By the time morning came, Peter and Roman managed to get all the bodies out of the house as the girls cleaned inside. Matt drags the last one out; his clothes stained with cold blood and drying from the air. Roman and Peter help him carry the body towards the van Roman fetched for at Godfrey Industries.
Panting in exhaustion, Matt blows out a sigh and turn to them, "So, now what?"
"I don't know." Peter shakes his head.
Roman glares at the body and punches the cultist in the face hard.
Peter scoffs, "They can't get any deader."
"Fine." Roman sighs and, together, the three of them lift the body into the van and shuts the door.
"Damn, we're out of bleach." Destiny mutters and looks over to Miranda who carried a deep, disturbed look on her face.
"Come on, Miranda." Destiny says as Miranda sniffles, wiping away the tears. "Last mile. You can do it."
Letha comes down the stairs, dressed in fresh clothes. Her face was bruised and her body was sore but all that mattered was Nadia's safety.
Celena showered and changed hours ago but still helped out with the cleaning. She takes off her sweater and gets a trash bag to dump the empty bottles of bleach and bloody rugs and towels they used. She looks over to Anna who kneeled next to Conway's body and sobs her heart out for her love.
Peter, Matt, and Roman walk back into the house, brushing past Anna.
"Where's Nadia?" Peter asks.
"In Roman's room. Her room is freezing." Letha says as she helps Celena.
Roman's face scrunches in disgust as he takes off the gloves and flings them into the trash bag.
"She stared at him." Miranda says.
Roman frowns, "Who did?"
"Nadia. And then he just dropped dead." Tears continue to roll down her cheeks.
"You said you whacked the guy with a snow globe. Right?" Roman asks.
Miranda nods.
Roman shrugs it off, "Died of a brain hemorrhage, probably."
Miranda scoffs and sobs softly as she glares at Roman, "I hate you. I hate all of you. We'll be lucky if we don't spend the rest of our lives in jail." Her face twists in such disgust and rage as she continues to scrub the bloody floors.
"Why don't we take a moment and be grateful...that we're all alive?" Destiny suggests.
Celena glares at her as Anna sobs harder.
"Well, most of us." Destiny adds.
"Seriously, Des?" Celena scoffs and kneels next to Anna. Placing a gentle hand on his shoulder and bows her head, saying good bye to her friend. Sighing softly, she sniffles and looks over to Anna who continues to sob. "Tears are prayers too." Anna slowly looks at her. "They travel to God, when we can't speak." She places hand over Anna's.
Anna's lips tremble, "Psalms 56:8." Her voice wobbles.
Celena nods and moves to hug tight. Anna sobs more as she holds on to Celena. Celena rubs her back, "He's with the Father now. You'll be with him again." She whispers.
Anna sobs one more time and slowly lets go of her as she turns to Roman.
"He was a good Christian man. He deserves a proper burial." She states.
Roman nods, "Of course."
Anna turns back to her love and buries her face in his chest, sobbing her heart out again.
Roman's brows shoot up in exasperation.
Miranda finally stops scrubbing the floor and looks at Roman and Peter in such anger, "You lied to me. Both of you." She scoffs and gets to her feet, "I watched you turn into a wild animal." She glares at Peter and turns to glare at Roman, "You...I don't even know what you are." She looks at Celena. "Or you. You...literally transformed into a fucking demon or something. All of you are monsters! And this..." She begins to stammer.
Celena grits her teeth as she feels the creature stir. Destiny could see this was affecting her so she tries to calm the scene.
"What happened, happened, Miranda. The world that you thought only existed in bad dreams is the one you're living in right now. And it's never gonna go back to the way it was."
Peter tries to calm Miranda down, "Ok, it's all over. You're ok." Peter reaches to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she smacks it away.
"Wh-what if they come back?" She stutters.
"They won't. They're gone. They're all dead." Peter says.
Miranda scoffs and looks over to Letha, "How can you allow your daughter around these things? Let her be with...these creatures!"
Celena growls and twitches as the creature snarls inside her.
"These 'creatures' are her family." Letha glares at her. "I know how you're feeling, Miranda. I went through this last year. It'll take time to understand this new image of the world."
Miranda yanks her gloves off, "I want to go home." She has had enough.
"Miranda. Calm down. We need you. Nadia needs you." Peter says softly.
Celena walks into the kitchen and watches Destiny make a spiked orange juice with Vicodin. Celena sighs deeply and twitches as she feels the creature stirring inside her. It didn't like what Miranda was saying about her loves. Neither did Celena. She looks at her reflection on the kettle. Watching the creature snarl and shriek. She jumps when a hand touches her shoulder and pulls the strings of her top away to get a better view of the claw marks on her shoulder. Her shoulder was bandaged but her blood stained the gauze.
"Are you sure you don't want Matt to heal those?" Roman asks as he rubs her shoulders, avoiding her injury as Peter walks up to stand next to her, eyeing the gauze.
Celena sighs and touches the bandage, "They're battle scars." She smiles. "Why give that up?"
Peter scoffs and looks away, ashamed to look at them.
Celena turns and faces Peter, taking a bit of his beard and forcing him to look at her, "Don't think of them as when you hurt me. Think of them as when you fought the wolf. And saved us." She gives him a soft smile and lets him go gently.
Peter sighs and leans to kiss her head, holding her close, "Destiny is gonna do research soon about whatever it is inside you. Once we have a name for it, we can figure out from there." He says, letting her go to lean on the kitchen island.
Celena moves to snuggle in Roman's arms, "It really did not like what Miranda was saying. I don't want to be alone with her. It might do something." She sighs softly.
"We won't leave you alone." Roman says as he kisses the top of her head and sighs, "Peter, you're exhausted. Go home and get some sleep. We'll go on as if this never happened. Go on with our lives. Celena and I will take care of the bodies."
Peter and Celena scoffs at him, "How are you gonna do that?" He asks.
"I'll figure something out. Don't worry, no heavy lifting allowed for you, young lady." Roman says as he massages Celena's shoulders.
"I'm gonna head to 7-Eleven, get some more bleach and finish up here with Letha and Matt." Destiny says but they frown when they hear rumbling and they turn to watch Matt use his powers to call forth the blood. Making it go into the kitchen sink. Once the blood was gone, Destiny scoffs at him.
"Where was that when we were on our knees scrubbing this shit out and snorting bleach?"
Matt shrugs, "It was hot seeing Letha on her knees." He covers himself as Letha smacks his shoulders. Destiny paces over and grabs a pillow off one of the couches and giggles as they hit Matt with them.
"We'll stay here and watch over Nadia and Miranda." Letha says.
Soon, everyone was gone and the house was clean...almost. The windows were still shattered and Roman made some calls to have someone to come out a fix them and the doors. Of course, explaining how it happened was a bitch.
After Miranda woke up from her drug-induced nap, she felt a little better but still disturbed with some things. Letha and Matt were napping, so she watches over Nadia while they slept. She cradles her against her chest and lies down on the bed.
"How could anyone ever want to hurt you?" She kisses Nadia's head and strokes her hair.
Once she had her napping, she walked out of the room and sees Anna carrying laundry.
"Anna, um, if there's anything that I can do for you..." Miranda begins till she watches Anna eye her chest and gasps in shock.
Miranda frowns and looks down. Her nipples begins lactating blood. She gasps in terror as Anna covers her mouth in horror.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, Norman headed to Olivia's cottage to begin lacing her medicine cabinet with anti-coagulants, he discovers her cancer medications...which gives him an idea.
Roman and Celena headed to Godfrey's with the bodies in tow. Pryce wasn't happy at all with their delivery.
"Hey, Pryce. What's up?" Celena gives him a tittering, guilty look.
Pryce wags his finger and demanded their presence in his office. With his back towards them, he holds up Dr. Galina Zhelezhnova-Burdukovskaya's passport with a smirk.
"Ding-dong, the witch is dead." He grins and turns his chair to face them both. "Born Alyona Ivanovna Potomikia-Zozimova, whom the Iraqis reffered to as al-akhbar al-Saiyya fi al-Ah 'thia Ma'aqoula, which is loosely translated, 'bad news in sensible shoes'."
"What a mouthful." Celena mutters she laughs.
Pryce chuckles and looks at Roman, "Now your formidable acting skills not withstanding, I know you killed her." He states.
Roman scoffs, "I have no idea what you're..."
Pryce waves him off, "Not to worry. She was becoming a liability." Pryce gets up from his seat and walks around his desk, "Actually..." He sighs. "...you did me a favor." He says as he shreds the Doctor's passport and moves to sit on his couch.
"Uh...about the matter of hand..." Roman and Celena already explained about the bodies, but Pryce didn't look pleased about that subject.
"What am I going to do with you, Roman?" Pryce shakes his head in disappointment. "You bully me and browbeat me, then ask me to save your human soul. But this time, you've really outdone yourself. Roll up with a truckload of corpses and expect me to make them disappear?"
"Can you just fucking take care of it?" Roman asks.
Celena rubs her head and smacks Roman's chest, "Nicer." She sing-songs.
"That's no way for a man in your position to ask for a favor." Pryce glares a Roman. "Who were they?"
"I have no idea." Roman shakes his head.
Pryce looks at Celena, who avoids eye-contact, "Celena?"
She sighs deeply, "They were hunters. They were after Nadia. The baby."
"They attacked my house, tried to kill me, my kid." Roman states.
"Why would they do such a thing?" Pryce asks.
"You'd have to ask them." Roman mutters bitterly. "But I'm guessing even you don't have the technology to do that."
"Well, not yet." Pryce says.
Roman rolls his eyes.
"They had it in their fucked-up minds that Nadia was 'the beast'. They murdered six kids already to get to her." Celena says.
Pryce frowns and gets to his feet and walks to stand near them, "Let me hazard a guess, that their weapon of choice was a bow of some sort."
Celena and Roman both frown in surprise at him, "How did you know that?"
"The bishop was found murdered with more arrows in him than Saint Sebastian." Pryce says.
"Wait, wait...Bishop?" Celena stutters in confusion.
"Bishop Francis is a business partner for the company. I never really met him." Roman shrugs.
"Bishop Francis? As in Order Bishop Francis?" Celena whispers. She remembers Clementine talking to a Bishop Francis when she captured Peter last year.
Roman's eyes widen in realization but stays quiet as Pryce continues.
"Which means that his shares in the company..."
Roman didn't have time to hear about this, he needed the bodies to be dealt with.
"Are you gonna help me or not?" Roman asks impatiently.
Pryce turns towards him, "I will clean up your mess. But there will be certain conditions to be named later. But first and foremost, you must stop meddling in my work. Do I have your word?"
"Yes, of course." Roman nods, but Pryce didn't seem to buy it. "I wanna see my sister." Roman requests.
"She's...in treatment at the moment." Pryce says hesitantly.
Roman sucks on his teeth and moves to walk out but stops when Celena wasn't following him.
"Give me a minute." She says and turns to Pryce.
Roman frowns but nods. He didn't stray far...to be safe.
When the door shuts, Celena sighs and sits down, "Pryce, I know you don't see eye to eye with Roman and he sure as hell doesn't with you...but can you blame him?" She scoffs. "You took Letha's baby for god's sake! Lied to her family."
"Olivia holds the cards. What she says goes. As much as I hate the bitch, can't do anything about it as long as she's still alive." Pryce states.
"If I can get Roman off your back, can you be little bit nicer? I can tell you're not what you seem. You have this wall that's as big as the great wall of China inside you and the real you is waving up from above like a prince in a high tower. Some of your work is for the greater good." She could hear the whispering of his mind. "Like Prycilla." She smiles and laughs at his flinch. "Don't worry. I know you will tell Roman when it's time. But...is Shelley really going...die?" Her heart breaks at those whispers.
Pryce sighs and sits next to her, "As much as I am against losing my glowworm. But...the world will always be terrified of her and only see her as a murderer and a monster. We're the few who can see the beauty she carries." He smiles.
Celena gives him a small smile and nods, "Yeah. But this is really going to hurt Roman. When do you plan to tell him?" She asks.
Pryce takes a deep breath, "When Shelley is ready."
Celena moves and hugs him tight, surprising him. He chuckles and hugs her back.
She pulls away with a smirk, "See? I'm not a bitch like I'm painted to be." She giggles.
Pryce scoffs, "Never saw you as one. You are a good person. And I do see change in Roman when you're around. Not as much as I would love." He laughs. "But you are a good influence on him."
Celena feels the creature purr inside her which makes her frown. It was happy with his words.
"I never got to ask...that night when Roman and you broke into my penthouse. You..." Pryce tried to find the right words.
She waves him off, "We're still looking into it."
"If you need any help...anything at all, I'll be happy to provide you any sort of examination to help you find answers." Pryce offers.
"I'll keep that in mind. But don't know if science can help in this department...unless you know about demonic shadows." Celena scoffs.
"Not to my knowledge. But when I visited China, there was a very popular folklore about the Ghost Festival, which is also called the Hungry Ghost Festival. On the Seventh Lunar Month, wandering spirits who sought out revenge would walk among the living. Anyone who dared to offend them, the spirits would feed on them."
Celena gulps in fear, "Feed?" She asks.
"From what I've learned about myths and folklore when it comes to spirits and ghosts, especially, hostile ones. They all want the same thing." Pryce says.
"What's that? Chaos?" Celena asks.
Pryce looks at her, "Life. They all want life."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norman waits when Olivia gets out the shower and avoids her loving touch at all cost, which Olivia adds to her list of things she's been doing wrong as an Upir. She goes on to lay out all the things that are going to change – how she's going to be noble and inspired to fight her cancer, how she's going to be a better mother, a better girlfriend, better everything and Norman scoffs at it all. And then viciously describes what will happen to her as she faces the side effects of the drugs and the cancer advances and then throws in that he knows she's an Upir. She tries to appeal to him, but he shouts her down he's also not going to try and kill her. He thinks watching her die slowly from cancer will be better. He leaves and Olivia seems to go from tragic to angry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Viktor was standing by Shelley's bed with Prycilla; holding on to her hand as Pryce walks in the room.
"It's time?" Prycilla asks.
Pryce nods, "It is."
Viktor sighs, he wasn't sure if he could handle this.
"I'll stay here with you. Nothing to worry about ever again." Prycilla says with a smile.
"Just one last thing. If the people in town find my body, I'm worried about what they'll d-do with it." Shelley stutters.
"I will make sure the police will find it first. After the inquest, it will rest in your family plot."
"Please, not there." Shelley protests.
"Is there someplace else?" Pryce frowns.
Prycilla smiles and looks over to Pryce, "The river."
"The old cemetery looks over it. I used to go there..."
"After school, to sit, to read." Prycilla adds.
"It was the only place I could be alone." Shelley adds.
"It's beautiful." "It's beautiful."
"It's perfect." Prycilla says.
"Then that's where you will be. Among the hemlocks, overlooking the river." Pryce smiles.
"One more thing." Shelley says.
"Jason." "Jason."
"He's been placed in foster care with a good family." Pryce assures her. "He'll be protected. I will make sure of it.
Viktor sighs in relief for Jason, but frowns when he looks down at Shelley.
Shelley smiles, happy for Jason, "I'm ready."
Pryce nods and takes out a tape player. When he turns it on, Bach's 'Prelude in C Major' begins to play. Shelley and Prycilla smile big.
"Bach." She laughs.
"The first concert you took me to, Uncle." They both say.
"The Philadelphia Orchestra." Shelley says as Pryce begins to set up the IV.
Viktor shudders at the sight and storms off. Shoving the doors open as he walks away. Shelley's smile drops and Pryce frowns.
He pats her hand gently, "He'll need time."
"I was hoping you'd have fond memories of the music." He gives her gentle smile and beings the IV as he presses the bed button for her to lie back. "Sleep now. Darling Shelley." He strokes her cheek as she begins to fall asleep.
Prycilla's heart breaks as she couldn't feel Shelley's hand moving anymore. Tears begins to fill her eyes.
"How long till..."
"About 25 minutes." Pryce says.
"I don't know if I can do this. I'm sorry. I wanna stay..." Her voice cracks.
"You were here when she needed you." He assures her and takes her back to her room.
Viktor was sobbing in stairs as he slides down a wall, covering his face as he weeps for his love. His heart was breaking at every second. He pulls his knees up and buries his face as he hugs himself.
Memories flood his mind with him and Shelley. When he met her. How he made her laugh. When he held her. He can't lose her. He can't!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Destiny returns to Roman's house at last but something was wrong. She frowns when she walks into the quiet house.
"Hello? I'm back. Miranda? Letha? Matt?" She calls out.
Letha comes walking down with a sleepy look as she rubs her eyes, "Hey. I didn't mean to sleep so long." She sighs.
"It's ok. We all had a long night." Destiny says and looks around. "Where's Matt and Miranda?"
Matt comes down and scratches his head, "I'm here."
Destiny frowns, "Miranda?" She calls out and walks to the room she was staying in. "Miranda?"
"Where's Nadia?" Matt asks in panic.
Letha rushes to Roman's room and gasps, "She's gone!"
"Check Celena's room." Matt rushes downstairs to look around in the other rooms.
Destiny looks around Miranda's bathroom and finds a bottle marked 'post-natal nutrition' but when she tastes it, she has a vision of the Godfrey institute and a snake.
She falls backwards and lands on the ground. Panting in fear.
Matt and Letha jump when they hear a thud and rushes to check on Destiny.
"Don't touch that bottle!" Destiny shouts as she points at the nutrient.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norman storms into The Godfrey Institute to ask what's happening with Shelley and Johann explains what they did, and Norman is incensed, calling Johann a c*** much to Johann's shock. He, of course, blames everything on Olivia, which Johann has to protest since Prycilla is actually Olivia's cure for cancer – a cure she decided to forgo for the sake of Shelley. Norman wonders about maybe Olivia using Prycilla but then hears what they plan for Shelley.
Viktor stands by her body as the flatline tone drowns out the whole room. He sobs and covers his mouth, taking her soft hand in his.
"Don't leave me, Shelley. Please." He cries. The nurses gently push him away, making him let go of her.
But, soon, Norman storms into the room and hurries to save her with drugs and a defibrillator set to over 9,000 to bring her back to life. The final jolt seemed to have done the trick and sent Norman flying across the room.
Gasping loudly, Shelley sits up fast, panting as she breaths life once again. But her face falls when she sees her hands and touches her face. Realizing she's still in her old body. She was alive again but not in the body she wanted. She sobs.
"Why? Why?!" She weeps.
Viktor rushes and hugs her tight, holding her close against him as she sobs into his chest. He sighs in relief, so happy to have her back.
Pryce rushes to check on Prycilla, but to his horror, Olivia has decided to snack on Prycilla after all. He found her with her stomach ripped over and Olivia kneeling at her dead body with blood smeared all over her face. She smirks at Pryce.
"Thanks, Johann, I needed that. Now I'm off to find my granddaughter." She says as she strokes his cheek, leaving blood smears over his cheek.
-Was trying to publish this story last night but Wattpad was giving me problems. I really want to finish this book. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Lots of love. ~Song~