Already I could hear the sound of dogs barking in the distance. They could sense when death was near. The being was almost ash. We made sure to scatter the ashes once the fire was out. If I was human, I would have been exhausted. I was just glad it was finally over. No more chasing him and no more murders of innocent people.
I still could not believe it was over. Jack was reassuring me every few hours. Now I could begin to live. Now I could let go of the past and move on. I had to make sure my human family would be okay without me. I had to give them closure. It would be the only way they would let go.
20. MY IMMORTAL
A
FTER WE DESTROYED THE FEIGN WE returned to New Orleans. The council members patiently waiting our return. Lorelei embraced me upon our arrival. We discussed everything that had occurred in Orange. The council was just as confounded as we were. We still did not have an answer as to why he chose to come after me, or why he killed so many. I had come to terms that I would never get an answer. Life will never give you answers, no matter how much you beg you will never get one. Life happens and it goes on. When death happens life still goes on without you. There is no rhyme or reason it is all a part of nature. One thing about life is that you will never, ever understand it.
After a while, I just wanted to be alone, but Ambrogio would not hear of it. He was in a bright and festive mood this evening. We drank his wine and celebrated our bittersweet victory. Everything about my actions were false. Well except my drunken state. Ambrogio would be leaving us soon to return to Italy. He has been with us for some time now and he has been away from his villa for almost a year. He craves his home, his people, his family. He would be returning to his home a hero, a savior and protector. I envied him at times. He has never been happier or more alive than what he was now. The other members of the council would be leaving us as well.
We drove Ambrogio to the airport the next day and saw him off. I felt sad seeing every one leave. Lorelei plans on staying in New Orleans a bit longer, since she has a home on the Rue Royal.
I stare out of the window lost in my thoughts. I tell Jack to turn around. I needed to go back to Orange. I could feel myself begin to tear at the seams. I was trying to hold myself together and I was not about to put Jack through this again. I had to say goodbye to my human family. I needed to know that they could and would survive my absence.
The drive to Orange had been uneventful. I felt myself momentarily withdraw from the world. I felt Jack’s gentle hand cover my own. I came back down to reality. We drove to the woods behind my family’s new home. We climbed out of the car, and walked to the back of the house. We climbed the great pine tree and perched on the second to last branch from the bottom. It was one that would offer the best view through the great bay window.
I lost track of how long we sat there, so still, unmoving.
“I find you human family fascinating,” Jack said so quietly.
“They were, I mean they are, my everything. It saddens me that I cannot be there for them,” I explained.
“Salome, I have been alive for almost six hundred years, I have never met another one of our kind, who had such a beautiful human family. I envy the living at times for their mortality, their ability to move forward. I am sad for you. To have lost so much and to now give it up so that they can have a future. It tears at me. We have been together for almost four years and I see your eyes and feel your emotions. I know it is killing you to have to stay away from them forever and no kind words will bring you comfort,” he gently told me. His tone trying to find some way to bring me solace. I appreciated the attempt.
In those kind words, I knew he would be there for me and help me pick up the pieces. He would help me to put myself together when my world crashes.
“Jack,” I began softly, “I too envy the living. I envy their life, mortality and the simplicity of humanity. To be human is a very beautiful thing. Most mortals do not realize how lucky they are to have the bond of family and relationship. They do not appreciate the fact that they can bring new life into this world. The world is chaos and we will never understand it. We must make use of what time we have. Our very nature compels us to exist to be. If it were not for this, we would continue to destroy our very nature. We to are human even though some of us have lost the understand of what it means to be human,” I told him.
“I agree, humanity is very complex in its nature and I too hope to one day feel the connection, the bond that you have with your human family. Since making you, I have learned more about humanity than I could ever have truly know. For this I am thankful to you, Salome,” he said. His voice trailed off as we sat there and watched my human family.
21. DARK ANGEL
IT WAS LATE ON A COLD DECEMBER MORNING, when I heard the knock on the door. I got up surprised since I was not expecting company. No one ever came to visit anymore. Ever since Salome disappeared in New Orleans people tended to avoid me like the plague. I heard the knock again. I figured maybe it was a salesman or Jehovah’s witness. They seemed to be the only ones whoever knocked on my door these days.
I opened the door and I was stunned scared. I did not want them to be here for any reason. I did not want them to take my hope away. I wanted them to go away without giving me that dreadful news I knew I would soon receive. It was the Orange Police Department at my door. When police knock on your door it almost always means bad news. I broke inside in that instant. I crumpled to the floor tears spilling from my eyes. Jazz ran toward me, her soft brown eyes wide in fear and uncertainty.
I felt the officer’s rough hand on my shoulder, in that instant I knew Salome was gone. She was gone forever. I grabbed Jazz and held her close to me. She cried when the realization dawned on her. Max stood there at the door way at the hall. His small shoulders sagged in defeat. He turned away from us and walked to his room. I could hear his door silently shut and the soft click of the lock.
Max was the one who took it the hardest. He was the one who swallowed his pain. Sadly, he once again shut us out. I was slowly losing my son to despair. I did not know how I could help him with this. He had always been Salome’s shining star. Salome was his world and now his world had been shattered all over again.
Over the next few days’ things became a blur. I had what was left of Salome cremated. The forensics could not provide me with closure. I wanted so badly to know what happened to my Salome. In the three years and some months since she had been gone, I had always hoped she would walk through the door with that beautiful smile of hers and brighten the room. If I walked outside I could catch the faint scent of her perfume. I wondered if this was just my imagination. This was the end for Salome, she did not deserve whatever befell her.
My heart broke, it ached in so much pain, I did not know if I could survive it. Max withdrew into himself. He did not speak. He just wondered never knowing which direction he was headed. My heart broke for him. Axel and Olivia came up to help make the funeral preparations. They too wanted to know what happened to their daughter. They no longer blamed me for her absence. In this one instance they wrapped their arms around me and cried with me. We all cried knowing that she was never going to come. She was never coming back to us.
I looked up from my thoughts and I saw Jazz looking out of the giant bay window with Chloe in her arms.
“What are you looking at Jazz?” I gently asked her through my tears. My voice breaking, shaking.
“I’m looking at mom,” she said.
I was shocked by what had come out of her mouth. I walked over to her and I followed her gaze out the window and I just saw the great pine tree. I heard Max running down the stairs towards the window shouting for his mother. He banged on the window and yelled for her only she was not there. I was losing my children. Their fragile minds could not accept the fact that Salome was dead and gone forever.
Olivia and Alex tried to help me calm the children and explain to them that their mother was in Heaven now and she was looking down at them.
“Dad, listen to me
,” Jazz yelled in a way I did not know she could do.
“Dad,” Max urgently interrupted us, “mom is outside with a man and they were sitting in that tree and then they flew away,” Max yelled. “We have to go get my mommy,” he pled as he tried to break free of me. I did not know that their pain was too great for them little shoulders to carry.
“Jazz, Max, enough already. Your mother is dead and she is never coming back,” I yelled. I stopped myself when I saw them beginning to cry again. “I’m sorry, but you two claiming that your mother was hanging around outside is beyond ridiculous,” I told them. I did not know how to explain death to them. Olivia and Axel embraced the children with me.
*****
In the days that followed, more officers were coming by my home questioning us trying to gather more information about Salome. By the end of the week we had a partial story. All we knew was that over the course of a few months after Salome’s disappearance, bones had been found throughout New Orleans and it was not until recently that both the bones and her DNA had been flagged by the Louisiana State Police. The remains had sat for two years waiting to be tested. All that was ever found of my beautiful Salome was a femur, jaw and a few smaller bones. They concluded that her body must have been devoured and scattered by the wildlife. We would never know what really happened to her. Her death as of now would be considered an open unsolved homicide until proven otherwise.
Salome’s final death and funeral had finally brought us closure and we would begin to heal. We would begin to move forward. Life still continued even after the certainty of her death. Now we would begin to rebuild our life and slowly move forward.
EPILOGUE
THE FUNERAL WAS SMALL and beautiful. I was upstairs quietly listening in. I heard the thoughts of compassion, the apologies. I heard many ask for forgiveness for their doubt.
Chloe sat in my lap, unafraid of me. It had taken her time to become adjusted to me. She looked after Jazz and Max for me. She loved them for me. I gently put her on the soft bed and I jumped out of the window onto the giant pine tree and made my way back to the car.
I had come to give them some small comfort. I feared Jazz may have gotten a glimpse of me in the pine tree a few nights ago. I certainly hope not. I did not know how she could be able to cope if the world thought I was dead and she saw me alive sitting on a tree. Now that I knew they would be okay I would stay away from them. I could not continue to torture myself or Jack. Time no longer stood still for me. We would both go on with our lives.
Evanescere: Origins Page 14
