Thank you for reading!

Rita rolled over, a graceful movement. She must have been a dancer at some point, Major thought, unstirred by her beauty. "Sure you don't want to go again?"

"Nah, I'm good." He pulled his shirt on, getting up to hunt for his shoes.

"You know, you could stay. You're always out of here so fast."

"What, you want to cuddle?"

She laughed. "Hardly. But every once in a while you could act like you actually want to be here."

"I don't."

"I know." She sat up, pulling the covers up with her, looking at him with interest. "Who is it, the girl you pretend I am? The ex-fiance? Or someone else?"

Major hid his face, bending over to tie his shoelaces. No, he never pretended Rita was Liv. Too much complexity there. Mostly, he pretended he was someone else. He wasn't sure who, but anyone had to be better than being Major Lilywhite. "There's no one."

"Aw, so all that passion is for lil ol' me?"

He straightened, turning to look at her. "Rita, the only person I hate more than you is myself."

She almost looked like that hurt, but the moment passed, and she shrugged. "Works for me. Hate's hotter, anyway."

"You would think that." She was all kinds of wrong—he remembered what it was like to make love, to be in love, and nothing could be hotter, or better, than that.

"See you next time."

"There won't be a next time." He closed the door forcefully, trying to make the point, but he could still hear her laughing. They both knew there would be a next time. He dug in the pocket of his bag for a vial of Utopium and snorted it, trying to erase the memories and forget … everything.

Later that night, he was sprawled out on the couch, the dog, who he refused to call Minor, resting against him, when the picture of the dog's missing owner—and the dog—came on the TV. Was there nowhere he could go to avoid being reminded of the monster he was becoming? He dug in his pocket for another vial, chasing the oblivion that came when the Utopium hit his system. But before it could take effect, the doorbell rang.

Recent months had taught him that nothing good happened when the doorbell rang. He really didn't want to deal with it. If he sat here long enough, whoever it was would go away. Except that they didn't, and the doorbell rang again.

Major heaved himself off the couch, the Utopium buzzing in his head, but annoyingly, not pleasantly. He was irritated even before he opened the door and saw Liv standing there on the porch.

"Hey," she said, putting immediately to rest the chance that she might have been here looking for Ravi, or Peyton.

"Twice in a week." God, he was tired.

"I'm sorry, I know you want space. That's kind of why I'm here. I … realized something tonight. I just—need to say it."

"Okay." He'd hear her out, since she insisted on it, but he was damned if he was inviting her in. She couldn't come in without an invitation, right? No, that was vampires.

"From the moment that I met you, I knew that we were meant to be together."

She had practiced this speech, he could tell. But it was hard not to follow the train of her thought back to that sunny afternoon when they'd met, the instant connection, the electric way he had felt just being around her.

Liv went on, while Major tried to fight the rush of memory. "I was sure of it, it was like fate. But that was before I had witnessed a mass murder. Before I had eaten fresh brain. Before I had lied to you, or let you put yourself in a mental hospital— It was before I'd watched you die." She took a deep breath. "And it was before all this cruelty was directed back at me. Now, I don't think space can fix what's wrong with us. We're a dream that's dead."

All his dreams were dead. Liv was the zombie, but Major was the one who was dead. His body just didn't know it.

She hadn't finished. Would she ever finish?

"I doubt that I will ever stop loving you. But it's over now. I gotta let you go. Completely. Forever."

The irony of her coming over here, when he had told her not to so many times, to tell him she was letting him go, was so galling, he wanted … He was too tired to want anything. He just wanted her gone. "Perfect," he said. "Thanks for stopping by." And he shut the door in her face. She wanted him gone? He was already long gone.

But he hadn't even made it to the kitchen before the door swung open again and Liv charged in. "Hey. Stop. I'm coming here like an adult trying to talk to you. How can you be this cold to me?"

"Who exactly am I being cold to? Huh? Whose brain did you eat this week?"

"This is all me. And in case you've forgotten, I didn't ask for this! I went to a party, because you told me I should. I woke up on a shore craving brains. Next thing I know I've cracked this corpse's head open."

He hated hearing about this. He'd pushed aside all the guilt he felt for making her go to that party. He just wanted to forget it. Forget her. Why couldn't she leave him alone? Why did she have to come here and make him feel things?

"How could I bring that home to you?" she asked. "How could I be your wife? I had become a monster."

She wasn't the only monster. She wasn't the only one who couldn't bring things home to the people they cared about. He saw Vaughn du Clark, he saw the dog's owner, he saw Rita. He was a monster, only he had done it by choice.

"I was confused, and I was dangerous. Every decision that I made last year, I made trying to protect you from my new reality."

Well, wasn't that just the way it went. He had made a few decisions to protect her, too, things he couldn't tell her about.

Liv went on, "I know, in your eyes, I've screwed up badly somewhere along the line, but I did the best I could."

She had to go. He couldn't have her here, telling him these things, making him want to understand her and forgive her. Not now. Not … ever, not anymore. "You know, I just— I keep asking you for some space, and every time I turn around, here you are."

Her eyes widened, and he could see the faint shine of tears in them. Did zombies cry? He guessed they did.

They stared at each other, neither willing to give in, to forgive, and Major, at least, just wanting to forget. At last, Liv backed away, then turned around and walked slowly to the door, her shoulders a defeated slump. She stopped to look back at him. "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?" Like he didn't know. But he didn't want to know, so he refused to know.

"Making me doubt the only thing in my life that I was sure was real."

Well, nothing in Major's life was real anymore. Why should hers be any different? He didn't answer her, and finally she left, leaving Major standing alone in a house built of broken dreams.