FINAL RESTING PLACE

Evergreen Terrace was different. Older, dustier... the houses seemed deserted to Lisa as they drove down the street. Yet they were still familiar...

They pulled to a stop in front of seven forty-two. Lisa's home. There were earthworks in the garden, so that was different, and there seemed to be more peeling paint and a few tiles less on the roof... nobody lived there, obviously. And next door, the Flanders were gone too.

"Well, at least it's not been knocked down..." They both got out of the car and looked around.

"This whole place looks deserted," Mark observed. "What a dump."

"Like Queens is any better?"

"Shaddap..."

Lisa stepped across the earthworks and up to the front door of her old home. It wasn't locked. It wasn't even closed properly, as if someone had just slipped out and meant to be back in a few moments... She pushed against the door, dislodging a seven year-old pile of junkmail, scattering it across the bare floor.

It was dark inside. The windows were boarded up through most of the house, leaving little space for light to flow in. That would be useful. Lisa left a trail of footprints through the thick dust on the floor, up the stairs, to her room. It was empty too... except for a single wardrobe that was too big to fit through the door.

"Lisa?" Mark stomped through the house, nursing his left arm. Of course, that rib won't heals for a while, Lisa thought somewhat sadly.

"I'm in here Mark." She touched the wardrobe. The only piece of her old life...

"This is incredibly morbid you know," Mark said, coming through the door. "This place must have been deserted for ever. Ooh what's behind the door?"

"A lost world." Lisa turned and walked from the room, out into the dusty corridor. If she closed her eyes she could almost hear her family downstairs, yelling and shouting...

"Woah, Lisa, there's a horn in here!" Mark came out of the room holding a battered, oxidised saxophone. "Was this yours?"

Lisa took the horn and examined it. "Yeah, it was..."

She put the horn gently back in its cradle and closed the door. There was a faint shaft of light shining on the wall now. Sunrise.

"I'm going to stay here," she said to Mark. " You should probably go back to New York."

"No point in that, unless I want to end up as a cook the rest of my life..."

Lisa laughed. "You want to stay? Well... you won't be here for long."

"Why?"

"Because..."

"Okay, I can see I don't want to know." Mark walked to the window and looked out. "Looks like this place is pretty deserted all round... I doubt anyone will come up here... what about that guy you kicked? Julian, wasn't it?"

"I doubt he'll be coming after me again," Lisa replied with a wry smile.

"Even Vampires have nads..." Mark turned around again. "Okay, I'll go and get some food or something."

"Food..." Lisa froze. "Mark, leave the room quick."

"Um... right." Mark stepped out and closed the door behind him, leaving Lisa alone in the dark. She curled up in the corner of the room.

Later that day she ventured out of the room and found an old journal book in the basement, another remnant of her lost life. It was her own... she tore out the used pages and started writing.

FINALE

SEPTEMBER 19 2006

Springfield was almost deserted these days, through whatever means Lisa didn't know, but it couldn't be much fun. She had spent the last few days searching out down the creatures who had destroyed her life, picking them off one by one, preying on them as they had preyed on the mankind for centuries... all but one. Julian, the man she had once loved, had disappeared the night she had escaped. She didn't know why, or where... but he had left her alone, and that was a good thing.

Maybe he would come for her again. It didn't matter. He wouldn't find anything.

Now, though, she was tired. Tired of her life, tired of the killing... tied of existence itself. Mark had left the food for her and she had eaten it, perhaps as a final favour. She had gone into town one last time to see the streets she had called home, visited the ruined elementary school, the old library, the statue of Jebediah Springfield. The head had fallen off again...

It was storm season, although that could come at pretty much any time around here. Rain lashed the darkened streets, making everything look oily and new like some just completed machine, ready to go. She could smell them, even through the rain. They feared her...

Dawn was colouring the horizon by the time she reached home. The storm was gone, banished by the promise of an 'Indian summer' day. Mark was waiting inside and from the looks of things he'd been up all night, watching dull programs on the TV he had 'found' nearby. Neither of them spoke as Lisa took off her coat and hung it out to dry.

Eventually, though, Mark seemed to give up.

"You're planning something aren't you," he said pointedly, switching off the TV.

"I've been planning something for my entire life Mark, it's hardly unusual."

"This is," he said. "I know what you're going to do Lisa and I don't like it."

"No, Mark, it isn't different." Lisa flopped into a chair and sighed. "I've tried to explain what it's like being me so many times now, but you still don't understand do you? I suppose you never really will... I've lost so much."

"But you-"

"I've been planning this for my entire life Mark. My entire life," she stood up again, gaining no benefit from the chair. Already the air seemed lighter as the dawn grew. "You realise I haven't seen a proper sunrise for seven years? Do you know what that can do to a mind, knowing something exists and yet being unable to experience it?"

"Well not really..." Mark picked up a beer. "I guess I can't make you change your mind."

"No, you can't." Lisa pulled a pair of sunglasses from her coat pocked and placed them over her eyes. "I want to see the sun one last time Mark. Just once..."

Mark stared at her. Lisa turned her back and placed her hand on the door, waiting for the right moment, waiting for the light to call to her. ... it was dark, but she wasn't afraid. Her mother beckoned from the light, held out her arms...

"I love you Lisa."

"I know. Goodbye Mark."

She opened the door and stepped into the light.

END