Awry

53

Gabriel rubbed his face as he, Nate and Heather all looked at the ancient map on the kitchen counter. Scarlet hadn’t returned all day, but Nate insisted she was with Tristan and probably just held up by the storm.

Heather tapped her fingers on the counter, her glossy nails clicking away as she looked at Nate. “How do you know so much about Head Ghosts and maps and everything?”

Nate shrugged. “I’ve been alive for a very long time.”

“Huh.” Heather looked from Nate to Gabriel. “So, can you guys, like, run super fast?”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “Uh…no.”

“Can you control people with your mind?”

“No.”

“Do you have an extra strong sense of smell?”

Gabriel sighed. “We’re not vampires, Heather. We’re immortal.”

“Yeah, but what does that mean?”

“It means we don’t die. Ever.”

Heather thought this over. “But what good is eternal life if you don’t have any super powers?”

“My thoughts exactly!” Nate started rooting around in the kitchen cabinets. “I mean, if I don’t get to wear a cape and save damsels in distress, then I may as well spend all my waking hours playing video games where I can do just that. Right?”

“Yep,” Heather said. “So, how old are you guys supposed to be?”

“Four-hundred and nine—”

“No, I mean how old do you say you are?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Eighteen. Twenty-one. Thirty. Whatever is most helpful.”

Nate smiled. “We have IDs for pretty much any age under forty.”

“You do?”

Gabriel nodded. “Nate takes care of all of our legal documents.”

“Passports, birth certificates, driver’s licenses.” Nate grinned. “I’ve got us covered.”

“Do you make them yourself?” Heather asked.

“No, I’ve got a guy. But every fifty years or so I have to find a new guy.” He shook his head and muttered, “Mortals.”

Heather looked back at Gabriel with a smile. “So, if you’ve got a fake ID guy, we could, like, go clubbing?”

“We’re not going clubbing.”

Heather narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you the boring brother? Are you, like, the disciplined, no-parties-ever, I-always-follow-the-rules brother?”

Nate snorted. “Gabriel spent most of the 20s in a constant state of parties and girls and he spent most of the 60s traveling with a rock band called Monster Freedom.”

“Wait.” Heather wrinkled her forehead as she looked at Gabriel. “I thought you couldn’t fall in love with anyone but Scarlet.”

Gabriel glared at Nate before turning to Heather. “I can’t. But that doesn’t mean I can’t date.”

“Date?” Heather smiled and wagged her eyebrows. “Or date?”

Gabriel rubbed the side of his face. “Can we talk about something else?”

Heather clucked her tongue. “Fine.” She looked at Nate. “So, what were you up to in the 60s? Parties? Dancing? Space travel?”

Nate paused.

“What?” Heather asked.

Nate cleared his throat. “No. I was married.”

Heather’s lips parted. “You were?”

Nate nodded. “I fell in love with a girl named Molly when I first moved to New York. She was beautiful and perfect and accepted me just the way I was. Immortality and all.” He swallowed and looked at the floor.

Silence filled the room and Heather quietly asked, “What happened?”

Nate looked up and blinked. “Death.”

Heather’s big eyes looked sad. “How did she…?”

“She was mortal.” Nate tucked his lips in. “There was nothing I could do to keep her with me.”

Gabriel watched as Heather turned her eyes down, staring at the counter. “I’m so sorry, Nate.”

Nate took a deep breath and went back to hunting around in the kitchen. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago.”

Gabriel knew Nate had never been the same after Molly died. In fact, her death is what put him into a near-constant state of isolation. He shut himself in his house for years, finding different ways to keep busy.

That was probably the reason he started playing video games; they distracted him from reality.

“For all the glamour of living forever,” Nate continued, speaking more to himself than to Heather, “immortality is really just a long curse. Finite life is precious; it’s fleeting and significant. But immortality…immortality isn’t living at all. It’s a permanent existence void of meaning. And it forces you to choose between falling in love with someone who will die, or never falling in love at all.” He looked at Heather again. “It’s a curse.”

“That’s kinda pessimistic. I mean,” Heather sat up straighter. “What if you get to meet another perfect girl? What if you fall in love again? Wouldn’t immortality be worth it?”

Nate smiled sadly. “I have lived many lifetimes and if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that there is only one great love for each person.” He swallowed. “Molly was my great love and the day she died was the day my soul ceased to have real meaning. But I’m not bitter about it. I found my great love and, for that, I am more blessed than most.”

Heather paused. “Do you wish you were still mortal?”

Nate looked her square in the eyes. “Every day.”

A moment passed.

Clearing his throat, Nate stopped looking through the cabinets for food. “I’m not hungry anymore. I think I’m just going to go to bed.” He nodded at them both. “Night.” He left the kitchen, taking the map with him.

A moment passed.

It was still early, but last night, after Scarlet had disappeared, none of them had gone back to bed. So, Gabriel was exhausted.

He stood up and stretched. “I’m going to bed too.”

“Wait,” Heather’s eyes grew wide. “You don’t expect me to sleep in the basement…by myself, do you?”

“Uh….” Gabriel hadn’t really thought about it.

Heather stood up and started shaking her head wildly. “I cannot sleep in that creepy underground bedroom alone. I could die, Gabriel.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to die.”

“I could! Someone could grab me in my sleep, or Laura could find me, or some basement creature that lives in Tristan’s bathroom could swallow me whole and—”

“Fine.” Gabriel put up a hand to stop the noise. “You can sleep in my room and I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“No way,” Heather said. “There is no way I’m going to sleep in a bed, by myself, knowing some crazy Ashman can come in and swipe my memories at any moment.”

Gabriel sighed, not used to dealing with dramatic girls. “Then what do you propose we do for sleeping arrangements?”

“I’ll sleep with you.” She shrugged.

“What?” Gabriel raised his eyebrows.

Heather rolled her eyes. “It’s not like we’re gonna get busy or anything. You’ll sleep on one side of the bed and I’ll sleep on the other and, meanwhile, no one will invade my memories. Win-win.”

Gabriel furrowed his brow. “I don’t see how that’s a ‘win’ for me.”

“You get to sleep next to me.” She shrugged again.

Shaking his head, Gabriel said, “Whatever.” There was no point in arguing with Heather. It just encouraged her to talk more.

He followed her up the stairs to his room. “But if you snore,” he said, “I’m carrying you into Nate’s room.”

“And if you snore,” Heather countered, not looking back at him, “I’m going to push you off the bed.”

Once they were upstairs, Gabriel laid on “his side” of the bed—as deemed by Heather—and tried to fall asleep while she practiced her bedtime rituals. But it was no use.

She made no attempt to be quiet as she took off her makeup, brushed her teeth, and dug around in one of the giant bags she’d packed to find a pink, silk, sleep mask.

When she finally got into the bed, Gabriel said, “You’re really noisy when you get ready to sleep.”

“Well, beauty is loud.” Heather pulled the facemask down over her eyes. “Good night, Gabriel.” She turned on her side, her back to him.

He turned his back to her as well. “Good night.”

A quiet minute passed.

“Gabriel?”

“Hmm?”

Heather paused. “Thanks for letting me sleep next to you. I feel safe now.”

Something inside Gabriel warmed. “You’re welcome,” he said and drifted to sleep.