A/N: I'm back! Oh man, I love you guys. Especially the readers of The Baddest Witch In Town (HOLLA, MY TBWITches) out there, thank you so much for reading and messaging and everything you've done for me on this site. Please leave reviews and some lovely requests for me! Enjoy.
Also you should listen to Lantern on the Lake's 'Ships In The Rain' while reading this. It'll set the tone, and plus - Violet actually plays it, so it'll be like you're really there :)
Tate Langdon
She's different now. In a good way. Death has treated my precious Violet well, as odd as it sounds. She used to wrap herself up in layers and layers of cardigans and loose-fitting sweaters, like a gift waiting to be unwrapped. Now she has found some deeper comfort, something that made her listen to everything I've said about body image and self-love. Now she is proud in her beauty, clad in gratuitous lingerie, stalking around the house in the sexiest heels she owns.
I'm proud of her. I'm proud to have her.
I'm different, too. Loving her has mellowed me out like an entire weekend with only a bong for company. Like those flashy new electronic cigarettes she's been stealing from the kid who lives in our room now. Like the expensive European wine owned by his parents. Long gone are my head-banging, wall-punching, coke-blowing days of Nirvana and Pixies. Now they are replaced by the slow-burning soothe of post-modern indie music, Gem Club and Lanterns on the Lake.
We're living the life we always wanted to live. Violet spends the afternoons floating around in the pool on the tenant's inflatable seat, vape pen in a delicate hand and my heart in the other. I spend them reading Mark Z. Danielewski in the attic, idly rolling the ball back and forth between myself and Beau.
Moira stopped bothering the owner of the house when she found out he saw her as an old woman.
"The loyal bastard. Loves his wife too much," she'd commented drily.
She had stopped bothering me too after Violet arrived for the first time.
Guess I just loved her too much from that moment on.
'Ships In The Rain' is cooing softly from Violet's phone, beckoning me to the poolside. She knows what the song makes us feel, and she knows it'll bring me to her. I peel off my sweater and my shorts, wading into the gently rippling depths beside her. Sombre grey clouds rumble overhead, and rain begins to sprinkle over us. Grinning, she makes room for me on the inflatable, and we lay together in silence.
And for the first time in my afterlife, I feel at peace.
