Rivet Condos (2) – River Marked.

It was like some bad dream that you suddenly wake up from and pinch yourself to see if its real. The odd thing about this was that Jennifer had received a call at the same time as Amelia did. Amelia went from being her bubbly and buoyant self, to dropping the phone and standing like a statue, frozen from what she had just discovered. At first, she didn’t know what to do. William was enjoying patting her snake and getting rather up close and personal, which was cool, cause Rattles was very affectionate..for a snake. Amelia went quiet as Jennifer asked if William could take her to the funeral. Course, Amelia would want to go, but then she realized that Lysander would be there and her heart sank even further. For the longest time, she had tried to get over him, and then course he ended up with her niece, which always made family functions awkward. Amelia had driven herself into her work, focusing on cases and basically living at the office. Only recently had she decided to move out of a bed sit and into her own place, her own space. She was just getting back on track with her life….now this.

Amelia knelt down to pick up her phone off the rug, and then looked at the details for the funeral arrangements again. Amelia let out a sigh, and then tossed her phone haphazardly back on the love seat in among the cushions. She put on a brave face, trying to keep any tears from falling, desperately keeping up a cheerful outlook. She came up to William, and said.

“Here..let me take him and put him back in his tank, and you can both go get ready for the funeral.”

She didn’t say how she knew, why she had the call, or the fact of her relationship with those involved. Amelia felt so alien from it all. But…there came a knock at the door, and Amelia was ready to pick up the bat and whack whoever was behind it. Thinking the better of it, she approached the door, and opened it, her mouth falling open to see Melinda standing on her door step. Half taken aback Amelia tried to keep composed, and then swallowing the rising tide that was coming up her throat, as her cheeks became red and flushed, she moved across the step and embraced her sister in a hug of comfort, whispering in her ear.

“I’m so sorry.”

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Jennifer smiled sadly at William and leaned into him. “You’re truly the best,” she said, holding on to him. It didn’t cross her mind that he might want to be there anyway to watch out for Galtem. He was just doing her a huge favor by going to the funeral of someone he barely knew that would have people he did not like there. But William was always doing his best to protect her so of course he would want to go.
She looked up at Amelia when she took the snake and told them they could go get ready for the funeral. Jennifer realized it was pretty soon and she was still in the clothes she had thrown on this morning before visiting Galtem. That seemed ages before, but it hadn’t been so long ago. Then she realized that Amelia’s text must have been the same as hers. This confused her for a moment. She wondered how Amelia knew River and what connections she had here.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door and her questions were answered a moment later when the guest walked in. It was Melinda. River’s mother. Jennifer doubted Melinda would know anything about Jennifer. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing you would bring up to your mother, but she also didn’t know if Melinda and River were really close and if they talked about that sort of thing. It made her a little uncomfortable, but Amelia and she seemed to have a tight relationship, so they must have been really close friends. Or possibly related. It seemed like an odd pair to Jennifer, but she would be surprised if she saw anything normal around here anymore.
“Maybe we should go change now,” Jennifer said to William, not wanting to intrude on this moment. “I’m so sorry, Melinda,” she said quietly as she stood up, not sure if it was weird or not for her to speak as if she knew her. Maybe that would weird her out. But she doubted she cared about anything but her daughter right now.

William smiled when Jennifer said he was truly the best.
“Anything for you.”
He was here for please her, but he also wanted to make sure Galtem wouldn’t get closer to Jennifer, there was no need for make up some argues and fights, especially in a funeral. So William would make sure he wouldn’t get too angry with Galtem, as long as that guy didn’t bother him, everything would be fine. He also began to wonder if Galtem was going to bring the Vampire as well, that was insane, werewolves doesn’t get along with vampires, and now bringing a vampire to a funeral where mostly people are werewolves, that’s just some stupid a idea, but an idea we all know it could come from Galtem.
His eyes went up to Amelia who was telling him that she would put the snake back on its tank, and they could go get ready for the funeral. He was about to give her the snake, but someone was knocking on the door, and that made Amelia go see who was. William just stood up, and walked over the snake’s tank, placing it down inside, before close the tank. Making sure everything was right, his view turned back at Jennifer, who now was telling him they should go change now.
“Sure.”
He replayed as he began to walk after her, and on the door there was Amelia hugging another woman, somebody that Jennifer knew as well, but not William, he just stared at them with some awkward smile, since he didn’t knew what was going on. But this woman was definitely family from River, so of course, William was going to be polite, and have a smile that would show how sorry he was for her loss.

112 – Amelia Reed

Melinda keep hugging herself a bit, till finally somebody open her the door, and it was definitely her sister, Amelia. She stared at her for a couple of seconds, wanting to just tackle her, and hug her. She needed some comfort right now, after this all. Dealing with a depressing Lysander wasn’t easy either, because he was always distant, and it would take you a lot to just call out his attention.
Whenever her sister finally hugged her, Melinda allowed herself to cry again, and wrapped her arms tightly around her sister, hugging her closer, while shoving her head down into her shoulder, sobbing quietly. She was glad she had her sister back, at least she would have another support from somebody. It was far from her mind to think about Henry and have his support. She still wanted that guy far away from her, even tho she knows she will have to face him in the funeral.
It was on that moment Melinda noticed that Amelia wasn’t alone, there were other two people in here, a man and another woman. A blonde one, that was very familiar to Melinda, but she couldn’t remember where she saw this face before, but it finally hit her mind. It was the same woman who was there helping with her wounds whenever she got attacked by the werewolf, Alexander. She still has the all scars over her arm, that’s the ugly memory from the attack.
“Thank you..”
Melinda mumbled, as she pulled herself away from her sister, and began to wipe her tears.
“I just wanted to know if my little sister was really here. I should go..Lysander probably needs my help on dressing the kids.”
Melinda managed to say with some weak tone on her voice, as she rubbed her own arm.
“Amelia, I know this might seem much to ask. But now you’re his neighbor, and he will need lots of help on raising those two babies. I just ask you to check on him, time to time, there isn’t any need to be everyday. I just don’t want him to do anything stupid.”
Melinda said, knowing very well the bond her sister had with Lysander. They dated before, and Lysander fell in love with her niece, which was something very awkward in the family, and it probably left Amelia hurt, because she was trying to get over him, Melinda knew that. But still, she couldn’t spend her whole time in this neighborhood, it took her a lot to come here from her house, and she wanted some time alone for herself as well.

626-Lysander Manzenli

Lysander got in his chambers, and placed Eric slowly over the bed. He was glad that they had already bought two outfits for a girl and for a boy. They wasn’t sure what sex the baby would be, so they just bought this, till they could go buy more clothes. Now that’s something Lysander needs to do alone. He picked up the outfit, which was a blue romper for winter. It was thick, and it was enough to keep a baby warm. He began to dress the new born with that clothing, and while he dressed him, he could already hear Halle crying. Huffing out, Lysander finished dressing the baby, and made sure he would stay in the middle of the huge bed, so he wouldn’t fall.
Then he just went to Halle’s bedroom, and picked up a pacifier placing it inside her mouth. He picked her up, and rocked her on his arms slowly, so she could calm down and stop crying. In her bedroom, there was a closet with her clothes. He held her on his left arm, and used his right hand to search through the closet for something for her to wear. He found a pink dress, then some white shirt, and white long socks, then some black shoes. He picked up those clothes, and started to dress Halle once he went back to his bedroom, and placed her on his bed. After few minutes, the children were finally dressed. He never thought it could be so hard, but it was done, and luckily for them, they fell asleep.
He went to the bathroom, took a quick shower and done his beard. Once he was done with that, he began to dry off his skin, and went back to his bedroom. He looked through his closet, and saw his black suit. It only took him ten minutes to get himself ready, and ties with him wasn’t a problem, since he was already used to wear them.
Now he had another problem, which was to put the kids in the car.
He had everything he needed, he had the chair for the newborn, and Halle’s chair was already in the car, all he had to do was just place the newborn chair on the passenger seat that was besides him. He needed a baby carriage, he had one but it had only space for one baby and not two. Which meant he would have to carry Halle on his arms and Eric would go on the baby carriage. And that’s what he did.
He finally left home, and went to his car, preparing the baby chair on the passenger seat, and when he made sure everything was safe he placed Eric in there. Then in the backseats, he placed Halle’s in her seat. And in the backdoor, he closed the baby carriage and put it inside to fit in the car. He was done, but he was still waiting for Melinda. Wondering if she wanted a ride.
He leaned his back against his car, and folded his arms in front of his chest, as he stared down at the ground, getting a bit lost in his thoughts.

The wetness of her sister’s tears upon the nape of her neck, had Amelia feeling all kinds of emotions, as she was swept up in the sorrow of the news of River. But also the reunion of the sisters was something she also needed. Amelia hadn’t meant to keep her distance and turned into a workaholic, but it seemed to be the only way she could cope with losing Lysander to her niece. Amelia sniffed loudly, when her sister finally let her go, and then realized she still had company; William and Jennifer. Thankfully William had place Rattles back in his tank, so that was one less thing to worry about, but she felt it right to introduce them to Melinda.

“Sis, this is my neighbour Jennifer and her boyfriend William. They were welcoming me to the neighborhood when we got the call.” She said we, since Jennifer also got a text message from Lysander. Amelia didn’t know if Melinda knew them or not, but thought it right to make introductions. Amelia’s head tilted, her pony tails flicked out when Melinda just was checking to see if her little sister really was living in the Rivet condos complex.

“Yeah, finally got myself out from Mrs Gardner’s bed sit. Kinda got over not having freedom to do my own thing, or being harassed for staying out late.” Mrs Gardner was much like a bitter old spinster, something that Amelia was terrified of ending up as. Her luck with men, was abysmal. On the word that Lysander would be needing help with the kids and the fact Amelia was living so close, Amelia became uneasy, and rubbed the back of her neck. Clearly the wounds from the failed romance still ran deep, but she then sighed thinking that these children that were now without a mother, should be given care and understanding, by their relatives, regardless of who their father was.

“I guess, I can…baby sit…and stuff.” she said awkwardly, not really being into kids herself, for she gave up on that dream a while ago. She looked at the clock and saw the time and then quickly said to Melinda. “It’s getting late, shouldn’t you be heading to the funeral now?”

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