"Allison, I can only say 'I'm sorry' so many times," Benny sighed, glancing down at his wife who was sitting on the bed with her arms folded. "And my transgression was weeks ago now."
"You still promised me you'd come home right after the meeting with my father," Allison pointed out. "But not only did you not come home until after ten, you also skipped out of the meeting."
"I told you what happened," Benny exclaimed. "An old friend of mine had gone missing, without contacting anyone. I was worried about him, and wanted to help find him."
"Isn't finding lost people a job for the police?" Allison debated.
"Allison, if one of your friends suddenly went missing without any reason, wouldn't you have done the same thing?" Allison sighed at Benny's reasoning, giving in a little.
"That still doesn't change the fact that you weren't there for my appointment and missed out on learning that our child's a son." Benny winced slightly. He had promised to be there for Allison's appointment at the ob-gyn, in order to be present for the first ultrasound of their child that would reveal the baby's gender. Taking a seat next to her on the bed, Benny draped an arm around Allison.
"What if I promise to be there for all the ultrasounds from now on?" he asked. "Would that help?"
"It's a start," Allison started to smile.
"Well, what if we go off and do something tonight?" Benny offered. "I heard through the grapevine that there's this little Halloween celebration tonight. If you want, we could always head down there."
"Benny, I haven't celebrated Halloween since I was a child," Allison pointed out.
"Yes, I know. But if we're going to be parents, it might be a good idea to be reintroduced to the holiday."
"I suppose, when you put it that way, we can make an appearance," Allison gave in.
Mimi sat by the Condo window, looking out at the night sky with Rodolfo in her arms and Maya curled up by her side. She'd taken up a constant vigil by that window for every night that week, in case Roger decided to come back home. She was so absorbed in watching for him that she didn't realize Mark had come up to join her until he'd placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Mimi, I really think you should go tonight," he suggested.
"No, you go ahead, Mark," Mimi shook her head. "I want to stay here. He might come back any moment." Mark winced at Mimi's words. He hadn't told anyone about his attempt to convince Roger to come back home, mostly because it had clearly failed. Yet, Mimi still held to the hope that he'd come home.
"Come on, Mimi," Mark persisted. "You haven't left this window in days. What would Angel say if she could see you refusing to go out? Seriously, Mimi. It'll just be for an hour or two, and you need to get out for a bit, for fresh air anyway. And everyone will be there. Me, Emily, Penny, Collins, Robbie, Maureen and Joanne. But none of us would have a good time if you were still here, sitting alone. And who knows? Roger knows you were planning on going. Maybe he'll be there." Hearing this, Mimi perked up.
"You think he'll be there?" she asked hopefully. Mark paused for a moment. Truthfully, he had to admit the chances of Roger going there were pretty slim. He'd want to distance himself from other people, out of fear that he might end up feeding on one of them. But he thought it was best not to say so. He could never find it in his heart to tell her the truth when she was this buoyant, with how much she loved and missed Roger visible in her face.
"Yeah. I think he would be," Mark lied. The thought of Roger showing up to the Halloween Bash seemed to put some of the normal shine back in Mimi's face.
"I guess, for a few hours," she gave in.
"Good," Mark sighed in relief. "Here, I'll take Rodolfo so you can change into your costume, okay? We can leave right after Emily and Penny get back from visiting Nana."
"I'm surprised you let Emily head down there," Mimi noted, a hint of a smile appearing on her face. "When she was Rodolfo's surrogate mother, you wouldn't even let her head across the street alone. And now, not only is she carrying your son or daughter, there's even Kain on the loose."
"First of all, she's not alone," Mark pointed out. "Collins and Robbie are escorting her and Penny down there. And all four of them have some of Nana's anti-vampire charms. They're all well protected, so I can't be too worried about them. Now hurry up and get changed, okay?"
"Thanks Mark," Mimi gave him a brief friendly hug before disappearing into the room she'd once shared with Roger.
Roger sat dejected in a dark corner of the Green-Wood Chapel. He'd just woken up not ten minutes ago, and was still shaken. He'd just had the same nightmare he'd been having since Nana had been admitted to the hospital after her run-in with Kain. In the dream, he relived the night when he'd first became a vampire and came to the Condo to feed. But in the nightmare's reality, he hadn't regained control of his mind. Because of that, he had successfully fed on Mark, Emily and Mimi, and had seen the life drain from each of their faces. The nightmare always forced him awake, shaking from the internal pain the dream gave him.
Even stronger then the terror he felt after having that terrible nightmare was the ache he felt in his heart after waking up. What he wanted more then anything was to be able to return home and see his friends, to see Mimi and Rodolfo. But as long as there was the danger that he'd end up feeding on them, there was nothing he could do about it. To top it off, he'd lost track of the days. Judging that hardly any snow had fallen, he guessed it was still fall. Sh-t, he hated the fall. Nothing good had ever happened during that awful season. Loosing Angel three years ago, and now this.
Roger's thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly became aware of a very familiar voice calling him from outside the chapel. Hesitantly, he stepped outside, trying to locate the voice.
"Roger," the voice called again. Instantly, Roger had a horrible flashback to the night Kain had got him and briefly considered ignoring the voice. But this time, the voice was different. He knew this voice.
"I'm here," Roger called back, stepping further among the gravestones. "But who are…"
"Roger, what are you doing here?" the voice laughed as the musician wandered through the cemetery. "Didn't you promise your friends that you'd go to the Halloween Bash tonight?"
"Yeah, great idea. I go and put everyone there in danger," Roger shot back sarcastically. "They're safer if I stay far away from them."
"So they're not still in danger from Kain?" the voice asked seriously. "Wasn't he planning some kind of event tonight?"
"Yeah," Roger frowned remembering. "He did say something about doing something on Halloween night, but how am I supposed to know what it's supposed to be?"
"Can't you think of anything? A vampire needs to feed off the energy of others to exist, don't they?" the voice reasoned. "Can you think of any place where there would be plenty of people for a vampire to feed on tonight?" Instantly, Roger felt his heart sink in terrible foreboding.
"The Halloween Bash. Kain's going to do something there tonight! But I don't…." Roger froze as he was seized by a deeper fear then the one he had of feeding on some innocent person. "No! Mimi! The guys! They're going to the Halloween Bash, too! That means…. Kain could…."
"They need you, Roger," the voice announced, sounding further away this time. "It's all up to you, now."
"But wait!" Roger called out to the unseen speaker, dashing along the rows of gravestones. "Where are you? You need to explain!" When no one answered, Roger came to a reluctant stop, giving up in trying to catch up to this unseen person. But then, after looking around one last time before leaving, the voice called out once again.
"Hurry, Roger. Your friends don't have much time." Roger had to jump slightly when the voice came from right behind him. But when he spun around, he saw nothing but a simple stone angel looking down at him with a warm smile, one that reminded him of the one that was often seen on Angel's face.
"Couldn't be," Roger gaped, staring at the stone angel. After a brief moment of trying to figure out if his suspicion was correct, Roger decided to put that mystery on hold. Regardless of the identity of his unseen helper, his family was in danger. And that meant there was only one option for him at the moment.
AN: The story's climax is coming. In fact, I think there will only be four more chapters before it's complete. Although I don't think this chapter turned out quite as well as I'd hoped. Anyway, I'm hoping to have this done in time for Halloween, but we'll have to see if I can meet that deadline. (Crosses fingers)