...one year later...

...

"Girl, when are you ever gonna go on vacation?" Marina Connors asked, wiping her hands on her apron after bringing out some freshly baked banana chocolate chip muffins from the kitchen, placing them onto the shelf behind the counter.

Tessa stopped sweeping, glancing to her boss and placing a strand of blonde hair that fell from its bun earlier in the shift behind her ear and sighed, averting her gaze down to the floor.

"I don't have time for a vacation, Mare..." She muttered more to herself than to Marina, who in turn gave her a stern look, crossing her arms about her chest.

"Mhmm. All you do is work." Upon the pained look on Tessa's face, the older woman knew exactly why she had been working so hard, and it didn't take a genius to realize that working meant the young woman's mind was far from her mother's death, one that hit her more than anything and she had been struggling to come to terms with it.

Marina knew what it was like to have a death in her family, hell her own parents had perished around fifteen years ago by a drunk driver, so knowing what Tessa was currently going through Marina knew, but what Tessa was doing was overworking and putting her own health at risk by doing so.

Her blue-grey eyes seemed dull on best of days, barely smiling, looking exhausted, she rarely ate anything, and when she did it was if she was like a mouse. And let's not begin to how pale her skin was.

Sighing, Marina went over to where Tessa was sweeping the same spot absentmindedly, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and giving a small smile. "I know what you're going through, but you overworking yourself is not doing you any good if you end up in the hospital."

Biting the inside of her cheek, wanting to say that no one would miss her, Tessa knew that she would receive a nice smack upside the head for even muttering those words, let alone if anyone found out that she was even thinking it. So all she could in turn was nod. She was right, she needed a vacation.

"Where is the one place that you would like to go to?"

Thinking for a moment, one place came to mind as Tessa replied with; "Transylvania."

xxx

That little minx.

Tessa knew from the moment that Marina had that glint in her eye after asking her where she would like to visit that something was going to go down, and sure enough, the next day she was given a plane ticket to go to Transylvania for a week, all expenses paid.

Tessa gave a bright, excited smile, her eyes finally sparkling with joy as she gingerly took the ticket from her bosses hand. Tears sprang to her eyes as she hugged Marina, thanking her for such generosity.

It wasn't every day when your own boss bought and paid for everything for a trip for you to go on because you were working so hard, and the gesture made Tessa's heart swell, it was such a sweet thing to do.

She could've kissed her.

"Get going you rascal." Marina smiled, chuckling as she glanced down at her watch, shoving Tessa towards the door, "Your plane leaves in about an hour and a half, so go get everything packed for a week and go and have some fun. I want to see that beautiful smile on your face and stories for when you come back, you hear me?"

"I will." Tessa gave a small wave, "Thank you."

"Have fun."

xxx

Tessa mentally crossed off everything on her list that she could think of as she was grabbing her stuff from the taxi and placing it onto, quickly paying the driver as she placed her things onto the curb of the Toronto-Pearson airport, hoping that she didn't forget anything back at the place.

Underwear? Check.

Hygienic supplies? Check.

Pants and shirts? Check.

Make-up? Check.

Passport, Driver's license, cell-phone, charger, and earphones? Check.

She cursed then, eyes widening in panic as she reached into her beach bag, searching for her plane ticket and the credit card that Marina had given her to stay at any hotel that she wanted to and for her to get any sort of souvenir that she wanted to get.

Tessa did try and decline the card as Marina had gone through the trouble of getting a round-trip plane ticket for her, but the older woman had insisted and wasn't going to budge unless Tessa had taken it, resulting in her begrudgingly taking it from Marina.

She knew her attempt at winning the argument was futile.

And Marina knew it as well.

She sighed, well, it seemed as though everything that she needed for the trip was well and dandy.

At least her cat Maxi was going to be taken care of at her sister's place in Ottawa while she was away. Normally, she knew that her cat would've been fine without her there for a week, as long as she got someone she trusted to check in on her girl twice a day, but the last attempt at doing so ended in disaster as her furniture was completely scratched.

She was not a happy camper when she returned home.

"At least, you're gonna be with me in spirit, mama." Tessa muttered, placing her hand onto the two necklaces of the same colour and design as a small smile graced her lightly tinted pink lips, before grabbing her bags and heading into the airport.

xxx

After a couple of stops and hours upon hours of flying, Tessa finally found herself at the airport in Transylvania, feeling jet-lag, yawning as she grabbed her bags from the conveyor and headed towards the door, her eyes widening a little when he saw an old-fashioned hearse barreled down the road, stopping abruptly in front of her, the door opened and revealed...a zombie?