She sat watching him, all grown up… and dead, her little brother. They sat in her room, rather he sat and she paced, they spent all night talking, he told her about what had become of their siblings, their doted brother Joseph had grown to take over the family accounts, married beneath him with a stable girl and had four children of his own, Eloise had grown into a shy creature, married late to an older man, but she had been happy, little Cecily had apparently grown fierce and strong she was all about working and had never married but was contented with earning her keep… and Fredrick? Apparently he didn't want to talk about it…
Now as he sat on the bed, looking over the sister he lost so long ago his brow frowns "What happened to you Myrtle? How are you alive? Where did you go? You just despaired"
Bowing her head the blush haired girl sighs with a bite of her lip "Fredrick I… you remember how I was sick? Well I wasn't… I was dying, turning actually. I become something else… I'm not… I…"
He just sits there for a moment looking at her before standing to take her hand in his "Myrtle… it's alright"
She swallows down the lump in her throat, making way for the words, taking a deep breath as her mouth opens to speak.
*Crash *
The door had tumbled open with the force of the weight behind it, three people collapsed onto the floor and mumbling excuses. The blue eyed girl gives a laugh as they stand "Fredrick I'd like you to meet some friends of mine… Annie, Hal and I believe you've met Tom"
He bow's appropriately, Annie curtsying, Hal returning the correct bow and Tom waving with a naive grin "I'm guessing Eve's down for her nap then?"
"Yep, yes, out like a light, such a good girl she is. Now Fredrick was is? Pleasure to meet you, we should…yep" the motherly ghost babbles on before moving to push the men out of the room
Looking to her brother the pair breaks into a fir of giggles "well your friends are certainly…interesting"
"Never a dull moment, come on" the wendigo smiles with a shake of her head
They head out into the museum, rememorizing about times long past "I did not! You and Eloise just blamed me"
"Please you're the one who told us to take the papers and the one who stole the matches" he chuckles as they enter a new room, a room they have few memories of. Their father's study
"Father was furious" The ghost smiles as they look around, Sunny's eye drawn to the large canvas above the overgenerous desk; lighting the room with temperas and finery. It was a family portrait, painted not a year before the eldest daughter was taken from her human life
She looked at it ponderingly, knitted brows and tilted head "what's this doing in here?"
Leaning back into the gold lined oak desk Fredrick looks from the painting to her "father took it from the family room after you disappeared; he had your portrait moved over the hearth to but the new people moved it back"
Her eyebrows met her hairline in shock as her eyes widened with confusion, a low chuckle escaping as she asks "why would he do that?"
He looks to the flush haired girl over his glasses, pushing himself off the desk as he speaks "after whatever happened that day things changed, mother become distort and it took a long time for her function again, it was hard for all of us but father… it broke him."
Diamond gems look into chocolate with utter bewilderment "Our father, the most stern and impassive man to ever walk the earth? Fred, I think you've been dead to long"
"I'm serious Myrtle. He threw himself into the search, leads that went nowhere, locked himself in here most days… we could hear him crying through the walls. Over time we all accepted that you were gone, that you were never coming back but father never stopped looking, he never gave up hope that one day you'd come home. I know he never showed it much Myrtle, but he did love you, more than you could ever know" he looks her straight in the eye, speaking these words with such earnest
She looked dumbfounded to the painting, her father's stern sapphire eyes looking down to her and she just can't see it, these words her brother spoke… because her father mourned her, they all did, and she swallowed hard to drown out the brimming tears, because she never really thought about it before…
Turning back to the brother she thought she'd never see she hugs him tight, a stray tear escaping its cage as she sobs "I'm so sorry Fred… I'm so, so sorry"
"Sunny?" the voice breaks the reunion, the wendigo wiping fiercely at her damp orbs before turning to the intruder
"Olivia, hey, what's up?" she beams her perfectly practiced smile
The older woman wonders over casually, heels clinking against the hard floor "Dinner is ready… my god…"
The posh lady stands between her assisters, both living and dead as she looks to the painting "you look just like her, apart from the hair of course but otherwise the likeness… unremarkable; my you even have her name"
The flesh hungry beauty scoffs a shared laugh with the woman as she watches Fredrick gracefully love over to the bookcase "Yeah, strange really, but there are loads of theory's about that kind of stuff, genes and whatnot"
Nodding Olivia smiles "yeah… tragic really, you know they never found her body, but considering the condition they found her fiancé only god knows what was done to her… poor thing"
Twiddling her fingers Sunny bows her head in shame "yeah, poor thing"
At dinner they sit at the grand table, a cohort of common and upper-class, so basically chav's and snobs "Tom, could you please stop that!"
At Hal's stern voice the young werewolf places down the candlesticks he had been playing with, Hal carefully placing them back into their precise position. Sunny walks in a few moments later with Olivia and Fredrick, he walks over to Annie with a smile, offering his arm as they walk off, ghosts and food right?
"Are you alright, Sunny?" Tom asks at her smeared mascara as she takes a seat between him and Hal, Eve sat in a well-cushioned, out of place highchair playing with her rattle between them
She looks to him with her dazzling bright smile "I'm always alright Tommy"
He lets out a chuckle and nods as the fuchsia haired girl leaned into the infant beside her, catching a certain vampire's eye as she leans over to talk like in idiot to the infant who can't understand words yet, no matter how high and squeaky you make your voice sound. He sees the slight sniffle, the smeared makeup that was usually done to perfection, even by his standards "Sunny… are you sure everything's alright?"
"Always" she smiles, but not her usual blithe smile but forced and lacking, not very Sunny-like at all
Dinner is crowded, to many people and not enough will not to disembowel them, so Sunny takes the giggling infant and strolls around her childhood home, the place hadn't changed at all in the passing century's and it was moving, heart wrenching and kind of over whelming "…and over there is where Cecily took her first steps and where I used to hide when we all played. There wasn't much to do back then, no videogames or telly, we played outside and saw actually sunshine, I know right? A time before the zombie apocalypse, because I mean seriously look at these kids today, they are zombies. But not you! Nope, you are going to climb trees with Tom, get elocution lesions from Hal because I've lost all that over the years and Annie is going to smother you in clothes and tea, and me? Well I'm going to teach you how to own the inevitable growing cuteness that you are, yes I am"
As the girl giggles Sunny smiles down to her, kissing the top of her head as she sends a wavering look to the far left door…
"Sunny!" a voice calls and she jumps, clinging to the child in her arms
Turning she sees bushy eyebrows and a warm smile "Tom, you scared the life out of me… what are you doing?"
"Was just looking around a bit, proper nice place in it? Obviously you know that" he charms in his childlike way as he takes Eve's hand
She looks at him, playing merrily with the infant and remembers a simpler time. Just then a certain man rounds the corner and she beams "Fredrick…"
"Myrtle, listen I was talking to Annie and I think we should head to the beach, what do you think?" he beams brightly over to his sister
Looking into those big brown eyes she nods "sounds like a plan"
It didn't take long to get to the sandy shores; it was half an hour walk and a ten minute drive. The sun was shining, bright and glorious from the clear blue sky. They even had a picnic basket with treats, which they'd stopped at the shop for but still. Sunny looked over to the motherly ghost, the goodhearted werewolf and the fate burdened child building a sandcastle, Hal was sitting on the well placed blanket reading and avoiding the sand at all costs. Sunny was sat on a nearby bench with an ice-cream cone, legs curled in under her.
"So are you ever going to tell me how your still breathing or am I going to have to start guessing?" her brother asks playfully as he takes a seat beside the rosy cheeked girl
She looks to the melting cone in her hand as she answers, to afraid to look him in the eye "I'm a… a wendigo"
Hesitantly she lifts her head to meet his gaze "oh…"
He looks dumbfounded, with a lick of his lips he asks with an arched brow "how?"
"When I got sick, after the hunting trip… I wasn't sick, I was infected, turning…dying and it was me, I killed Gregory, I didn't mean to, I didn't but I..." she bites her trembling lip, she shouldn't have come here, should have just carried on in Barry…god it hurt
She expected repulsion, disgust but what the girl hadn't expected was what happened. Through clenched eyes she feels him take her quivering hand and sigh "it's alright sister"
Rose bloomed curls whip to the side as her wide tear rimmed eyes connect to her brothers, who just smiles "it's alright"
The ice-cream collided with the floor as her ill covered arms wrap around him, her little brother…
Quickly laughing it off as she wipes her unshed tears, ruined makeup was a big no, no "so, we've talked about my crap, your turn and you owe me an ice-cream"
"Same old Myrtle" he chuckles and looks out into the roaring sea
Nudging him with her shoulder she smiled "come on then, tell me all about the wonder that is Fredrick Ragan Clayton"
Just then a woman walks past; doing her best to avoid the girl outwardly sat talking to herself and muttering under her breath about crazy people being let loose, causing the siblings to share a look before bursting into a fit of giggles… the irony, if only they actually knew how mad they really were.
Shaking it off Sunny laughs looking over at Annie starting to bury Tom while Eve gargles in amusment and Hal eating his precisely sliced banana, looking up from his book he smiles with a shake of his head as the shenanigans of his housemates before casting a glance over to the pink haired girl. She beams brightly and waves, returning her smile he nods his head before returning to his Jane Eyre.
"That Hal fellow… is their more than there appears?" Fredrick skillfully asks with his nosey ways
Sunny seems to almost gag on her own words as she laughs "What, me and Hal? No, no… I mean we did kiss once but that was completely for non-killing purposes, so no, definitely no"
With a tilt of his head Fredrick gives her a knowing look "Okay"
"It's the truth! And stop dodging mister, tell me what happened to you, why haven't you crossed over yet?" she ponders looking over her brothers hesitant expression
He just shrugs lightly, scanning over the few people who pass by "well I, I became a lawyer, just like I wanted, married Victoria Tyler. We had a beautiful little boy named Jason; quite the firecracker to, you'd of liked him. I'm not sure what my unfinished business could be."
The silence sneaks over them before a fit of laughter escapes Sunny once more "Victoria Tyler; the Bankers daughter? Oh my god. Why?"
"She was a very good wife and an impeccable mother; the social status didn't hurt either" he reasoned logically
Still laughing Sunny shakes her head "oh, Fred, that girl was more gullible than a five year old and she had that wondering eye, the one that could see around corners!"
With a pointed finger he shouts "It did not see around corners and I'll have you know her eyes were a beautiful hazel color… when they stayed in place"
They both laughed at the last part and Sunny shrugs "so no idea about why you're stuck here?"
"I'm afraid not" he smiles weakly before standing and walking over to the half-buried wolf, carefully brushing sand onto his torso
Standing she wonders over to the blanket, lightly kicking some sand onto the well-ordered vampire "Sunny, do you mind!"
"Nope" she smiles and takes a seat beside the hunk of undead
Mercilessly he brushes away the sand as she watches her brother chat to a sand covered Tom, eyes scanning over him appraisingly while Annie splashes in the water with little Eve "your brother seems pleasant"
Locking eyes with the man beside her Sunny smiles "he's a bitch; kind of like me if I'm honest… we were always good at mouthing off"
"Some things never change it seems" he states shamelessly before returning to his book
She just nudges him then and pouts "Come on Hal don't be such a grouch"
"I'm not a 'grouch' I'm reserved" he declares with a sly smirk, carefully flicking the page
Sunny eyes him with a mischievous sparkle in her eye and a twitch of her lip before snatching the book from his hand and whisking away "Sunny, bring that back… come back here."
He shouts chasing after the merry thief through the sand, the others watching in glee as she toys with Hal. As he caught her and twirled the girl around by her middle in an attempt to get back the book, Sunny couldn't help but feel giddy in those strong ancient arms, his breath warm on her neck as he shouts out demands and Hal can't help the urge to pull her close, pick her frail form into his arms… and throw her in the ocean.
But no one noticed how the elder Ghost looked to the strapping werewolf…
Footsteps echo into the small café, the dinner rush over and a smile creeps onto the new comers face when the too skinny girl behind the counter asked with a pop of her gum "how can I help you?"
"I'm not here to eat, I'm looking for someone… a girl, I'm led to believe she's a regular here and has dyed her hair pink, blue eyes and dazzling smile" the murder inquired with an almost soothing tone
Nodding in a bored tone the peroxide blonde replies "yeah, I know her; she lives with Hal and Tom… nice girl"
With curious wide eyed the new comer strokes the pendant hanging on their neck with tender love "is that so? Now tell me about this Tom and Hal then…"