"There ain't no rest for the wicked, till we close our eyes for good..." - an excerpt from a song by Cage the Elephant.

It felt good. The cool air in his face, his wings beating in a steady rhythm. It would be so easy to just focus on that and forget everything else, but he also needed to keep an eye out for the things that go bump in the night. He rather liked night. He didn't associate it with sadness and fear, but rather peace and serenity. It helped him get his mind off ... things. Speaking of which, it was time for him to visit again. Every day since Homecoming he'd taken a detour to see the building. To try and memorize every detail, every moment of that night, and maybe, just maybe against all odds he'd see her there and she'd tell him that it was ok. Maybe, if e wished for it hard enough, she would be there, but no. Of course not. Every night he visited, and every night it was empty. Well, almost. Some harpies had the misfortune to try and set up shop there after the gargoyles were destroyed. When Jake visited that night, he was beyond furious. I won't go into details, but let's just say that no magical creature has set foot on that building since. He felt his heart quicken as he rounded the nearest another skyscraper. He was almost there. Just a few more feet and he could see roof and the ...

He froze.

Someone was standing on the roof of the Pantheon building. Someone he'd never expected to see again. He was still too far to see clearly, but he was sure. Her posture, the way she leaned back a little when standing. There was no mistaking it. Standing there, among the destroyed gargoyles was Rose. No, no that was impossible. She couldn't be standing there, she was dead. He'd seen her die. Seen her disappear just before his wish reached her, but here she was. He could almost imagine a little half smirk half smile on her face as she stood there, waiting for him to come. Maybe, she might even berate him for not trusting her when she said that it'd be ok.

Jake rubbed his eyes. When he opened them again, Rose was gone. Just an empty roof with a line of broken gargoyles, like a bad memory he didn't dare forget.

"Snap out of it Jake," he muttered to himself, "It's been almost two weeks now. She's gone and you have to accept that. That was just your mind playing tricks on you. Making you see what you wanted to." Yes, that made sense. He'd heard of something similar happening to people when they couldn't stop obsessing over something. It was nothing. He was just tired and the roof and the night... "Yes a cruel mind trick, that's all."

Despite all that, he did end patrol for the night. Real or not, he couldn't bear another moment out there. He turned around and was home in a few minutes. Grandpa's shop was as he'd left it, though why it should be any different he had no idea. Just, if he really did see Rose... No, he couldn't even think that or he'd wind up like some of those pathetic widowers at the psych ward. He opened the door and walked in. Gramps was already asleep, but Fu was still in front of the laptop.

"Hey kid," he greeted Jake without lifting his face from the monitor. "How was patrol?" Dragon business was low since the Huntsclan disappeared, so it wasn't expecting much of an answer, but he still asked just in case. Even though everyone was trying to keep a low profile till the heat died down, there were always a few goblins who tried to jump the gun.

"H-hey Fu." He replied, still shaken. "It was ... peachy."

Fu paused, then leaned to the left, taking his eyes off the monitor.

"Peachy? Did you just use the word..." Disbelief turned to worry as he saw Jake's face. "You a'right kid?"

"What?" It took a second for Jake to register what Fu had just said. It seemed like it was coming from so far away. The whole room seemed so far away. "Oh, yeah, yeah I am fine. What's wrong with peaches?" He quickly added, trying to change the subject. The last thing he needed was Fu worrying about him over nothing. "They're round and fuzzy and um... fuzzy." He finished weakly. Fu just looked at him before going back to the French poodle he was trying to woo. If Jake was in any trouble, he'd tell them. Jake did hear him mumble something about a manservant acting weird while typing, but decided not to pursue the subject. If Fu hadn't learned his lesson in the last six hundred years, he wasn't going to learn it now.

Later that day (it was already past midnight, so it's still technically the same day) he was walking to school with Trixie and Spud, but his mind was somewhere else. Still on the roof, with that figure he thought he saw. It didn't make sense. It's been two weeks already, why should he start seeing things now? He became vaguely aware that he wasn't by his friends anymore. Turning around, he found a very angry Trixie standing a few feet back with her arms across her chest.

"Are you even listenin' to me?"

"Yeah, Kyle Wilkins." Jake said hopefully. It was a shot in the dark, but he had a pretty good chance of getting it right. She was almost ALWAYS talking about Kyle Wilkins. Not this time though, as she just stared daggers at him.

"I was talking about the cafeteria food."

"Oh" He said, grinning sheepishly. "I was ... close? Kyle Wilkins is yummy right?" He added, recalling some of their previous conversations. Trixie shook her head in a "see what I have to put up with?" kind of way before catching up to him.

"Sorry," he said after a while, "I was just thinking of something that happened on patrol yesterday."

"Were there any mermaids?" Spud piped up almost immediately. Jake grinned. The world could come crashing down around them and Spud would still be thinking about mermaids.

"No, no mermaids. Sorry."

"Oh," said Spud, a little disheartened. It wasn't as interesting anymore, but it must've been important to rattle Jake. Maybe something mermaid related? "So, what's up then?"

Jake sighed. He wasn't so sure if it was a good idea to tell them. Trixie would get all worried again, and Spud... he was just Spud. And besides, that was just one time. It's not like it's going to happen again. A little reassured, he just started to wave the question away before stopping dead in his tracks. There she was again. This time without the Huntsclan uniform, just good old Rose. She looked straight at him before turning a corner and disappearing behind a convenience store. Dropping his skateboard, he sprinted to her using the streetlight as support to turn, but the alley was empty. Instead, he raced into the convenience store, yelling at the cashier if he just saw a blond girl walk by his store. The man stared at him like he'd gone bunkers. The convenience store was right next to school. He saw hundreds of blond girls a day. Exasperated, Jake turned around, just in time to see his friends run into the store. Trixie looked at him much the same way the cashier was just a minute ago.

"You all right, Jakey?"

"Yeah man," Spud panted, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Jake just stared at them.

"Uh... I think I just did."