I hadn't been back to Michigan in a long time. It was strange. The last time I was here was when I'd died and been brought back. I didn't want to return to Cheboygan, though. It wasn't home. It hadn't been for a very long time.
True to Ketch's word, he stood outside the cemetery entrance for me. Billie was there, I could feel her presence. I walked inside the cemetery for a while, until I knew I was outside of his sight and, thankfully, in front of Mrs. Tran's headstone. I had twenty minutes.
"Billie?" I asked, looking around. She appeared in front of me a second later, hands on her hips.
"Been a long time since I seen you around." She commented, looking me up and down for a moment. "Love the new look by the way. Much better than the wanna-be goth attempts." It was true. My style had changed as well. A part of moving to London included getting a new wardrobe. Two pantsuits were a requirement so that I could go to meetings looking professional. Other than that, I was free to get whatever I wanted. A few T-Shirts, jeans, a jacket or two (including a leather one), and some sweaters. Normal clothes, you know? Decent looking normal clothes, for once.
"Thanks." I smiled. "How're you?"
"I'm well." She smiled a little. "Yourself?"
"I'm doing good." I said, offering her a short nod. "Been getting better at magic every day."
"I can tell." She said. "Hellhound for a pet tends to mean you've got a fair amount of power in you." She smiled at me. "Come on. Show me what you got!"
I didn't raise my hand this time. I didn't need to. I just did it for effect when I did. In between us, leaves and dirt and twigs swirled upwards until they formed people, replicas of the pair of us.
"Impressive." Billie commented. The earth-copy of Billie turned to look at her.
"Thank you." Her voice sounded just like Billie's as well. I smirked, watching as Billie looked over her duplicate. "What, you want me to pose too?" The copy asked, mimicking her sarcastic tones perfectly.
"Screw that." The duplicate me muttered, dissipating back in nothing.
"I guess that's my cue then." Duplicate Billie muttered, following suit. When they were both gone, I raised an eyebrow at the real Billie.
"Nice." She muttered.
"I try." I said, offering a small shrug. "But I… I have a question to ask."
"I'm guessing you're asking about Linda Tran?"
"Yeah." I nodded. "I just was wondering who reaped her."
"That would be me." She answered. "I figured you'd prefer me to take care of it personally."
"Thank you." I smiled, and Billie thought for a minute.
"Hell, she's gonna badger the hell out of everyone else if I don't do this." Billie muttered. "Here, help me out." She said.
"With what?"
"Opening a door to a personal heaven." She stated. I felt shocked. "Don't give me that look? I know you've thought about it."
"Well, yeah…" I rubbed my hand behind my neck. "Only in case of emergencies, though."
"Sure." Billie said sarcastically. "Come on. Let's see what you've come up with."
"Alright." I thought for a moment. "I need something of hers."
"No you don't." She replied. "You're stronger than that. I taught you better than that." She was right, she actually had taught me to be able to do this stuff without needing personal items. "You've been focusing on witch magic for too long. You know more than just that."
I took a deep breath, remembering when I'd summoned her and proofed the house. I hadn't known exactly what I was doing, it just… It felt natural. I knew what I wanted, knew it was important, and just did it.
If I could do it then, I could do it now.
"Peto, loqui cum mortuis." I muttered. "Volo loqui cum amatur, et quod perierat. Volo tecum loqui, Linda Tran."
I could feel the wind swirling around me as a simple pair of circles came to mind, etched in the dirt, with more intertwined within it. Each part of the ring though wasn't just a line. It was words, in extremely small Latin. I wish to speak with the dead. I wish to speak with the loved and the lost. I wish to speak with Linda Tran.
I opened my eyes, seeing the circles light up as they shifted from their tangled mess in the dirt to find their place in the one large circles. There was one around me, and another three feet in front of me.
Mrs. Tran appeared within it a minute later, mid-sentece. "Kevin! Kevin I swear to God if you do that again I…" She stopped, blinking. "I… Kylie?"
"Hi." I said, waving. "
"Oh my God." She moved towards me, about to hug me, but I held up a hand.
"Stop." I said, pointing at her feet. The closer she got to the boundaries of her circle, the brighter it got. "You can't pass through, and I can't go in."
Mrs. Tran looked down, finally seeing the circle around her. "How are you here?" She asked.
"What do you see?"
"I see my house." She answered. "The house Kevin and I lived in, with you standing in the middle of it and a random circle appearing under me."
"I don't see that." I answered.
"Well, what do you see?"
"I…" I took a deep breath. "I see a cemetery. The one you're buried in."
"Oh, honey." She murmured. "I'm guessing the other person in the room is the Reaper that came and got me, then? Billie?"
"I can see both." She explained, moving so that I could see her as well. "I can help you keep this up, Kylie, but not for long. Say whatever it is you need to say fast."
"What's wrong?" Mrs. Tran asked.
"I… I just wanted to say good-bye." I stated. "I didn't get a chance to see you when everything was happening and I missed my chance to tell you good-bye and thank you." The words came out hurried, and it took all my effort to keep some sort of composure. "And I miss you. I miss coming back to your house after classes and doing homework and talking with you on the phone if I have normal people questions and I just feel as though I failed you. I failed you and your son and I don't know what to do exactly."
"Don't say that!" Her voice, sharp and insistent, cut through any grieving I had. "Young lady, you are doing just fine without me there! Look at yourself!" She motioned to me. "No more gothic clothes, thank God." Billie let out a small snort of laughter. "You're standing taller. You're not wearing that weird disguise anymore. You're a person again, one that's more confident in herself. You're doing just fine without me. And as for that thought of failing us…" She looked around at the circle around her. "Can Kevin walk in to this circle?"
I looked over at Billie. She glanced at what I'd done, then nodded. "But if Linda walks out, your connection time is over."
That was enough for Mrs. Tran. "KEVIN!" She shouted. "GET IN THIS MAGIC FACETIME CIRCLE THING!" A pause. Kevin was saying something to her on her end. "JUST COME DOWN HERE!"
A few seconds later, Kevin stood, his back to me as he faced his mother, in the middle of his sentence. "Does this supposed 'magic circle' thing do?"
"Turn around." I said. Kevin's whole body froze for a moment.
"Mom, I need you to tell me right now if my best friend is dead and behind me or not." Kevin stated, his voice very calm.
"Nah. Not dead, just having a lot of people assume that." I answered. "Don't step out of that magic circle by the way."
Kevin turned around, absolute excitement on his face. "KYLIE!" He shouted, running towards me and…
Out of the circle.
He backed up in to it slowly. "Don't leave the magic circle." He said. "Right."
"Yep." I smirked.
"Kevin," Mrs. Tran said, putting a hand on his shoulder so he stood beside her. "Has Kylie here ever failed you?"
"What?" He looked from his mother to me. "No. Never. Why would you ask that?"
"And would you say that she's perfectly capable of being a self-sufficient woman without us."
"She created a magic facetime." Kevin answered. "Hell yeah." His mom nodded, looking pointedly at me.
"See?" She asked. "What did I tell you?"
"I miss you guys." I said. I wasn't certain what else to say except that. "I just miss you guys so much."
"Yeah, well, you're still alive." Mrs. Tran reminded me. "So you quit spending so much time worrying about the dead, and focus on your life now."
"Besides, think about it." Kevin added. "What good are you doing moping about us? We're fine here."
"How…" I stared at the pair of them. "How are you two even in the same Heaven?"
"Linda here kept shouting at the angels and arguing with them until they conceded to visiting rights." Billie explained.
"I did not shout at them." Mrs. Tran stated. "I simply debated my point of view until they came to understand my reasoning."
"She scared the shit outta one of them." Kevin admitted. Mrs. Tran smacked his arm. "What?! You did! I think you made her cry, too!"
"If she can't take my requests, she shouldn't be working with the dead." Mrs. Tran answered. "But yeah, I spoke with the angels and I'm allowed to visit with my son three times a week."
"Wow." I muttered. "That's… Impressive."
"She didn't give them much of a choice." Kevin muttered.
"I hate to break up the reunion," Billie interrupted. "But time is wasting, and you and me," she looked at me pointedly. "We gotta talk."
"Go." Mrs. Tran encouraged. "Spend your time among the living. Don't worry so much about the dead."
"However, when you do kick it," Kevin added. "First off, you better go out some badass way when you're 500 years old or something." I laughed. "Secondly, don't worry, mom will bitch for visiting rights to you as well."
"Kevin!" Mrs. Tran shouted. "Language!"
"It's Heaven." He answered. "What are you going to do? Kill me?"
"Bye, Kylie." Mrs. Tran said, looking from her son to me. "And good luck. I know that you can do whatever it is you've got to do."
"Bye Kylie!" Kevin shouted. "Kick ass!"
Mrs. Tran and I stepped out of the circles at the same time. The second our feet hit the ground outside of them, they disappeared in to the earth as though they had never existed. I looked up at Billie. "I'm not going to see them again until I die, am I?"
"It's better that way." She said. "Let the dead stay dead, and not interfere with the living."
"What about me?" I asked. "I was dead."
"Believe me, when you die I'll be happy too." She said. "Just because what's dead should stay dead. But for now," she shrugged. "You're following that rule. You aren't bringing anybody or anything back. You acknowledge your own existence going against the natural law. You get it." She nodded a little. "I'll reap you when it's your time, and I'll help make sure you stay dead too."
"Thanks." I actually felt grateful for the sentiment. I didn't want to come back again. I didn't want to live forever. As a witch, my lifespan was now increased to be much longer, but I could still die. It would just be difficult.
I was alright with that. It felt right to me.
"You've got five minutes left, so I need you to listen." She said. "Dean and Sam are getting out. One of them is supposed to die tonight."
"What?" I asked. It was such a sudden shift, such a bombshell, I needed a second to comprehend.
"We made a cosmic pact." Billie held up her palm, and I saw it had been cut, and quite recently. "Something big is coming, and I can feel it."
"You've got to explain better than that." I asked.
"They're going to try and get out of it." Billie finished.
"And you want me to what? Make sure they don't?"
"No." She answered. "I want you to be prepared. If a cosmic pact is broken, there are consequences. Big ones. Bigger than anything you've seen."
"You want me to let it break?" I asked.
"I want to make sure you're prepared for any and all consequences from it." She answered. "But I don't want you to interfere."
"Why?"
"Something's coming." She repeated. "I can feel it. Someone needs to be ready. Besides, it's not your place to interfere in this."
"Why tell me and then say it's not my place?"
"Because you need to be aware." She looked around. "Your handler is coming. I need to go. Watch. Learn. Be prepared."
"What?" I asked. Billie was gone in a second, though. "What the hell?!"
"Kylie!" Ketch's voice rang out like a siren. "Kylie!"
I stood still, face bowed towards Mrs. Tran's headstone as if I had been doing that the whole time. "Kylie, good." He said. "We need to leave, now. The assignment has changed a bit."
"What happened?"
"I'll tell you on the way." He answered. "We need to leave, now."
"What about Mick?"
"We'll meet him in Colorado."
"What's in Colorado?"
"I'll explain on the plane." He said. "Come on. Let's go." He rushed off after that, back towards the car. I took one last look behind me, back at Mrs. Tran's headstone.
I could've sworn I saw Billie one last time before I followed Ketch.
