sojournment & reinvention

Chapter 2

In the early hours of the morning, Ana buried deeper under the thick plush mink of her blanket.

Dawn hadn't even arrived beneath the dregs of mist and thicket of clouds. The leftover droplets of rain had long dried on the window and left dustlike remains on the glass. There was a strange haze of darkness, slowly lightening with every passing hour. Everyday, she woke up dreading this moment the most.

She had hoped it would rain in the time it took her to change but it hadn't. Ana drifted down the stairs and spotted Kol lounging on the sofa. The familiar voices of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine characters filled the quiet brownstone. He straightened when he spotted her but frowned when he saw her head towards the foyer and slip on her sneakers.

"Where are you going?"

She blinked at him slowly. "I'll be back."

"But where are you going?" he pressed.

"Coffee. Morning run."

His eyes lit up with mischief. "You're quite articulate this morning, darling."

"Yes," she said and squinted at him. "Wanna come?"

"Well, when you make an offer like that!" He stood up and pretended to brush himself off. "A man simply cannot refuse."

#

The winter sun had yet to rise but people still dragged their feet through the Brooklyn streets. Ana's runners hit the still damp, discoloured pavement as she passed the sparse crowds at a steady pace. She saw the remnants of parties, stumbling university students, with the trash and bottles lining the roads. White earbuds rested in her ears, completely off to converse with Kol as he followed her in curiosity.

"Dear god, why do you do this to yourself?"

"Self-loathing," she said flatly.

He barked a laugh. "Perhaps I need to suggest something similar for my siblings. Unlike you, they'd deserve it."

"What are your siblings like? You seem very much like a younger brother or maybe the second youngest."

"And what do you mean by that?"

"You seem like a very contradictory person. Complex." Ana had noticed the two roles he often played with himself. Strangely open yet reticent. Secretkeeper and secret-divulger. Honest yet a liar. She had seen it eno0ugh in some of her cousins caught at the tail end of middle sibling—older and younger, wearing two faces at once. "You remind me of someone I know."

"And what are you?"

"Oh, I'm the worst kind," she said. "An only child but the baby on both sides of my family."

"What does that make you?"

"Terribly spoiled and bullied from both sides."

It wasn't the whole truth but Kol didn't need to know much about her. She was his guide and needed to understand him—his life story, motivations, and intentions. All to help him move through the afterlife. The one question she needed answered, however, he evaded the night before. He had definitely lived for a long time; his deft mind had easily demystified her attempts to covertly ascertain his identity. Not many could do that and there were several species that remained possible for him to be.

"I have three elder brothers and a younger sister," he said. "She's the only girl. We, too, coddled and pestered her in equal amounts. She was the only one who truly mourned my death and that was only for a day. She never avenged me. My older brothers... they felt nothing."

That deep-seated bitterness and rage. Ana almost paused her run to reach out and touch him with her magic to soothe his furor but held herself back. Some people needed to feel things and express them. She watched him shake and his eyes blackened.