Closing Time

Epilogue

Long chapter warning

(Seriously, it's like 10K words and I didn't want to split it into two part)

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I stared blankly at my reflection as the lift headed back up to my apartment. Barely a day back in the city and I look as strung out as when I'd left.

My reflection flickered as I gave up on maintaining the illusion. My blue-black eyes seemed dull, tired. I hadn't expected Carl's death to hit so hard. My heart still hurt with the loss despite how emotionally stunted I was now.

I'd just gone to visit him. Give him a surprise, show that I was back in town, tell him about my travels, hand him the brownies I'd baked, laugh and bask in the warmth the old man radiated.

I'd gotten none of that.

I had been able to feel the auras of multiple people crowding about inside his place when I rang the bell. The wave of grief that had slammed into my chest the moment the door had been opened made me take a step back. I had known almost immediately what had happened. The woman who'd opened the door, his daughter, didn't recognise me. Of course she didn't. We'd only met once.

She barely let me in the house. Eyes turned to me, scanning me and my non-funeral outfit. That hadn't mattered to me. It was a minor detail compared to the fact that I'd missed Carl's funeral.

As I'd stood in the foyer absorbing the blow of his death, Dotty and Sasha had approached me. It wasn't a surprise to me that they were there. I just wish I could have reunited with them under better circumstances. I'd had this whole reveal planned where I'd barge into the restaurant right before everyone was meant to leave. There'd be a little crying from Dotty as Sasha laughed about my return. This was not supposed to happen. This was not what I wanted to return to.

There was no solace for me in the fact that Carl had passed peacefully in his sleep. It was easy to pretend though. As bad as I felt about not getting a chance to meet him before he passed away, there was nothing I could do about it anymore.

I sighed loudly to myself as the lift slowed to a stop. The scent of Dotty's perfume still lingered in the air. I'd invited them back for a drink and to catch up. As dire the circumstances had been, it felt good to see them.

My relationship with them during the last of my time here had been strained and distant. Yet they were the only ones I could cling to for a sense of normalcy in my life. They were important to me. As important as Carl had been, maybe even more.

I collected their glasses in the silence of my apartment. Dropping them off in the dishwasher before I returned to the drink I'd left on the kitchen island. I'd made sure they both got cabs back home. Considering their inebriated states, there's no way I'm sending them off in the subway.

Sliding back onto the high stool, I grabbed the bottle of gin, tilting it over my glass and making my drink more gin than tonic. The reunion was great. It made me feel like I was a part of their lives again. Almost like I'd never left.

But I had. Not for the best. Not for the worst either.

Nothing big had happened while I was gone. But now that Carl was gone, their jobs were in jeopardy. His daughter had always been eyeing that place in the hopes to turn it into an upscale cafe to attract wealthier clientele. I'd heard the words 'financial drain' leave her lips once.

Completely understandable, of course. I knew how much that place earned during a day, on average. With the few months that I'd been bringing in supernatural customers, the average had risen considerably. But my departure meant it probably dipped about that much as well.