The Ninth: Sequel

Part 10. The (happy) end

Dean opened his eyes only just in the evening: he was still lying on the couch, covered with a blanket. For a moment, he even thought he was warm under it. The toxin had penetrated deep into his organs and it took a while for everything to recover.

"Dana?" he called.

After a couple of seconds, she walked out of the kitchen.

"Dana... Is it you? Is this reality, or did you and I actually die and go to the other side..."

Dana sat down next to him.

"No, it's all right. We survived, we're alive. All the horror is over. Darla is dead. But... One of us didn't make it. Kayla is gone. The poison got to her."

"What..."

He got quiet, grabbing his head.

"If she's still at home, then I want to see her. One last time..."

- - - - -

They both walked through the park in silence. Dean couldn't believe what had happened. He just looked thoughtfully into the distance, squeezing Dana's fingers in his hand from time to time. He couldn't even imagine that moment in his head. He was tormented by his conscience for not killing Darla himself. But the deed had already been done.

They approached the house and Dean opened the door with his key. He was shaking. Having let Dana in first, he entered himself then and both stood speechless...

Kayla went out of the room and looked at them, surprised.

"Oh, look. They finally showed up. I've been waiting for you. What are you guys looking at like this? What's with the faces? Hello?" she smiled ironically.

"What the f... Are you... alive? Or are we dead and this is the other side?" Dean was dumbfounded.

"Okay, gonna help," Kayla walked over and pinched his arm. He twitched.

"Are you alive?!" Dana exclaimed.

"Silly kids, huh," Kayla laughed.

Dean jumped up and hugged her tightly.

"I'm so happy, oh my god, I'm so happy you're alive!... But... how? Nate and Mary Lou told us that the poison finished you off, that they saw your blue lifeless body... how?"

"Look, we had to destroy Darla somehow. Martha and I decided to do things our own way. Good acting of me and her, a little makeup, and the result was sick - Hal believed it, we got through to his mind and the final result - he killed her himself. I barely washed all this blue thing off my body. Thanks to my heart that doesn't beat, breath holding was super easy. Darla was somehow vulnerable in these matters. I didn't drink champagne at Corona, I was drinking sparkling white wine. This is reality, you little ones. Sometimes you just need to find a way out. There is a way out of any situation, remember. And Martha, freaking Martha Madeline, whom I remember when she was 7 years old, a native of this town, shouldn't be mixing cocktails here, she should be an actress! Like she's been dreaming about it since she was a child. She played her role flawlessly."

"I can't, I just can't, I'm about to go crazy with joy, you both turned out to be the smartest of us all," Dean smiled.

"There's a gift waiting for you in the living room. You'll be even more stunned. I'm now joining the daytime police service. This town will be under my protection 24/7."

"What do you mean daytime? You..."

"Living room, both of you, now. There hides the answer," Kayla told, laughing.

Dean and Dana hesitantly opened the door to the living room: Hal was sitting there.

"Hey, guys. I have a gift for you. First of all, I'm back with all of you again. Second, a very important thing."

He covered his face with his hands, and then continued.

"I'm so sorry, Dana. You could be human now and live a normal life if it weren't for me. The night Mary Louise killed you and turned you, I had seen her and I had told her where you were, because for some reason... I had envied you. You, Dean, in particular. I didn't believe that this could ever happen, I was convinced that people are not our friends or partners. That's why out of heavy feeling of guilt I surrendered to Darla then, so that she would remove the compulsion from Dean. And right now I want to fix everything."

Hal went up to Dean and Dana and put the rings that shimmered dark red, on their fingers. Dana glanced at Kayla's hand: her finger had the same ring. Actually, as well as on Hal's hand.

"What's this?" Dean asked.

"The only benefit from Darla. Now we can all walk around during the daytime and see the sun which is unblocked for us all now. Pure magic, Mary Lou helped a bit. She's good. She'll learn little by little."

Dean almost went crazy with happiness.

"I've been waiting for this moment for more than eleven years, damn! I knew that everything that was happening, was totally worth it!"

"I gave the same ones to Nate and Mary Louise. There are only six of us, special ones. Now we, different from everyone, can live a full life. If we swallow the rings, we can become human again. They have the blood of our oh-so-famous ancestor and some reverse magic. So... That's it guys. Now we can live to the fullest."

All four laughed and hugged each other tightly.

- - - - -

Dean and Dana Lawrence will move to Portland and live together, working at the same place - Dean will take the place of the Portland game master, and Dana will have a successful career as a bartender. Hal Fort and Kayla Sheridan will remain in Endhill, but they will destroy their rings, become humans and finally buy out the cottage in which Kayla has lived all this time. They'll start living together. Dean will sell Corona, his bar, to Hal. Nate Fleming will finally become friends with Mary Louise de Jong, then they will start dating and eventually leave for Amsterdam to her parents, occasionally visiting friends. And Martha Madeline, previously a talented bartender of Corona, after talking with Kayla for a certain time, will eventually listen to her and leave for New York to try herself at the film academy.