Night's Children: Nox Noctis

AN: Sorry for my super long break. But I will make it up! I swear! Regretfully, this section has no Tessa, Aria, or Riley. : ( I hope you like it anyways, since this is an abnormally long chap, I have it divided into three short ones. Don't worry, I posted them all at the same time . Part one has some good Imy/Catty mother-daughter bonding, part two focuses on the fuzz and Jimena…being hit on? Part three…well…let's just say it has some characters everyone's been missing ;).

Also, I'm sorry if there's any typos. I was just so excited to post this I skipped that whole editing thing

Chapter Eight: Interlude

Part One: Injury

"Imy, are you alright?" Came the quiet voice of her mother from the doorway, coming in to check up on her for the millionth time.

"Fine mom," Imy said casually, leaning back on the pillow. That was a blatant lie, Imy felt like she was being ripped apart by pliers. Her best friend was charging ahead on a suicide mission, Tessa helping her with it, and Aria was going to fight Followers with no power at all. To top it all off, Twiggy, whom she had known for years, had almost died today. Yeah mom, I'm fine. Imy thought bitterly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Catty pried gently, leaning against the doorway.

Imy shot a glance at her mom. She looked terrible, her eyes were baggy and puffy from lack of sleep, and there was gray streaks beginning to form at her temples. Her librarian style glasses hung on the tip of her nose, and she looked like she hadn't showered in the past three days. Imy sighed, knowing she was the cause of all of this, her mom had been worried about her. She felt like garbage, knowing that she would have to keep putting her mother through this because she could never tell her the truth. She couldn't, not when her mother had been a Daughter who had chosen to remain on Earth and forget. It broke the rules.

"It's alright mom," She mustered a weak half-smile, "Really, I'm fine."

Catty said nothing but took a seat on her daughter's bed, "Honey," She said gently, "Is this about Twiggy?"

She bit her lip, "Kind of."

"Are you still stewing over what happened this morning?" Catty prodded gently.

Imy sighed, and nodded, "I could've lost him today, when Ari-" Imy caught herself, knowing that Aria wasn't supposed to be anywhere near Twiggy, "Riley told me his condition it hit me like lighting. I'm not untouchable, I'm mortal- everyone I love is mortal." She shook her head slowly, "It…scares me. It scares me to know that someday, I'm going to never see Twiggy, Riley, you or dad again. That one day, you're going to be totally ripped away from my life."

There was a moment of silence between the mother and daughter. Catty wrapped an arm around Imy's good shoulder in a comforting gesture. Both seemed to be at a loss for words, until Catty finally broke the standstill.

She exhaled, "I know what it feels like, Imy, loosing a friend. I know it hurts." Catty stared out of Imy's window, looking out at the bright sliver of moon.

Imy gave her mom a quizzical look, remaining quiet, unsure if she was welcome to know about this painful memory, "Mom?" she asked, silently asking permission.

Catty gave a grim smile and patted her daughter's hand, "I couldn't have been much older than you, I think I was around seventeen, when my best friend was killed."

Her eyes widened, she had never heard this story before. She swallowed a lump in her throat that had magically appeared, "I'm sorry." She muttered, knowing it was a lame response to the story her mother had begun to tell.

Catty's smile didn't falter, and she gave Imy an understanding glance, "It's ok, it happened a long time ago." She once again returned to staring into space, and the stillness of the room began to smother Imy like a blanket. After a few moments, Catty continued, "I still think about her a lot, everyday in fact."

The awkwardness seemed to impossibly expand. Catty was lost in some type of reverie, while Imy stared absently at a corner of her blanket, trying and struggling to come up with an adequate response. "What was her name?" She blurted, the first thing to come to her mind.

"Vanessa." She sighed, her gaze still absent, "Vanessa Cleveland." She turned to look at her, "Your middle name is after her."

Her daughter nodded, making the connection. Catty was watching her, expecting the question as her daughter was never one to contain her curiosity.

"What happened?" Imy questioned, making sure her tone implied that her mom could refuse to answer if she wanted to. The last thing she wanted to do at this moment was offend her mother who was obviously placing a huge confidence on her.

"Her and a once good friend of mine were out late at a party," Catty's voice became flat and emotionless, like a narrator in a play, "The other girl had fallen into a bad crowd, some kind of gang, and Vanessa was trying to get her away from it." Catty gave out a laugh, "Vanessa always wanted to help everyone. Even though it was plain as day that the crowd Serena was hanging around with would only lead to trouble, Vanessa was adamant about helping her out of it. She believed Serena could be saved."

Catty was silent for a moment, and Imy just stared at her, the names seemed very familiar, yet she couldn't place them.

"I guess the gang Serena went around with showed up that night, and some type of fight happened. Before anyone knew it, there were gunshots." Catty took a deep breath, the emotion beginning to seep into her words, as her voice started to waver and her eyes burned with unshed tears, "Vanessa caught a ricocheted bullet to the chest; she died in the street."

"Mom I'm so sorry." Imy whispered, pulling her close into a hug.

Catty was now silently weeping, "The worst thing about it, was that I was powerless to stop it. I remember, I was out of town, seeing my father, when it had happened. All I could think about after I returned was how I should have been there." She shook her head, mocking her own childish naivety, "I felt if I had been there, Serena would have never taken her to that party, or I would have been able to, I don't know, take her away the split second before the bullet hit." She sighed, "I felt as if the entire thing had been my fault." Catty gnawed on her lower lip, "Vanessa hadn't deserved to die alone and more importantly without me. We had been friends since elementary school, and I had always imagined us growing old together, raising families next door to each other and eventually dying together. We were connected deeper than the connection of best friends, we were more like sisters." She heaved one last sob, "When Ness died, all my childish innocence died with her."

She looked at Imy again, and she discovered Imy was crying with her, for Catty had no idea how close to home her words were when Imy thought of Riley.

"After she died, I became paranoid, desperately clinging to everyone I cared about." Catty shot Imy a meaningful look, "I was afraid to leave my friends alone for even a second, I did this because I was desperate to avoid repeating the mistake I made with Vanessa. It terrified me to know that they would leave me, like Vanessa did."

The two of them sat there, once again in silence.

Imy spoke up, "Did you ever get over…get over her death?" She asked gingerly.

Catty shook her head, "No, and I never will. But a part of me was able to recover and keep on living. I was dating your father at the time, and he showed me that if I continued to suffocate myself with worry, I would be too afraid to actually live my life." She looked at Imy, "Believe it or not, I used to be somewhat of a daredevil. Me living as a safety freak was slowly killing my spirit. It me cold, and I was removing qualities from myself that people loved me for. I was becoming flat, emotionless. Some type of non-person. Does that make any sense?"

She nodded, it made perfect sense. It was one of her most dreaded fears. She was terrified of loosing herself in the chaos of this vast, secretive war, of becoming nothing more than a brain-soldier without a mind of her own.

Catty had stopped crying, and the occasional sniffle was the only sign of her earlier breakdown, "Before Vanessa died, I had thought that my friends and I were untouchable, like gods or something. I thought that death was something that only happened to bad people, and that good people, or at least people who tried to be good always won in the end. But I saw that it wasn't the case, God doesn't pick favorites."

Catty gripped her daughter fiercely, carefully minding her bruised ribs and dislocated shoulder, "I know that Todd is a nice boy, Imy, and I'm sorry your father and I were yelling in the car. It's just…we don't want you or Riley hurt." She eased back so she could look her in the eyes, "It's not that you're not a good kid, because you, Todd, and Riley are, it's more like there's bad people in the world Imy, and in the end you always have to be careful." She sighed, "Vanessa and Serena were both good people, but trouble found them, it can find you too." She gave an affectionate ruffle of Imy's hair, "Please just…try to remember you're not invincible ok? I don't want to see you in harm's way."

Imy swallowed, there's bad people in the word, if only she remembered. She tried to muster up a brave face, to reassure her mother who looked like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She had to be strong, not just for her mom, or Riley but for herself. She had to force herself through this destiny; she had to overcome the obstacles. Catty's talk had made her see that. How could she help others, if she couldn't even help herself?

Imy nodded, "I promise." With those two words the tension seemed to disappear from the room, she looked at her mother, who still stared at her through strained eyes, "Just try and get some sleep, ok? You and dad both look like you're about to collapse."

Catty slumped a bit, "It's been a very long week." She looked as if she were about to cry again, "You have to understand, when we got the call, Kyle and I thought the worst." She squeezed Imy's arm, "You're the most important thing in both of our lives. If we lost you, I don't know what I'd do."

Imy gave a watery smile, touched at the raw emotion she heard in Catty's voice, "I love you mom."

"Love you too Imy." Called her mother quietly as she exited the room, shutting off the light.

Imy waited until she was sure her mom was out of the room before she took out her amulet from under her shirt. It gleamed in the moonlight, trying to tell her something, and Imy could feel a dull pulse coming from it.

Her thoughts trailed to her mom's story. She felt a stab of pity for the girl Vanessa; after all, she had only been trying to help out her friend before she did something stupid. Her thoughts drifted to Riley. Was she ok? Was she hurting somewhere? Was she…

She abruptly stopped that train of thought.

I should've been there.

Imy straightened up. If she let Riley handle this on her own, knowing what the consequences would be, she couldn't live with herself. She would not allow that constant 'what if?' in the back of her mind if Riley was harmed and she didn't do a thing to stop it.

Please just…try to remember you're not invincible ok?

Imy breathed out slowly, "I'm sorry mom." She whispered.

She was going to go out and find Riley before the Followers.

She wouldn't allow her and Riley become another Vanessa and Catty.