Don't Fear the Reaper
3
By the time he called the cleanup crew and made it home Aidan believed that Sally was just another side effect of his blood induced stupor. The vampire cleaned himself up and crawled into bed, knowing that he would have to explain this to Josh in the morning.
So he waited for his roommate at the kitchen table, reading the paper and hoping that news of his slip up would not end in another argument with Josh. They both had a shift at the hospital today and Aidan secretly hoped that the two of them could leave the house on good terms and actually get through this without the weight of his disappointment, but as Josh walked into the room he immediately knew something was wrong.
"What did you last night?" Josh questioned starting the conversation that had kept Aidan up all night.
"I messed up," Aidan sighed, "again."
"You have to stop doing this Aidan," Josh began, "people keep dying around you, I know that Bishop covers for you most of the time; but what is going to happen when people in town start asking questions?"
"I don't know," the vampire responded honestly, "I have no idea what to do Josh. This keeps happening to me and then I see her again."
"Who?" Josh asked in confusion, "Who do you see?"
"Sally," Aidan choked out, remembering the feel of her hands on his shoulders last night, "I have no idea, how that's possible but she's come to me twice since Bishop killed her."
"Both times, were right after you killed someone?" The werewolf asked for reference.
Aidan nodded, "Sally comforted me last night; after I killed someone, she just held me for a moment before she left me there alone."
"Did Sally say anything to you?" Josh looked his roommate in the eye and hoped the vampire could at least remember that much.
"Yes, but it didn't make any sense. She never makes any sense," Aidan explained, "It's like she talks in riddles, just so that I won't understand what she's saying."
"I know that you don't want to hear this, but I think you just imagined her there," Josh told him, "It makes you feel better and seeing her probably eases your grief, but you said yourself that Sally didn't come back as a ghost and she has been in the ground for a week now."
"She isn't a ghost, she's something different," Aidan argued.
After that Josh let the subject drop. The only thing he told Aidan to do was come straight home after his shift was over and to avoid being one on one with anyone if he could. That went on for about a month until Aidan was ambushed on the way home from work and taken to a blood den.
The smell was disorienting, bloodshed all around him and before Aidan could run out of there Bishop had him by the back of his neck and Marcus took one of his arms. "No, running away tonight Aidan. We are having you a party and this is one that you are required to attend." Bishop motioned one of his girls to a room before pushing Aidan towards the door. "No matter what he says, this one needs a drink," Bishop shouted at the girl.
Aidan began to struggle against them but another vampire had clamped onto his arms and Bishop merely chuckled, leaning in to whisper in his "sons" ear, "Drain her dry Aidan, I know you missed out on Sally but she is just as good; blood is blood and it's always better fresh from the vein."
The vampire didn't even have time to fight before he was forced into the room, the girl on the other side of the door had the blade at the ready, not caring that the door locked behind them or the overly crazed look in Aidan's eye. The woman cut herself and pressed the wound against his lips and then he was gone, Aidan could hear her screaming; the woman even tried to fight back but he was stronger than her. Time seemed to freeze around Aidan as he realized what he'd done, the girl Bishop had put before him was dead. He let a sob out as he lay the girl gently on the couch, Aidan stepped towards her but someone held him back.
"Come on," it was Sally's voice that tried to break through the haze, "Let's get you out of here." The dead woman walked Aidan towards the door and opened it, leading him out of the room and out of the den, knowing that no one would get in her way.
"Sally." Aidan forced her to stop in her tracks. "Why are you doing this? How are you even here?"
"I told you last time, when I died they gave me a job," Sally stated, "I help people that die crossover, door or no door. The people on the other side don't want too many ghosts floating around. With all the people Bishop kills, I don't blame them. They can wait though; you are my focus for the evening."
"Are you mad at me?" Aidan slurred, barely keeping himself upright.
Sally let him lean on her. "Aidan, this isn't the time or place to have this conversation. I'm taking you back to your house and locking you in. Once your safely in bed, we can talk."
In response Aidan scooped Sally up and ran in the direction of his house. If she wasn't already dead, Sally probably would have panicked but there she knew that Aidan couldn't do anything to hurt her. The vampire was stumbling forwards faster than he should have been but thankfully it close to two in the morning and no one paid attention to him.
Once he got her into the house and the girl used her powers to shut the door behind them, since Aidan didn't seem to care about securing the house at the moment. The vampire just carried the dead woman up the steps and by the time Aidan got her up there she was just as disoriented as he was. He plopped her down on his bed and kissed her before she could raise her hand to stop him.
"Aidan," Sally spoke as his lips left hers and went to her neck. When he didn't respond Sally spoke louder, "Aidan! Stop!" She shoved him away and Aidan looked at her in shock.
"Sally, I'm so sorry. Everything is a little weird right now," Aidan stated as he backed away from Sally, unable to look at her.
"It's the bloodlust," Sally responded coldly, "You're more the monster now than the Aidan I knew."
"I'm a monster all of the time," Aidan argued, "It doesn't shut off."
"Yeah, but live blood brings out the worst in you," Sally answered, "I need to fix this."
"There isn't a fix. I'm a vampire, I have been for over two hundred years. Whatever you are thinking, Sally, nothing you can do will change it." Aidan turned and cupped Sally's cheek, the girl leant into his touch for a moment before standing to meet his gaze.
"It isn't supposed to be this way," Sally muttered, "I was supposed to help you and Josh."
"Are you sure it's me that's drunk?" Aidan slurred for emphasis, "You do help me. When I see you, it just makes me want to be better than what I am."
"I'm not, you don't understand. None of this was supposed to happen like this," Sally tried to explain.
"It did though and you can't change fate," Aidan argued.
Sally shook her head, "You changed my fate Aidan. That's the reason I got this job in the first place. Our destinies our intertwined so much so that even my death couldn't get rid of that bond. I was supposed to killed, but instead of Bishop it was supposed to be Danny."
"My landlord?" Aidan questioned.
Sally nodded in response, "He was my fiancé. We were supposed to move in here together, but when we met I saw how much of a douche Danny was and left him. That was my mistake, I needed to die in this house because that was how we were supposed to meet."
"You don't know that," Aidan rebutted in disbelief.
"I do. The people on the other side explained it to me, they told me I could change it back if I wanted to but I thought I could help you from afar," Sally mused, "But I was wrong."
"You can't make this all about me! What about you? You didn't deserve to die!" The vampire shouted.
"But it was supposed to happen that way," the dead girl admitted, "I'm going to fix this."
"At what cost though?" Aidan questioned.
"This," Sally answered, "Us. Whatever it is we have here."
"I won't remember you?"
Sally nodded, "It will be like the first time we met, but I'll just be the dead girl that lives with you and Josh."
"I love you," Aidan pleaded, "I don't want to forget how I feel about you."
"How you feel now, won't even be a memory, just like all of this never happened. Aidan, you won't have to carry the guilt of my death with you anymore," Sally argued.
"It was my fault."
"No, it wasn't and in that reality my death is Danny's fault," she reasoned with him.
"Will you remember?" Aidan asked, needing to know that more than anything else. When the girl nodded in response he spoke again, "Then make me fall for you again."
Sally nodded before she disappeared. The silence seemed to ring in his ears as he took her spot on the bed and closed his eyes, not knowing what he would wake up to in the morning but willing sleep to come anyways.
Her plea was heard and as Sally stepped back into purgatory, they were readying her to go back to her life before Aidan. They kept asking Sally if she was sure, that once she was back among the living that the only way out was to die again and the girl nodded solemnly. Sally knew what she was doing and that it would all be worth it.
"Here's your door," her boss stated placing Sally's hand on the knob, "By doing this you will restore your fate. I can't take your memories away but no one else will remember what happened, not Aidan or Bishop, just you and me."
"I know and I can handle it," Sally answered the unspoken question.
"I'll see you back here someday," her boss promised, wrapping an arm around the Sally before opening the door for her.
"Goodbye," she whispered before the girl was immersed in light and her world shifted around her. Sally smiled at the familiar space around her, but knowing what was coming was nerve-wracking.
It wouldn't be long now; Sally could feel her end coming to her along with flashes of her past life. Something she hoped would go away after a while, Sally knew that she couldn't let what happened to her before change what she had here. Living in the moment was hard, when you knew that you were going to die soon and had a different reality in her head.
Sally let Aidan go as she waited for her death. He wasn't something she could hold onto, when they met it would be like nothing ever happened between them, but as Sally plummeted towards the hard tile of the landing; she understood one thing for sure, there was no way she could forget any of it.
