I sigh as I push through the street performers, vendors, and pickpockets of Venice Beach. The LA sun constantly shines bright on this place, and today is no exception. Of course, with the good weather comes the clueless tourists.
"Watch where you're going!" I shout at a skateboarder who narrowly misses me. He not so much as acknowledges me.
I roll my eyes as I check my pockets, making sure my phone and wallet are still there. I begin walking down the sidewalk again, but I come to an abrupt halt as I catch sight of someone ahead of me.
She's wearing a long black flowy dress with a gold flower crown. Her wavy brown hair hangs past her shoulders, blowing in the wind. She looks like any other girl that you'd seen on Venice Beach on any given day, but something about her is familiar to me. Her face wears a haunted and weary look, as if she's been through shit beyond imaginable.
As I'm standing frozen on the sidewalk, a boy bumps into me, shaking me from my stupor. I quickly turn and grab his arm. "Give me my fucking wallet before I break your wrist," I snap, not being in the mood to deal with another pickpocket.
His eyes go wide as he pulls my wallet out of his pocket. "Jesus," he mutters, dropping the wallet into my waiting hand.
"Get lost, asshole," I roll my eyes, releasing his arm and giving him a harsh shove.
I put my wallet into my front pocket as I turn to walk towards the girl. She is still standing on the same spot in the middle of the sidewalk, her gaze transfixed on me.
She watches me approaching her and waits to speak until I am standing in front of her. "I think you just gave that pickpocket the scare of his life," she smiles.
"Do I know you?" I ask, not bothering to be polite. "I mean, normally if I see a stranger staring at me in the middle of the sidewalk, I'd just ignore it, but I feel like I've met you before."
"Trust me, we aren't strangers," she chuckles. "Can we talk?"
"We are talking," I respond skeptically. I feel like I can trust her, but I never let my feelings get in the way of common sense.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she shakes her head. "I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Mallory."
She extends her hand and I take it warily. As soon as our hands make contact, my skin jolts from electricity and memories flash through my mind. I see the nuclear apocalypse, Outpost 3, Mallory and Coco, the witches, and most of all, Michael Langdon.
I gasp as I jump back and withdraw my hand.
"Did you see everything?" Mallory asks anxiously.
I nod, breathing in shakily. "You, Venable, witches, Michael, everything." I pause to let everything sink in before I realize that my last memory was attempting to bind my lifeline to Michael's. I snap my head back up to Mallory, the relief flooding in. "Holy shit, my lifeline spell worked!"
She smiles and nods. "It did. You saved me."
I smile as I run forward and crush her in a hug. "I can't believe it!" I exclaim as I pull away to look her up and down. "God, you look so good when you aren't in that horrible Gray outfit! Wait, where's Coco? Michael? The witches?"
She chuckles. "The witches are in New Orleans. Michael should be at his grandmother's house, about to get thrown out. I came to this point in the timeline because it's where he's going to be most vulnerable."
"Can we transmutate to him? Do I still even have my powers?"
She shrugs. "Only one way to find out," she suggests as she extends a hand.
I look around, making sure nobody's watching before I take her hand. "Let's do it," I nod.
As soon as I clasp her hand, we disappear from Venice Beach and reappear on the sidewalk of a street. I quickly look around to recognize the house in front of us as Michael's grandmother's house and the house next to it as the infamous Murder House.
I turn back around just as a younger version of Michael runs across the sidewalk, not even noticing us or the large black car barreling down the road. "Michael!" I gasp as I run towards him. He barely has time to process me or the car speeding towards him as I tackle him and we go rolling towards the sidewalk.
I quickly sit up as the car honks at us, speeding by. I scoff as I send it a glare; that asshole has the audacity to honk after us after they almost killed us.
With a flick of my wrist, a tree at the end of the road falls over and lands on top of the car.
"Valentina!" Mallory scolds. "You can't just total a car because the driver was being an asshole!"
"They almost killed Michael!" I argue. "Fair is fair."
I turn my attention back to Michael as he gasps from on the ground next to me. "You know, you may want to pay more attention before you cross the road," I tease.
"Valentina!" he gasps as he sits up. Before I can respond, he catches me in a kiss. I smile, melting into his arms.
I slowly pull away. "Wait, how the hell did you get your memories back?"
"As soon as I touched you," he responds. "You know, when you tackled me."
"I really just saved your ass," I scoff. "Imagine, the Antichrist dying by getting run over."
He rolls his eyes. "Okay, but imagine dying because you got yourself locked in a bathroom with a snake."
"That was your father's fault!" I protest. "Besides, I didn't have magic yet to protect myself."
"Excuses," he jokes.
"Says the one who technically killed himself by killing me," I retort.
He chuckles. "You've got me there."
"How are you already making jokes about this?" Mallory asks jokingly, although I can tell that she's slightly shocked.
"Oh, sorry Mallory, I forgot you were there for a second," I chuckle as I stand up, Michael standing with me. "Honestly, Michael and I got into so many fights that I don't think we would ever move on if we didn't learn how to forgive and forget, you know?"
"I think it was more of I forgave and you forgot. You were too stubborn to forgive," Michael inputs.
I roll my eyes. "If that's the case, then there was no forgiving going on at all."
"Well, at least you two aren't trying to kill each other," Mallory interrupts, attempting to wrap up the banter.
"Yet," Michael and I add on at the same time.
She rolls her eyes. "Listen, we need to get to the witches. I've had an exhausting day, time travel and all considered."
I sigh begrudgingly. "Okay, let's get going."
Mallory nods and walks towards one of the cars parked on the street, most likely going to hijack it.
Michael wraps his arm around me and begins walking down the sidewalk. I sigh and wrap an arm around him in return. "You know, I like the long hair more," I remark. "It feels unsettling to see you with short hair."
Michael chuckles as he turns to me. "Looks like I'll have to grow it out."
His smile fades slightly as he looks behind me. I turn to see the Murder House staring down at us, the evil presence emanating off the walls.
I turn back to Michael and take his chin in my hand, turning his attention to me. "Listen up, Michael," I state. "All the evil in that house has absolutely no effect on you. In this timeline, you haven't lived in the house yet. If you for one second let that house have power over you-"
"No, no, I wasn't thinking that at all," Michael shakes his head. "In fact, I was thinking the opposite."
"Which is?" I question.
He smiles warmly, gently brushing a strand of hair out of my face. "How lucky I am to get the opportunity to make everything up to you."
I chuckle. "I like that more."
He gently kisses my cheek before turning away from the Murder House. We both walk away, leaving the past behind in the evil of that house. The truth is, we're both entirely different people in this timeline, and we can learn from our past mistakes in the old timeline.
Mallory gets out of a car that is sitting on the street and motions for us to get in the car. "Come on guys! I'll drive us to LAX!"
Michael chuckles as he releases me to open the car door. As he's getting in, I send one last look over my shoulder at the Murder House. Who the hell could've guessed that a house could kickstart all the shit that went down in the old timeline?
I turn back to the car when Michael takes my hand. I realize that everyone's waiting for me to get in. "Coming?" he asks jokingly.
I chuckle. "Move over."
Michael smiles as he moves over and I slide into the car. Mallory sighs as she puts the car in drive. "It's finally time to move on from the shitshow that was the old timeline," she states, basically summing up everyone's thoughts.
"Where do we even go from here?" Michael asks.
Mallory smiles as she turns to look back at us. "Home - Miss Robichaux's."
She turns back to focus on driving as I take Michael's hand. As I look between Michael and Mallory, I suddenly realize that this is most certainly not the end; it is only the beginning.
End of Hard to Hate You
a/n: Thanks for reading Hard to Hate you! My Wattpad likes to glitch a lot and not let me respond to and/or see your comments, so I'm really sorry for not responding to most of your comments. If you have important questions or anything you can dm me.
I'm going to be adding a short epilogue after this chapter, but in the meantime you can read my other fanfic if you haven't already (Dark Moon). Thanks again for reading besties!