The Vixen & the Fox II

Chapter 295

It was quiet, the earth was still, and the night was calm. It had been a few days since everything bad had happened. Everyone had said the classic phrases for giving their condolences, as well as thanking her family for again doing something no one wanted to do.

Funny, the monster of all monsters killed everything that no one wanted to kill, and while scorned for everything was now being thanked. But what were they being thanked for? The death of a family member, the death of her uncle's wife, again, and her aunt, again. It left a bitter sensation in her mouth whenever anyone thanked her for everything. Something she hadn't even done, but her aunt, and her uncle, she had barely survived.

Her uncle though, in the last few days had been mostly listless, he was left alone, not particularly welcomed, but no one outright demanding he leave. It was clear though that the Original's presence made everyone uneasy, especially because her uncle wasn't particularly predictable. But she did understand that he didn't want to leave her aunt, and her aunt was still here, at least, this was where she was buried, and her uncle was never one to leave her aunt behind. In fact, she knew of only one time her uncle had left her aunt behind, and that was when the Hollow had split up her family, and then her uncle had gone to places he had wanted to take her aunt to, he had kept her things with him, he had kept a connection with her aunt. It was sad really, she remembered her dad and uncle talking about it once, when she had been little, they'd been trying to figure out how to reach out to her uncle, but no one could.

Tonight, her uncle was sitting at the pond, he hadn't spoken to anyone in the days since losing her aunt, he hadn't even changed, he was still dressed in the suit covered in her blood. She was so worried she had called her Auntie Bex, and Aunt Freya to come help her uncle, to talk to him, but he had just shut them down and avoided them. He would let her near him, so long as she said nothing, moment she would try to talk to him he left. He didn't even let her cousin near him, Nik was a bit hurt, but she could honestly say she wasn't surprised; Nik was a chatterbox.

The only person to get near her uncle was her Uncle Marcel, and those two hated each other, but in the quiet of the night they were both sitting together, at the pond, not speaking.

"He must've loved your aunt, very much," a voice said behind her which had her turning to look at Lizzie.

"Um... yeah," she nodded as she blinked away her few tears that had been gathering. She was wearing the charm her aunt had made her when she was a baby. Before her aunt was her aunt, actually.

"She was really pretty," Lizzie said.

Hope nodded as she looked down at her hands.

"I know we're not... friends, but your aunt did... if you ever want to talk about her, I would like to know the witch who saved my life," Lizzie said uncertainly.

"She loved spicy food," Hope blurted out before the blonde could walk away. That had Lizzie's attention as she stood there giving Hope her undivided attention. "I mean loved spicy food; people who like spicy food could not out love spicy food with how she did. She... she could cook, really well, not like a pro chef, but really well, and she could cook for an army, no amount of people was too much to her. And... and she could paint, draw, she liked the arts. She would sneak me t museums and galleries after..." Hope trailed off as she hugged herself a bit. "She... she got it."

"Got what?" Lizzie asked and now Hope noticed she and Lizzie were sitting together.

"The weight of the world, being alone and angry at the world, she got me..." Hope whispered. "I used to call her... after, and she would let me talk..."

Hope had never been close to her Auntie D before she had lost her mother and father, but her aunt had been a person who got her pains, her struggles, the power. And unlike Aunt Freya, Auntie D never projected her experiences onto Hope, she just admitted to getting it and left it at that while Hope could rant. It had been... cathartic, to know that she could call anyone in her remaining family to talk, but to actually talk to her Auntie D, it had been cathartic.