And now comes the finish to a story that has kept me from going mad. This is the end. Or at least, one end.

I own nothing.

Next one to follow in an hour or so. Both should be read together I think.

Chapter 17 Ending 1

That night Alex and Hal lay in her bed together. Sometime around three in the morning, Hal signed, kissed Alex's sleeping head and whispered. 'I think I should go sleep in my own room. We need rest; tomorrow is going to be a long, hard day.'

Alex had nodded. As Hal went to leave Alex called out 'Hal?'

He turned around, 'We're going to get through this right?' She asked.

Hal smiled in the half light of the outside street lamp. 'We all have a path, now at least, we can start to find it.'

Alex.

Alex crept downstairs with her suitcase at 5.30am. She made sure to close her bedroom door quietly and avoid the creaky step third from the bottom.

It was early, but she wanted to get away before anyone else woke. She had slept little, and whenever she closed her eyes all she could think about was that first morning, right before they had watched the Antiques Roadshow, when Hal had asked her about moving to Scotland.

'Before I died, the plan was to live. To leave home, to see the world. So going back there now would like be wasting this second chance. But would staying here be any better, I don't know.'

Now she did. She stood by the reception bar and slowly drew the pad that lived by the phone towards her, perched on one of the stools and started writing.

Sorry to do this to you guys, but I've decided to go back to Scotland for a bit before I lose my nerve.

I'm not sure about yo, but I didn't get much sleep last night.

I realized that I've been too afraid of what was out there to actually live, and I'm stuffed if I'm gonna let my (2nd) life be that way! I need to start dealing with my issues. I can only do that in an environment that I was last human in – with my father and my brothers. When I'm there I will remember what it's like, become myself again. And then I'll come back.

Tom, I'm sorry I yelled at you, I really didn't mean all the shit I said. You are one of the most extraordinary and courageous people I know. I'll make it up when I get back and we will all have a pint at the local – I promise!

Don't worry, and don't go getting another housemate, I'll be back.

I'll give ya a call when I arrive.

Alex re-read it and nodded. She had said everything she needed to and she knew once the boys read it, they would understand.

Was she abandoning them? Probably, but she needed to do this. And stepping out the house and away from the place she had only ever known as a ghost was the first step she needed to complete. Alone.

And she would call this evening. There was no way she wouldn't. As she opened the front door, she paused, looking out into the early morning. She felt her heart beat faster as the oppressive openness closed in. No, she could do this. she'd faced death, she's faced the Devil for Christ's sake.

'Come on Sunshine,' she said aloud to herself, 'No more cocking about, let's do this.' She slung her bag over her shoulder and closed the door behind her.

She didn't know that when she wrote the note and turned the key in the door, she was the last to leave Honolulu Heights.

Tom

Tom had heard everything. He had gone up to his room, just like Hal had asked but then faltered, Alex's words ringing in his ears:

'If Hal tells ya to do somthin you gotta do it. Leave the adults to talk, because you're clearly not capable of thinking for yourself!'

He had done what Hal asked, all this time. He had done it because it made sense, hadn't he? What had Alex said? 'A dog and his master'.

At the last minute his hand poised on the bedroom door handle, Tom stopped, shutting his bedroom door noisily so they'd think he was inside and stayed in the hall. Silently he had crept down to the top step, sat down and hunched over himself in an effort to hear.

'He's turned into a fucking animal, and you're letting him!'

Tom waited, listening to what was said. Then their voices lowered, but Tom remained where he was. 'Tom's whole identity was werewolf. He's lived, breathed and been raised as one his entire life.'

The words reverberated in his head. His entire life. Tom sneaked back into his room and looked at it. 'he's turned his room into a rabid kennel that even my brothers would catch tetanus in. It's like he's squatting in his own room' he looked at the walls 'He's punching holes in the fucking brickwork!'

Tom's brows knotted together as a familiar well of anguish swirled up into his head. 'He's turned into a fucking animal.'

Tom weaved his way over to the only reflective surface still intact – that of the small TV screen in the corner of the room. He looked at himself, all bloated around the middle with huge gorilla arms and thin faced because of the glass's distortion.

He frowned, was this what he looked like, inside? He knew vampires souls belonged to the devil when they were turned, did the same happen to werewolves'? And now that he and Hal were human, what state were they in; were they wiped clean, or was the name of ownership just changed? Was Hal's still covered in the centuries of evil his monster and committed; was it battered and bruised and twisted like this? Was his?

But Hal was better than him. Hal had taken him out that first night, but he hadn't got involved. He's stepped back and gradually not even come along when Tom hunted. Hal had gone from taking on three men at a time to nothing – so far as Tom could make out. Hal was adjusting, he wasn't.

He heard as Hal and Alex went past his door. Bumping into walls in their rush to be close again. They had each other. Hal had been looking after him, and ignored the problems that Alex had gone through. He'd heard that too.

'When did you last speak to anyone outside of Tom or me? When did you last talk to your family?' Hal had noticed everything. He'd focused on Tom while Alex spiraled; trying to fix him first.

But it hadn't worked had it? Tom turned away from the TV and looked around him. He was a wild animal with a soul that had been raised by wolves. He was distracting Hal from helping Alex, the one out of all of them that needed a normal life, that deserved it so much more because she never was a monster.

He was in the way.

Tom didn't need much. He didn't really have much that he wanted to bring with him. He took the money that was McNair's headstone fund – he would understand; he'd said he could never go back to his old life.. He had been a surveyor but he'd understood that once a wolf, a normal life was impossible.

He sniffed, his eyes prickling and nose starting to run as he closed his door. He waited on the landing, but all was quiet in Hal and Alex's room. He looked at his wrist watch, 12.07pm. He would leave and they would never find him. And they would be sad, but then hopefully realize why, adjust and move on. Hal could start to fix Alex, and they would be happy.

He thought about leaving a note, but he knew they would understand. And he had no idea what to say in it. 'Have a good life?' He knew they would, so what was the point in saying it?

He slung his canvas bag over his shoulder, went down the stairs, around to the kitchen so he could pick up some supplies, then he opened the back door, took one look inside and close the door to Honolulu Heights.

Hal

Hal had lied to them. He had lied to everyone just like he always did – As he always would. As he lay awake with Alex nestled in the crook of his arm he blinked into the darkness. They had all been trying to hide their problems from each other, and themselves; well, with the exception of Tom.

Alex may not agree, but Hal knew that Tom was on his path. He had to fall back on what he knew, indulge his past like a fever and it would break. Or not, Hal contemplated, Tom could live a life as a hunter, it was the type of simple existence where Tom would never have trouble trying to fit in. There were human vampire hunters out there, or there had been; he'd killed quite a few himself in the past, and nailed their families to the wall.

Hal's head twitched. Why did his thoughts always go that one step further than he intended? He used to be able to stop it when he was 'Good' him. Now they crept up and stayed hovering above him. It had been words first, vague musings.

But now, he was feeling…

He shouldn't have gone outside that club that first night when he went hunting with Tom. It had woken in him the one thing he had hoped, prayed and pleaded wasn't the reason he was having such trouble with his new life.

He had held out to begin with, but like his past cycles, the tide was coming in and he couldn't fight it; he went back to the club – on his own this time. He had found another vampire – another young one more interested in the kill then being discreet. Had he started questioning why there were so many around at that point? Had he cared?

Then he had just watched as the vampire had wooed, attacked, drunk and left. Hal had said that he would intervene, once they were outside, once he had her pinned, just after he'd broken the skin…

Then it was too late.

Why had he not stopped it?

Then Sid had arrived, explaining the sudden influx of young vampires to such a small town, but more than that: putting into words what Hal had tried to shut out. He would never escape it.

Another week of Hell, trapped in his own bewildered head. And then…

Hal had waited in the shadows as the vampire had brought his victim out and Hal had watched. He watched as the vampire had ferociously and mercilessly drained the girl dry, her body crumpling to the ground. He had watched with held breath as the vampire had stopped, leaned against the wall and let out a sigh of pure ecstasy.

Hal had gasped then. He remembered that sigh. He remembered the feeling of that warm, pulse that slid down the throat like syrup, spreading out from the neck and chest to the very ends of his fingers and hair.

His heart was in his ears, he half thought this vampire would hear him but the thrill of a fresh kill had consumed all his senses as he triumphantly strolled away.

Hal had waited there, his eyes wet with tears, his body shaking. He was crouching on the ground, he hadn't even remembered when his legs had given way. He pushed himself up off the wall and took a slow faltering step to where the dead girl lay.

He stood over her for a second. He inhaled deeply – nothing, no remnants of the elixir. Maybe a little copper. He knelt down, there was a small pool of discarded blood next to her. His breathed fast through his nose as he reached out his fingers to dip into the cold liquid.

He looked at it, pressing it between his fingers, his head numb as it tried to form thoughts. Before he knew what he was doing, he opened his mouth, just to taste it; to see if he could still taste what it used to be like.

His eyes snapped open as he felt the metallic sickening sludge touch his tongue, what was he doing? He'd fallen over, coughing, spitting, retching, what had he just done?

Hal scrambled away, run down into another street and wretched leaning against a wall.

He'd run home that night, locked his bedroom, wildly moving around the small room – he was going mad; he was insane! He halted in front of his wall mirror – a 'welcome to humanity' present from Alex and Tom when they were in the first flush of exaltation at their new states. – He looked at himself, at the red circles under his eyes, the pale sickly sheen to his skin and sweat soaked hair.

He had looked into his eyes and seen the one thing he had been running from since that first day when his heart started beating again. – he missed it, but it was more than that, he craved it with every last fiber of his being.

Hal got up from his place next to Alex and promised that all would stop hiding from their problems in the morning. Alex had asked if it was all going to be alright. He couldn't bring his last words to her to be a lie, so he had simply said that they would each find their path. That had made her happy, she had smiled a reassured smile he would cherish.

Back in his room he had changed into trousers, a black t-shirt and combed his hair.

They would knock on his door in the morning to find out where he was, they would find these, and they will not come after him. He smiled sadly but his hand was steady. When he was done, he folded letter and placed his keys on the neatly made bed.

Dearest Alex and Tom,

I am sorry.

I never deserved this second chance. I am irredeemable and always have been.

When I was your Hal, I shunned the draw it had on me, but I always knew I would have it again. Now knowing I will never experience what ruled my life for so long, I find myself plunged into deep despair.

My heart may beat faster, but it has always beat for one thing alone.

I am a man who cannot escape his past, so I have gone to find my future.

Please remember me as your Hal, I beg you. But do not look for me.

I loved you both so dearly and I am so sorry.

'Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell'.

H.

This is one ending. The one that says all books don't have a happy ending, and life often ends badly. If things look like they are going wrong, unless something miraculous happens, it will end that way.

This is how I imagined my story ending. I started with the beginning chapter and this end one.

But, then I thought, why don't our heroes deserved a happy ending? In this chapter they went one way, splintering apart. But what if there was another one where they didn't?

So I wrote another one. One that I hope you will read next and decide for yourself. Where they made different choices…

Reference:

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

John Milton Paradise Lost