May 10, 1997

The commencement ceremony went off without a hitch, and with all the pomp and circumstance as any graduation. They cheered wildly and noisily for Beth as she walked across the stage in her cap, gown, and honor cords to accept her diploma, even though they were supposed to hold their applause until after the end.

They took a few family photos outside afterwards, and as Elisa watched the crowds of people milling about, she saw her again.

The same woman who had appeared at Joseph's ranch, in her hotel room, and now here.

She walked slowly, serenely, almost as if she were caught in slow motion. No one else seemed to notice her, but the crowds moved around her and out of her way anyway.

Elisa watched her transfixed as the world slowed around them, voices became distant, and there was only her and the other woman. Their eyes met, and Elisa felt like she had been struck.

"Joseph."

She heard the name in her head like it had been whispered directly into her ear.

Elisa shook her head slightly.

"JOSEPH!" the voice said more forcefully, and Elisa covered her ears.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and someone called her name.

She jumped and whirled towards the voice.

"My word, Elisa, you're jumpy," her mother said, cutting through her mental haze.

"What?" Elisa said slightly dazed, she blinked several times.

"We're heading out, are you coming?" Diane said a little exasperated.

"Yeah…" Elisa said quietly and she looked back over to where she had seen the woman, but she was gone.

Again.

She turned back and her eyes fell upon her dad. He was also looking through the crowd as if he were looking for someone. Then he turned and looked at her.

And Elisa knew.

He'd seen her, too.

...

...

Afterwards, Elisa tried to find a moment to talk to her father in private about what they both experienced, but there was so much going on, she didn't have a chance, and after dinner both her parents ducked out early claiming jet lag, and Beth had only one thing on her mind.

"Come drink with me!" she begged. "A bunch of grads are heading to a bar near campus for a few celebratory drinks. You should come!"

"Oh, I don't know, me and bars haven't always gotten along," Elisa said warily.

"Please?" Beth pleaded.

Elisa hadn't been to a bar since the night she had gotten drunk and had a one-night stand with an EMT.

"I don't want to cramp your style, Beth," Elisa said.

"Come oooooon. Pretty please? We've never gone drinking together before. It'll be fun!"

"Fine," Elisa said, rolling her eyes. "But I'm only having one drink. Someone's gotta keep an eye on you."

"Great! You can drive," Beth said and tossed her keys to Elisa.

"Swell," Elisa muttered.

...

...

The bar was full of rowdy graduates celebrating their recent educational achievements, and Elisa immediately regretted her decision. What she wouldn't give to be curled up next to Goliath on the couch right now as he read a book to her or they watched a classic noir film together.

Instead, she ordered a light beer so that she could nurse it through the night and not even get buzzed. She did not want to get drunk, and more importantly, she wanted to keep an eye on her sister who was already three shots in.

Beth fluttered about like a social butterfly, dancing and acting like a typical young college student. Elisa'd had her share of fun back when she was in college, but she was nearly thirty, and bars were too loud now, and hangovers hit harder. They weren't worth it.

"So, is Goliath, like, my brother-in-law now or something?" Beth said drunkenly at one point in the night.

Elisa was caught off guard by the question and nearly did a spit take with her beer. Unable to respond immediately, Beth jumped to conclusions…the right one, but not how Elisa would have explained it exactly.

"Oh my god!" she gasped. "And I wasn't invited to the wedding?!" Beth practically shrieked.

"You definitely did not want to be there. Trust me," Elisa scoffed.

"Why? Was it weird? Do you exchange vials of blood or something?" Beth teased and snorted a little at her own joke.

"No…it's just, well, gargoyles don't have weddings or ceremonies…they just...mate, and when they do, it's for life."

"So, they don't—and when you—oooooooh," Beth said haltingly, her eyes growing wide as she connected the dots.

"So, does that mean…oh my god! Goliath was a virgin?!" she said loudly, attracting looks from a few people around them.

"Beth, honestly! He has a daughter, remember? You met her," Elisa said, rolling her eyes. "They don't just spring up from the ground."

"Oh, yeah…good point. I forgot..." Beth said. "So, you didn't get to have a wedding? That's so sad."

She pouted dramatically.

"It's fine," Elisa said, and then she thought about letting her in on their secret. Beth was pretty drunk at this point, and she might not even remember she told her. Honestly, she needed to tell someone or she might burst.

"We're planning a commitment ceremony, actually."

"Like gay couples do? Elisa, I loooove the idea! You should definitely do it!" Beth swayed a little, and Elisa reached out and steadied her, growing concerned about how much Beth had had to drink so far tonight, but before she could say anything about it, Beth perked up.

"Oh! I love this song!" she exclaimed excitedly, and then she took off into the crowd where she started dancing drunkenly.

Elisa passed a hand over her face and sighed.

"Remind me to never go drinking with you again," she mumbled to herself. She went back to the bar and bought a bottled water. It was nice and cold in her hands which was soothing since it was rather hot and stifling in the bar with all of the bodies pressed together inside, which made Elisa start to wonder about the fire code and whether or not the large crowd was violating it.

"Can I get you a drink," a male voice said next to her.

Oh, no, not this again, Elisa thought.

She turned to see a young white male with shaggy blond hair. He had the air and appearance of a typical frat boy. The kind who'd ply you with drinks and possibly spike them. She tried to hide her visible distaste.

"No, thank you. I'm good," Elisa turned him down.

"Come on. Just one drink?" he said with a sleazy grin that was meant to be charming. Elisa felt even more confident about her first impression of him.

"No," she said firmly, less politely.

Beth came back up to her from the crowd, a young man in tow. He looked native to her or possibly Hispanic. He was rather cute, but most notably he was gazing dreamily at Beth.

"How about a dance then?" the persistent frat boy said.

"No," Elisa said, moving past irritated and into angry.

"She's engaged, Jeff. Fuck off," Beth said, overhearing the man's appeals to Elisa.

"I don't see a ring," the man jeered.

Elisa sneered at his tone.

"Trust me…you're barking up the wrong tree. Her fiancé is huuuuuge."

"Beth," Elisa said annoyed.

"But he's not here now, is he?" the frat boy Beth called Jeff, said.

"No, he's not here right now, but you should be more worried about me than my fiancé," Elisa said as she pulled her badge out of her back pocket and held it up.

The frat boy scowled and finally turned away, merging back into the crowd. Elisa only hoped he got drunk and passed out before he tried to coerce some young woman into doing something she didn't want to. Elisa knew his type, and if she didn't have Beth to look after, she'd be keeping a close eye on him.

Elisa took her eyes off of the frat boy and turned back to her sister...who was now making out with the young man she had brought with her from the dance floor.

Elisa pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead.

"Okay, it's time to go," she said grumpily, and she pulled on Beth's arm.

"What? Why?" Beth protested, disengaging from her…friend.

"Because you're at the point where you can't make good decisions anymore."

"But I have been trying to get with Marco all year," Beth hissed conspiratorially to her sister.

"Give him your number. If he really likes you, he'll call you tomorrow when you're both sober," Elisa argued.

Beth pouted.

"But he's so cuuuute,"

"Yes he is, and tomorrow he'll still be cute. Come on, it's time to go home."

"Fine, Mom," Beth said sarcastically as she scowled at Elisa. Then she hastily wrote her phone number on a cocktail napkin and slipped it into Marco's hands and mouthed "call me." Then she followed her big sister out.

"Just because you're having a lot of amazing sex, doesn't mean there isn't any left for the rest of us," Beth whined. She stumbled a little, so Elisa put an arm around her to help steady her as they walked out to the parking lot to Beth's red truck.

"I'm not trying to cock block you, Beth. Feel free to have all the consensual and safe sex you want when you're sober. You'll thank me later," Elisa replied as she fished the keys out of her pocket, unlocked the passenger side door, and then helped her sister in.

When she shut the door, she saw the blurred reflection in the window of someone standing behind her. Worried that Jeff or someone else had followed them out, she spun around, squared her hips and sunk into a defensive position with her fists up.

But there was no one there.

"Ok, that was weird," she muttered under her breath as she relaxed her stance. Beth slumped against the inside of the car door, her face pressed ridiculously against the glass.

"The barn," a voice whispered near her ear, like someone was standing right next to her, and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

She whirled around again, but like the first time, no one was there.

"Check the barn," the voice said again and Elisa spun around a third time. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest, and she breathed rapidly with fear.

No one was there, and Elisa shivered and hastily got into the truck. She didn't want to be there another second. Elisa had to help Beth buckle her seatbelt, and then she peeled out of the bar's parking lot and down the street. She released a few shaky breaths as she slowed her heart rate. Luckily, there wasn't much traffic this time of night, and the drive was quiet and calm.

As she got closer to Beth's apartment, a figure suddenly appeared in her headlights in the road in front of them.

Elisa slammed on the breaks and braced for impact as the vehicle drove through the figure, but nothing came. There was no thud of impact.

"Oh, god, I'm gonna hurl!" Beth said, and she opened the passenger door and puked out the side once the truck had come to a complete stop.

Elisa was too busy staring out the windshield to help her sister.

There had been someone in the road.

That same god damn woman she had seen so many times before.

And she had just hit her with her sister's truck

Her heart pounded as she sat clutching the steering wheel, her knuckles turning pale from lack of circulation. Her stomach had gone watery, and for a moment she thought she might throw up as well.

She put the truck in park and forced herself to get out of the vehicle, dreading what she would find, but there was no one. No body, no damage to the truck. There was…nothing.

Except for a long black crow feather on the hood of the truck. She picked it up and looked around. A few cars slowly drove past her as she stood in the middle of the road. She ran a shaky hand through her hair.

This was ridiculous. She couldn't trust her eyes or her ears anymore.

Whatever was going on, it needed to stop before someone got hurt.