“Vic is dead!” Eli shouted, looking around Grace’s slight frame and at me. I looked down at my body again. I was still covered in blood and looked like death; I was supposed to be dead. I could see where Eli was coming from.
“Keep your voice down,” Grace said. Turning to me, she explained. “We’ve been watchin’ a lot of The Walkin’ Dead recently.” She turned back to Eli. “Don’t make it true!”
“Well what the fuck?”
“Don’t you cuss at me!”
“The dead has shown up in my goddamn living room; I will cuss if the situation permits it, Bug!” Shrugging, Grace took her hands off Eli and allowed him entry. I wasn’t sure what to say. Hey, I’m not a Zombie, but I’m not alive didn’t sound too great.
We all stood in awkward limbo. No one sat down, but we didn’t make ourselves comfortable either.
“Well, is someone gonna say somethin’?” Eli asked.
“I should go,” I said.
“The hell you should,” Eli said.
“Look, I came here to see Lenny,” I explained. “I’m not here to start playing charades and acting like family again. I shouldn’t have come.”
“Maybe not,” Grace said. “But you did, and you have to face that. Running away ain’t gonna solve nothing.”
“I’m not running,” I snarled. I’d crawled out of the grave to make sure everyone I loved lived a peaceful life. That wasn’t running. Maybe it wasn’t good. Maybe it wasn’t honorable. But it sure as fuck wasn’t running.
“Sure looks like it,” Eli said under his breath.
“Mind your own business,” I growled.
“I will mind my business when said business isn’t showin’ up bloody and lookin’ like death in my own goddamn living room.” Eli stepped to me, jaw clenched. He was a few inches taller, but that didn’t make him any meaner than the demons I’d just faced. I tightened my fists, meeting his stare eye for eye.
And the minute I looked into his eyes, my steam ran out. He was protecting his home, protecting Lenny even. Like the soldiers who’d died first, he had honor. It felt odd staring into the eyes of someone with honor. For the past few years I’d been looking into nothing, staring down men and women whose gaze reflected the abyss they lived and reveled in.
Shaking my head, I left, muffling their protestations with the door.
Lenny sat at the café we’d eaten at so many times before, and I sat a few tables over, the shadows my constant friends. A day later, Grace’s words still played in my head like a stuck vinyl. Was I running away? Was I a coward? Maybe. I wasn’t sure if that changed a damn thing. We were outside, but Lenny didn’t look at the sunset. Instead she worked on spreadsheets while sipping at a coffee. She didn’t even notice as a man approached her.
He looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t place him. He had a weak chin, brown eyes, and a calculating gaze. I sat up from my perch in the shadows.
“Do you remember me?” The man asked the question, but he wasn’t looking for an answer. I could see by the look on his face he only wanted one thing: to make Lenny squirm.
Lenny crinkled her brow, as if trying to search through her mind. “I’m sorry, have we met?”
“A couple of years ago you took me home and then told me to fuck off.” At his words the memory hit me. It was before Lenny and I became us, back when I was trying to fight our magnetism. She brought home the fucker and I remembered watching him paw at her with unskilled hands.
I hadn’t known she’d told him to fuck off, though. I’d thought she’d taken him to bed. Clearly, he’d held on to that rejection like a dog d
oes a bone.
Lenny scooted back a bit in her chair, uneasy. “I’m sorry…”
“You’re all alone now. Want to pick up where we left off?” He didn’t smile as he made the offer.
“I was actually just about to go meet a friend.” Lenny stood up. Shuffling the papers into her hands, she brushed past him. A look of fury flashed across his face. Quick as lightning, it was gone, and just like lightning, I could see the harm it intended to do.
I made sure to turn my face into my palm when she walked by me. Her stride was so quick that she blew up my napkin. It fluttered to the floor, kissing her heel as she walked out of the café. Seconds later the man crushed it to the concrete as he followed her out. Leaving a few twenties for the bill, I joined them.
Lenny turned the corner, oblivious to the man trailing right behind her. I noticed she purposefully avoided our old street. I’d only walked by it a few times myself. The ashes had been dusted away, the debris swept. Now it was just an empty lot.
I never did take good care of the building the way I should have. It was an antique, an historic building dating back to the eighteen hundreds. I’d purchased it because it was cheap and afforded me a good cover. I might not have been the best landlord, but I kept rent low. Now the lot would undoubtedly be purchased by a developer and the units sold for millions.