protest, worry bubbling up in the pit of her stomach with every step they took. From the moment she had started her relationship with Creed and met her, Kamilla Briteson had become Natalia’s second mother. The two women understood each other in ways a lot of Edenridge people couldn’t relate to. Being a Serpent partner came with risks and responsibilities, and although the Belmonte girl was aware of them, Momma Kam had taken it upon herself to be her guide. Even after she, Creed and Jokes had broken up, the relationship between her and Kam never changed. They still went out on their weekly lunch dates, still texted every other day, and she was still one of the two people Tal went to whenever she was overwhelmed, stressed, happy or in need of guidance. Now, it was Natalia’s turn to be there for the woman who had so loving and willingly taken her under her wing as the daughter she never had.

“Wh-What happens on the anniversary?” Tal heard herself asking, more as a way to avoid any unnerving silence from settling between them.

The two men shared a quick glance before Creed's scowl deepened and he quickened his pace, pulling them along.

"Momma Kam takes a special cocktail'a drugs that kinda…gives her a mellow hallucination for the day? She basically slips back inta the old days when...when our parents were still here. When we show up at the end'a the night she'll have had made a whole dinner but been sure our parents helped. The stove is usually left on an' all the lil' things she said they took care of would be left undone. We gotta go through the house as she comes down from the high an' make sure shit's turned off or put back." Jokes dropped Creed's hand in order to wring his own together, cracking his knuckles in nervous habit as he recalls their yearly worry. "Aside from that, she basically just smokes pot the rest'a the year. But she OD'd once when we were thirteen so if anythin' weird ever happens she makes sure ta call us. Just in case."

"Just in case." Creed echoed, turning onto his mother's street and heading to his childhood home. Natalia vehemently nodded.

Both their phones buzzed and Jokes pulled his out to find a text from Mordechai.

"Looks like it's not just Momma," Jokes mumbled faintly, turning his screen so Creed could see the message. "Boa is seein' Danny, an' his buddy Poppy was seein' somethin' too."

Creed stared at the screen, his eyes distant and dark as he tried to process this. They were at the front door, just a piece of wood between them and his mother and maybe…

"So they could be real." It was said with no inflection, despite being meant as a question. Creed had checked out emotionally as his mind went through the possibilities. He couldn't even deal with the thought of little Danny right now. "Right-" he said, taking a breath and turning to Nat. "You stay behind us."

The dark-haired girl nodded again, holding onto one of Maliq’s muscled arms with both of hers wrapped around it. She didn’t know what exactly they were dealing with here. Was it a bad batch of drugs? Had someone laced the latest batch with psychedelics or hallucinogens to give it an extra kick? She knew Prof would never allow anyone to mess with his brand like that, but you never knew these days. Whatever it was, she was somewhat relieved that she didn’t have any deceased family members that could appear to her as it was seemingly happening with the rest of the crew.

“Are you sure I should be here, babe? Do you think it’s safe for me?” she asked him, a small frown of nervousness settling on her forehead.

Creed matched her frown, shaking his head. "Don't much matter now, it's not safe ta leave ya out here. When I thought it was just hallucinations it was different but...just stay behind us, I don't know wh-"

The door opened with a small whine and Jokes pulled Natalia behind him as Creed turned to face the door, both their faces going ashen.

"...Dad..." Creed choked out, his father smiling at him and looking as pristine as the day he drove out of the city on a run and never made it back. Quintel Briteson opened his arms and his son fell into them like not a day had passed.

"My baby boy, you got so big," he looked over to Jokes, glancing curiously over his shoulder at Natalia before returning to his face. "You both have. Come on in, we've got 'er calmed down a bit but I think she needs ta know other people see us too. Then ya c'n introduce us ta your friend." He winked at Natalia as he retreated inside, the boys following after as if drawn by a magnet.

In the living room, Kamilla was lying on the couch with her legs flung over Tama's thighs from where the woman sat on the last cushion. The room reeked of weed, and Creed quickly identified the source as the blunt loosely held between his mother's fingers.

Calmed down indeed.

Zeti was sitting in the recliner in the corner, the one that he always passed out on when they were alive because none of the adults could go a day without injury so they often crashed together in this very room to stay close to one another. Many times Jokes and Creed would join as well and they would watch a stupid movie and fall asleep all piled together. The nights always seemed colder after they'd died.

"Hey momma, not that I didn't believe ya b'fore, but there's no doubt you're not crazy now," Creed spoke up, kneeling next to her and making sure she saw him make eye contact with the ghosts. "I don't know what's goin' on, but I brought Jokes an' Puff with me."

Kam gave them all a shaky smile, guilt in her eyes as they fell on Nat.

"Sorry Babypop, I never wanted ya ta see me all outta sorts." She had always been the one trying to advise Natalia and help her along, be strong for her to show her it was possible, even if the Southside brought tragedy. The girl was the daughter she never had and a bright hope for both her sons' futures. Being weak in front of her always seemed to take more wind out of Kam's sails than it did with others.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, Kammy,” Natalia reassured her, rushing over to her second mother and kneeling next to her beside Maliq. She gently cradled the woman’s face between her hands before planting a tender kiss on her forehead, the woman's eyes fluttering shut in response. “You don’t always have to be strong for everyone all the time, you know? It’s okay to reach out for help whenever things get overwhelming. You taught me that, remember?”

"Oh, I like this one," Tama spoke up, lightly tapping Kam's ankle. Kam kicked her lightly in reply, a playful smirk tentatively growing on her lips. "You always wanted a daughter."

"And one that can remember and spit back your life lessons, too," Zeti spoke up, an inviting smile on his face as he saw Jokes inching towards him. He stood, wrapping his arm around him in a bear hug. "Looks like things've changed a bit." Jonie gave him a watery smile before heading back to Creed, gripping the other man's hand tightly and murmuring quietly enough only the two of them could hear. Zeti turned his attention back to Natalia. "Can ya fight too? Or are ya on the stealthier side?"

"If you're gonna harass the girl ya could at least introduce yourselves." Quintel cut in, arms crossed and eyes heavenward as he wrangled his lovers. Zeti sent him a bitch face.

"What, she don't know 'bout us?" Tama asked dramatically, hand over her chest in betrayal, only to break character and laugh when Quintel came up behind her and shoved her head forward. "Just kiddin'. I'm Tama Thunder, that's my husband Zeti Slick, and behind me is Quintel Intel. Nice ta meet'cha."

It was an acceptance, a welcome, to greet her the way Tama did: using both given and serpent name together. The lost generation was giving her all of them, both facets, while they had the chance.

Natalia could only stare at the newcomers in wonder, her mouth slightly agape. The many photos and tales of the departed Briteson-Kraeter family members didn't do any of the justice. No image could ever capture the stunning beauty of Tama Kraeter's exotic features, or the confidence with which she carried herself (much like Natalia's own). No picture could ever recreate the playful sparkle in her husband Zeti's eyes anytime he smiled, his handsomeness, or how his demeanor was so irresistibly charming. And no tale could ever truly explain the pearly white brightness of Quintel's perfect teeth, his attractiveness, or the richness of his baritone voice. They were all so beautiful, so captivating, so lovable... It was easy and heartbreaking to see why their passing had been so hard on the loved ones they left behind.

"Tama, Zeti, Quintel: it truly is an honor to meet you all," the young woman declared, taking the time to make eye contact with and address all three adults with the same reverence one would use when speaking to a very important person. "I'm Natalia: Maliq and Jonie's girlfriend. The boys call me Puff. I've heard so many stories throughout the years, and I'm so glad I have this opportunity for us to meet."

"Oh I really like this one," Tama laughed. "You're adorable, I can already see what our boys see in ya."

"Pull back a bit, love, don't wanna scare 'er off," Quintel said from behind the couch, smiling at Nat. "Not that ya seem ta scare easy."

"Babypop kept both'a them in check when they started datin', she ain't scared'a much." Kam revealed with a light laugh, reaching out and squeezing the girl's hand.

"She didn't keep us in check!" Jonie cried indignantly, looking to Maliq for support only to have the other man shake his head.

"That ain't a hill I'm boutta die on, J." He denied the other, pushing him forward into the room. "Go say hi ta both'a your parents properly."

He stumbled forward before pinwheeling his arms to regain his balance. Brushing off imaginary dust, Jonie looked up to see his father had already stepped forward to stand before him, Tama slowly untangling from Kam's legs before the both of them gathered him into a proper family hug. They whispered affections in his ears as he cried silently into their shoulders, calling Maliq over halfway through the tears to join the hug.

"So," Quintel spoke up from where he was now on the couch next to Kam, the latter having sat up and pulled Nat down to her other side while the others reunited. "How'd ya meet our boys?"

Natalia's green eyes immediately went to meet Maliq's brown ones across the room, and there was no disguising the way the corners of her mouth turned upwards before she immediately pursed her lips together. Her mind immediately traveled back to that Northside house party September of her junior year-- the one in which she and Creed had officially met. The scenes were replaying themselves back to back in her brain like the screening of a short film: the seductive dancing, the shameless flirting, the passionate kissing, the scorching hot hookup they'd had in one of the host's bedrooms--

"We, um, we met at a party," the Belmonte girl said as simply and matter-of-factly as she could, biting back a complicit smile.

Creed however seemed to be an open book to his family, his face flushed and eyes suddenly darting. Jokes snickering in the background certainly didn't help. Tama and Zeti shared a look as Quintel's eyes lit up with mirth.

"Oh, so it's like that, huh?" He teased, all of the adults laughing at the look on Maliq's face. "Hey, no shamin' here baby boy, I met your ma at a party too."

"That was a serpent party," Creed rejected immediately, still trying to regulate the look on his face. "And ma was workin', this was some Northie's party I was dealin' at."

"Come on now, ya ain't gotta defend it, ya ain't done nothin' wrong."

"I know that…" Creed grumbled as he looked down, flustered. Quintel laughed again and pulled Creed down to his other side, the four of them officially filling up the couch. The Kraeter trio settled at the recliner and loveseat across from the couch.

"What do you do now?" Zeti cut in, taking pity on Creed and attempting to get back to learning more about Nat in one fell swoop. He was pretty good at bulldozing conversation into new directions.

"I, uh, I'm a college student, actually," Talia answered, shifting around the couch to get into a more comfortable position. "UMass. Finance and Business Administration major. Volleyball scholarship. Pledged Sigma Delta Tau in my first semester of freshman year. Starting my sophomore year spring of next year. There's a bit of a family emergency happening, so I took a break this semester to stay home for that."

"Wow," Quintel murmured, slinging his arm around Maliq's shoulders. "You're one impressive lady. What drew ya ta our two delinquents here? No offense ta our boys, but that seems ta be a different social circle your comin' from."

"I mean, have you seen those faces? How could anyone not be drawn in?" she joked, and after the laughter around the room had subsided she continued. "They're just… such amazing young men," the dark-haired girl gushed, shooting both Creed and Jokes a warm, loving smile. "They're hard working, sweet, caring, thoughtful, attentive… I could honestly go on all day about how awesome they are. They've been with me through some of the most challenging times of my life, and have never done anything other than protect me and make me feel safe and loved. I've always been a firm believer that there's more than meets the eye; that it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from as long as you're a good person at heart. Maliq and Jonie are the perfect example of that. I couldn't have asked for or dreamed of having better partners."

There was silence from the parents as Maliq and Jonie beamed at Natalia despite their red faces. Zeti was the first one to break it.

"...Can we cry as ghosts? Is it possible? I just might regardless." He spoke as him and Tama both put a hand on their son's shoulders and smiled at him.

"We are so proud'a you boys." Quintel agreed as he threw his arm around Maliq and gave him a loving noogie.

"We always knew ya'd be good men, and we're so happy we got ta see it ourselves. Even some'a your good choices first hand." Tama put in with a wink to Nat.

Kam, relatively silent next to Nat as she watched all her favorite people interact, turned to the girl next to her and gave a watery smile while squeezing her hand. "I'm glad your gettin' ta meet 'em, Babypop. I've wanted this for all'a ya since the first time Maliq brought ya home."

"And I'm so glad I have the chance to," Tal responded, wrapping her arms around Kam and pulling her into an affectionate hug. "I know how much this means to you and the boys, Kam, and I want you to know it means just as much to me."

Kam smiled, patting her cheek and placing a kiss to Nat's temple.

Finally, after so many years of suffering, the world of the Briteson-Krater families was right again... Even if it was just for a little while.

[AlteredTundra]

_{A @metanoia & @LovelyComplex Collaboration || featuring Marco Brady & Cat the Cat}

---

---

The revved engine of a dark blue pickup came to a steady stop in front of the Godmother’s Sandwich Shop. Marco made sure to park it as close to the entrance as he could. The only downside was that his brother’s truck was lifted up somewhat, so Marco knew as soon as he stepped out, he’d feel that nice crunch of his limbs. That kind of earth-shattering crunch one always wants to feel after they’ve had an eye awakening experience.

As he watched in a painful limp, Marco found himself taking a seat at the nearest table inside. Surprisingly it wasn’t jam-packed as he assumed it would be. He didn’t know who else was seeing themselves, but Marco shrugged as he put pressure off of his left leg and was left to his own devices for a few minutes. He spent those minutes just thinking about everything his other self said. How that whole ordeal was all about his internal strife (or however the hell he phrased it). Said that he needed to deal with the external.

“What the hell does that even mean?” Marco cursed, slamming the table with his balled fist. “And now my hand hurts. Wonderful.”

Looking up, Marco saw Cat hovering over him and he started to wonder just how long she’d been standing there. “Oh hey! Didn’t see you there.”

Raising an eyebrow, curious and concerned, Caterina, with painted whiskers on her face and cat ears on her head, gave the boy a quick glance over before smiling, “Oh hey, it’s a little early…” Cat looked at her wrist watch, then the door, then back at Marco. She was in her red pea coat jacket, which covered her black long sleeve shirt and pants (a budget cat outfit). She looked like she just arrived into the building, only moments before Marco came trampling in, “You’re my first customer today seeing how I haven’t opened yet.” Cat laughed to herself, realizing she must’ve forgotten to lock the door behind her. “I can fix you up a sandwich real quick. Let me guess, your usual? Irish reuben with extra sauerkraut?”

Today started awfully weird, on top of the sky having an odd hue of purple casting over their town, her kids actually sleeping in instead of jumping in excitement for the Belmonte party and trick-or-treating, Edenridge seemed… different. Gentle mist dancing throughout the streets. An unusual quiet. It felt almost magical, in a haunting sort of way, like they were stuck in a dream. She couldn’t tell why nor did she personally have any weird occurrences happen to her, but she could feel it in the air.

“Oh, and Happy Halloween!”

Marco had been lost in his own thoughts even as he sat there. His delayed reaction came in the form in an almost startled jump. “And Happy Halloween to you too!” would be the last thing Marco said as Cat disappeared behind the counter.

He could smell her make his sandwich, the smell being enough to awaken his stomach and make it almost eat itself. He didn’t know how long it’s been since he ate anything. He didn’t know what time he even woke up. He remembered it being night time when he was having that strange encounter with his other self, but maybe that was him thinking it was night time? Could have been early in the sunrise transition. It definitely felt like it was early, though. Something about the way his body felt whenever he pulled an all-nighter. That bizarre mix of hungry and sleepy lingered like a bad itch.

And smelling the corn beef brisket was more than enough to intensify that feeling.

Taking himself out of his head for a change, Marco looked up. And maybe it was just the first time him noticing, but he realized she had the whiskers and ears of a cat. “Say Cat, have you noticed anything...weird going on lately? I mean, like anything out of the norm?”

Placing his plate in front of him, along with a glass of water, Cat shrugged, “No, but I do have this weird gut feeling. Then again, I’m kind of on autopilot in the mornings. Why, what’s up?” Since she hadn’t officially opened her store yet, Cat decided to invite herself at his table, sitting across from the boy her little brother used to hang out with a lot. “Did you get spooked or something?” Intertwining her fingers together, she rested her elbows on the table and her chin on the back of her hands.

There was a vague instance where she saw her father talking to her late great uncle Cosimo in front of Palermo but she didn’t have her morning coffee yet so she didn’t think too deeply into it.

“I don’t know. Maybe?” Marco said, looking down at his sandwich. He hadn’t touched it yet and his stomach was making him suffer for it. “I still don’t know if it was a dream or not. It’s honestly so bizarre now that I’m thinking about it, but I kinda had a conversation with...myself. Minus the limp I’ve been…blessed with.” He laughed more at how crazy he probably sounded right now. Thinking about it made him want to tear some hair out and saying it out loud cemented that thought.

“Is that weird?” Cat tilted her head, wondering why this kid was beating himself up for his inner thoughts. “Sounds like you were self reflecting and maybe your subconscious just made it feel like you were talking with yourself?” Unlocking her fingers, Danny’s eldest sister leaned back and adjusted her ears, “What did you talk about? With yourself? If you mind me asking.”

Somehow Marco knew that she wouldn’t understand completely. Or maybe it wasn’t that and she was right? Could that actually be the case? Marco had no freaking idea which one it was, but that didn’t matter. As he took a bite of his sandwich, savoring both it and the time it allowed him to think on how to phrase what he was about to say, he looked up at Cat the Cat. “I don’t mind telling. I mean, okay so I guess it really was just about this...other me making sure I understand what happened to me--” He made a point to raise his injured leg up which more or less felt like dead weight, “--wasn’t my fault. And, I guess that I had to tackle my internal and external crisis, whatever that’s supposed to mean.” He laughed again and took a bigger bite of his sandwich, chewing as he thought about what the other him emphasized when he said external crisis.

In sudden passion, Cat slapped the table, “Why the hell are you blaming yourself for that fucking kid going pyscho?” Woah, reel it in Cat. Reel it in. “Did you know my daughter was shot near you, Marco? She’s given up completely on soccer, and you know what? That’s okay. Life doesn’t have a map. We don’t have this predetermined final destination. Things change, people change us. Do you think I always wanted to be a business owner? Fuck no. Originally, my dream was to become an actress. I was in my prime in high school, but shit happens. I lost my best friend and got pregnant, then I decided to use the gifts my parents gave me for a stable life.”

Marco knew she was right. His other self said similar things. So why couldn’t he bring himself to follow their line of thinking? On some level, he did blame himself even though Charlie Decker was the one who clearly was in the wrong. But as he sat there, slowly chewing on the last bit of the first half of his sandwich, he didn’t know that about Sofia. Or maybe he forgot when he was deep in his own despair and self-pity. “I’m sorry, Cat. I didn’t mean to…” He choked on his words. Even right now he couldn’t bear to make anymore excuses, not when Cat had proven that they held no merit.

And in a way, maybe this was what he needed. Not only because of the sandwich that helped satiate a hunger that lingered about, but also a sense of direction. If it wasn’t for Cat, Marco wouldn’t have been able to put the final pieces of this puzzle together. “Thank you, Cat. For the sandwich. I’ll probably take the other half to go. I think there’s something I need to do.” As he got up, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. “How much?”

“Free. It’s Halloween, kid, go enjoy yourself.” Caterina stood up and began to clean up the table. Swiftly, she grabbed him a to-go box, handed it to him, and began cleaning the table, “Listen, life is short. If I can give you any sound advice, don’t wake up with regrets. It’s exhausting.” As Marco got up, Cat paused from wiping the table and glanced up at Marco, frowning a bit, “If you get a chance, check on Danny for me? He’s been out of it since, um... our mother died.”

At the moment that Cat had mentioned it, Marco only smiled for the sake of Cat but internally he found himself truly worried about Danny. He couldn’t even begin to understand what that was like, to wake up one day and find that your mother was gone. Just the thought of not ever seeing his ma again terrified him, lord only knew what Danny might be going through right now.

He gave her a nod, holding his smile firm on his face. “I will. I’ll swing by later, I promise.” There was a sort of a conviction in Marco’s voice, the kind that seemed to say more than his words could ever.

[AlteredTundra]

______________________________________________________________________

As the cool breeze hit the nape of Jade’s neck, she started to shiver and regret not wearing something more conservative. With just a mid-thigh-high black dress, boots that came just above her knees, her usual leather jacket that has become synonymous with Jade’s “look”, and a witch’s hat to complete the impromptu witch she dressed up as for her shift, she knew she’d regret it. She just didn’t think it would be so goddamn cold tonight.

But just put that on the list of things that Jade didn’t anticipate tonight.

It’s true, she didn’t think tonight would be as full of surprises. When she came into work around 8, she did so with the mindset she always had whenever she went to work: it’s just a normal day and nthing out of the ordinary was going to happen. There might be a few guys at Edge who might get handsy. It was the Southside, after all. Jade had come to accept that there were people among the Southside who still didn’t respect boundaries just as they should know that if you invade her personal space, she won’t hesitate to invade theirs.

But again, that was just how it was for her. Rey Rey might protect her per the Serpent and Fallen Angels brotherhood-esque bond, but that didn’t extend for everyone else who thought Jade was easy. She could be if she liked you enough, but when it came to those random strangers who saw her hand them drinks versus dancing around a pole, she maintained some professionalism with them only if they respected her enough to not touch what they didn’t earn.

Usually, that would be the extent of her day, but something more happened. After she knocked a few front teeth of some guy aptly named Bad Luck Rick, Jade began seeing...things. Maybe it was her fucked up sleeping schedule that was to blame. She recalled seeing flashes of people she knew to be dead. Old clients of hers that she mourned. Angels that she grew up with who died because of the life. She saw them at the club, raising a hand to them.

And as she found herself coming to a stop at a crosswalk, the chills that went up her spine at the moment was almost as intense as when she first saw those familiar faces. She didn’t know what the hell was going on nor if what she saw was even there. It’s also true that Jade had been relying on psychedelic drugs a lot lately. She kept having dreams about Charlie. They weren’t exactly meaningful dreams. Well, it was Charlie, so perhaps they were always meaningful. She always had dreams about Charlie.

God, how she missed Charlie. He’s been on her mind a lot lately. Even before tonight. Even before she thought she saw people from her past who were no longer alive. She has been thinking about him in the same way she’d imagine old people look back on their lives and think about their regrets. She had plenty of regrets when it came to the one person she felt she had let down the most.

And if there was anyone who could relate it was…

“Poppy?”

Speak of her soul sister and she shall appear.

Yet, it didn’t seem like she noticed when Jade waved at her.

“Wait, where is she going?” Jade questioned as if anyone else could hear her. “Poppy!” She called out, yet her sister couldn’t hear her.

As she watched Poppy move away from where Jade saw her, she decided, at that moment, that if she couldn’t get her sister’s attention, she would do the only logical thing that anyone in her position would do.

She followed her banana-cap wearing sister.

[Aces Away]

a @metanoia @LovelyComplex and @Aces Away collaboration featuring Mordechai and Danny Boaz, Penelope James, and Jade Taylor

---

Walking on the sidewalk of Carlisle Avenue, with headphones on, over a mustard-colored knitted beanie, Penelope James found herself in a fever dream, as she made her way through the crowd in contemplative silence. Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi blasted in her ears as the night came to life. Halloween gave people permission to make-believe and be a kid again, or a monster. Whether they gained an inner sense of joy in masks and costumes or they simply wanted to indulge in all the candy and spooky themed desserts, the community of Edenridge thrived on nights like this.

This night was livelier than usual. At least on this street, the people she glided past had suspended disbelief and chose to spend time with their ghosts, in ignorant bliss, as if they never died. A sister in a fairy costume prancing beside her dead brother, who died the day of the shooting. A mother holding back her tears and gathering all four of her children, half deceased, to take a picture together. Two ghost lovers, Penelope was pretty sure they were in the Acapella group, embraced each other tightly. She even saw some folks in fashion that were decades old, perhaps they were ancestors.

It was weird and oddly… beautiful, in a sad kind of way. Poppy was sure not everyone was as accepting as these individuals were, as they crossed the border of North and South. For example, she, herself, wasn’t ready to talk to her ghost. However, she understood where their heart was. No one knew how long this happenstance would last and they didn’t want to waste any time. Admirable, really, how they can bury all their hurt to enjoy the moment.

If only it was that easy for her…

After slipping into a hole in the chain gate surrounding the track, a hole that was made years ago, Poppy left the fever dream behind where the dead and living celebrated Halloween together, and took the shortcut to the park. A shortcut that led to an area she shared with Mordechai, Danny, Jade, and... Charlie. Through the track, climbing over the bordering gate, and entering the surrounding dark wood, Poppy took out her flashlight and walked a path less traveled, especially as of late. A barely noticeable hiking trail now covered by nature.

When she reached a tree marked with initials of lovers, instead of following the happy trail that led to a lovers’ den for teens, she walked off the path and let her memory take her to the next destination. When she arrived at an open area in the wood, a small circle clearing with the best moonlight, she saw the Boaz brothers sitting by the black oak tree on the makeshift camping ground they made to cloud and stargaze. Aside from an unused campfire, the only other noteworthy thing was a rustic mailbox that likely had books inside it that they hadn’t touched for years. Mordechai had his phone light on and both him and his little brother looked up at the starry sky.

After putting her headphones around her neck and turning off her music, she watched the two boys turn to her (likely hearing her rustling). Waving the flashlight, she announced her arrival, “Hey.” Strolling onward, she apologized, “Sorry for making you two wait, I was having… a time. No, no need to get up, I’m coming to you.” As soon as she entered their bubble, she crouched down and opened her arms, offering Danny a hug, “It’s good to see you, Danny.” It seemed at least for now, or at least for Danny, Poppy was embracing the odd phenomena of ghosts owning the night.

Danny happily returned the hug, squeezing her tight before pulling back and grinning at her. Mordechai watched the exchange from his own spot, soaking up every moment of seeing his brother that he could.

They'd been there a while longer in their near-silence until Poppy had arrived, the emotions from their last conversation draining even the lifeless brother of energy. Danny had quietly pointed out the constellations visible through the clearing while Mordechai worked on not shutting down emotionally before Pops could even get there. Now, though, she was here with them once more.

"Poppy!" Danny cheered, still hugging her like he was a little kid instead of the two of them being the same height. Danny had been on his way through a growth spurt, already shooting up a couple inches the summer before the shooting. "Did'ja come alone?" He asked confusedly, looking around. "What happened ta Ch- ta whoever visited ya?"

Mordechai eyed his brother as he actively searched for other ghosts, meeting Poppy's eyes with his own question about the specter that everyone knew would appear to her first, maybe exclusively.

“He’s… seeking answers.” Penelope gave a weak smile, her gaze shifting between brothers, before clearing her throat, “I’m sure he’ll show up when the time is right.” And when that happens, maybe she’ll be ready to talk to him.

Shifting the subject, she stared at Danny, running her hands through his hair. “You haven’t changed much.” Danny rolled his eyes good naturedly in response. One thing she realized about ghosts were, their touch is only possible if you deem it so. Consent and power of will. If you don’t want to be touched, you can reject them, like she did with Charlie not so long ago - walking right through him.

Staring at the boy that was like a little brother to her, Poppy could feel the nostalgia grow heavy in her chest, like it was only yesterday. Like it was only yesterday when she last saw him walking into the main building, as she made her way to the gymnasium. Usually, she would’ve gone with him to get some breakfast but… she was asked to wait in the gym.

How strange this all felt.

Was this a blessing or a curse?

“How’s it to be back? Even if it’s just for a little while.”

"It's...watery?" Danny answered, tilting his head into her fingers a bit more. Mordechai looked at him questioningly so he continued. "Like this- I r'member what this felt like when you an' Decky used ta do it but I can't feel it now. The only thing I really feel is the pull ta go ta someone, like I did with Decky when this started, everythin' else is just memory."

"So no cold or hot? No pressure?" Mordechai asked, shuffling closer to them and crossing his legs. Danny shook his head.

"Nothin' at all, but that don't mean I don't want the contact." The younger boy admitted, settling himself between the two and snuggling up to them both. "But seein' y'all? Hearin' 'bout your life, Decky, 'bout your kids an' friends? It's a gift that's gonna bring me a lotta peace." Mordechai sniffed and tilted his head to rest against Danny's while the boy practically glowed in contentment. "I think we all deserve a lil' peace."

As much as Penelope wanted to drop her defenses, she was still on edge from seeing multiple dead people. The rational part in her brain couldn’t turn off. In addition to that, she had this gut feeling that something like this shouldn’t have happened, messing with the natural world so unnaturally… something bad was bound to happen.

Something bad always happened in Edenridge.

While the brothers enjoyed each other’s presence, Penelope was quick to hear something come from the wood. Without any hesitation, she pulled out her father’s gun, adjusted her position for better aim, and took it out of safety, “Who’s there?” It’s been awhile since Danny saw Poppy last and rarely did he see this side of her. The most prominent memories he would have of her is when she babysat and read to him, not this girl with a gun who carried so much weight on her shoulders.

The eerie darkness lended itself to the blonde as she almost snickered whilst in the darkness. “Now I know you’re not aiming that at me, PB&J,” Jade smirked as her figure became more than a silhouette her black-on-black costume made her out to be. She came with a cigarette pressed between her lips and she took it up between her right index and middle fingers, blowing the smoke out.

As Jade went closer to her soul sister, there was a moment where they exchanged a glance. Jade was happy to see her (though she could have done without the gun). Southside life, huh? But what made the blonde take a double take was who she saw beside Decky. Either she was seeing things like she had been all night or she saw Danny right there in the flesh.

“There’s no way…” She heard herself say as her steps were slow but she was getting closer and closer to Danny. She went right past Poppy and found herself looking directly at the boy she believed to be dead. She got a bit close to the boy and really found herself studying his face for an uncomfortable few seconds. “It really is you, isn’t it?”

With a sigh of relief, Penelope put the gun back into safety. Standing up, she gave Jade her moment with Danny as she surveyed the area.

"'S really me, J," Danny replied, reaching out to tap her nose with his finger as proof. "We're all back, just for a little bit." He looked at his other older sister. While he spent a lot more time with Poppy, Danny still loved Jade just as much as he did all of his older 'siblings', and he was happy to get to see her, knowing she suffered just as much as the others. He held his arms open in an invitation for a hug, not wanting to push her with the bombshell of his presence already having dropped.

"He woke me up in a den an' freaked me the fuck out," Decky explained, glancing at Poppy and deciding that bringing up Charlie was her choice. "Creed's dad an' both'a Jokes' parents are back. I haven't heard anythin' from Sonny, but a few other Serpents are seein' old crewmates an' family."

There was a moment where Jade felt herself hesitate. Not out of some reservation that she had that this was real. The fact that Danny talked back to a very specific question she asked put any of those thoughts to rest, yet she wasn’t quick to hug him. She didn’t know why she recoiled her arms close to her chest. Maybe it was the overwhelming amount of emotion flowing through her heart and soul and that if Danny was back, did that mean…

Charlie.. The thought of his name and face and things she left unsaid, she was about to let it all show.

So she embraced Danny in a comforting hug.

And for a moment, the reality of him being a ghost was almost taking shape. As she went to wrap her arms around him, she felt not only hers go through his, but his go through hers. And for a moment, she hoarsely murmured: ”no..”, like she didn’t want it to just be like how ghosts were in the movies. She didn’t want him to go through her like a wall.

Then by some miracle of whatever fuckery was happening tonight, Jade could feel him. He didn’t feel like a ghost and she was smiling. And she shed some tears as she hugged Danny tighter like she needed it more than she was initially letting on. Danny held back just as tight, burying his face in her shoulder to cover the fear he had gained at almost falling through her, of being lost twice.

Mordechai continued his silent observations while he allowed the two their moment, his head tilted to the side. Everything and everyone in Edenridge had a habit of reverting to their base selves, and without the people that helped push them forward, they'd all been stagnant for years. This ghost thing was confusing, most definitely a blessing and curse all muddled together, but it might just finally give all the living residents thier second wind. He could get behind that.

When they'd had a proper amount of time attached to their hug, he finally spoke up. "Not that we ain't all happy ta see ya or nothin', Boychik," he started, running a hand through his hair which had doubled in length since Danny's lifetime. "But if we've got everyone back, don't that include...y'know, the serial killers and enemies too? There's been a lot over the years."

"I mean, I don't know everyone that's ever been buried in Edenridge," Danny replied, biting his lip and looking up in thought. "but yeah; there's a good chance it ain't gonna be sunshine and rainbows for everyone t'night."

“Yeah, we should get going.” Poppy didn’t hesitate in replying, ready to take on the night by storm. “The sooner we find answers, the better.” Already, she switched her gun out with a flashlight, before deeply sighing, “The dead are back and that ain’t right. As much as I love seeing faces of the past, it hurts. Like a bitch. And I can only imagine the balance of nature, well, it’s fucked. Now come on, we don’t have all night.”

That last statement had more weight than any of them realized. While the night was young, time was ticking and they were being watched.

[BrutalBx]

---

---

Leaving her son's room with a vinyl record beneath her arm, Rhonda Decker walked through her house, the lights dimmed down so as to not damage her already strained retinas. Her free hand traced the walls, guiding her path down the stairs towards the living room; her fingertips caressing the photos she can no longer see and lately has begun struggling to remember.

Charlie had been gone for four years and the eighteen that Ronnie had with him just didn’t feel like enough. On nights like this, where the heartbreak felt just that little bit more painful, she would venture into Charlie’s room and find something of his to help guide her mind and memories back to a happier place. Sometimes she would sit and just hold one of his books. Her eyes were too far gone now for her to be able to read them. There were a few of his journals that Vicky had managed to get converted to braille for her, so some nights she would deep dive into those. Then there were nights just like this one, where she would grab one of his vinyls and just play it just so she could hear his words between the lyrics.

Kneeling before her classic record player, Rhonda pulled out the disk and placed it gently onto the turntable. She plugged in her old headphones and placed them over her ears. Ronnie loved music and so did Charlie. Whenever she would listen in to her baby boys room, whatever band was playing was a testament to his mood. The last record he ever played was the one she was now spinning; Oh Charlie…

Trudging slowly over wet sand
Back to the bench where your clothes were stolen
This is the coastal town
That they forgot to close down
Armageddon, come Armageddon!
Come, Armageddon! Come!

“I can hear you, Charlie”

Rhonda smiled as she closed her eyes to become lost in the music. Morrissey may have been an absolute cunt but his music was transcendent. She wondered why this particular song was what Charlie chose to listen to on that horrible day. Even all these years later, the mother didn’t know fully why her boy did what he did but she had chosen to move on, to look past it and just remember her son in happier times if that was ever a thing.

Solemnly and silently, the spectre of her deceased son entered the living room. Charlie stood in the doorway, gazing upon his mom as she moved her head to the music. Everything around him had changed. Since he shuffled off the mortal coil in a hail of gunfire, his mom had completely redecorated and made the house much more homely and liveable. His room was still the same, she had kept it that way.

In a strange twist of fate, Rhonda Decker’s fiscal life had gotten better upon her son's passing. She could no longer work and the state was helping her out. She was legally blind and Victoria had helped build up the house to make it far more suitable for her new needs. Charlie had spent all of that time, pushing, grinding and falling deeper into the blessed darkness that he would eventually succumb to because he wanted to create a better life for his mom. In a roundabout way, his death was the best thing that ever happened to her.

”I remember when I brought you this home” Ronnie couldn’t help but reminisce aloud. ”You were thirteen and I had been at work all day. My feet were killing me and it was late but then I walked by the record store and this album was just sitting in the window, staring at me. I remember cos when I came home, you and Poppy were sitting watching…”

”High Fidelity”
”High Fidelity”

Charlie sat down on the couch, gripping his knees nervously as his mother took the daunting stroll down memory lane. He was desperate to reach out and hug her, to tell her how much he loved her and missed her and how much he regretted everything that he had done. For so long he justified it all as providing for her like she had done for him. Yet that simply just wasn’t true. Charlie’s mind was not wired the way it should’ve been and he didn’t get the help he needed which cost people their lives, innocent people.

”I hear that people are seeing dead folk….how strange. Yet you’re not here..or if you are, you’re not showing yourself and that’s ok. That’s ok, baby. If you are listening, I’m proud of you and I love you. What you did, I can’t change that but you will always be my beautiful boy and I know you, if you’re not here with me, you’re probably out there with Poppy or Jade, doing the southies proud and protecting people from the unsavoury dead that may want to cause us harm. You’re a good boy, Charlie Jay”

Tears were welling up in Charlie’s dark chocolate eyes. He was a coward. How could he not let his mom know that he was there, watching over her? He was being selfish again, worried that her heart couldn’t take the pain of seeing him again.

”I’m sorry Mom”

He whispered, stifling back his tears. She was right though, Charlie needed to go and help everyone and end whatever was happening. Sure it would mean he would go back to where he was before but that didn’t matter as long as everyone was safe. The dead walking amongst them, this pandemic, it wasn’t natural and it needed to end. Charlie pushed himself back up to his feet and wiped the water from his eyes. It was time to do work. He headed towards the door from which he entered and disappeared.

Rhonda took off her headphones and placed them back onto the side by the record player. Her smile dropped as the music faded into a scratch.

”Go get em, kiddo”

---

In a clearing somewhere in the woods, Charlie emerged from the shadows to be greeted by the sight of his other family. Danny, Decky, Jade and Poppy.

”I hear you’re the guys to call if I wanna bust some ghosts”

[Venus]

A @BrutalBx & @Venus Collaboration
TW: Death of a Partner | Mentions/Ideations of Death/Suicide

---

---

"I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream would never do
I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing."

The tune of Aerosmith's most popular hit began to coax the sleeping figure of Caitlin Cleary back into a wakeful state. Although it was a song she had refused to listen to for the last five years, there was something different about the version currently filling the empty spaces of her bedroom that Halloween morning. There was no music to hum along to, or any instruments to carry a tune. In its place, a familiar deep voice was intoning the famous rock ballad in a murmured lullaby that took Caitlin back to flannel shirt days, lakeside nights, clandestine encounters and a whole lot of love.

Cece slowly began to open her eyes, giving them time to adjust to the faint rays of sunlight peeking into her bedroom. She could feel the energy and warm presence of another figure laying next to her; its gentle hand running their fingers through her silky red mane. At first, she half-smiled, assuming it was her boyfriend Niles Sinclair serenading her this morning. But then she remembered that Niles hadn't spent the night with her, that his voice wasn't this deep, and that he knew I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing was a banned song. Frowning with both curiosity and dread, the young woman carefully turned around to confront this stranger in her bed, ignoring the way her heart was hammering inside her chest with that fight or flight instinct going off. But when her eyes fell on the figure now in front of her, she nearly gasped in shock. Right there, laying in bed beside her, was her first love... 

David O'Hara.

“Hey there, pretty lady.”

David’s curly brown tresses framed his handsome face perfectly. He was dressed exactly as he was that fateful night: in jeans, boots, a flannel button-down shirt, and his signature Levi denim jacket. He wasn’t soaking wet and frozen solid like he was when they found his corpse; no, he was as warm and as full of light as he was the rest of the time. 

If Francis Callahan was the king of the school, David O’Hara was the Duke. His father was the most beloved member of Edenridge High staff that wasn’t named Beau. It was a lot to overcome and in hindsight; David never really accomplished that feat. He had lived in his fathers large looming shadow from the day he and his twin sister Jamie were born. He had considered making an appearance to her on this unprecedented eve but Jamie was….fragile and seeing her long dead brother might just be a little much for her. 

Whoever said being royalty was easy? 

While her peers had wasted time battling and getting over questions, hesitations and uncertainty about what was happening, Caitlin did the complete opposite. She didn't know how or why this was happening, but she'd be damned if she didn't take advantage of every second she had with the person she'd missed most in the entire universe. So as soon as she realized she could physically interact with the figure in front of her, the redheaded girl had burrowed her face into David's chest and began to sob quietly. 

"I'm sorry!" Cece desperately apologized to her former lover as she pulled away, matching rivers of tears continuing to stream down her heartbroken, freckled face. "I'm so sorry about everything, Dave. It was all my fault! Where they found you, how they found you-- I know you were coming to see me! I never, ever, ever, wanted anything like that to happen to you! I am so, so sorry… I'll never forgive myself for being the reason you're not here with me today."

“Caitlin, it’s okay.”

David held his girl close into his chest as she wept and pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head. “You weren’t at fault for anything. Shit just happens and what happened to me, it was what it was.” He had spent a lot of time on the other side, thinking back to the events that led him to his death. David, when he was alive, had little care about the world around him, about what went on in other people’s lives and the moments that made the world turn. Yet when something happens like what happened to him, it makes you think something fierce. 

“Look at it this way, CeCe: with me gone, you’ll find something better, someone better. Everything happens for a reason, kid."

Cece vehemently shook her head. "But they won’t be you," she whispered, cupping David's face with both hands and locking her eyes with his. "They won’t be you, David! They won’t be the guy I had a crush on since I was a girl. They won’t be the guy I fell head over heels in love with when I was fourteen. They won’t be the guy who was my first kiss, my first date, my first time-- my first everything! They won’t be the guy I'd sneak around for just to spend some time with, or the one who'd talked to me for hours, or the one who had me melting every time he smiled at me. We were going to get married and live in the cottage next to your parents' house. We were going to have a house full of kids that had my hair and your eyes. You were the one I was supposed to spend my life with, Dave! It wasn't supposed to be like this." Cece knew lamenting what could've been wasn't going to change what had already happened; but David needed to know that her heart would always belong to him.

“I was pretty amazing wasn’t I?” David had always had that cheeky edge and even in death, humour was still his best friend. 

Caitlin let out a shaky chuckle and nodded. "You really were."

David pressed his lips to the girl's forehead and, deciding to finally break their embrace, got up off the bed.

The curly haired boy wandered the room he had spent many a night in so many years ago; it hadn’t really changed, it even smelled the same. “I see you kept hold of my vinyls… Nice.”

"That's not the only thing I still have," she told him with a sad smile, taking up a seating position in the middle of the bed. "If you want a real trip down memory lane, pull out the brown box under the bed and bring it over here."

David brushed his chin with his palm after he had pulled out and opened the box under Caitlin’s bed. “Wow." It was filled with mementos from their clandestine relationship over five years ago. The redhead had kept pretty much everything from their time together: photos, letters, postcards, flowers and even his letterman jacket. It was amazing to David that even so many years on from his death that she held on to all this memorabilia from their time together. As happy as it made him that he was still on CeCe’s mind; it did make him feel somewhat uncomfortable. He had been gone for a long time now-- she shouldn’t be still pining after him.

“You really are hung up on me, aren’t you, kid?”

"I'm not sure I ever won't be."

David glanced out of the nearby window where you could see the shimmering waters of Lake Eden. Had he not crossed the water that night, things would’ve been different: things would’ve been as Caitlin wanted them to be. That just wasn’t the case. He may be back from the dead for however long, but he couldn’t turn back time-- he wasn’t Cher.

“CeCe, you’re allowed to feel as you do. But remember: you can’t change the past. There’s no use dwelling on it. I’m gone. So look to the future-- look to your future.” He took a seat back into the bed, holding onto his old letterman jacket. “Listen, I’ve been gone for years and I’ll be gone for the rest of them too. I’ll always be with you, kid. Always watching over you. But you have to let me go and get on with your life. This place, this town, it’ll eat you alive if you let it. Don’t let it. Be better than this place. Like the song says: ‘Carry on, my wayward son’….I mean…daughter…you get what I’m trying to say.”

“But I’m scared…” Caitlin croaked, lower lip wobbling with the premise of tears as she settled next to David on the bed again. “I’m scared of so many things, Dave… I’m scared I’ll never find someone that’ll make me feel the way you did. I’m scared of feeling like betraying you and what we had just by contemplating the idea of someone else. I’m scared that, if I ever do find someone else, that I’ll eventually forget you. And I’m freaking terrified that I’ll fall in love with someone this deeply again and lose them like I did you. I never want to go through this heartbreak in my life ever again.”

In retrospect, Cece hadn’t been this raw, real or vulnerable with anyone in years. Even as a child, the redhead masked her feelings with her sweet and cheerful disposition to prevent her loved ones from worrying about her. But David? David had known her better than anyone. He used to read her like a book. If there had been anyone in the world that she trusted with her mind, heart, feelings and emotion’s workings more than Danny or her older sister, it had been David

“Heartbreak is a part of life, Caitlin,” David wrapped his hand around hers and held it in his lap. “It hurts like hell and it can take forever and day to get over but once you get beyond that pain, it gets better. That pain in your heart, the voice in your head telling you that it’s not worth it, it’s wrong. It gets better and life will always find a way to give you what you’ve earned. You’re gonna struggle, but it’s what makes life worthwhile.”

Caitlin shifted her eyes away from David to stare at the floor. She took a deep breath, and before she knew it, was spilling her darkest secret to her beloved. "I used to have those really dark days, you know? I would wake up sobbing really really hard after having a nightmare about you, have a split-second relief of thinking it was all a dream, only to break apart all over again when I realized it wasn't: that you were truly, actually, really gone. I couldn't sleep for weeks. At one point, I thought about putting on my best dress, walking over to the lake and tying bricks or cement blocks to my feet so I couldn't come back up when I jumped in after you…" she admitted while wiping away a few stray tears, her voice breaking as she made the confession she hadn't voiced out loud to anyone else before. "But I didn't do it, because there was a voice in my head that told me it was all going to get better someday. Sometimes I'll be blindsided by a memory of you, and before I know it I'm a crying mess in the middle of my bedroom again. But sometimes everything feels like it's okay. The good days slowly started to be more than the bad. And yet, there are some days that I can't help but wonder… Did I ever do anything to deserve any of this?"

“You didn’t do anything, kid,” David stroked her gorgeous red hair. “But that voice in your head was right. Things did get better; Niles? My boy Mika? I’ve been whispering in your ear this whole time, baby girl.” He grinned at her goofily, proud of himself for some stupid reason that he would never admit to. “I don’t know what the great plan is but what I do know is that as soon as I figured out that I could influence your world from where I was, I did. I started letting you know that the sadness wasn’t forever. You moved on and I’m glad you did.”

As soon as Mika and Niles were mentioned, Cece whipped her head to look back at David with wide, shocked eyes. "You know about them?" she asked, her lower lip wobbling with the guilt painted all over her face. Their names sounded strange coming from his lips, like a child enunciating a curse word. Even after his admission that he'd been the one to influence their presence in Caitlin’s life, it still made her feel as if she's been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to.

“Of course I do.”

David leaned back on the bed with a smug sort of grin across his face, while Cece followed suit and rested her head on the crook of his shoulder. “Who do you think sent them to you? Mika is my cousin, so I had a bit more influence on him than I did Niles.” He glanced out of the crack in the curtains at the world he once knew and sighed. It seemed in some ways that the light had gone out. “That said, him breaking your heart was never part of the plan. I can influence but I can’t control. I do think that you’ve always been loved, though, by everyone. There’s just grander designs, I guess.”

'Loved by everyone'... That was an interesting choice of words from David. Was this a subtle way of him confirming that Mika had indeed reciprocated Cece's feelings during the time of their involvement? The damage was already one and done, of course-- nothing would change the heartache he'd caused her. However, it did bring the girl some relief to know her intuition hadn't been mistaken, and that she hadn't been betraying David's memory in any way by trying to move on.

"As true as that might be, I still have a very big question for you, Dave. Was I ever loved by you?" she asked him, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips while she looked up at him. The answer was obvious, but she still wanted to hear confirmation from her eternal lover. 

The young man smiled at her and kissed her lips. "With all of my heart.”

As the redhead brightly smiled back at him and hugged him tight, David couldn't help his deep sigh. He didn’t know how much time he had left with Cece before the world returned to normal and whatever was happening stopped. For all he knew, he could be back on the other side the next time she opened her eyes. He could tell the pain was still raw, but hopefully after this she could finally find a way to move past what they were and start focusing on who she is.

As for Caitlin, the encounter marked the arrival of a new dawn to the rest of her life. His love for her, like hers for him, would always live on forever. But with David's blessing, and the undeniable confirmation that she was not to blame for his passing, the young woman would now be able to find the unwavering strength within herself to truly move on forward. She was free to love and live life to the fullest, heart at peace knowing that David would always be taking care of her.

[NeoAJ]

---

---

“OK, OK, slow down, hun. Calm down.”

This was a weird position for Jillian O’Brien. A position she had not found herself in for a while. She used to be very good at being a soothing influence on her friends, at least in high school. How many times did Liv come up to her in a panic over makeup choices, or Kat ask her for help with homework, or Danny… well, Danny needed everything back then. Jill would always be there to offer a friendly ear, a kind gaze, and a relatively firm grip on reality before inevitably switching to pump up mode. It’s why she was able to handle all the various tragedies that befell their class. At least on the outside.

However, she was more on the giving end the last chunk of months, especially with Mei. So many rants and raves that her now-girlfriend had to deal with in Jill’s deep spirals. All the demons and ghosts that resided in her mind needed somewhere to go, and Miss Midnight had more than enough experience to deal with them. So when Mei came up to her in a state, talking about what she did to try and cleanse the town of its sins and what resulted, Jillian did her best to try and dig back into her past and find that side of her that was able to deal with this in a calm and rational manner.

“OK. You with me? OK. First of all, I can’t believe you went and did a ritual without me. I mean, I may not have known what to do in regards to everything, and it’s probably for the best I didn’t see you offering up the blood sacrifice, but I would have at least been there in spirit.

Speaking of spirits, second of all, are you sure there are now spirits wandering around? Again, I don’t know what went into this ritual, but I know it took me a lot to get to the point of talking to the dead. I’m sure I looked great doing that. But, are you sure it’s not just the wishes of what you wanted to do with this thing? Not that I’m doubting you and your abilities, I just, I know your sister coming back has been stressful, and... you know I’m in this for keeps, right Mei? You carried me all those days and nights, I can start paying you back. You can come to me with anything that’s bothering you. I’ll be here for you. For allllllll this.” Jillian was trying to straddle that line of support and skepticism and she wasn’t sure she was succeeding. She was rather out of practice.

“Baby; this has nothing to do with the ice bitch, ok?”

Mei sighed through her nose. How could she even begin to articulate everything that had happened between her signing off on her latest broadcast to when she came running through the door of her apartment and straight into Jillian’s arms.

It all started after she left Elder Island and began the trek back towards Eden. It was weird, there were a lot of people on the street, a lot considering it was midnight on a weekday. Then she noticed they weren’t on the street but in the road, just walking without emotion. Then she saw faces, faces long since gone beyond the world of man; she was just tired, Mei thought. Until she nearly ran over someone and her heart all but stopped.

“I swear, Jillybean. I nearly ran over Quinton Woods with my car. I think I emptied whatever pit of hell is reserved for people on Edenridge. They’re all back. Hell, I think I saw Charlie.”

Miss Midnight took a hold of her girlfriend’s hands and squeezed them tightly. The feeling in her heart; she wasn’t sure if it was fear, trepidation, excitement or something in between. All she knew was that she needed Jillian by her side.

The redhead could feel the sensations emanating from Mei’s hands as they enveloped her own. Any previous notions of unflappable behavior were dispelled with the tremors she felt. Jillian looked back up at Mei, trying to piece together everything given the story she was told.

It was hard though. Chasing ghosts was all well and good, but actually hitting them with cars? Jill wanted to believe, if only for a moment, that it was possible. There were so many ghosts surrounding her that if Mei did manage to bring them all back to the surface that Jill would notice. Maybe not her father, since he seemed to be pretty much at peace with the choices he made, but Quinton? Olivia? Kat? Allison? Matt Carson? So many souls taken with unfinished business. So many that she had crossed paths with… or shared blood with. She shuddered to think about that last bit. Maybe it was in tune with her girlfriend’s vibrations.

If nothing else, she could swing a stick at Charlie Decker’s ghost in some sort of vain attempt to do to him what she felt he did to her with his actions. On more than one night, as she had learned.

“OK, OK, well, it doesn’t surprise me that if Quinton really did come back to life he would be stupid enough to almost get himself killed again. Shoot, if you saw Charlie, I would have told you to hit him anyway to make sure that fucker stayed dead. But… what.. and why? I’m not going to ask how. I believe you told me that, but what’s the game for them being here? If they are here? What do they want?”

”I’m really not sure.” Mei shook her head. ”The ritual I did was a cleaning one. It was supposed to rid us of the curse, not bring back…everyone affected.” That was it, that was where it went wrong. Something in her wording or phrasing may have been mis-translated; the book she used was in ancient Gaelic after all. ”I think I figured it out, Jill. I think I know what happened. So basically…”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The banging on the door interrupted her and she glanced over at it. Mei let go of Jillian’s hands and stood up to head over their potential guests. She wasn’t expecting anyone, it was well after midnight and visitation as this was reserved for a Jillian O’Brien booty call but since the redhead was currently sat on her couch; she was curious and a bit excited. Maybe someone from the other side was reaching out but who?

Mei opened the door and her dark eyes widened at the sight before her. ”Oh fuck.” She turned back to face Jillian slowly. ”Babe, I think this one’s for you.”

As Mei sidestepped away from the doorway to reveal the guests that stood there, for they would still be essentially tied at the waist even in death, Jillian looked around for the telltale signs that maybe she had downed another Texas mickey’s worth of vodka and didn’t realize it. How else would it explain what was happening in the doorway? There was no way that Katherine Dunbar and Olivia Madden could be standing there in front of her eyes, in front of Mei’s eyes apparently, so it wasn’t some sort of hidden drunk sneaking up on her. It couldn’t be, but then what was this?

Jill thought about standing up for a second but there was no need. Once Mei opened the door, the invited guests took the opportunity to rush to their former queen bee. “Jill!” squealed Kat, forever the more excitable of the pair. She reached out to give her friend a huge hug, one that had Jillian questioning if she really was back from the dead. Ghosts don’t hug like that, right? It lasted a couple of seconds before the blonde girl peeled back. “It’s you! We’ve been looking all over for you!” A confused look crossed her face, one Jill remembered from some of the late-night study sessions that were meant to make sure Kat’s grades stayed where they needed to be to keep her on the squad. “I wouldn’t have expected to find you here though. I mean, you were heading to Boston proper, right? Going to be an Eagle?”

“She could be visiting for the weekend. Edenridge Halloweens do hit different with the cursed history and all,” Liv said sarcastically as she settled in next to Kat. Olivia was always the cooler head among the trio, reigning in Katherine’s bubbly optimism and Jillian’s fiery determination by keeping things grounded. She leaned in, not getting as close as Kat dared, but still taking the sight of the redhead. “Although she’s not really dressed for the part. She just has the ghoul makeup on her face from the looks of those bags under her eyes.” The brunette’s coolness did make her a bit of a bitch at times, but Jillian did appreciate the fact that Olivia would always be one to tell her whatever truth she needed to hear. Not so much right now though.

“Liv! The hell!” Kat seemed to be offended on Jill’s behalf. “We haven’t been able to talk to Jill in how long and that’s what you want to say first?!?” The Dunbar girl’s ghostly hand drifted back to Jillian’s and patted it. “I’m sorry, girl. Liv’s just mad because her face has a problem that concealer isn’t going to fix.”

“I’m not mad about it,” Olivia said in a contradictory tone. Jill was perplexed for a second but as Liv’s head turned with a scoff and those bangs shifted back to the side, it became clear. She didn’t want to remember. She wanted her friends to truly be back among the living. But as the nickel-sized bullet hole peeked out from under that brown fringe, it served as confirmation that it wasn’t going to happen. “I guess Charlie was aiming for brains but knew there weren’t any in your head and that’s why you took two to the chest.”

“Liv!” Katherine covered up the two holes and the reddish marks on her green crop top that indicated where Decker put the shots that ended her life. “…Eh, you might be right.” That’s usually how those exchanges ended. Sure, they sniped at each other, but that’s what friends did, right? Especially on the squad? It’s how they kept each other in line, and solidified bonds. Bonds that lasted beyond the grave apparently.

Back in the day, Jillian would have been right in the middle of it, content to let Olivia take a shot at her rotating cast of boyfriends if it meant she could get a better barb in regards to Liv’s inability to beat Kat out for another’s attention. Right now, she couldn’t say anything though. What could I say to them? Sorry you’re both dead? Sorry I look like shit? Sorry I definitely took some of your clothes afterwards? I don’t even know where they are anymore?”

“Anyway, it’s so good to be able to do this again!” Kat leaned in for another hug. “It gets really hard to not be able to have that contact with someone who can feel it. But enough about me, what about you! Like I said, how’s living in Boston? Is it everything we thought it was gonna be?”

Jill was worried that she was going to have to break her friend’s unbeating heart to tell her about everything that happened after their deaths, but thankfully Liv shook her head and pulled Kat back. “Sorry, Bean. I think Kat’s forgotten everything since the day we left.” She turned back to the blonde. “Kat honey, you know what happened, right? Jill’s not living in Boston. She’s been here. Been in this god-forsaken place this whole time.” A saddened look spread upon her face. “Been struggling a lot from what I’ve seen.”

“You both… saw all that huh?” Jill looked away, ashamed of her post-high school life yet again.

Liv solemnly nodded. “Didn’t see all of it, per se, but heard enough and saw the results.” Now it was the brunette’s turn to rest a cold hand on the redhead’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Jill. I wish we could be there for you. It sucks having to watch and not be able to do anything about it. At least you had someone to stick around and help you through everything. Although, I have to admit, I would have bet on Caitlin or Lanie to have taken that role up. Not our gracious host over here.” She finally turned to address the other former cheerleader in the room. “How have you been, Miss Midnight?” she casually asked Mei. “I think all you’ve done for Jill since we left more than makes up for you snapping Kat’s mix CD in half when you found out there was a Florida Georgia Line song on it.”

“I just liked the twangy guitars,” Kat sheepishly said, now looking away from the group.

“There are many better uses of guitars,” Liv again ended up shaking her head, a habit that was not helping her hide the scar of her last encounter with another living human being. “Anyway, you still fighting the good fight against the world?”

In a weird way, Mei had hoped that the gruesome twosome wouldn’t have noticed her leaning against the door they had previously stepped through. She didn’t get along with them when they were on the mortal plain the first go round, she didn’t see this being any different.

When they were alive, Kat and Liv were what one would consider the stereotypical high school cheerleaders, which of course, Mei herself was not. She didn’t really consider it until most of them were six feet under but the midnight girl realised that they were not people she would’ve associated with by choice. At least Jill, Lanie and Caitlin had some distinctive personalities. Kat and Liv were interchangeable, background players.

”I’ve been with Jill.” The dark priestess began. ”She’s been taking care of me.” It was true in her eyes at least that Jill had her saviour as much as she’d been hers. Without her to support and to look after, basically a reason to keep going, Mei may have given up a long time ago. ”Can you tell us anything about what’s going on out there?”

Jill blushed a little bit at the thought of her still taking care of Mei given what had happened, but Kat was more than happy to take that statement at face value. “That’s Jill for you! Still doing her best for the squad no matter what!”

Liv, however, was more focused on the question that Mei asked. “Are you asking if what you’ve done is causing mass panic on the streets?” She paused for a second. “Yeah, don’t give me that look, I know you had something to do with this. I’m surprised it took you THIS long to be able to raise the dead. But it’s fine. Charlie Decker isn’t out for more blood, Maxine James isn’t seeking out your sister, Matt Carson is… well, who knows with that guy. He was a ghost before he died. I think a lot of us are just taking the opportunity to finally have some interaction with those in the area we want to talk to.” She looked sadly over at Kat. “Or, you know, completely block everything out like she has been doing since she died.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Liv. Everything’s been going fine the past couple of years.”

“Right, girl. Keep telling yourself that.” She turned back to Mei. “But no, we’re not adding to this army of the dead. I wouldn’t want anyone to join this parade anyway. Sure the cheer section is stacked, but what is there to be happy and cheer about?” Olivia nodded over at Jillian. “I’m honestly surprised given what our fearless leader has gone through that she didn’t end up joining us, but I’m relieved she’s on the path away from that fate now.”

She closed her eyes, almost as if to keep a tear from falling, but there was no liquid coming. “I know Kat may be delusional, but like I said, I’ve seen enough to know what you’ve done for Jill, Mei. When we couldn’t be there and almost everyone else who had a choice chose not to be there, you not only stayed, you rode with her. You gave her a reason to actually stay attached to this world.” Olivia opened her eyes again, they looked softer than the usual icy look she gave. “And I guess one of the reasons I’m here is to apologize to you and thank you for everything you’ve done. I know I treated you like a ghost in high school, and a lot of times I couldn’t see what Jillian saw in you to keep you as close as she did. I do now. I wish I could act on it better than I did when I had the chance. So I’m at least going to say I’m sorry. I’m sorry for icing you out all those years and not doing what Jill had the smarts and the heart to do and look past the darkness to see the person you were inside.”

Mei was taken aback by the girl's words. She mulled over how to respond. Other than with Jill, she was rarely the emotional type. Her dark and striking makeup often hides the turmoil beneath the surface.

”I appreciate that, thank you.”

Of course Miss Midnight managed to conceal how she really felt. The women in the room could pore their respective hearts out as much as they wanted, as they should in such a situation but Mei wasn’t there, not yet. She still needed to get over that particular hurdle.

”By the way I wasn’t trying to raise the dead…it just kind of happened. I was trying to cleanse the bad memories and make this damn place liveable again.”

This earned another shake of Olivia’s head. “I don’t think that’s a job you can take on all by yourself, Mei. There are so many demons in this place, it’s going to take a tanker full of industrial strength Purell and a Vatican’s worth of exorcists to clean away the taint. I’d just focus on making one other person’s life better at a time. At least then you can see the progress.” Liv looked longingly at Kat. “That’s another reason why I’m here…”

While the two darker-haired women were having their tete-a-tete, Jill was a bit overwhelmed by the situation. At least Liv was giving her space and talking to Mei but Katherine, she was the same Kat she was up to the day she died. For better and sadly for worse. It meant she was clinging tightly to her friend, likely since she had spent the past couple years clinging on to only Olivia.

“So, you have to catch me up! How is Boston? Don’t tell me if Lucas Hayes is still with that stuck-up Victoria Kelly! I don’t want to know! Tell me about you!”

Now Jill was more confused. “You… haven’t been watching me? I thought Liv kinda implied that’s what you two were doing.”

“Well, she was more focused on keeping track of you, but I was more worried about the Celtics and how everyone was doing and… it’s hard, OK?!? But that’s why I want to hear about it straight from you!” Kat was either lying, or dying did more to scramble her brain than it did Liv’s.

Jillian did what she always used to do when Katherine needed some help understanding things. She breathed a heavy sigh, brought Kat into a soft hug, ignored the fact that she wasn’t aware ghosts could be hugged, and softly started, “Kat honey, you don’t want to hear about it. Losing you and Liv sucked. It sucked so hard. I could barely keep the squad together during that year. I struggled so much without you two. None of us had the same heart, or the same drive.”

“But you won, right? Tell me you beat Pinehurst.”

“Yes, but it was hollow. We dedicated the win to you two, the latest in a list of cheer casualties. But you should have been there with us. I shouldn’t have to tell you this second-hand. We should have celebrated together.”

“It doesn’t matter, Jilly! I want you to be happy even if I’m not there! And winning makes you happy!”

“But it didn’t, Kat! It didn’t bring you back! It didn’t bring Liv or Ally or anyone back! And it just got worse. And then everything spiralled and then I couldn’t win anything. I was a loser. A useless loser that no one cared about.”

Now the ghost was the one controlling the hug. “I know, Jill. I’m sorry.”

Once again, Jill was confused. “If you know, and if you’re sorry, then why are you asking me for a recap on how my life went to shit?”

Kat pulled back for a moment before leaning in close and whispering in Jill’s ear, “Because all I’ve done since I died is watch you take more hits then I could ever take, and watch Liv be so miserable that she couldn’t do anything to help, and I knew I had to channel my inner Jill and do something keep her spirit up. But it’s hard to do while watching all that going on, especially with some of the others hanging around. So I went back to when we were all happy and I never left. At least not according to Liv. Worrying about me takes her worries off everyone else, and off herself. You know how much she blames herself for taking the both of us into the library that day? That we ended up in the wrong spot because she wanted to see if the new copy of People was in?”

Jillian nodded. “Probably more than I did.”

“I know it,” Katherine confirmed. “And I can’t let her keep doing that to herself. It’s not her fault. And you know I would have done the same for you, right? I would have done those news things, I would have been with you so you weren’t so alone, I would have kicked Mike Barrie in his stupid face for being such a… terrible person.”

“You did always have a super high kick.”

That brought a smile to the dead blonde’s face. “And I would have used it without thinking. But it’s not your fault either, and it hurt me seeing you think that way. So that’s why I’m so happy for whatever Mei did tonight to let this happen. So I can finally tell you these things and that even though you may not feel it, we’ll always be there for support. Besides,” Kat finally broke her gaze with Jill to look over at the other two women in the room for a moment. “I think you’re in good hands. And all this time, I never knew! I mean, yeah, you never kept a boyfriend for very long in school, and you always were like a momma hen protecting the squad and… I mean there was that one sleepover that, you know, and… shoot, did I just miss all the signs or something?”

“There were at least two of us missing the signs in that case, because it took me a while to figure it out too,” Jill admitted. “Probably longer than it should have.”

“Well at least we both got there! And I think Liv finally knows now that you’re going to be alright. Maybe she can finally rest easier and maybe I can stop acting like I haven’t got a clue all the time! I mean, I know I said I wanted to be an actress and all, but it’s hard doing it 24/7!”

“You would have been a great Karen Smith, KittyKat.”

“Well, I can still be a great me. Even like this. And maybe now, you can go back to being that great you?”

Yet again, Jill had to look away. “I don’t know? Maybe?”

“Yes, Jilly! You’re going to! I mean, we can already see it starting to come back to you. And you know why?”

This was going to be a first. Katherine Dunbar giving an answer that eluded the great Jillian O’Brien. ”Why, Kat?”

“Because you’re not going to be thinking about the past anymore. Staying in the past is sad. It makes you sad. So, think about the future. And when the good things in the future happen and become past, you can think about that past and you won’t have so much sadness to think about. It’ll only be the good times. Like the night before Ally… well, you know...”

Another mention of Allison Davies reminded Jillian there were more ghosts out there. “How is Ally? Is she… is she all right? Is she coming by?”

A shrug was the immediate response. “Dunno! Ally’s her own person. But next time we see her, we can at least tell her something good.”

“OK, Kat,” Jill said, content to let the blonde have her way. “Just tell her I’m sorry, OK? I’m sorry for a lot of things, and a lot of people…”

“What did I just say, Jill?” The whispering had stopped now, enough to catch the attention of Olivia at least. “No more of that! Promise!”

“Kat, is everything all right over there?” Liv was moved enough to finally check in.

Miss Dunbar steeled herself, making it look as if she was the one who had just received the massive pep talk instead of giving it. “Yes,” she softly affirmed. “Yes, it’s fine. Jill’s going to be fine. And that’s good.”

Jill was still unsure if she was going to be fine, but she did feel better. Maybe all that confidence that she thought was dead and gone just went to someone on the other side that could collect it and get it back to her. Kat was still willing to grow and be that voice she needed, even if she never had it in life. Jill could at least try to reward that. She smiled over at Olivia and Mei, wide enough so Kat could see. “You heard her, Olive Oil. I’m going to be fine.”

“Glad you got that affirmation,” Olivia nodded, before readdressing Miss Midnight. “How about you, Mei? Need any more podcast fodder while I’m here?”

”I always need more things to talk about.”

Mei really wanted to allow Jill to have her moment with her girls. They were never her friends as they had so clearly stated in the past few minutes. She had always been on the outside due to her love of the macabre and the netherworld. If anything, she was only allowed on the squad because of her older sister Reagan. When you’re kin to the ice princess it regrettably opens some doors. Mei had always loved to dance and thanks to her lifelong training with her father, it was no question that Miss Midnight was arguably the most athletically and rhymically gifted of the legendary Celtic cheerleaders; the problem was she just didn’t have the same passion for it as the others.

”I’m glad you two have found peace where you are.” Mei made her way over to Jill and locked her fingers with the redheads. She planted a soft kiss on her lover's cheek and smiled at the ghostly duo. “Thank you for watching over her but I’ve got to try and figure out how to send you guys back to where you were. I can’t imagine you being here is healthy.”

“Already?” Kat whined. That was the Kat Jill remembered more than the steely pep-talk giving blonde. “But we just got here!”

“Yeah, but we don’t need to linger,” Olivia said, tempering her friend as she drifted over to the couch where everyone gathered. “We already crashed date night, we don’t need to make things any more awkward.” She pulled Kat up and mimicked Mei’s move, locking her fingers in with Miss Dunbar’s and holding tight. “Just promise me that whatever equivalent of a wedding you two have, I don’t know if it’s going to be another blood ritual or something like that, remember this spell so we can come back and give our girls a proper celebration, hmmm? We may not be able to bring presents, but we won’t cost you any food or anything at the open bar.”

“Look, just do that gentle breeze thing to sway whatever we have hanging, that’ll be present enough.”

“Maybe I’ll learn better tricks than that by the time it happens.”

“Oooooh yeah!” Kat chimed in excitedly. “We can make all the dances be to Cruise!”

“We’re not haunting the ceremony with songs that deserve to be dead, Kat.” One more shake of Olivia’s head for the road. “Anyway,” She motioned down and wrapped both living members of the Celtic cheer squad in a hug, Kat joining in to make it a quartet. “Keep going at them for those of us who can’t, all right?” The hug didn’t last long, Olivia didn’t want to push the envelope with Mei post-apology, but hopefully the sentiment showed as the ghosts rose.

In a way, Mei felt a strong sting like feeling which she equated to guilt. She did not blame herself for Olivia or Kat’s untimely deaths but she did nothing to mourn them. They never saw eye to eye but death seemed to have changed their ways and brought them a kind of peace. It had obviously given them time to reflect on who they were and who they wanted to be. Mei on the other hand, she had tried to fix everything but herself; perhaps this was a wake up call? Plus this talk of marriage…She had only just gotten Jill to fully come out; marriage was a whole different kind of witchcraft.

”I’m sorry for what happened to you both,” The Wiccan girl began. ”And I’m grateful to you for watching over Jill. I’ve gotta do some Bitchcraft and send everything back to where they came. Whatever happens next, it’ll be nice to know the gruesome twosome will be watching over us as guardian angels in lipgloss and nail polish.”

“And it’ll match too!”

Looks there was one more shake of the head to come from Olivia after all. “We’ll do our best to keep up the watch. Over both of you. You’ve both got protection from beyond, although Jill still probably needs it more than you do, Mei.”

“Hey, fuck you, Liv! I’m learning! I can do supernatural things! Maybe!”

Now Liv was laughing. “Can’t wait to see it. If you get the other form of cursing down as well as you got the first one, you’ll be a force. All right, let’s get out of here, Kat. I don’t think we should be near the epicenter when Miss Midnight rings last call.”

Kat still had that pleading look on her face. “Can we at least go to the mall before that happens? I want to see the new stuff out at American Eagle.”

Olivia looked somewhat surprised that her traveling partner wanted to look at something that wasn’t from high school. “The mall is definitely closed right now.”

The blonde pouted. “Does it really matter for us?”

Liv thought for a second. “I guess not. All right, let’s go.”

That brought a smile to Katherine’s face, wider than the one Olivia had, as the two moved, hands still entwined, towards the door. There was no need to open it as the pair faded through en route to wherever they would end up.

Alone again with her girlfriend, Jill finally had the opportunity to parse what the hell just happened. It was just like old times, the nicknames, the sass, everything sounded like it was during an average junior year hangout. But it was different. They were different! Kat was plotting and thinking up schemes to help her best friend, and Liv. Liv sounded mature and able to have emotions and… what did that make her? Even in death, Jill’s friends were growing and getting better and what had she been doing?

Exactly what Kat said she did. Dwelling on the past. Letting old wounds fester. Not even trying to move on, content to just let the pain take her. It wasn’t healthy. How many people could see that? How many dead people could see that?

But she was getting better now. She had a reason to get better. Reasons. They were out there. Even if she couldn’t see them.

Jill let out the huge sigh she had been holding in and let herself collapse against Mei, head resting on the black-haired girl’s shoulder. Even if she barely moved, it still felt like a marathon session. She didn’t even think about how the two of them would take the revelation that she was fully embracing her sapphic side now. But they were both perfectly fine with it. She almost wished she gave in ages ago.

“So… that was a lot,” she finally spoke in a soft tone. “Fuck, I didn’t even get to tell Kat how fat Tori Kelly got. I don’t even know if she actually cared. But fuck… I… I never thought I would see them again. Definitely not like that.” Another sigh, softer, but leading to a smile on the redhead’s face. ”I guess it’s nice to know they’re happy for us.”

Mei planted a soft kiss to Jill’s forehead before wrapping her up into her arms. ”When I did the spell I had no idea this was going to happen, I’m glad it did.” She wanted to enjoy the bliss of a happy Jillybean but she knew that they couldn’t stay like that forever. She wanted to stay in their little hideaway and be together but there was still too much to do and Mei didn’t know how much time they had. Seeing Liv and Kat had proven something to Miss Midnight; not all the returnees would be good. Edenridge was a place of many horror stories and now those stories would have come back to life.

“Don’t get too comfy babe, we’ve got worlds to save. Goddess help us.”

It was a tough ask. Jill knew Mei was right, that what had been done needed to be put back the way it was. That her fallen friends’ time back in this realm would have to be short. But she could at least stall for a little bit longer. Just to have this moment, this feeling of absolute comfort basking in the glow of what turned out to be a welcome reunion of the Clovers, and another affirmation that her relationship with her fellow ex-cheerleader was the right path to pursue. It was the best Halloween she could ask for. It could last a little bit more before work had to happen. “Fine… just a few more minutes… the worlds can wait... let Kat check out another storefront… just for this… I love you, Mei.”

Mei allowed her lips to fall upon Jill’s and shared a kiss with her beloved. She didn’t want the moment to pass. There were people who had gone whom she wished to see. She wasn't as hard as she made herself out to be. Yet the balance of nature had to be restored. Still, that could wait, if only for a brief moment. Mei was lost in the whisper of a dream with her girl. The monsters at the door could claw for just a little longer.

“I love you too.”

[AlteredTundra]

_{a @metanoia & @brutalbx collaboration}
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Marco’s mind seemed to be full of thoughts he couldn’t shut out, but hasn’t that been his entire day? It seemed regardless if he was at home during the point that he was on-and-off listening to Mei’s podcast/stream or dreaming(?) that he was walking and then running all the way to the place where he got shot by Charlie Decker, Marco just couldn’t shut out those screaming thoughts. He tried to and even went by Cat’s sandwich shop just as it opened and got himself the only thing that has ever helped him that wasn’t his squad on League. A sandwich they might as well call “The Marco” because the Irish Reuben was what he always ordered. And Cat knew him to prefer a bit more kraut than most people preferred.

But as he sat at his computer desk, the sun glaring in his face and him killing heartless in Kingdom Hearts, a change of pace of sorts, he chuckled at the irony. He was in the Halloween Town world and it was Halloween for Edenridge in the real world. How funny it was to him that some things aligned. And he tried to focus on it, but the only thing that he could think about was that conversation he had with himself. Cat helped him make some sense about it and one of the many screaming thoughts was a repeat of her advice to not have regrets. Whether he was talking to himself or some weird astral projection of his inner turmoil, Marco thought a lot about what she told him.

But there was something he had to do first. God or whatever sort of divine figure was at work tonight, knew that before he could go check up on Danny and maybe really talk with him, Marco knew he had to do something first.

After a quick shower, and getting a “small” snack of a complete breakfast spread of sausage, eggs, toast, and some skillet potatoes tossed with some chili peppers, Marco was out the door. He felt full enough to have the confidence to do what he knew he needed to do, but he also had a level of conviction that wasn’t gonna be scared off by any doubt or fear of the unknown. Unlike the last time he got into his brother’s truck and drove to the scene of the worst event in his life, Marco was sure that this was going to happen in the way he wanted.

As he parked the truck in the same spot he did last time, like it was a symbolism for his growth in the past eight or so hours/ To most, that might not a lot of time but going through what he went through, it was like he spent that time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

He took in a deep breath, running his hands along his arms that were inside a hoodie he had forgotten was Danny’s. A thought came to him of wanting to return it to him. Exhaling, Marco felt a wave of stress being released from him. He opened his mouth and just said it: “I don’t know if this is actually going to work, but if I could talk to myself, then maybe I can even talk to you, Charlie Decker.” Marco closed his eyes, some kind of foreboding sense in him refusing to let him open them.

As per the former soccer standouts request, emerging from behind the bow worn and decrepit “Welcome to Edenridge High” sign was the man himself, the monster; Charlie Decker. Of course, he hadn’t changed from that day. The visage that presented itself to Marco was not the same one that Poppy and the others had seen. He was not clean and unbruised. He did not look comfortable or at peace. This Charlie, this was the Charlie on that day. His hair was greasy, his chocolate eyes were surrounded by dark, foreboding sleepless circles. Dried blood was splattered on his cheek and his clothes were worn and dirty. This was not the free spirit of Charlie Decker, this was the memory, the haunting pain in the collective gut of Edenridge. This was the boy the world let down.

“Marco”

His heart started to beat faster as the world around him came to a standstill. And he could hear the thumping of it pierce through his ears. His eyes remained closed but that did nothing to quell the fear inside him that was growing and growing until it threatened to explode from anywhere it could.

He thought he was ready. Marco was confident that after everything: having a talk with himself, getting food and unanticipated advice from Cat, and going home and having a bit of time to himself, Marco thought he prepared himself enough for ..for …this.

But then he heard Charlie’s voice say his name. It was strange because he seldom interacted with Charlie outside of small moments when they’d pass each other in the hall. Truthfully, Marco’s relationship with Charlie was almost nonexistent, yet his voice and hearing his name come from them was an unbearable terror that made the Mexican boy weak in the knees.

But he had to regain himself. He had to find that confidence he was sure he came to this field with before Charlie appeared before him (or so he thought). He took in a total of three breaths. On the third one, he opened his eyes. He held himself together, though the effects of his legs shaking, made him take a knee and it was his weak leg that he had to put force on.

“Charlie…” Marco said under a few, quick breaths. He grunted as he was vertical again. “Can’t believe that actually worked.” It was the surprise on Marco’s face that said it all. He knew whatever was happening was, if nothing else, unbelievable and unexplainable to anyone who hadn’t experienced it. With Marco not having many ties to Edenridge, his experience would be with...this person.

After the initial dust cloud of shock settled, Marco stood about five feet away from Charlie and just looked at him. He couldn’t find any words to say other than his name. He couldn’t think straight. His thoughts were all over the place and, while he could say a mountain of things, none made it out with tact, so he just gritted his teeth. As he did that, he balled up his right fist so tight he felt his nails dig deep into the flesh of his palm.

“Charlie…Decker…”

And as he cried out in a mixture of terror and desperation that was laced with a latent anger Marco hadn’t known in years, he hooked his right arm, aiming dead straight for Charlie’s jaw.

The impact from Marco’s fist sent Charlie backward into a parked car. Standing as tall as the Native American boy did, it was always the case that whenever anyone swung for Charlie, which was often when he was alive, had to swing upwards. He had made sure to make himself corporeal for this meeting with Marco. He had learned that the charged emotions of those around him were what dictated his abilities in the moment. The likes of Poppy and the others, they remembered a different Charlie to the one that someone like Marco would. Marco would likely only remember the boy that shot up the school, who didn’t socialize at parties and constantly looked like he had just gone five rounds with Mike Tyson. Marco’s rage, Charlie felt it when he was called, he needed to let out whatever he had inside and he needed to do so at the darkest version of Charlie, the one that stole his future.

He corrected himself and stood back up to his full height. He didn’t move any closer to the other boy, just stayed perfectly resolute and still like the elder tree on the edge of town.

“Let it out, Marco.”

“Let all of what out?” Marco questioned back to a stilled Charlie Decker.

Marco felt an immense pain coursing through the hand that had connected with Charlie’s jaw and it surged down his leg. It was bad enough that he allowed himself to be consumed by the emotions swirling inside him like something wasn’t balanced, but now he was suffering a pain caused by Charlie, but it had a double layering effect to it. The injury he caused and the literal sturdiness of his jaw made his entire hand hurt.

Looking at him, he needed to control himself. God, Marco really needed to find that center again.

But he couldn’t.

Not now and especially not after Charlie just...stood there.

Limping forward, Marco was slow in closing the gap between him and Charlie. He was seconds away from grabbing his shirt and pushing him further against the truck but the way that Charlie didn’t move startled him. “What do you want me to say, Charlie? Do you want me to say that I hate you? Is that why you came when I called? Jesus Christ…” In a fit of frustration, he stomped the ground with both feet and gritted his teeth again from the stupidity that hindsight gave it. “God-fucking-damnit! You did this, you know? You don’t say anything and now because of you, I have a bum leg! Because you...Because you decided that you had to make people pay, you made..”

Fuck, what was he saying? No, that’s not true. Did...he really feel this way? This...wasn’t like the Marco Brady that was so full of life...or was this who he became?

Marco sank to the ground and his head lowered as he hit the grass with a close fist out of pure frustration at himself.

“I did do that and you didn’t do anything Marco, you were just there”

Charlie’s response was very matter of fact; in that moment it didn’t seem as if Marco needed an answer as to why or for a glimpse into the psyche of the mad man who shot up a school and the kids inside whom he had known since kindergarten. Acting as he was, as the boy he used to be, Charlie hated this but it’s who the former football star needed him to be right now. He had spent years in the afterlife regretting every decision he had ever made but Marco didn’t know that and he didn’t need to know that unless he wanted to.

“What is it you want, Marco? You called me here. Do you want an apology? Do you want to know why? Or do you just want to get a good look at the monster that haunts everyones dreams in some morbid curiosity? Man up and tell me what you want?!”

Marco felt silence take him in her grasp. The pain lingered, but he internalized it and kept it bottled up for what probably seemed like an eternity. He just...sat on the grass. He looked at the ground. At his hands. He replayed those moments before and after he was shot in his head, reliving it over and over and over and over again. He tried to make sense of it and maybe find an answer to Charlie’s questions.

But there was nothing. Nothing that made any sense, anyway. He just kept going back to what his other self said. How he needed to confront his external crisis. How he would know what he needed from Charlie when the time came.

The longer he sat there, lamenting about the past and thinking about it, he still didn’t know. Deep down, he just didn’t understand anything right now. “I...don’t know.” He finally broke the silence and his body shook as he raised up his head to meet Charlie’s gaze. “I-I thought…” Marco grunted as he got to a vertical base. He wobbled in place, but remained steady. He glared at Charlie, feeling the anger rise up again but he didn’t feel anything violent in that ire. It was controlled now. That one punch he gave was all of the hurt he endured during the months after he was shot. “I thought if I saw you and I was face to face with the person who did this to me -- and yes, you did this to me. You may not have been aiming at me, but you did it. And I thought if I saw you again, I’d know what I’d want to say or do. But..”

Another moment of silence. Marco bit his lip, curled his right hand into a fist (more out of habit than anything else) .

And then he took a deep breath.

“But I honestly don’t know what I want. I know it’s not an apology and I sure as hell didn’t want to see you dead. My Ma would never forgive me if I ever wished death upon anyone. Even if it was you. And I’m not going to do this anymore. Whatever is happening here, I’m done. Charlie Decker, I still hate you, but I don’t need to see you anymore. I think...that’s what the other me meant. I don’t know if that makes any sense to you or if you even know what I’m talking about, but it’s me, as you say, manning up.” He hated that he laughed for a short second after he said that.

“About time, Marco.” Charlie leaned back against a car, relaxing his posture and transforming from a menacing presence to a far more relaxed one. He placed his hands into his pockets before glancing over towards the soccer field where their last meeting had taken place.

“It’s not about what I took from you and I did take from you, it’s never been about that. Marco you had plans and dreams and a future but what you never got was that you still do. Yeah, maybe you’re not going to be playing for LA Galaxy but maybe that’s not where you're supposed to end up. The fact of the matter is, by letting the memory of what I did go and what you were supposed to be, you’re going to open up an entirely new road for yourself. There are times in our lives where we find ourselves at a crossroads. This is yours. It’s your choice if you wanna go down it”

There was a bittersweet feeling starting to swell up inside him. Hearing Charlie make actual sense was a pill he wasn’t ready to swallow yet. Hearing that he wasn’t to blame, though deep down Marco knew the deceased boy was right, he wasn’t ready to accept it. The pain he felt was still there and even though he has accepted some truth of this whole ordeal, he just wasn’t at that point that he could willingly accept what Charlie said, let alone make any decisions about letting go.

But that was okay. Actually it was more than okay.

As he looked at Charlie, his face still filled him with anger that he just couldn’t control, he didn’t want to hit him. This…journey was rough and the past twelve or so hours had been more mentally taxing on him than actually getting shot had. That was crazy, but it was the truth and he was ready to just be done with it. Maybe Charlie understood that because now that he was looking up at the boy, he noticed he didn’t look as…death-ridden. His features were cleaner, like the Charlie that Marco remembered from before the shooting. The Charlie that he remembered passing in the halls of Edenridge sometimes.

And then Marco let out a small laugh. “No, I don’t think that I will.” Of course, he had to say the iconic line from Avengers: Endgame. “At least, not right now.” Marco limped past Charlie and was on the driver’s side of the truck. His hand was gripping the door handle and turned his head at Charlie. “I never thought I would say this, but thanks for helping, Charlie.”

“Don’t thank me yet, Marco. You still have a ways to go but good luck” Charlie nodded towards his former classmate. He had hoped that what he had said would be enough to help the boy out. Marco was never a friend and they were barely even acquaintances but he had suffered more than most because of what Charlie did. If he could give him any sort of closure, he felt it was his duty. He glanced up behind Marco at the school and he felt a pain in his heart. It wasn't a pleasant feeling to be reminded that he never truly left. He sadly turned his back and walked towards the football field, fading into the night.

[Venus]

---

---

Ever since moving to Edenridge, Alexandria Davies’ celebration of holidays looked different. This time last year, she would be dancing around the rooms of her tiny Boston college apartment, neck-deep into preparations for a Halloween party that all of her friends would be attending. They’d dress up in stupid costumes, drink cheap booze, play silly games, laugh at corny jokes, chatter about everything and nothing, and dance their hearts out into the night.

This year, Lex had taken up position on the couch in the living room of her cozy Southside apartment, wearing her boyfriend's oversized Edenridge High Football T-shirt and some fluffy socks, with the sounds of the film Halloweentown 2 keeping her company. A half-empty basket of laundry sat on the floor next to her, with two separate piles of men’s and women’s clothing growing taller and taller with each garment she absentmindedly folded, all while waiting for Mika to come back with their dinner. The young woman’s eyes were glued to the screen, her attention only wandering long enough to ensure she’d folded the item correctly before turning back to Marnie and Luke trying to find a way to return to the mortal world before midnight.

Two years ago, she would've laughed at the outlandish idea of staying in on such a fun holiday like Halloween. Today, Lex was perfectly content with her new domesticated lifestyle and her plans for the night: lots of Asian food, a marathon of old horror movies, and cuddling up against her favorite person in the world.

”Sooooo, when are we going to get to the real stuff?” An all too familiar voice poised. ”Like, let’s skip the Disney section unless it’s Hocus Pocus, cos that shit is bomb and put a slasher movie on?”

Alexandria flinched at the unexpected interruption, and let out a loud gasp of surprise as soon as she'd whipped around in the direction of the voice and her eyes spotted something just plain unbelievable.

"Hey Lexie.”

There was no immediate response. Lex was too shocked to speak. Sitting beside her on the couch was Allison; still as youthful and as beautiful as ever. The youngest Davies (now three years older than Allison would ever be) stared up at sister with wide eyes, her mouth slightly agape as she studied the other woman's every feature. Her skin still held the slight tan from the Davies last family vacation to Havana to see their grandmother; she was lucky, when she tanned naturally, it always lasted for months. Ally’s long brown hair hung across her shoulders and draped onto her emerald and white cheerleading uniform ever so slightly. She had not aged a day over seventeen.

"Is this a dream? Am I dreaming?" the brunette asked herself in a whisper, still fixated on just how alive Allison looked beside her. "Did I fall asleep watching the movie? Did I forget to take my meds this morning? There's no fucking way this is real, there's no fucking way…"

“You’re not dreaming…hang on”

Allison jumped up to her feet and hurried into the kitchen. She returned to her shocked sibling a second later, now dressed in her PJ tank top and shorts; which at present still sat in her old room at the Davies house. She jumped back onto the couch next to her baby sister, crossing her legs and tying her hair up onto a bun like she used to on their movie nights. Ally offered Lex her sweet smile as she reached out and intertwined her fingers with her siblings. She was cold to touch but Lexie’s warmth soon began to fill her being.

”I don’t know how long I have, so just go with it, bean-- okay?” There was just a subtle hint of desperation in her words. Ally had been watching, waiting from the other side for what felt like forever: unable to speak, to sing… And now there she was, with the person she missed the most.

“You grew up so beautiful.”

Whatever words Alexandria had wanted to say immediately choked up in her throat after hearing Allison’s last sentence, and her green eyes filled with tears. The plethora of questions running through her mind about the unusual situation they were going through were pushed to the side as realization about the event that was occurring began to sink in. How many times had Lex asked any deity who would listen for an opportunity to come face to face with her sister again? How many nights had she spent crying, her heart hurting with the grief of her loss, the anger of her decision, the pain of missing her, the helplessness of knowing she wasn't able to help, the guilt of not seeing the signs until it was too late… Lex had so many questions, so many thoughts, so many things she’d always wanted to tell Allison but couldn’t...

And, finally, here was the chance she had so desperately been seeking. Would she take it, or would she continue to let her doubts.

Not a chance.

Without wasting any more time, Lex shifted around the couch closer to Ally. She reached out to affectionately touch her sister’s perfect face for a moment before she wrapped her arms around her in a tight embrace and started to cry.

Allison wrapped her arms around her baby sister and began to squeeze, tears welling up in her dark eyes she nuzzled her face into the crook of Lexie’s neck. She had watched over her sister for six years, desperate to reach out but unable to do so. She had spent all that time thinking about everything that had led her to that fateful night in the house of ReyRey Gonzalez and everything that she had been unable to be a part of because of it.

Alexandria may look a little different and dress a little different but she still smelled exactly the same: like Marc Jacobs' Daisy. All these years later, and she hadn’t changed her perfume. It was the same one that Ally gifted her every year for her birthday; just one of their many traditions.

After a blissful moment of affection; the former Queen of Eden pulled away from her younger sister's embrace but still held her arms around her waist. With a wry smile, Allison gazed upon Lexie once more.

"I love you, kid.”

The shorter girl sniffled loudly and nodded. "I love you too," Alex croaked, wiping her face with one of the washcloths she'd picked up from the laundry basket on the floor beside her. "Everybody loved you here, Ally-- everybody loved you so much. That's why, no matter how hard I try to find a reason, I just can't understand why you… did it..." she trailed off, voice cracking at her last words. She didn't mean to sound accusatory or resentful. She was simply trying to get the answer to the question that had been haunting her for the last six years.

Of course this question was coming.

To someone looking from the outside in, Allison Davies had it all. She was beautiful, popular, intelligent, the entire world was at her fingertips. Yet when she took her own life in the winter of 2016, it stunned everyone. It was probably the utter shock and suddenness of her death which made it easier for people to find something else, someone else to blame. For years, Allison’s death had been attributed to Charlie Decker, a broken boy who did bad things. He poisoned her out of spite for some hidden slight and on the night in question she was merely experimenting at a party like most teenagers would.

The guilt and shame she felt for that still broke her heart. He didn’t do anything and they painted him with the brush of a monster.

It was only recently that it was discovered that Allison Davies was not poisoned. Through some intrepid detective work and the testimony of one of the Edenridge Notorious, it came to light that the perfect girl wilfully took her own life.

“I didn’t plan it, Bean.” Ally caressed her younger sister's face with her thumb, wiping away a track of tears as she did. ”In the moment, I was lost and it was the closest emergency exit.” Allison had thought about this moment for all this time, trying to find the words to explain why she did what she did. ”There was a lot of things people didn’t know, just like everyone in the world I had my secrets”

“But that didn’t mean you had to go through things alone,” Lex told her sister, taking her free hand and squeezing it in reassurance. “I know we probably weren’t as close as we would’ve wanted to be back then, but you could’ve come to me at any time.”

Allison directed her smile again at her baby sister. ”Hindsight is twenty twenty, Lexie” She finally released Alexandria from her grip and placed her own chin in her hands. ”What happened to me doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all about you and what comes next for you. Tell me everything.” Ally had been watching over Lex all her life and she knew exactly what had been going on, even after her death but she still wanted to hear it from her sister's mouth; she may be a ghost but she still loved the gossip.

“What happened to you will always matter, Ally. But I’ll go ahead and fill you in, at your request.” Lex took a deep breath and smiled at her sister. "Well, for starters, I kinda went off the deep end for a bit, if I'm honest..." the girl admitted with a grimace. "Mom and Dad went hardcore strict on me after you passed-- my therapist thinks that latching onto me was their way of dealing with their grief. I was so desperate to forget everything that was happening that I started smoking pot and hooking up with one of the Southie dealers. I guess I wasn't being as slick as I thought I was or whatever, because I got caught in the end..." she told Allison, shaking her head in visible embarrassment at the actions of her younger self. She knew that everything that she’d gone through had made her the woman she was today, but that didn’t make her any less embarrassed about her past misdeeds.

"They shipped me to some inpatient psych facility in the city, and then they sent me to a military boarding school up there when I got better. And to mine and everyone’s surprise, I did get better. They gave me a diagnosis at the facility, so they were able to get me the right meds and the right treatment. When I was given the all-clear to go back to school, I went without a fight. I started to do well in my classes again, I made some new friends, and even dated one of my classmates for a while." Lex suddenly paused for a moment, took a second to look across the room and pointed to a framed photo sitting atop the fireplace. In the image, the brunette's short, petite figure could be seen with her arms wrapped around the waist of a blond-haired, blue-eyed, chiseled young man who towered over her, his hands resting on her hips as they wore matching Class A cadet uniforms and wide grins.

"Meeting Jonah and the time we spent together was definitely one of the highlights of my time at Bedford. And even though he and I broke up right after graduation, we’re still really good friends. He’s deployed in Japan right now, but he makes a point to call me every other week so we can catch up on whatever's new. After high school, I went off to college for two years, made a few more friends and left with a associates nursing degree under my belt. And after getting a call about a super irresistible job offer with Sinclair Health, I moved back here. I've got plans to get my BSN eventually, but for now I'm just focusing on getting the experience and enjoying myself."

”What a life so far, bean.”

Ally beamed. All of this she already knew, she had been watching over her after all but it was nice to hear it all in her sister's words, in her sister's voice. ”And you still have so much to do, trust me.” Allison leaned back on the couch and put her legs atop her little sister's lap. It was just an Allison move; make yourself comfortable anywhere you were. She glanced around the apartment, soaking in everything about it. So much of it screamed of Lex’s individuality, but there were few small touches that weren’t her... They belonged to someone else, someone that Lexie obviously cared about.

"So what’s the dirt on Mika then? How deep in this are you?”

At the mention of Mika Zima, Alexandria's face broke into the biggest, brightest of grins. "You're not going to believe this, but we live together," Lex gushed, green eyes shining as she was reminded of the person who had chosen her to be his sidekick in the path of life. "Mika and I actually live together. Can you believe that? All those years of him being my high school crush, and we ended up as boyfriend and girlfriend sharing this cozy little apartment together. It still blows my mind when I think about it, honestly."

Ally smiled as the happiness just radiated off of her sibling. She deserved all of the joy that the world could give her and if Mika was the one to do that, then so be it. Allison herself was not the best judge of character when it came to men so she dearly hoped that Lex had a better system. “That’s great Lex, I’m really happy that you’ve found someone to hold on to…” She couldn’t feel her sisterly instincts kicking in and she really just couldn’t help herself. ”…that said, you’re a big girl now, and you can make your own decisions-- which I will trust wholeheartedly. But just… Do me a favor? Be careful. I don’t know much about Mika but I knew his brother, and he was nastier and more vile than anyone else I’ve ever met. There’s something ugly eating away inside and I hope Mika doesn’t have the same problem.”

Lexie confidently shook her head and gave her sister a reassuring smile. She’d heard about Hyde and all the infamous actions he had committed from Mika himself. But even with her boyfriend's Serpent affiliation and his Honey Badger street persona, she was certain of the kind, caring, funny, loyal and affectionate man she was sharing her life with. "I appreciate the concern, Ally-- I do. But trust me when I say he doesn't. I know Mika’s not an angel. I knew that from the start, even before I dove in headfirst into this whole thing. But if there’s one thing I’m one hundred percent sure of, is that he’s as opposite from his brother as anyone could ever be. Does he have some issues? Yeah. So do I-- and so do all of us, for that matter. Mika’s not perfect by any means, but I wouldn’t want him to be. Even with all his virtues and his flaws, he’s the right one for me.”

Suddenly, the door opened and a noticeable thud sound reverberated through the thin walls of the apartment. It was the kind of sound that a heavy bag of some kind would make when it was tossed without care. Mika walked in and went for the kitchen first as he caught the last half of Lex’s praise(?) for him. After the day he’d had, it wasn’t a surprise that he saw Lex’s dead sister just sitting on the couch like nothing was strange about it. “Damn straight I’m not an Angel,” Mika clarified, sporting a grin for both sisters. “I mean, you know how long I’d be sucking those older Angels of Eden’s dicks just to get out of prospect territory? Couldn’t be me.” He’d laugh as he looked between the two. “I’m a serpent because, A it’s much cooler than being an angel, but also B, it’s in my blood…so to speak.”

"My boyfriend, ladies and gentlemen," Alexandria laughed as she shook her head. Leave it to Mika to make his appearance in his usual blunt and crass fashion. She'd never wanted it to be any other way.

The former Queen looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. ”I think it’s about time I made a move. I’ve got a few more people to see before this is all over,” Allison jumped up to her feet and her visage slowly began to dissolve back to what it was when she first arrived, looking as she did on the day of her departing from the world. “Plus I reckon you two deserve a little alone time. Stay wrapped up all warm in here while the monsters play outside for the rest of the night.”

The Queen watched as her skin began to decolorize and become paler, she could feel the small burning in her throat from where the vomit choked the life out of her. She didn’t want her sister to see her like that. Nobody should’ve seen her like that but they did and she couldn’t take it back. She jumped forward and propped a soft kiss to her baby sister's forehead and made her way towards the door which Mika had just entered through.

She stopped suddenly in her tracks and her face scrunched up. Fuck it. They were warned not to interfere with the flow of the world but she couldn’t help herself. Allison turned back to Alexandria and Mika as her eyes began to bloodshot.

”Before I go, I need you two to know: things are only going to get worse from here. There’s so much darkness coming and it’s at the edge of town now. Get out. Leave. I’m not supposed to say this but this place is going to burn and I don’t know who survives but it needs to be you. I love you.”

And as if snatched from existence, before Alexandria and Mika could even react, Allison was gone by the end of her last sentence.

[AlteredTundra]

_{A @metanoia & @Aces Away Collab || Tw. Mentions of Suicide and child abuse}

---

---

On nights like this, Mika found himself drifting back to the past. Thinking about the chilly nights spent in New York. the chill that always came in pair: both with the weather and how often his father’s red-hot temper and the voice that could reach even those miles away that came off as such a paralyzing coldness, he couldn’t help but think about it.

As he was sitting up top of the Gonzalez house and just watched the dark sky, the moon and stars familiarizing themselves with each other, he was tuning in to that Mei Midnight’s thing. He was flipping through a few channels and happened to catch it. He didn’t think that this old stereo had her...whatever you called it on its frequency, but tonight had been full of so many weird happenings that Mika shrugged it away. He usually would try and question it and maybe get to the bottom of why his vivid thoughts were taking shape and why he could still hear his father’s temper flare as if he was screaming right at him.

But it made very little sense. It also made little sense as to why he was feeling exceptionally reminiscent of the past. Like how he was thinking back to the last time he saw Veronika.

It was a year before he came to live with Big Rey. It was a year before his father made a mistake he couldn’t undo. Alexei was not only someone Mika cherished over everyone else but, she was his oldest friend.

Was? She is his oldest friend.

Veronika Petronova.

He can still remember how much lip she gave him. Not on his lip but how she talked to him. Their families were allies in the war between the Russian Elite. So they were always together. Always near each other. She was the only member of his crew that wasn’t a boy, but damn it if Ronnie wasn’t a touch son of a bitch when it mattered. Among his group of hardasses: between Alexei, Vlad, Vik, and Pavel, Ronnie was the toughest out of all of them. She was fearless and unapologetic. She could just as easily win you over with her tenderness and surprise you with a kick in the yaitsa (balls) if you weren’t careful.

She was everything to Mika. They say you shouldn’t fall for your friends and Mika probably didn’t even know that he had, but when he fell for Ronnie, he did so without realizing it.

And then…

“Why did you do it?” He heard himself ask. Obviously there was nobody there to answer. Why would he even get an answer? “Not like you’re even here anymore, Ronnie. It’s not like you can actually hear me.”

”Don’t say things that aren’t true, Misha!”

“Oh great, now I’m hearing things. Next thing that’ll happen is--”

And then an icy feeling passed through him. At the moment it did, Mika saw those familiar eyes flow past him and he turned around, looking at all angles: behind him, above, side to side, and repeating until he exhausted himself only for him to see her to his right, waving at him like the smartass that he remembered she was.

“This is a dream, isn’t it? God, I knew I shouldn’t have snuck that last slice of Dolce de Leches. And now I’m suffering for it.”

There was a laugh from the person he thought was Ronnie. “Since when did you get all fancy? Mr ‘I can barely spell my own birth name’. You sure have grown, huh?”

It was just a dream. Just a dream and Mika was going to wake up to the sound of Ley pounding on his door for eating last piece that was meant for her.

“Miiiishaaaaaa!~” She teased and kept singing until he paid attention.

“There’s no way you’re real. You’re...not here. You haven’t been here for over five years.”

“And yet, here I am in the flesh...so to speak.” She laughed and Mika’s heart sank a few levels.

“Blyat. There’s just no way you’re here.”

He was still in a state of disbelief. And that was rare for Mikhail zima. If it was his imagination, then all he had to do was blink a few times or shake his head, and that would be the end of it.

So he did.

One blink. Two blink. Three blinks

One shake. Two shake. Three shak--

“You know you look pretty stupid doing that. It’s like we’re kids again and right after you tried your first sip of actual alcohol, you couldn’t handle it.” Ronnie laughed, leaning in front of Mika as their faces were right next to each other. “Or are you just nervous about being near me again?” She asked, looking at him with an expression mixed with curiosity and that same show of her personality that Mika remembered. “Oh I know! You remembered how often I used to kick your ass at kickball and you want to push that memory back! I mean I can’t blame you for that. I was pretty amazing. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to--”

“Oh for the love of--” Mika finally acknowledged Ronnie or the Ghost of Ronnie and looked at her. “That’s not why and you know it. Or do you not even remember?”

The air suddenly became thick with tension as both of them fell silent. She looked at him and he looked at her. Their gaze had said more than any of her rambling or him trying to ignore that this was happening could ever do. The unspoken words between them, the things he never got to say to her and the confusion he left for him and at such a young age too.

“Yeah…” She spoke, looking down at her pale legs and feeling only what she assumed were residual feelings of guilt from when she had been alive. “I know.”

Mika couldn’t look at her right now so he looked up, seeing the sky dance with the stars and moon. Or maybe that’s just what he wanted to see right now. “I don’t know why you never told me, Ron. Were things really so bad for you?”

“It was..complicated. I guess, I don’t even know why it happened. It just did.” The sadness in her voice was obvious.

And that was what angered Mika the most. Thinking back, he never saw any of the signs. She was feisty and caring, so how come he never noticed it? “I just wish you could have told me. I wish--”

“Wish what? That you could have stopped it? Misha, you and I were just kids. You could barely stop people from ripping on your father. Or those bulgarian punks who tried messing with your sisters. What happened..that wasn’t your fault. My dad...and…” Again, she fell silent. The words too hard to say aloud.

So Mika would continue for her. “I know, he was a bastard. Mine’s a bastard too. But I didn’t think it was that bad for you.”

As she let those words sink in and she looked to Mika, Ronnie gave her friend a smile. “Misha..there wasn’t anything you or anyone else could have done. I hope you know that. My dad was the accelerant, but he didn’t deliver the final blow. I had more issues than I care to admit. I guess now, in whatever this whole thing is with me being here and apparently looking like how I would have if I had lived, what’s done is done. I know nobody could have stopped me. You understand? It’s not your fault I took my own life.”

Hearing it after so many years made Mika angry, but finally looking at her and he saw the tears flow down her ghostly face. It wasn’t that she was a literal ghost because Ronnie had always been pale, but seeing the genuine emotion on her face sent a whirlwind of emotions -- ones Mika thought he had moved on from.

For a lot of nights after it happened, he kept thinking about what he could’ve done to change it all? What could have he done? He didn’t know then and even hearing it he still didn’t know. Losing Ronnie did a lot of harm to him. Maybe it was the catalyst as to why he got into a fight with the son of his father’s rival and why he ended up in Edenridge. Or maybe he was just destined to become the disappointment. Any of those felt like the right answer, but how fucked was it that he thought any of that was right? How fucked was he to think that her dying was right?

It wasn’t right, but Ronnie was the kind of person who always saw the good even in the darkest days.

“So what do I do now?”

And she was gone. Just like that. She came to assure him that it wasn’t his fault or that Mika being here and she wasn’t somehow wasn’t his doing.

As he watched the final stages of the sunrise, Mika was left with so many unsaid words, but they would just be a repeat of what had already been said. Maybe this was the time for him to catch some sleep if he could, but he didn’t feel tired. Even if he wanted to, there was no doubt that his family would be waking up soon and he just couldn’t think straight right now. Maybe he should call Lex? Or maybe he should try and summon Ronnie back? Would that be a better option? Try and get her back? No...Mika couldn’t do that.

Minutes and minutes went by as he was so deep in his own self-inflicted misery, constantly wondering what should he do now?

"Well, don't you just look cheery," Danny's voice faded in from his left, the boy also sitting on the roof with his arms thrown behind him for support. He grinned at Mika sadly from his spot. "'M guessin' I'm not the only one who decided ta visit?"

He wasn’t so much surprised that Danny had decided to visit him. Honestly, he didn’t know what the fuck was happening, but given that Ronnie, of all people, would come to him in some manner (maybe as a manifestation of his thoughts), but seeing someone who he genuinely bonded with above most, well it was enough to make Mika actually shed a couple of tears.

And he did when he brought the kid into an embrace. It was sudden and without warning. Mika seldom did this because, well, he had the rep of someone who showed emotion like a textbook case of a man with severe toxic masculinity, but he was alone on the roof with Danny and...it was Danny. “I missed you, brat.” Mika said into Danny’s shoulders. God, even still smelled like that kid’s second hand leather and two different types of smoke; a bit of Decky's scent with the addition of Danny's own favorite wrap flavor- grape Swishers- and the fireplace the Boaz brothers had in their apartment. Talk about bringing him back.

"Ah shit, 'm makin' everyone cry t'night," Danny sniffed, gripping Mika tight and burying his head into his shoulder much like he had done earlier with Decky. Mika was just as much his brother as Decky, and Sonny, and the rest of the Serpents and even Charlie. There was nothing that would keep Danny from showing affection to them whenever he was able, for as long as he could get away with. He didn’t see Mika cry much, but he had a feeling that he and Decky had seen it more often than most, having built up the necessary trust to be let past that wall. “‘M sorry I couldn’t get here earlier, I’ve had a lotta visits ta get through.”

And it was true, he’d spent a considerable amount of time with Decky, and the other three Southies once Charlie’d shown up. Then he’d hopped over to visit Sonny; the older man was a drunken, faded mess when he’d arrived, and Danny learned that Sonny had gotten plenty of visits from past crew members and even his parents. Once he was able to make sure Sonny was away from weapons and safely puking his guts out in the bathroom, Danny had worriedly hopped to Phil and had his nerves calmee as the man cried and cradled his small form like he would turn to smoke. Beau and his wife were much the same, and Danny reveled in the parental warmth that he could only feel metaphysically.

Then it was off to the other Serpents, though he saw how happy Creed and Jokes were through the curtains, their family finally full once more, so he simply smiled and focused on his next location. They didn’t need his help tonight. Prof and Fins were doing ok, but they had just had a baby and were passed out long before he showed up in the dead of night to say hi. Duke, however, was there on the couch, baby bundled in his arms and cooing at it in a manner no one would ever really see outside the safety of that apartment. He was also relaxed in a way he never is in public, so Danny lamented over the fact that he couldn’t scare a man holding an infant in his arms. He stayed and talked with Duke for almost an hour, gushing over the baby and getting his updates on the Booker family. That led him to visiting Dutchess and Ransom, who were in the middle of smoking themselves stupid with Molotov and Meredith. After that it was off to see Lanie, who let him watch over her baby while she bawled her eyes out on his shoulder, arms wrapped around him.

Busy didn't cut it.

Now, though, he was on his final visit of the night, and he could feel himself fading the closer the sun came to rising.

Fast forward a few minutes spent not living up to stereotypes that most associate Mika with and showing a lot of emotion with the only person he could get emotional like this and not feel like he had to punch a shoulder, Mika was able to look at Danny’s face without getting filled up on said emotions. “Can’t say I’m surprised you’d be busy; a lot of people miss that almost-too-cute of a face to hate. Present company included.”

Truth be told, he missed Danny more than he was letting on. Seeing his face brought him back to a time when his life wasn’t so fucked.

Okay, that was a lie.

He was actually in a solid place now. Of course, he still had the worry of his father’s son creeping around any chance he felt like tormenting Mika. Hyde was an SOB in so many different ways and his torture was creative and almost genius in its own twisted way. But with Lex and them living together in the same building that a lot of Serpent and allies live, Mika could say life was good. Tonight just happened to be special because the time he found himself plagued by thoughts and prayers of the past would be when he was visited by both his darkness and what he has always considered his light.

“I’m honestly just grateful for this time. Shit’s been a roller coaster. Sometimes it’s wack and then sometimes it’s just wacky.” He laughed as he glanced up at the sky. It was still dark, though specs of light were starting to break through, but he didn’t know if that was good or not.

"Almost too cute?" Danny scoffed while smirking and staying leaned up against Mika. "I'm fuckin' adorable! Everyone says it!" He nudged Mika's shoulder, missing the ability to feel the warmth all his brothers provided. "I'm grateful too. I needed ta get a lotta your heads on straight, one way or another. Ya guys gotta stick together when I'm gone again, yeah?" He asked, closing his eyes as his head dropped onto Mika's shoulder. He probably had another minute or two before he was gone. He didn't fix anyone tonight, maybe kicked them towards a better path but definitely not fixed. Nothing can get fixed in a night; not Decky's drug issues, or Poppy's mental state, or Jade's guilt and worries. Not what Charlie did to all of them. Not the holes that were left.

But they can work towards it. They can fill the holes in over time, if they all have each other. So Danny decided to ask for one thing he never dared to when he was alive. The one thing no Southies dare ask for.

"Promise me?"

Mika smiled at Danny’s request…no, maybe it was more of a plead than a request?

It felt strange for the Zima boy. As he stared off into whatever was in front of him, which happened to be the tracks that separated the Southside and the Northside, it always made him laugh how there could be such little space between them, yet be worlds apart. It was a funny thing because this life that he lived, the life of being Ivan Zima’s son as well as Big Rey Gonzalez’s son (though not by blood) had always defined him and confined him to this life. So, in a way, he had always stuck with his own kind. Maybe it’s why he never allowed himself to admit what he felt for Cece or let her know what he felt once upon a time.

Not that he felt any reason to linger about her. Danny’s plead just caught him off guard if he was honest and forced a sentimental reminiscence to consume him. Truth of the matter was that Danny didn’t need to ask. ]“Silly kid..” He muttered, smiling as he leaned into Danny while keeping his eyes forward. “You never need to ask. Southside for life, right?” Maybe famous last words, but they were ones Mika stood by more than anything. They were his family and he’d die for them if need be.

Danny smiled, eyes still shut as he let out a sigh he didn't need. "For life." He echoed, before his weight disappeared from Mika's side, leaving the man alone with the newly risen sun.