Sitting on the bed, I was silently staring at the pair of stuffed animals on the pillows while thinking. I couldn't sleep at all last night, not after what happened with Tom, and especially due to the fact that he never came back home. Alex and Hal never came back either, leaving me alone in the old Honolulu Heights.
Things were seemingly falling apart in the worst of ways, and I couldn't figure what exactly had started this downward spiral. Was it the last time we helped Hal get off the blood? Should we have left him there longer? Was it before then? After?
"Hey, stop your moping, we've got to find the boys." Alex appeared while swinging open the door.
"What?"
"They're going to kill each other if we don't stop them."
"Where are they?"
"I'm not sure, but I was right and just spent the entire bloody night in a coffin."
~
"Okay, ladies." Alex sighed after yanking the stake from Tom's hold before he could stab Hal. "We need to talk."
"Why do you keep on savin' him?!" Tom got to his feet, clearly upset while being roughed up. "He killed Natasha!"
"Oh, my. How many times do I have to say this? She killed herself." Hal stood up and wiped his face, leaving a streak of blood across his cheek.
"Hate to say it, but he's right." Alex sighed. "Her ghost told me. She was sent here to break us up as Rook's latest attempt at-at saving his department."
"Did she mention why she-" Hal made a noise while dragging his thumb across his neck.
"Because Captain Hatch told her to." Alex shot Hal a look.
"What? The old bloke in the wheelchair?"
"Except he's not an old bloke in a wheelchair. He's the devil."
"We've been played." Hal started laughing while walking toward the bar. "My God, we've been played. He wants to start another war."
"What are you talking about?"
"The devil feeds off the conflict between werewolves and vampires." Hal sat down on one of the still-standing stools as many of the others were busted and scattered across the floor. "Last century, he incited a full-scale war between us. In the end, we performed a ritual, cut off his power supply, confined him to his current body. But it looks like he's made a comeback." He raised his foot and set it on a broken chair to tie his shoe.
"How does werewolves and vampires fighting give him power? And why does doing a ritual defeat him?"
"I swear if you're about to tell us that old legend is true-"
"What legend?" Alex turned to me, and I crossed my arms.
"My grandma told me it. There's this belief that lycanthropy and vampirism were curses from the devil."
"And she's right. And it's his curses coming together to unite against him that takes away his power. The ritual must be performed by a werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost." Hal waved his hand.
"So we'll just do the ritual again."
"There's a catch."
"What?"
"No, it's fine. I should be able to remember all the gubbins. It was nearly 100 years ago, though."
"Why should we trust you?"
"Because the apocalypse is bad news for everyone. Trust is a curious thing, isn't it, Alex? Your friend who was struggling to defy something. The power of which you will never understand. A million others manipulate your friendship and erode your trust."
"This has got nothing to do with us. You have got nothing to do with us. You know what? Really don't have time to listen to this bullshit. You need to see what's happening outside." Alex stormed to the door and pushed it open.
"I need to do something first. You must have missed his heart. I should put him out of his misery, it's kinder in the long run." Hal casually walked across the trashed bar to the vampire bleeding on the floor surrounded by ash.
"Two minutes. All right?"
"Okay."
"Shit's getting real out there."
"Tom, wait." I stopped him as we stepped out of the bar. "I....I want to tell you I'm sor-"
"I'm sorry." He cut me off. "You've got nothin' to apologize for, Naya, but I do. You were just trusting a friend that lied to you." He rubbed the back of his neck while dropping his gaze. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have accused you of bein' a cannibal. I know you're not, I was just....really upset." Clenching my jaw, I gently pulled Tom into a hug.
"We should head back to the hotel. It was the last place any of us saw Hatch." Hal came out of the bar while wiping his face with a napkin to clean off the blood. Not much good it did him since his shirt was still soaked in it.
Walking down the street, Tom and Hal now got to see what Alex and I had on the way to finding them. The streets were absolutely empty of life, windows were broken and cars were wrecked. Here and there would be a dead body just laying on the sidewalk or in the middle of the road.
There were three bodies grouped, blood flowing down to the drainage opening.
"What's he done to them?"
"See how the bodies are positioned? How the blood is exploded outwards? They jumped. From the rooftops." Hal looked up as a car alarm was going off. "How'd he make Natasha kill herself?"
"She just said that he whispered in her ear. Is that how he does it? He just whispers in their ears and makes them kill themselves?"
"He can't whisper to everybody in the whole world." Tom stated.
"Okay, but how does he suddenly have the power to do this now?"
"Must have been the proximity. He had a vampire and werewolf squabbling under his nose. Must have been enough to give him a foothold."
"Wait, was this caused by that bloody employee of the month competition?" Alex made a face while gesturing to the bodies. "I knew it. Those things always lead to shit like this."
I so badly wanted to ask what Alex meant by 'always'.
"Isn't that Rook?" I questioned while pointing across the street at the man in a grey suit. He ran as soon as he saw us, going down an alley, and we bolted after him. He was trapped by a dumpster and trash, turning only to face us when we were a few feet away.
"Let me get this straight, mass hysteria, suicides, resurrecting the antichrist, and all to save your God-awful pension?"
"You can't be allowed to simply run free! You need regulation! Society needs men like me to protect them."
"Yeah, and how's that workin' out for ya?" Alex crossed her arms, but Rook obviously couldn't hear her.
"How's that workin' out for ya?" Tom repeated for her.
"It was the greater good, don't you understand? A handful of deaths to stop ten thousand!"
"There wouldn't have been any if you'd stayed out of it!" I snarled, grabbing Rook by the front of his suit before slamming him against the dumpster. "We were no threat to anyone, and because you couldn't keep out of it, you've done much worse than anything we could have. Do you realize just what you've done?"
"Yes. Hatch came to see me. He wanted the emergency broadcast codes. In the event of a national emergency, the government concedes control of all television and radio broadcasts. My department has them in case one of your tribes ever attempt a coup."
"So you gave a man that can make people commit suicide by talking to them access to something that allows him to talk to people on a large fucking scale?!" I was absolutely baffled by the idiocy of this man.
~
Following the carnage to a TV news station, we could see Hatch's face plastered across every screen we came across. He was rambling on about the history he'd witnessed, mocking humans for what others had done.
Entering the room where they were recording the broadcast, people went to stop us, their eyes white and their movements mechanical. Hal hissed, baring his fangs at the nearest humans.
"Hal don't, they're still human." Alex stopped the vampire.
"We're going to take a little break." Hatch said to the cameras facing his way. "But join us when we come back for that very special message." He turned to us and rose to his feet, easily sliding the chair back since it was on wheels. "A hundred years, trapped in this broken body. A hundred years of aching bones, skin like dust, getting up five times in the night to pee, and you know what kept me going? Knowing I'd see you again and pull out your heart. And then one day you stroll into the hotel....with a werewolf. Talk about a get-out-of-jail card." He grinned, standing just a few feet away while locking eyes with Hal. "All I needed to do was pour a little pestilence into your ears, and here we are."
"We're united now. You can't use the power of us fightin' anymore." Tom shook his head.
"United? Really? 'Cause I'm getting resentment. Fury. Bits of heartbreak?" Hatch listed off while smelling the air.
"It doesn't matter. We won't let you win."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll see. Oh, hello. You found your way back, then?" Hatch turned to Alex.
"Yeah, wouldn't want to miss a bullshit super-villain speech from one of the cast of Cacoon. Why are you here? What are you going to do?"
"Well, I'll talk you through it, but I'm on a bit of a tight schedule."
"Hey, uh, is it just me, or is strange how we're not just jumping to the fighting?"
"Relax, you'll have your chance." Hatch waved me off while walking back on stage to wave at the world map behind the desk. "Now, I'm going to carve the world into four kingdoms. Here, the north, will be the kingdom of the Dead. The east, Russia and Asia, the kingdom of Disease. The south, Africa, the kingdom of Famine. And the west, the Americas, the kingdom of War. Can anyone see where this is going?"
"You're ripping off the Four Horsemen apparently." I popped off.
"Yes, but I'm doing it on my own!" Hatch grinned. "Cutbacks. Crikey! Look at the time. Slit the young fellow's throat if they try to stop me." My fist flew, knocking out the first person that grabbed Tom by his arm. The man went down, and I turned on the others with a vicious snarl as I felt my inhuman appendages grow out.
"Hatch!" Hal called out to get the man's attention back on him while holding up a vial of Tom's blood and a glass flask of vampire blood. "Blood of the wolf, blood of the vampire. Ring any bells?"
"Do they know what this means?"
"We do."
"Yeah." Tom said confidently before lowering his head. "What's it mean?"
"Oh, Hal. Didn't you read them the small print? Nobody gets out of this alive. Not even you, dear." He glanced at Alex. "No one involved survives this. We all skip off into oblivion together, hand-in-hand."
"It's true." Hal flicked the top off of the flask and my eyes went wide as it clicked in my head what this meant. "But we don't care. Do we, chaps?" He then flicked off the vial cap and I lowly growled.
"I fuckin care, you shit."
"Naya."
"We've got to do this, Naya."
"Drink it." Hal handed the now mixed blood to Alex.
"Um, I can't."
"Trust me, you can. Any last requests? Actually, forget it. We don't give a shit."
"Hold on just a fucking minute-"
"Oh, dear. Bang." Hatch motioned like he pulled out a gun and fired but it was only his hand. I blinked, and suddenly I wasn't in the studio anymore.
My brows furrowed as I found myself on the couch back home, and Hatch was sitting in a chair not too far away with a small piece of paper in his hands.
"You and that wolf were tough ones." He droned while folding the paper. "I couldn't take him back to before he became a werewolf since he was just a baby, and well, you were born what you are. Only part of you came from one of my curses, but you inherited it rather than 'got' it." The old man explained, sitting in such a relaxed manner in a black chair with his cane resting beside him. "So instead, I'm giving you this." He smirked while waving at the living room.
"You just took me back home, I don't-?"
"You're missing the important bit. It's right under your nose, Naya." Hatch gestured with the paper while looking down in my direction. Glancing at my lap, I paused, trying to process why in the Hell there was a toy in my lap. It was a dark green octopus with different pictures of animals on each tentacle. Picking it up, I touched one of the pictures and felt a button beneath the fabric.
"The seal goes 'ARR ARR ARR'!" An excited, young voice came from the toy, and I looked back at Hatch.
"The fuck am I supposed to do with a child's toy?"
"Let me give you a clue. Who isn't here?"
"Everyone."
"No, who specifically?" Hatch stood up to set the origami wolf onto the mantle right next to another one that was already there.
"Tom."
"Right."
"But I can smell him."
"Yes."
"What does that have to do with the fuckin' octopus?"
"You're so quick to attack that you give no time for explanation." Hatch sighed while rolling his eyes. "Look around the room. What do you see? What do you smell? It's all there right in front of you." Looking at the floor, I saw more children's toys. Light up toys to singing ones, a few plastic instruments here and there. I could smell varying scents from Tom's to mine, stale cheese puffs, and food cooking in the kitchen along with something else. No, not something....someone. Oh, goodness, was Tom babysitting again?
"You're only making me more confused and more willing to bite your throat out, old man."
"I thought you were smarter, but I guess not. Look, I'm giving you an alternative. Just think, a life without loss. A home. A partner. A-" He was cut off as the kitchen door swung open and Tom came in, carrying an oven-baked pizza in one hand while his other arm was wrapped around a baby with its fist stuffed in its mouth.
"Are you sure babies don't eat meat at this age? Amaruq kept grabbin' at the little meatballs." My mouth hung open as I watched the man set the pizza down on the table.
"Did he just say...." I turned to Hatch, and he was smiling at me as I stood up from the couch. "That's.... Amaruq is Inuktitut."
"Indeed it is."
"Is that....?" Hatch only raised his eyebrows, and I looked at the duo again.
"What's wrong, Naya?"
"We have a baby." Tom paused at my quiet voice, then looked at the baby in his arms.
"Well, yeah. Are you okay?"
"Fine." I mumbled, knowing fully well that this wasn't real. I thought Hatch had just teleported me back home to chat up a deal, but no, he'd put me in a false reality, a dream. The baby popped their hand out of their mouth and made random noises. It looked like a soft potato with a spit of hair and bright, joyful eyes.
"Come eat, then." Tom chuckled and set Amaruq down into a highchair and even strapped them in. "Lemme go grab the bottle." He went back into the kitchen and the baby smacked their hands onto their lap. They looked to be just a few months old, old enough to hold their head up, but still under a year.
My brows furrowed at the way the baby's feet looked in the socks, and I pulled one off to see why and had to sit down. I felt tears prick at my eyes as I saw a small paw and little paw pads. Amaruq was indeed my child- at least in this reality, they were. Tom and I had a kid. A kid dressed as a tiny dinosaur now that I saw what clothes they were wearing. Why did I get the strong feeling the outfit came from Allison?
"Think about it. A happy little family living here peacefully, away from anything nasty or dangerous. No having to fight any vampires or werewolves, no ghosts or government officials dragging you into battles you want no part of. You could have the life you dream of."
"What do you want?"
"You just have to stay here, stay happy."
"You mean let you do as you please?"
"Don't you think it's worth it? Look at little Amaruq." Hatch's voice came from behind me as the baby babbled and grinned at me. "Of course, I can start this over to let you experience it all if you want."
"I don't want this lie." I stated. "I want it for real." Twisting around, my claws tore through Hatch's throat just before I suddenly found myself waking up on the studio floor.
"Bunch of poofs." Hatch grimaced, and my head was reeling while the others were talking among themselves. Being thrown back into reality was nearly giving me whiplash- the scent of blood and death and sweat was so jarring compared to pizza and baby soap.
"Naya! The flask!" Alex shouted, bringing me back to the present, and the fact that this ritual would kill Tom. Was that dream the only chance I'd have at a future with Tom? Would I lose him today? Was I willing to accept being left completely alone after losing so many friends already? Was I ready to say goodbye to the one I loved more than anything else in the world?
Snatching the flask from the ground after it had been kicked around by shuffling feet, I tossed it to Alex.
My loss and grief were unimportant compared to the apocalypse. My pain would be worth saving thousands from theirs.
"Hal, I just drink it, yeah?" Alex questioned, but the flask was knocked from her hands and it shattered on the floor. Everything seemed to come to a halt as glass scattered across the floor and blood splattered the world map from Hatch being sniped before getting his message out.
The people around us were no longer under his control, and people in grey suits rushed into the studio to clean up the mess.
~
"Poison gas fumes?" Alex made a face after Hal turned off the TV. The news had been on, reporting what had happened to the people in the streets. "They really expect people to believe that?"
"I don't see why not. People will believe whatever gives them the fewest nightmares."
"What happened to the devil?"
"He may have returned to the atmosphere. To people's hearts."
"Still looks like Rook got his department back. Maybe that's a good thing, though. Still a lot of monsters about."
"That's my cue to go. I have a surprisingly low threshold for passive-aggression." Hal grabbed his jacket and simply sat down in the dining area. Staring at the spot the high chair from my dream had been, I found myself deep in thought.
If George and Nina were anything to go by, Tom and I would never be able to have that kind of life. Constantly looking over our shoulders, trying to keep our child safe and away from all the horribly bad things in the world. Then there's also what happened to baby Eve.
Now, I know the 'prophecy' thing with Eve was just a strange off-the-wall chance, but the life she lived wasn't. We were supernatural creatures part of a supernatural world and not everyone there was nice. Not to mention money to care for a child- we were literally thieving to get formula for Eve. Then the fact that Eve was orphaned not even a year after she had been born.
I didn't want that for any possible child of mine. I wanted to raise them myself, raise them with Tom.
Was this what the devil wanted from me? To show me what he could give me if I just stayed out of his way? To make me see what I couldn't have without him? If Tom, Alex, and Hal did kill the devil, then they'd be gone, leaving me here all alone.
Was it selfish of me to want to keep the family I had now?
"Oh, change the bloody record! What is he even doing here?" Alex yelling brought me back out of my head. "Does he want us to forgive him? Is that what it is?"
"What do you want, Rook? We were in the middle of something already."
"I came to tell you that I have resigned from my post."
"What? What the Hell did Natasha or any of those people die for?! What did any of this happen for?!"
"None of those deaths were in vain. The future of the department is assured now. Our work.... Their work, their essential work, can continue." Rook replied, and now I was left with a decision to make once more. Do I tell the others that Rook was no longer Rook and lose them to the ritual, or keep my mouth shut and ask for that deal? I knew I chose the fate of the world over them at the studio but thinking more on it now made me even more conflicted. I wanted to be happy, not depressed, grieving, and alone in this big home.
"Fuck this! I can't listen to this! Get him out of here!" Alex stormed into the kitchen, and Tom followed to try and talk to her.
"Perhaps it is too soon. Perhaps none of this can make sense yet."
"I do have a question." Hal said lowly. "How can you hear Alex? She talked about the deaths and Natasha and you responded."
"Do you really have to ask?" I sighed, standing up from my seat while turning to face the two men. "He's the devil." Rook's face broke out into a grin.
"Your insides are on fire." Hal and I both went down, screaming in agony and alerting the other two in the kitchen. "When I realized Rook was about to kill me, I fled that old, tired body and entered this one! Now, it's too late! I'm too powerful!" He roared, and Tom tried to shout over him.
"We have to do the ritual! What are you waiting for?!"
"It'll kill us all!"
"Just do it!"
"Do it!" I felt tears well in my eyes, powerless and in such pain, I was about to face an even greater loss.
"Now drink it!" I could hear the three of them start to choke and gasp for air. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I could do nothing from it feeling like the fires of Hell were burning me out from the inside.
The pain began to dissipate as the devil fled Rook's body to avoid his fate, and I scrambled to Tom, holding him while he was struggling to breathe.
"Tom! Tom, stay with me, okay?! It's going to be fine!" I knew it was a lie, and he did, too. The wolf clung to me, holding my hand firmly in his. "Just hold on. It'll be okay." I sniffled before a pulse went through the room and knocked me out.
~
"Is everyone okay?" I faintly heard.
"Naya?! Naya, wake up!" Groaning as I forced my eyes open, I could see Tom looking down at me with a worried expression.
"Alex?" A groan came as a reply from the ghost on the ground.
"Tom!" I shot up, wrapping my arms around him and holding on tightly. He softly chuckled while gently rubbing my back.
"And what about you? Good Hal, bad Hal?"
"Both. Neither. I can't explain it."
"Oh, even I felt that." My eyes went wide as Alex stood up. "What?"
"Your head is bleeding." She reached up out of confusion and ran her fingers through the blood.
"It's not just the cut. I'm aching. I feel like I've been hit by a bus. Oh, shit! Look at my tights, they're ripped! Tom, hit me." He obliged and punched her shoulder. "Ah! Jesus. Oh! Oh, but I felt it! That actually hurt."
"....Tom, what about you?" Hal questioned, and Tom closed his eyes.
"The wolf's gone. I can't find it." Tom stated and Hal slowly walked over to a small mirror. He could see himself and touched his face.
"Hal, what's happening?"
"Our curses came from the devil. With him dead, probably dead, they've gone. ....We're human."
~
"What'd Hatch show you?" Tom asked me as we were cuddling in bed.
"Huh?"
"When he put us in the dreams, what was yours?"
"He just brought me back here."
"Really? You, too?" Tom looked at me with furrowed brows.
"Yeah. He mentioned how you and I were 'difficult' since I was born an Adlet and you were a baby when you were turned."
"Did he fold a paper wolf in your dream, too?"
"He did, actually." We both paused, and I wanted to ask him if there were more similarities between our two fantasies than just the origami wolf and Honolulu Heights.
"You were pregnant."
"They'd already been born for me. Somewhere around 6 months, maybe?"
"We were getting ideas for names while drinking tea."
"Already named and about to eat pizza." I chuckled.
"What name?"
"Amaruq."
"Amaruq?"
"Yeah."
"Strange, but I like it."
"Tom, do you think we could ever actually have kids? I mean, with how dangerous our lives are...."
"Well, it won't be anymore, right? There's no vampires or werewolves now."
"Shit, you're right."
~
"Hurry up, it's about to start!" I shouted to the kitchen, and Tom was the first one to come out with some snacks.
"Hal's gettin' the drinks." He plopped down next to me before Alex in cargo shorts and a tank top came out of the kitchen, followed by Hal and a tray. Tom quickly ran through the rules of the little game we'd come up with to remind them, ending it off with if the item was once owned by Hal, he would automatically miss that round.
The music for the beginning of the antique show played from the TV as Hal defensively said that it'd only happened once that he'd owned what was shown on the program.
"Hey, what was your dream? Where'd Hatch put you?" Alex questioned Hal, and I picked up my mug from the tray.
"Somewhere a long way away. But it didn't have you three there. I told him he should have put us together or it was incomplete without you three."
"Here we are." Alex smiled.
"Dude, why would you tell him that?" I scoffed while waving my mug.
"What?"
"You should have lied."
"What? Why?" Alex furrowed her brows at me, and I gave them a look, wondering if they were really missing the point.
"Because then you told him exactly what he needed to do, duh. That's like a mouse telling a cat 'put out cheese and hide'."
"It's on." Tom waved his hand as the first antique was on the display. Reaching for the bag of cheese puffs on the coffee table, I froze as I saw what was on the mantle.
A pair of origami wolves.