The beeping sound of the removalist van backing up towards the drive of Apartment 112, had Amelia come running out of the empty apartment, excited to see her belongings had finally made it from her old apartment. The real estate agent, who had been going over the check list of all the utilities and services with Amelia, wandered out to watch, with the clip board now held up to her chest. Amelia had had a rough day at work, spending much of the time searching for the deceased’s ear as part of the autopsy report on the latest case. Her signature lab coat was on the front seat of her small hatchback, and Amelia was dressed in her traditional grunge/emo attire, that she wore so well. The roller door on the back of the truck swung up, as the two removalists started to unload the boxes and crates, with various black furnishings, to be taken inside her new apartment. Some of the statues and oddities that were coming out of the van, had the real estate agent raise an eyebrow. Massive candle sticks, and a large glass case that housed her pet snake. As the items were carried past, Amelia stood with a joyful expression.
“You…keep snakes?” The real estate agent said, almost frozen to the spot, as Rattle’s tank was taken past her.
“Doesn’t everyone?” Amelia replied, then she could see that this was unsettling the Real estate agent, so she was quick to say. “In my spare time, I like to help get anti venom for the hospitals. Do you know how many lives that saved alone last year? I should have got a medal.” The witch said with a firm nod. The Real estate agent sighed, and then handed Amelia her card.
“If you need anything, call me. It has my number. Oh….and try not to have the music blaring too loud. There are tenants with small children here.” Amelia saluted, and then she leaned forward and said. “Only singing is from me, and I normally do it whilst dancing naked around an open fire. I think the kids here can sleep easy.” The real estate agent rolled her eyes and headed to her posh looking sedan, leaving Amelia to the unpacking. Amelia did a little finger wave, and then skipped inside, to start unpacking.
<3>
Lysander drove quiet the whole time, having Melinda, Halle and Eric on the back of the car, he was glad that none of them was crying, he already had a huge headache from this all, and dealing with crying children was the last thing he wanted.
Reaching home, he parked his car in front of his house. He got out, and the first thing he went do, was pick up Halle, she fell asleep during the ride, so he was going to place her in her cradle, Melinda could easily hold the sleeping Eric, and carry him inside as well.
Unlocking the door, he whispered to Melinda, that he was going to put Halle in her bedroom, she just nodded and went to the living room, with Eric. He was still asleep, but let’s just say that his cradle wasn’t still done, he was actually going to finish it today, he never knew that the baby would born today.
Reaching Halles bedroom, it was all based on pink and white colors, he slowly placed her on the cradle, and cover her with a small blanket. He stayed there for a couple of minutes, just to stare at her, admiring her. Then he went down, to kiss her forehead softly, before turn off the lights and walk out of the bedroom.
Heading downstairs, he saw Melinda with Eric on her arms, and he decided to bring the baby rocking blue chair. He placed it on the ground, in front of the couch, and carefully removed Eric from Melinda’s arms, and placed him in the chair, putting on the belt, so he wouldn’t fall, he began to whimper, so Lysander just rocked slowly the chair, making him go back to sleep.
Whenever they got home, Melinda got out of the car, and held Eric against her, having a blanket covering his body and his face. She just followed Lysander inside and nodded when he told her that he was going to put Halle in her bedroom. She just went into the living room, sitting down on the couch, and hold Eric, staring down at him, he was such beautiful baby, unluckily for him, he will now live without a mother, but he will have his father and grandparents support, people always say a grandmother is mother twice, and that’s basically what Melinda was going to do, Lysander will need tons of help to take care of two young children, and she was afraid if he couldn’t make it, if he could do something stupid because of the loss of River, she knows how much he loved that woman. He lost his father, then lost the trust he held towards his brother, and now he lost River, the only family he has is his two children, and their grandparents.
Whenever Lysander was back, she looked up at him, and allowed him to remove Eric from her arms, and put him on a rocking baby chair, she just stared down at the baby, before huff out, the atmosphere was getting too depressing again, Melinda wanted to cry, because she lost her daughter, yet she didn’t wanted to put Lysander more depressed than he already was. Pushing herself from the couch, she went into the kitchen, and made a coffee for him, but for her, she certainly got a cup of vodka. She needed alcohol anyways. No matter how many years it passes, Melinda will never stop drinking her dear alcohol. She come back and gave Lysander a mug with coffee, there was no way he was going drink alcohol, he had children to take care, and he would certainly need to do huge changes on his daily routine by now.
“Here..You will end up needing more coffee, to stay awake.”
Melinda said with a small smile, before sit down besides Lysander.
After taking a sip of her vodka, she saw a paper over the table, and picked it up, she began to do origami, since she wanted to make herself busy and her thoughts as well. Whenever she was done, she stretched out the wings from the goose she made, staring down at it.
From the outside of the apartment, it seemed to blend in well with all the others that belonged to the Rivet Condos complex, but Amelia, she made sure that if she was going to be slap bang in the middle of the middle class, she was going to have some creature comforts, and her own signature sense of style, in the decor and fittings.
Much of the wallpapering, light fittings, and curtains, she had orgnaised before the removal day, so when the truck turned up, she pretty much had the interior just as she had hoped. To some, it would be like stepping into a gothic carpathian lodge, but to Amelia, this was home.
On the ground floor, her lounge was sparsely furnished, but the centerpiece was the snake tank, that housed Rattles, one of her constant companions over the years. Unlucky in love, she found that she spent many a night sitting at home, curled up on her velvet love chair, reading romantic fiction novels, whilst sipping wine, and every so often, staring at Rattle’s tank.
“Only male that hasn’t up and left me, aren’t you, Rattles?’
This night, she had still many unopened boxes on the ground floor, though the furniture and rugs had been put in their places. One box marked “First night essentials, she had near the snake tank, and kneeling down on the floor, she took out a stanley knife, and ran the blade across the tape that secured it. Lifting open the flaps, she smiled, as she dug through the packing foam, and pulled out her lap top, power cord, a copy of the DVD Ghost, a bottle of wine, and a boxed set of glasses, two to be exactl Her nightie, some smalls and her wet pack, with everything from her toothbrush, to shampoo and soap.
She held up the bottle of wine, and turned her wrist, looking at the label. “And..its a good year….this year. Nothing but the best, eh, Rattles?” The snake was under the light of the heat lamp, and you could see the flicker of its tongue, as Amelia placed her lap top on the coffee table, and flipped it open. She set down the bottle of wine and took out a glass, pouring herself a drink to celebrate her move. The copy of Ghost, she placed in the DVD drive door, and pressed enter, as it slid in and Amelia got comfortable with her wine and eased back onto the love seat, as the titles started for the movie.
“What more could a girl want..than a night alone with Patrick Swayze?”
Amelia had no idea about the death of River, or the fact that Lysander was living in the same complex. But by morning…that would probably be revealed.
<3>
Jennifer texted Anya to ask her to cover for them. She decided to just tell her they were taking a sick day and when she’d call later she would tell them they had caught colds from each other, since neither of them seemed keen on having their co-workers thinking they were throwing up. Even if they knew they were simply taking a… “personal day,” there wasn’t much they could do about it if they said they were sick since it was strictly against the rules to come to the hospital if you had any sign of fever. Even if you were simply coughing you had to wear a face mask. Which Jennifer had done just so she could still go to work. Work was very important to her. She loved helping people and becoming a doctor was the best way to do that. But her relationship with William was more important. Especially at the moment. It wasn’t like anyone was going to take the time to come check on them, anyway. Jennifer took William by the hand and pulled him into her house, laughing lightly. They had walked since neither of them had brought a car and the last fifty yards or so she had made him run with her. It was such a playful, childish thing to do, but it made her happy to just relax, have fun, and laugh. She stopped before getting all the way inside, because she noticed a moving van outside house 112. “Ooh, I get a new neighbor today. Will you help me bake something for her? Please?” she asked him, grabbing his other hand now so that they were face to face and she was batting her eyelashes at him, making the best puppy dog face that she could. “I want to greet her.” Of course she was just a nice person and would do it for anyone, but this was particularly important to her for a very specific reason. Her only friend in this neighborhood was Galtem and that relationship had clearly taken a turn for the worse as of today. And she could use all the friends she could get right now. All she knew about the new person in 112 was that she was female, because Jennifer had been around when she had checked out the house, but she hadn’t gone over to say hi. But it would be really good for her to have a friend outside the hospital. “Afterwards we can do whatever you want,” she promised, moving closer to him, but not letting go of his hands. “Since you’re so tired we could go to sleep,” she said in a teasing voice and she gave him a quick kiss.
William on the whole way has been chasing Jennifer, she was forcing him to run around, it was something extremely childish, but he enjoyed the way it made her calm down and how happy she looked like, with that beautiful laugh of hers. They needed some time to laugh after what had happen anyway. Jennifer sent Anya a message asking her to cover for them, Anya was Jennifer’s friend, so she was basically William’s friend as well, he was a guy who got along with everybody pretty well, but not with that certain guy, Galtem. He just couldn’t stand him, the same way he couldn’t stand William, maybe if Galtem had never been with Jennifer, or start to threat him, he could be friends. But after threaten him about if he makes Jennifer cry, that pissed him off, because William never made her cry, he was only there for please her, and do whatever she wanted. Galtem was the one who made her cry, and left her behind, so he really had no right on saying those stuff.
Soon they reached her house, and he held Jennifer’s hand, as he noticed a van outside the house 112, this meant Jennifer had a new neighbor. His eyes went back at her, as she was asking him for help her on baking something for the neighbor, Jennifer was always this nice to everybody, but he thought she also wanted to make up new friends in her neighborhood. She grabbed his both hands, as the both of them was facing each other, she was making that puppy dog face, that made him bite his lip, and tilt his head down while chuckling.
“Alright, I will help you.”
He finally offered his help. William wasn’t a bad cooker, since he has been living alone this all years, of course the guy had to learn how too cook, so he could make food for himself, he couldn’t spend his whole life on ordering chinese food and pizzas, now could he? And he had to admit sometimes it felt better when it was him making the food, but it was even better when it was Jennifer making.
“Sleeping seems a wonderful idea.”
He mumbled against her lips, as he wrapped his arms quickly around her waist, not letting her escape from him that easily, but he was only doing this so he could make the kiss last abit longer. Once he broke the kiss, he winked down at her, and removed his hands away from her body, then clapped them together.
“What are we going to bake anyway?”
“Good!” Jennifer said excitedly, her smile growing when he said he’d help her. “Because, you really didn’t have a choice and it would be a shame to have to force you,” she teased. Jennifer wasn’t the most amazing cook. She would definitely rather order in or eat out than put out the effort to make something, but when it came to desserts she very much enjoyed getting creative. When she wasn’t making something fun like desserts, she just became stressed out and occasionally threw things. She could count her major freak outs on one hand and three of them involved cooking. But, luckily she was going to make a dessert and William was with her and there was no chance her stress level would go up when he was around. When she kissed him, he stopped her from turning around by wrapping his arms around her waist. She smiled and allowed him to keep her there for a moment longer, continuing to keep her lips on his until he was the first to pull away. He winked. God, he was sexy when he winked. She bit her lip as she smiled up at him.
When he let go and asked what they were making, she became excited and turned around to go to the kitchen. “Well, I found this recipe online that I have been dying to try. Someone posted a picture of them on facebook and posted the recipe under it. They’re cookie dough bites and they look amazing.” She went to another room to grab her laptop and brought it back to the kitchen and opened it up on the counter. “They seemed like the perfect thing to greet a neighbor with. Pies are too stereotypical and even cookies are what everyone expects,” she chattered on as she pulled up her facebook page. She scrolled down looking for it. She stopped when she saw the pictures of Galtem and Selene in horror. Them looking…happy. She’d never seen Selene look happy. He was kissing her cheek in some. She definitely didn’t think of Galtem as the “take cute couples photos with my girlfriend” type, but there he was. With the most heartless girl out there. In some ways, literally. When she saw the one that showed the whole outfit he was wearing with the sign that said he loved her she almost physically gagged. What the hell was he wearing? And for her? Because he loved her? He’d been gone the majority of their actual relationship! She wasn’t hurt this time. She didn’t want to cry. She was fuming. She wanted to rip his throat out. She quickly kept scrolling, hoping William hadn’t seen and found the recipe. “Here it is,” she said, trying to force her voice to sound like nothing was wrong. “So, we need butter, and both regular and brown sugar…” she muttered, going to the refrigerator trying to block out the horribleness of what she’d just seen.
William stared at her as he waited for her to explain him what was they really going to make. As she walked in the kitchen, he followed her while listening to her. So they was going to make cookie dough bites, the name already left water in his mouth, he adored cookies, and if Jennifer said by the looks of the picture from the cookies looked delicious, then he couldn’t wait for make them, and of course take one or two for him to taste it. They had to taste it first before give it to the new neighbor, right? He stayed in the kitchen and folded his arms in front of his chest, waiting for Jennifer come back with her laptop, so they could take a look. He still didn’t got closer to her when she turned on the laptop, what made him curious was when all off sudden she was quiet, didn’t said a single word, and that made him wonder what was wrong.
Approaching behind her, he took a peck over her shoulder, and finally noticed what she was seeing. It left him upset and relieved at the same time. Upset because Jennifer was looking pictures about Galtem, and relieved because there was another woman by Galtem’s side, and he was flirting with her, this only meant something, it was his girlfriend, for sure. Then he noticed that woman was Selene, the hell? He was dating a vampire? How was that even possible? When did vampires and werewolves get along? And with Selene? One of the most heartless vampires out there? And she looked happy as happy he looked. So they were fine? Then why in hell Galtem come after William? If he had a girlfriend then he should start minding his own business and stay away from him and Jennifer. Then he noticed the outfit Galtem was wearing and the paper he was holding in front of him. He was trying his best to not laugh, and once Jennifer changed back to the cookies and pretended like nothing happen, he couldn’t help but to burst out laughing.
“I can’t believe he done that for her.”
Even if Galtem held some love towards Selene, William couldn’t believe he done such thing, if he was in his place, he would never do it. That’s the fewest things he would never do for Jennifer, or for anyone, unless he was extremely drunk.
“So now he’s dating a vampire? Selene? Well, he has courage, that’s for sure.”
William said with a shrug, since he knows Selene isn’t somebody that would be so sweet, well from what he knows from her, she’s a dangerous vampire, so yeah. He walked up to the table, and began to grab the stuff Jennifer was taking from the refrigerator.
“What do you think about that?”
He asked her, still not daring himself to look at her. He noticed those pictures left her kind of uncomfortable, and he was wondering why she got like that.
