Well, we're finally here - this is The Last Chapter! End of the line for our heroes! No more after this! *Sobs into brown silk handkerchief*
I didn't realise how much I would enjoy sharing my story with all of you, or how much I would love all the feedback, and being able to reply to you all! Several of you have asked if there will be a sequel - I hadn't intended to write one but you've got me thinking now...so there may well be one in the future. I already have a plan for my next fanfic - need to write it now though!
This chapter has to be dedicated to "My Lot" - the three oddballs who live with me and have put up with me scribbling in corners, stealing their laptops and muttering about vampires for the last few months! My dear old OH, who some of you have met, Trevor and our two 'spenders of parents money and time' - aka claudsrachel and mimsybelle. Thanks guys!
Chapter 28
Alex stood in incredulous amazement as the whole room blew up around her. Her ghostly form was immune to the explosion – she watched as pieces of metal and wood and thousands of shards of glass went flying past and through her. She held out her hands to try and catch some but they just sailed on by.
A thundering boom had accompanied the explosion, due to the oxygen cylinder which had been torn apart in front of her. Lena was gone, disintegrated, blown to the four winds. Alex couldn't say that she felt sorry for the woman. The wall and ceiling were ablaze, what was left of the large table was buring too and as she watched the stairs began to ignite slowly, one after another.
She became aware of movement suddenly, Tom was struggling up from behind the counter, pulling Zoe with him. They were unhurt, thank God - saved by the brick counter, just as Hal had guessed. Hal! Where was he? Alex screamed his name, suddenly panic-stricken – terrified that one of her anchors to this world had been torn away from her.
"Where is he?" yelled Tom. Zoe couldn't stop herself shaking - she wanted to cover her eyes, she couldn't bear to think of what they might find.
"Hal!" the werewolf shouted again, fear rising in his voice. "HAL!"
And then suddenly, miraculously – from behind the door of the large refrigerator which he had pulled open earlier – there was Hal emerging, grimacing and tripping on the rubble. In those last few moments he had seen the open fridge - as he threw the lighter one way he had thrown himself in the other direction. The outside of the door was pockmarked with shrapnel – the man on the other side was almost unscathed.
Alex was completely overwhelmed – she had her arms around the vampire before he could even speak. He just smiled gently and held her close for a moment, letting go to grab Tom's arm as the werewolf clapped him on the shoulder. Zoe sneaked under his free arm and put her arms around his waist – he stroked her hair and briefly lay his cheek against her forehead.
"Let's get out of here," said Tom eventually, pointing at the two unexploded oxygen cylinders.
"I couldn't agree more." Hal carefully peeled the two girls off of himself. "The back door, I think?"
So out they went, leaving the wreckage of the chemists shop to the interested ministrations of Cardiff's finest, who they could hear approaching rapidly in the distance.
The old guest house stood quietly in the soft glow of the afternoon sun. The rain which had threatened during the night had erupted over the town just after lunchtime, drenching everything underneath it. There had been several long, loud rolls of thunder and some brilliant flashes of lightening, but the occupants of Honolulu Heights had slept through it all. Even Alex, who normally survived on about an hour of sleep a week had been dead to the world upstairs.
She was awake now though, sitting on the window ledge in her bedroom, looking out at a beautiful rainbow spreading itself over the roofs of Barry. She felt peaceful, still drowsy as she thought back dreamily over the events of the previous hours.
The team had made it back to Leo's car in the nick of time, driving at a sensible speed around the corner and away as the constabulary of Cardiff arrived from the opposite direction. The mood in the old Mercedes had been elated – although Zoe was worrying about her brother it hadn't subdued her or the others unduly. Tom couldn't stop laughing - he kept clouting Hal on the shoulder who after several whacks growled through his teeth that if he did it again the werewolf would be walking the rest of the way home.
Even so, the old vampire kept breaking into an uncharacteristic grin – he looked into the back once and asked Alex if she'd seen him pull the curses down. She nodded furiously.
"That was wicked!" she beamed. "So proud of you, sugar! Ye totally kicked vampire ass back there."
It was still dark when they arrived home, Hal sighed inwardly with relief, having no idea how they would have explained the sight of their filthy, bloody selves to any interested neighbours. It was a rush for the bathroom when they went inside – Tom heroically stood back and let Hal go first. The old vampire almost broke into a run and started taking his clothes off as he was still going up the stairs, leaving them in a heap on the floor.
Zoe dragged the clothes airer into the room to use as a screen and climbed in the bath, paying no attention to the singing vampire in the shower next to her. By the time that she climbed out again the water was the colour of soot. Hal was still oblivious and belting out 50's hits from the shower cubicle. Tom went for a bath himself, and had put all of their filthy clothes into the washing machine before there were any signs of movement from the vampire. The girls had clattered about making tea and cooking eggs and bacon before Hal eventually re-appeared, looking as if he had stepped straight out of the pages of an old-fashioned gentleman's magazine. He was immaculate – neat and pristine in his braces and pinstriped shirt.
Then gradually they had all fallen asleep, Tom on one sofa and Zoe on the other – Hal had smiled and thrown a blanket over each of them before disappearing himself. When Alex found him again he was upstairs in the attic, fast asleep in Annie's old chair.
Almost as if he's come up here to tell her about it all, thought Alex a little sadly, as she remembered the other ghost.
So she'd come downstairs, just to lie on her own bed for a few minutes but before she knew it the afternoon was nearly over and they'd slept the rest of the day away.
There was a ring at the doorbell, startling her. Before she could move she heard Tom's voice in the hall, the front door opened and she could hear Danny.
She was halfway down the stairs again in her excitement before she remembered to rentaghost He stood, worn out, pale and sad – he hugged Zoe and herself, when he saw Hal his voice broke as he tried to speak. Tom patted the young vampire's shoulder gently as Danny managed to stutter out with a whisper that Jack was dead.
Hal nodded, and touched the young man's arm briefly – Zoe led him into the living room where he told them that he'd caught up with his maker not far away. They had fought, the older vampire was stronger but it seemed, said Danny, as if he had lost all his hope, his vitality.
"I was so angry," whispered the younger man, "and he knew it. He was shouting at me – "love gets us every time, ruins our plans, kills our instincts." He told me that I haven't got a hope. Then he sort of twisted away from me somehow, almost put himself under the stake so I…I pushed it in and that was it. Over."
His twin put her arm around him and laid her cheek against his bent head. Hal pulled the coffee table closer and sat on it in front of him. He leant forward, elbows on knees, trying to find the right words.
"You have more than a hope," he said eventually. "A vampire like Jack cannot possibly understand the omplexity and completeness of love. The love of a brother and sister" – he patted Zoe's arm briefly – "the love of friends' for each other, the love that people have for their home, or their roots."
"Love will always beat evil, always. It may not do it immediately, it may take time, years, but it will always win in the end. And youwill always win because you have made that choice to become different to the rest of them, the same choice that I made. We may fail sometimes, and slip and fall away, but love – for our friends, our families, the whole human race – it will always bring us back. It will always save us."
Absolute silence. Danny looked up at him. That was why Hal fought so hard to stay clean, and why Zoe still trailed around after her brother. It was why Annie and Tom had looked after each other, and why the werewolf in turn had tied the old vampire to a chair to bring him back to humanity when he couldn't do it alone. It was why Alex was still here – the house, her friends, her unfinished business.
Danny nodded slowly. He knew it, he'd always known it. The Old One was right.
September. Zoe's job at the beach hut was drawing to an end. Danny was doing well with his lessons. It seemed as if a subtle change had come over the old guest house – time for the twins to move on for a while, they both felt it.
Hal had managed to get hold of a friend of his, a vampire called Adam. He explained that Adam's girlfriend Yvonne was a succubus, and as long as Danny didn't physically touch her their life would be nice and staid and boring.
Like that's ever going to happen, thought Zoe, but kept her mouth shut.
Adam and Yvonne had bought a little guesthouse on a remote Scottish island – just a few tourists every now and then. The ex-schoolteacher was very enthusiastic at the thought of the twins coming to stay for a while, and they were glad not to have to return to their old lives back in London.
So today was the day that they were leaving. Everything was packed and Tom and Danny were making a total pig's ear of fiddling with the car engine. Mostly they appeared to be laughing and mucking about.
Zoe came downstairs slowly – she had been wandering from room to room dreamily, saying goodbye to the house she told Hal, as he looked up from his dominoes.
"You don't need to say goodbye though," he corrected her, standing carefully and walking towards her. "Just 'a bientot.'"
"That means 'see you soon' doesn't it?" she asked. Hal nodded.
"You will always be welcome with us, whether we are still here or elsewhere. You are part of our household now."
His dark eyes were grave, gentle. Zoe felt her own filling with tears, a wave of sadness that was not entirely her own washed over her suddenly. The vampire very gently touched the back of her hand with his fingers – she caught his and brought them up to her eyes. She only held his hand for a moment but when she let go Hal could feel the tears sliding across his knuckles.
"We can always find each other, you remember?" he said. She nodded. "If you're ever in trouble, I shall know."
"Same goes for you," she gulped, wiping her face and nose unsuccessfully with her sleeve. The vampire sighed and produced a handkerchief from his pocket.
"Perhaps next time we meet, you will have bought yourself some of these," he smiled.
The front door crashed open. Hal winced.
"Mind the walls, Alex," he grumbled.
"Aye, whatever." The ghost bounced in, picked up Zoe and twirled her around. "Are ye ready?"
The human girl nodded.
"Come on then, sugar." The Scottish spirit slipped her arm through her friend's and led her down the path. The little car was ready at last, luggage in the boot, full tank of petrol, oil and tyres all checked. It was exciting – Danny was doing well, they were going somewhere new and Hal, Tom and Alex would always be their dear friends now.
Even for me, thought Zoe, humble little human me.
She was in the passenger seat now, the window was down and she leant on the doorframe. Tom was beaming, waving, Alex was looking rather tearful. Suddenly Hal was pushing a book into Zoe's hands – Shakespeare's Comedies.
"Crikey!" she stammered.
"Borrow it," he said, before he could change his mind.
"Seriously?" she was incredulous. "But…but…it'll leave a space on your shelf! It'll muck up your system."
"It's alright, really," Hal smiled. " I'll be alright. You can bring it back when we meet again. Besides, I have a photograph of two friends of mine standing where the book was."
Zoe grinned like an idiot. The car lurched forward and began to roll down the hill. A shouted goodbye, kisses blown – suddenly Danny put the brake on and quickly popped his head up through the sunroof.
"You know what?" he yelled back to the others, laughing.
"What?" called Tom. Danny winked.
"Someone should write a story about us."
The End.
