Dakota walks into the cemetery first. As predicted, it had started snowing an hour ago. The moon is hidden behind the clouds.
Dakota first gathers his magic into the center of his body. The fact that he hadn’t been met a different magical barrier, other than the spell on the grounds to keep out vampires, bothers him. He has to push this out of his mind. He focuses on his mission.
Thankfully, after a few moments, he’s ready. For the first time, his bloodline comes in handy. A weaker spellcaster may die from what he has to do.
The snow becomes heaver after Dakota plants his feet on the ground and begins to focus his entire being on his intent. The intent to lift the spell that had been on the cemetery since before he was even born.
Meanwhile, below the ground.
Vera takes action. She waits until Kenzo walks into the room to check on her and punches him with all the strength she can manage. It works.
She hauls open the door.
She catches Ciara off guard and uses it to her advantage. Vera has never been one for violence, but she is literally fighting for her life. If she doesn’t make it out, at least she didn’t sit around and accept her fate.
Above ground, the spell has worked.
The Vatore siblings cautiously enter the cemetery. Once it becomes clear it’s safe, they pick up their pace.
“He did it.” Lilith comments, impressed as she looks at Dakota, who is leaning up against a tombstone, gathering himself after the spell.
Caleb nods and stills his steps. He motions for his sister to follow him towards an uncovered piece of wood laying, seemingly, in the snow. As he grows closer, he can see that it is actually a door in the ground.
Below ground.
Vera thinks she has a chance after knocking Ciara down. She runs for the stairs, not noticing that Ciara has gotten up.
“Close but not close enough.” Ciara said, satisfied with herself. While Vera isn’t exactly dead yet, the longer she stays frozen, the closer Ciara’s desired outcome draws near.
Ciara goes to move Vera back into the other room with her magic when she finally notices the shift. The spell on the cemetery is gone. Ciara smirks.
“Dakota.” She says softly, readying herself mentally.
She readies herself for the wrong one.
In the blink of an eye, Caleb is on her, biting into her throat and drinking her blood. Ciara manages a scream, which makes Caleb drink faster. He had seen the block of ice containing Vera when he started down the stairs. Pain and heartache had shot through his entire being, thinking that Ciara had killed Vera. He saw red as everything in the world stops mattering to him. He thinks he has lost his chance to see Vera’s brown eyes again. To tell her the truth.
“Caleb! Stop!” Lilith yells, trying to not let the smell of blood get to her. While she doesn’t hunt humans anymore and drinks from plasma fruit like her brother, the smell of magical blood is still very tempting. The taste is intoxicating.
Caleb pulls back, still holding onto Ciara as her heart gives up. He has taken too much blood.
“She’s dead.” Lilith says what Caleb knows, as he lets the body in his grasp drop to the floor. Lilith slowly looks at Caleb, knowing why he went off the deep end when she hears it.
A heart beat. Caleb wipes his mouth clean on his sleeve as he hears it too.
Lilith approaches the block of ice and it grows stronger. The wind whips down from the entrance and blows out the candles as Lilith and Caleb use their bare fists and strength to hammer at the ice.
After a few moments, which seemed longer, even to the vampires, they free Vera from the ice. Caleb catches her limp body before it hits the ground and holds her to him, but he can not provide her the body heat she needs.
“Take her to Dakota.” Caleb stats flatly, before handing Vera to Lilith.
The snow has stopped as Lilith comes up the stares with Vera, she hands the mermaid off to Dakota.
He performs a quick spell to warm Vera up a bit before taking her away. Dakota feels light again, despite being exhausted from all the magic he’s used. Vera is alive. He wants to skip out of the cemetery with her, but decides against it. He can’t wait until Vera wakes up. He feels like the rest of his life is waiting for him in the morning.
Lilith returns to her brother, sitting down beside him on the ground. Caleb is beyond relieved that Vera is alive. He has to face the fact that he killed someone. He knows Ciara had to be stopped.
“What’s done is done. You can’t change it.” Lilith told him “You thought Vera was dead. So did I.”
Caleb nods slowly. No matter what good he does, he knows now he’ll always be capable being a monster.
Instead of just laying in bed the past few days, I’ve made me myself get up. Get up and go to work. Get up and take care of the cats. Get up and start doing yoga again. I know in the end, not doing things actually makes me feel worse. Even if I don’t feel like doing those things at the time.
I realized this morning, after my morning yoga, that Josie is no longer a kitten.
I’ve had her since August and she’s changed so much in these past few months.
The other cats and I celebrated Josie becoming an adult with her very own green collar and cat treats for all of them. We had a little “pawty” pawty, get it? Pretty sure I’m only funny to myself.
Of course, Josie didn’t enjoy her next step into adulthood. Being spayed. It’s a perk of having your own vet clinic though. I got to do the procedure myself. But, no cat is happy about the cone of shame.
After I brought Josie home, I decided to go for a walk around town.
I never thought I’d run into Ciara Scott and Muffin. I didn’t mind seeing Muffin again. Ciara? I wasn’t too thrilled to see her. I’m confused why she was even in town. She lives in Willow Creek, the last time I checked.
“Hello.” I said after she just stared at me.
“You look familiar…..” She trailed off, thinking before she nodded “Ah yes, the vet. The one with the crush on Joey.”
“I’m a vet, yes.” I confirmed. As for the “crush” on Joey, that’s in the past.
“Hmm.” She hummed, looking me up and down. “I hear he’s in rehab. Man could never hold his liquor well.”
The way she said it…
I snapped inside “Joey has an actual problem, which is he is getting help for. Which is the right thing to do. If you had actually loved him years ago, maybe you would have noticed he was developing a problem instead of being a stuck up witch about everything!” I yelled and stormed off. I didn’t even let her reply.
I have never liked her. At first it was because of Joey, but after meeting her a while back, I just don’t like her. Maybe it wasn’t nice of me, but maybe someone needs to tell her off.
Early this morning, or at least it felt like early morning, the TV came on.
“Police are still searching for answers in the May 3rd slaying of two Willow Creek residents. Travis and Summer Scott were murdered in their home….”
That’s all I heard. Countless old news reports on the murder. I tuned them out after a while.
Then Ciara walked into the room. I still had questions. Ones that don’t matter now. But I’ll record them anyway, I guess.
“You’re telling me that you’re actually in your forties’?” I asked in disbelief.
“Magic can used for many things. My Aunt used it to slow my aging process. I just decided to keep it that way.” Ciara explained.
I moved on to another question. “How do you know what I am?”
“That’s pretty simple.” Ciara started.
“I saw you and your family one day in the water. I had decided to go to your house to tell you to stay away from Joey. I found some of your simchat messages on his phone.”
I nodded. She had known this whole time.
“Here’s another answer to a question you haven’t asked. Did I ever really want to be with Joey? No. I wanted Dakota. I wanted to ruin his life, the way his Father ruined mine. But, I could never get to Dakota because he stayed in the magic realm. I thought maybe I could use Joey to get to him, but it never worked.”
I shook my head, taking that all in. I briefly wondered how things would have gone if Ciara hadn’t dated Joey, but was snapped back to reality by Ciara’s voice.
“Since that didn’t work. I had to rethink things. Then Dakota showed up and became interested in you, for some reason. Which is actually perfect. Because now he can experience loss. Just like I did. There’s also the added bonus that I can punish Caleb too. Like I said yesterday, I’m pretty sure he had something to do with Liberty’s disappearance.” Ciara paused. “You sure can pick them, can’t you?”
Clarity hit me.
“You plan to kill me.” I stated, stunned. I didn’t know how things would play out this entire time, but I always thought I would get out. Somehow.
“Of course.” Ciara said softly.
Now it makes sense. The journal. It’s so I can write in it and she can throw it in Dakota’s and Caleb’s faces once I’m gone.
I’ve spent most of my day, thinking about those I’ll be leaving behind. Of course, I’m scared. Will it hurt? Will she torture me? Is she going to find a way to do it in front of everyone?
Then a voice I hadn’t heard in years came to me with a face I hadn’t seen since I was younger.
“What would I say to my future kids when things seem impossible or hopeless? Interesting question, Betty. I would say there’s a time to wait things out….but there’s also a time to take action. Sometimes, you have to make your own way. Even when it’s scary.”
I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know if Ciara didn’t realize that Mom’s clip was in with the news clips or if she did it on purpose for some reason. Or…if Mom somehow came to me, but I know now what I have to do.
