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Chapter Twelve - Epilogue
A part of Genevieve didn't believe they had
succeeded. The odds seemed too stacked against them, and yet there they
were, alive and, besides a few bruises, well.
They stopped at
Michael's so they could each get cleaned up, but Gen doubted she'd ever
get the bloodstains out of her top. At least she could maybe lie to her
parents and say it was from the day before when Hayden got hurt.
Whether or not Sage felt her need for vengeance quelled, Gen
couldn't be sure. She hadn't actually done any killing herself and at this
point it was impossible to tell if she would truly be capable of it.
Genevieve felt a shiver touch her spine. Maybe Sage wasn't
capable, but she herself was. Accident or not, she killed two people...
But she, Sage, Merri, and even Michael were still alive. And that
was what was supposed to matter, right?
Still, no one spoke in the
car, least of all Genevieve. She sent wary glances to Michael now and
then, but he seemed to be ignoring her.
He almost let me
die,
she thought. There really had been a few moments there when she was
certain he was going to watch that man stab her in the chest... Worse
still, he had to know that she knew he hesitated. So what would happen the
next time something awful arrived for them? Whose side would he be on?
"You're going back to the hospital?" Michael asked, glancing back
at Sage.
"Yeah. I promised Hayden I'd be back."
"You're
not telling him anything, are you?"
By Sage's silence, Gen was
willing to bet good money that yes, she was planning to tell him, but
Michael was arrogant enough to believe she wouldn't go against his rules,
so he didn't argue when she shook her head.
"Of course not."
He swung into the hospital parking lot, paid the toll, and then
idled not far from the door.
"Here's the list, just in case anyone
'forgot,'" Michael said as he passed Merri a slip of lined paper with
small letters scrawled in ink across it, as well as a think envelope that
reminded Gen of large cash bribes in the movies.
"Shopping list of
some sort?" Gen guessed.
"You girls keep getting me shot and
stabbed, and I'm running out of supplies," he said.
"Coming, Gen?"
Sage said as she got out of the car.
Though she hadn't anticipated
being asked to visit Hayden, Genevieve was grateful for the offer, and
slipped out the door to follow Sage. Meredith joined them, "shopping list"
and cash in hand.
"Do you think I should tell him?" Sage said once
they were out of earshot of the car. Her gaze was focused straight ahead,
and Gen couldn't tell if she meant to ask her, Merri, both of them, or if
it was only meant as rhetorical.
"It's up to you," Merri said.
"What you think is best..."
"Yeah, but I mean, do you think he's
in more danger knowing or not knowing?"
"What do you mean?" Gen
asked.
"It's just...you know, I don't even know. I get the
thinking that the more people who know, the more likely our enemies or
whatever are to hear who we are and all that crap, but...but keeping it
from him doesn't seem right either." The automatic doors slid open
silently, and the girls passed through. Sage stopped in the lobby, still
thinking, and Gen and Merri paused as well.
"He should have the
choice of being with me or not," Sage said slowly, casting her gaze
downward. "If there's a chance he could be hurt again because of me..."
She shivered absently. "I just don't want to lie to him. He should have
the facts, and decide whether or not I'm worth the risk I put him at..."
"Hey," Gen said, offering a smile and even going so far as to put
a reassuring hand on Sage's shoulder. "I know Hayden. He wouldn't leave
you for the world."
"If I tell him," Sage said, eyeing both Gen and
Merri. "I won't mention either of you. That's no one's business but
yours."
"Agreed," Gen said. Meredith seemed strangely silent, but
it wasn't hard to guess that she shared Michael's opinion on the matter.
"And you keep quiet about it, 'kay?"
Merri put up her hands
defensively. "None of my business."
"Well," Gen said with a sigh,
unable to deny the weight of worry tugging in the pit of her stomach.
"Let's go tell your boy, then."
They left Merri downstairs to go
visit whoever it was that secretly sold Michael stolen medical supplies
and took the elevator upstairs. As they turned the corner to head towards
Hayden's room, Gen paused her step at the sight of the Greenes' in the
upstairs waiting room.
"Sage..." she began, but Sage had spotted
them too and was already on her way over.
"No telling Levi,
though," Sage whispered as the strolled toward the waiting room. "Okay?"
Great, Sage could tell her boyfriend, but Gen was supposed to lie
to her best friend? The logic was there though, she supposed. Levi would
freak out, and that was if he even believed her.
"Hi," Sage said,
smiling awkwardly as Hayden's parents noticed her there. "I hope it's okay
I brought Gen along—she wanted to see..."
It seemed to register
with Sage just as it did with Gen that Mr. and Mrs. Greene looked…upset.
Eyes red-rimmed, shoulders turned inward. It was then Gen noticed Levi
still sat in one of the chairs, and hadn't raised his head when they came
over.
Fear overcame Gen and her mouth went dry. Something was
wrong…she swallowed hard, and was thankful Sage was there to talk. At that
moment she wasn't sure if she could...
"Sage...dear..." Mrs.
Greene paused as her husband's arm went over her shoulder. Genevieve did
another quick look around the waiting room, her gaze ending on Sage who
stared at the Greenes' with rapt attention.
"Can we see Hayden
now?" she asked, her voice deceptively steady.
"Hun..."
"Is he sleeping?"
"Hayden had a blood clot earlier," Mr.
Greene said. "I guess it happens after surgeries sometimes..."
"So
he's going back in surgery now?"
"The clot ended up in his lungs,"
Mrs. Greene filled in. "And...Hayden...he's gone."
Sage opened her
mouth, but no word dared leave her lips.
"Oh my god," Gen
whispered.
"Where did he go?" Sage asked. Her body trembled but
her voice remained calm. "To another hospital?"
"No, hun…he's
gone…" Mrs. Green turned and fell against her husband's shoulder, crying.
Her deep sob seemed to echo through the hallway and her body shook.
"He passed away about half an hour ago," Mr. Greene said, his
voice hoarse.
The floor easily could have opened up then and
swallowed them all whole just then, and Gen wouldn't have known the
difference. She was vaguely aware of her own feet moving backward, then
she was sitting, on a chair or a bench or something solid at least, and
her hand covered her mouth, as if it could somehow keep the sobs from
escaping.
Sage stood still, back straight and body rigid—almost
stone-like.
"But he was okay," she said, once again in an even
tone. "I was just here and—"
"No one knew," Mr. Greene said. "It
was so quick..."
Genevieve doubled in half, hugging her stomach
and crying aloud. This couldn't be happening...Sage was right—he was fine.
They were so worried yesterday, but now everything was supposed to be
okay.
"I want to see him," Sage said.
"Sage, you can't—"
"Please?" she whispered.
"The doctor won't even come out
and talk to us..."
Sage turned and ran from the waiting room.
Oh, God... For the past day, Sage looked
ready to kill someone...and that was when Hayden was still okay...
Gen bolted from her seat and chased after her, following the echo
of her footsteps past the elevator and down the nearest flight of stairs.
"Sage!" she shouted after her, but Sage wasn't slowing down. She
burst out of the stairwell and raced down the ground floor hall.
Breathless from running and crying, Gen came to a halt out in the
lobby where she spotted Sage accosting Meredith, who was on her way out
with Michael's supplies.
"Why didn't you tell me!" Sage shouted as
she grabbed Merri by the arm and pinned her against the nearest wall.
Visitors, patients, and orderlies all stopped what they were doing to
watch the display and whisper to one another.
Meredith stared at
her, hazel eyes huge with fear, and lips parted in surprise.
"Tell
you what?" she managed to say.
"It's Hayden," Gen said, crying
again.
"Oh my god..." A look of understanding crossed Meredith's
face. "Sage, I'm so sorry—I didn't know."
"How could you not know!
You're supposed to know things—to see things coming!"
"But I don't
see everything...Sage, I'm sorry—"
Sage let her go suddenly,
turned, and stalked through the main doors. Gen and Merri exchanged
glances then followed.
Stepping outside, Gen found the sun seemed
brighter than it had even at midday. Blinding. Harsh. Wrong. She shut her
eyes for a moment, blocking out the light, hoping for the darkness where
everything was normal again.
Opening her eyes once more, she saw
Sage racing down the path toward the parking lot. She stopped at Michael's
black car and pounded angrily on the hood until he stepped from the
vehicle. Merri and Gen ran after her.
"You've gotta have a spell
or something!"
"For what?" Michael sent a questioning gaze at
Merri.
"Hayden—her boyfriend—he…died," Meredith said, and the
words brought a fresh batch of tears from Gen. Hearing her say it...god,
could this all be real?
"There has to be a spell Gen can do!" Sage
insisted.
Michael shook his head. "There isn't."
"I don't
believe that!" Cracks were showing in her voice now—just the tiniest
quiver, signalling she could break at any second.
"Regardless of
what you believe, that's how it is," he said, his tone surprisingly gentle
while being coldly matter-of-fact.
"He was okay..." Sage
whispered. "We took care of them so he would be okay..."
No one,
least of all Genevieve, knew what to say to her. She breathed deeply for a
moment, chest rising and falling rapidly, and though her lip trembled, she
wouldn't cry. Instead, she suddenly turned and ran, back across the lawn
toward the street, around the next corner and then gone from view.
"There's really nothing?" Gen whispered, teary-eyed gaze falling
on Michael's cool stare.
"I'd tell you if there was," he said
simply.
"Okay," Gen said, nodding and burying her head in her
hands. Did she believe him? God, she couldn't say for sure. But whether
there was something that could be done or something she could do...those
were two very different things.
A few breaths later, Gen wiped her
eyes and smoothed back her tears. "I'd better go see Levi."
"Do
you need me to come, or want us to wait and give you a ride later?" Merri
offered, but Gen shook her head.
"I'll call my dad to get me."
"If you see Sage again, tell her I'm sorry," Merri said.
Gen nodded and began the slow trek back to the hospital.
*~*~*
Hayden Greene's wake was held Tuesday and the
funeral was Wednesday.
Newhaven High suspended classes the
afternoon of the wake, and several hundred people showed up to the
funeral. Gen couldn't be sure if they all knew him or not, but as with a
girl who killed herself the year before, everyone in the school attended
that kind of thing. Someone their age dying seemed to weird them all out.
Though the funeral was to be private, a number of people arrived
for that as well. Gen stood around the casket with the Greenes', her arm
and Levi's entwined, not really hearing a word the minister had to say.
The world looked the same. It was another beautiful day, with sun
shinning and birds chirping, as if no one had notified Mother Nature that
life was never going to be the same again. The sun shouldn't be up, life
shouldn't be going on, and yet there Gen was, still breathing, still
existing, watching as her friend was put in the ground.
Genevieve's gaze travelled over the dark wood casket to Sage and
her family across from where she and Levi stood. She hadn't seen Sage
since Saturday when she took off from the hospital—she hadn't even seen
her at the wake. Any meetings at Michael's had effectively been put on
hold, as Gen much preferred to spend the days with Levi, helping his
parents with anything they needed, or just sitting and crying. As far as
Gen knew, Sage had barely spoken to anyone since the hospital. Even now
she stood like a statue, staring at the coffin without really seeing it,
expression stony and distant. She really wasn't okay—that much was
clear—but she also wasn't the kind of person who would talk about it, so
Gen left her alone.
Time seemed to pass too quickly, and soon
people were tossing flowers onto the casket. Many trickled away from the
scene slowly, casting sad glances back at the grave. Sage was one of the
first to leave, and headed straight back towards the cars while her mom
and sisters stopped to speak with the Greenes.
Across the
cemetery, Genevieve spotted a familiar figure standing several metres from
the group of mourners in simple black and carrying a bouquet of wild
flowers. Since Gen hadn't been at school for a few days, she hadn't spoken
to Meredith either, and decided to greet her.
"Lev..." She
squeezed his arm, and Levi turned his red-rimmed eyes her way. "Lev, I'm
gonna talk to Meredith for a sec, okay?"
He nodded let her go.
"Genny," Levi called as she started to walk away.
She
gazed back at him. "Yeah?"
"I love you."
Gen felt fresh
tears spring to her eyes, and she went back and threw her arms around him.
"I love you too."
She held him tightly for a moment, then
reluctantly let go.
"I'll be back in a minute."
Levi
dropped his eyes and slowly wandered towards where Stephie was loudly
blowing her nose and sobbing.
"Hey Mer," Gen said, greeting the
other girl with a weak smile as she walked over. "You didn't have to stand
over here—"
"I didn't really know him, so I didn't think...you
know, that I should be intruding or anything." Merri gestured to the
wildflowers. "I just wanted to come and leave something..."
Silence settled, and it seemed awkward to Gen. Merri seemed to
have something to say, but was taking her time with it.
"Is
Michael okay?" Gen offered, unsure of whether she actually cared or not.
"A little bitchy," Merri said with a small smile. "But he's
surviving. Have you talked to Sage?"
Gen shook her head. "This was
the first time I’ve seen her, since... I talked to her mom once on the
phone, and she just said Sage was understandably upset, and not really
speaking to anyone."
More silence.
"Mer, can I run
something past you?" Gen asked suddenly as a thought she'd been mulling
over for a few days entered her mind again.
"Sure."
"You
went through that house pretty thoroughly with Michael later, right?"
"The farmhouse? Yeah."
"Did you find Hayden's cell phone?"
Merri shook her head. "I don't remember seeing any cell phones.
Why?"
"Sage...Sage got that call, remember," Gen said, trying to
put her thoughts into words that seemed logical and not paranoid, as they
seemed to her. "A man called her from Hayden's cell phone. Those guys at
the farmhouse...one of them tried speaking to me and it was all
scratchy—like he didn't talk much."
"They didn't have much reason
to," Merri said, getting that haunted look to her eyes again.
"Yeah, I know...so who called Sage? It wasn't one of those guys
then, right? So it's whoever sent them...whoever it is we haven't found
yet. He was the one trying to provoke Sage, and the one who originally
attacked Hayden."
Merri nodded in agreement. "Michael said pretty
much the same thing like two days ago, actually."
Of course,
Michael was always thinking of everything...the bastard. "Then my other
question is...do you think Sage knows?"
Brows knitted together,
Meredith looked confused. "I'm not sure..."
"Because if she
figures that out, she'll go postal, and we're all in trouble."
"Ah, so you're thinking we shouldn't tell her?"
"I'm
thinking Michael should figure out what the hell we're going to do about
it."
"Agreed." Merri gazed over Gen's shoulder. "Looks like Levi
is getting ready to go."
"Yeah, I'd better go with him."
"Gen? I just wanted you to know..." Merri cast her gaze to the
ground. "If I had known—if I'd seen it—I would have told you and Sage..."
It hurt to know not everything could be prevented. Merri was
psychic, but some things eluded her still. Sage could beat the hell out of
anyone, but couldn't stop her boyfriend from dying in his hospital bed.
And Gen...she still didn't know what she had done to those two men, but
raising someone from the dead was apparently out of the question too.
"I know. It's okay."
"See you at school tomorrow?"
That was right...back to school, back to life, back like nothing
had happened.
"Probably."
*~*~*
"The girls live?"
He watched her as she
spoke. A smile danced on the corners of her lips, as if she was excited,
but would never show him she was.
"They do," he replied.
"And the others are dead?"
"Disposed of completely. Of the
three that remained for the final confrontation, one was shot by Parris,
and the other two were...neutralized."
She cast a curious gaze
over her shoulder and raised a shapely black brow. "Neutralized?"
"There were clearly tears in the space where it happened. I don't
know what dimension they were sent to, but it's highly unlikely they will
return nor that their master will be capable of retrieving them." He
paused, giving his words some thought. She would know if he kept anything
from her, but he savoured one last bit of information, withholding it long
enough to heighten the tension to just the right pitch.
"And
you're not telling me what?" she asked, just as he predicted.
"It
was the Witch that did it."
She turned to face him fully then,
wind whipping her long black hair back and forth, expression animated with
a mix of surprise and delight. "Really? The Witch?"
He nodded.
"That's...that's just marvellous. My girls are almost
ready."
© 2006 Skyla Dawn Cameron
Reader discretion advised.
At some point there will be sex, violence, coarse language, and mature themes (if there hasn't been already).
Not for readers under 18.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
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