Fangs and Wands

9. The hand that giveth

Dear Diary

It's been precisely sixty hours since the monster attacked. Almost three days and still Cat's final rites are still to be done. It's all me. I can't let go. Once her body is underground, there'll be no hope left. It'll all be over. I can't let this happen. I can't have a body on my conscience. And more importantly, I cant take away someone else dear to Dominic.

For some unknown reason, this is the main reason why I can't let Cat die. I will avenge her death. This is not even up for discussion. My research on Night is already full fledged. I'm already a few steps ahead of everyone working on him. Not that it's a competition.

Dominic has just disappeared. Nobody has seen him since that fateful night. He didn't even check on Cat to see if she was really dead. Whereas I have been going every second hour. I know you'll say its my guilty conscience pushing me but it's the thought that matters right? I don't know if I miss him or not. I don't want to think about it. I just want to find something that will fix Cat and everything will be okay. Hopefully, soon. Because i can only hold the burial for so long. Tomorrow is the burial and I can postpone it nolonger.

Its a wonder how I've managed to postpone it until this long. Stacy would say its because I'm a daddy's girl and I'm using that to my advantage- Yeah she knows Harold is my father. You just can't keep a secret from her. But I know the reason they agreed to postpone is because they never hurry to bury anyone here. Noone ever dies so easily. It appears, Cat was one of the few that actually do die.

Closing the diary, I sigh and fall heavily on the bed. I check on the time. It's been about an hour since I last checked on Cat. I have to get to her. I speed through the now familiar corridors to the basement mortuary. The room used to give me the chills but now I'm used to it. Opening the doors, my eyes automatically go to the pedestal where she's lying in the middle of the room. Nothing has changed. She's still as pale and lifeless as she was an hour ago.

I lightly touch her cheek, on impulse. If she were alive, she would have breathed softly into my hand. And I would have felt her breath caressing my hand softly.

But she isn't, so she doesn't.

I turn away from her furiously. All this is pointless, and I'm becoming pathetic. So pathetic that a mortuary has become home to me. I just have to face that she's dead and there's nothing I can do about it.

And it's my fault.

I hastily start closing all the books I've gathered up in this cold room and pile them on my arm. I can do this nolonger. I have to stop torturing myself like this. I have to own up to what I have done. Today, I'll notify Em that I'm ready for Cat to be buried. What's done is done.

I walk towards the door and take a last look at Cat's dead body. Only there isn't.

I freeze. My eyes must be doing some trick on me. The pedestal is empty and it seems I'm the only one here. I turn back towards the door and my breath catches in my throat. Locking in any scream that might want to escape.

"Hi Lena."

It's not a threatening tactic, nor is it meant to scare. Cat stands uncertainly a distance in front of me, blocking the exit. She rubs her arm with her other hand and I get an urge to wrap her in my arms and give her my warmth. But I can't. For all I know she might have turned into a vampire and we all know how vicious young vampires can be. It perfectly explains everything. Why she's alive. She was in Dominic's company for too long.

I take a few steps back.

"Please don't be afraid of me. I won't hurt you. I wouldn't be able to if I wanted to."