Chapter 09: Epilogue

"As we crawl up the stairs
Grabbing everything falling down
We rip the shades to see the light
Finding hope in broken life…"

- from "Ashaka Rock" by The Early November

The next morning, Mark and Sam found that Rider was gone. He left them a note saying that he had gone to Missouri to see his cousin; a woman who had recently given birth to a baby girl, and named her Emily.
They stayed in the Victorian house for another few days, but they were running out of food and bottled water; and they knew this was no way to live life. They couldn't stay in a ghost town grubbing off canned goods forever; so they got their shit together and set out.
The only place they could think of going, that they could really reach on foot, was Montgomery. They got their by evening, and slept in the park behind bushes. The next morning, bored and with no where to go, they went back to the bus station, to sit on the benches and just hang out... maybe they'd meet somebody they knew there.
Mark had gone off to use the bathroom, when a miracle happened. Sam felt her pocket vibrating. She reached in it and pulled out a cell phone; she'd forgotten she'd taken that from her house... but who had the number? No one that was alive, certainly...
Nonetheless, she popped the top (it was a flip phone) and put it to her ear. "H-hello?"
"Samantha Hennessey?" An unfamiliar voice on the opposite end of the line.
"Yeah, who are you?"
"My name is Meagan White, I'm with the Detroit City Homeless Center," the woman, Meagan, answered. Her voice was very scratchy, like someone who'd smoked cigarettes for too long. "I'm with a mister Ben Mears... he says he knows you."
"Ben Mears?" Sam echoed. "But that's impossible!"
"He's got I.D," Meagan answered, as if that was supposed to comfort Sam.
"Put him on!" A click, then a man's voice saying her name. "Yeah... look, tell me something only Ben Mears would know."
"What?"
"Just tell me, okay; I gotta make sure it's you!
There was a silence for a moment, and then he answered. "I asked Mark if I could adopt him at a rest stop on October 9th of this year. We were eating hamburgers and fries. Mark picked the tomatoes off his hamburger because he doesn't like tomatoes."
"Ben!" Sam gasped. "It really is you! Where are you? Why didn't you contact us earlier?"
"I just got out of the hospital," he replied. "I was in a short coma... but I'm fine now."
"Why aren't you in jail?"
"Well, after Father Callahan died, there was no plaintiff, and his family didn't want to press charges. They just wanted a peaceful funeral, no trial; so they had to let me go."
"Where are you?" She asked, at length. "Are you coming to get us?"
Ben laughed, warmly. "I'm in Detroit still. I told you, they just let me out today! But, yes; I'm having some money wired to me from New York, and then I'll come and pick you guys up, if you'd be so kind as to tell me where you are..."
"Greyhound bus station in Montgomery," she replied, overjoyed. "Please hurry!"
"I will," he replied, and hung up.
As if on que, Mark came back. He didn't see her put away her cell phone, didn't have any idea of the call. He flopped down beside her on the bench and offered a weak smile, before asking; "So where to you want to go now?"
Sam smiled, mysteriously. "I think I wanna stay here for a while..."
"What? Here in Montgomery?"
"No," she laid her head on his shoulder. "Right here, on this very bench..."
"Okay," he said, easing back against the bench. "But if you get bored, don't blame me..."
"I won't," she promised.

They waited there until night, when a man kicked them off the property. They went and slept again in the park, and returned the bench the next morning... by eleven a.m, a car came rolling into the bus station from outside of town, as strange as that must have seemed... but, out of it stepped Ben Mears, alive and well.
"Ben!" Mark cried, jumping to his feet and running up to embrace the man. Ben laughed and hugged the younger male back. Mark had begun to cry, discovering that it was not as he feared and he could still do so, even if they were tears of joy... "But how? I watched you die!"
"They brought me back," Ben replied simply. "And got me into surgery at six in the morning... fixed my spleen, believed it or not. They were able to cauterize the wound before I lost too much blood, and before the damage became irreversible... but yes; it was very touch and go. I could have very well died."
Mark shuddered at the thought, and clutched Ben tighter. Of course, he asked the writer why he was not in jail; who gave Mark the same answer he'd given Sam over the phone. Sam, who was standing on the side lines, watched the touching scene.
"Do you still want me to come live with you?" Mark asked, looking up at Ben hesitantly, afraid that he would say no. But Ben nodded, bringing joy to Mark's heart... that's when Sam realized, she was alone, now. Ben was taking Mark, and she'd have no where to go... until, Ben raised his head.
"Have you got a place, Sam? Any relative?"
"They were all in the Lot and in Gatlin," Sam answered, as they would later explain the events of Gatlin to Ben. "Now they're all dead..."
Ben smiled. "You can come with us, too; if you'd like."
Sam smiled, too. Her heart swelled, and she ran over and threw her arms around Ben, too; leaving them in a big old group hug. Ben laughed, and led them back to the car he'd rented, and then back to Detroit from there, where they would take a plane to New York City, and never see another vampire again as long as any of them lived...

THE END

Wee! Happy/supremely cheesy ending! But, hell, Ben didn't die in the book! So why should he die in the movie? It's just not fair to Mark... so, I rewrited Hollywood's wrongs. Take whatever from it you like...

ANYWHO! Thanks to Ryou for being the... only... reveiewer! But not the point... I write my stories for my own enjoyment, and post them for anyone else's benefit, anyone who fight find them as amusing as I do. So nah! But thanks again, Ryou, you rock. And thanks to anyone else who will read this is the future...

Sincerly, whatserface