ELEMENT

Chapter Forty-One: The Compromise and the Failed Stasis

The Keynote house was quiet. Way too quiet, in fact. You'd expect it to be buzzing, how at this point, Little Meadow had just turned ten yesterday, but not even she was focused on herself.

Older Meadow had just narrowly avoided getting caught by Peter in his lab five years in the past, but decided to cast it out of her mind. As much as she knew she couldn't change the past, she wanted to at least give herself and her brother a good memory. "Hey, I have an idea," Meadow smiled, looking at smaller Cole and Meadow.

"Huh?" Little Cole looked up. He was now fifteen, and starting to look more like how he does in the present.

Meadow opened her pocket, taking out a box of crayons. "Here," she said, taking a piece of paper from the drawers of the table they sat at.

Little Cole took it, smiling. "Thank you." He turned to his sister. "Meadow, hold this." He passed a green crayon to her.

"It's pretty!" Little Meadow beamed. "I like purple better, though."

Little Cole smiled, writing his and Meadow's names at the top of the page in a perfect purple. "Ha, yeah. Purple's the coolest."

Robin knew everyone else could see it too. Even as a young kid, Cole was so protective of Meadow. He was like a second parent, the one she deserved all along.

They were always supposed to be together, to stick together like soulmates. Even in death and afterwards.

Sometimes it was hard to wrap their head around how they weren't even blood relatives.

Little Meadow set a crayon down. "...Cole?"

"Yeah?"

"Mom's gonna be okay, right?"

He didn't really know what to say. Eileen had been this way as long as Meadow'd known her. What could he say? "Uhm, Meadow... yeah. She'll be okay. The same way you'll be okay."

Rose smiled, feeling proud of Cole for taking on such a big responsibility. "Your dad's gonna take perfect care of her."

The siblings scowled while Little Cole gave a knowing glance to Meadow. "...Yeah. Sure."

Just then, Peter came in. He was looking disheveled, but it was an act as always. "Um, Rose?"

Ethan inhaled sharply. "Is everything okay?"

Peter fidgeted with his jacket. "Why don't you come see for yourself?"

As everyone stood up, Robin bent down to Little Cole and Meadow. "Hey, you two stay here. Just in case, yeah?"

Little Cole breathed heavily, taking his sister's hand. "Okay." And he watched as everyone else marched down the hall.

He might not have been as old as everyone else, but he was smart. He was mature. And he knew his mother was dying, or already dead.

"Cole?" Little Meadow looked up at her brother, inching a little closer to him. "Is everything okay? Why'd they leave?"

"...Hey, Meadow. I have an idea." He looked down at her, changing the subject. "You don't wanna stay and do these tests with Dad, right?"

"Right!" Little Meadow protested. "They're bad and they suck!"

"...So let's run away."

"Run away?" Little Meadow started to protest. "What about Mom? And Sunny? And Aunt Meadow, and Sage, and Ethan, and Robin?"

"They won't believe us! We have to go, and find someone, before everything goes wrong."

"...Can we com-promise?" She said it like they were two separate words.

"Compromise?"

"Yeah."

Little Cole tilted his head. "What's the compromise?"

"We run away, but we always come back until we know we've found somewhere safe we can be. Just so that everyone that's good doesn't get sad while we're gone."

"...Okay. That's a good compromise."

"Okay!" Little Meadow smiled, jumping up. "I'm going to make us some sandwiches, and then we can go right now!"

-

As the young siblings prepared to walk out of the house, towards nowhere, upstairs a domino was falling.

Eileen was asleep on the bed. Her breath was faltering, as the curse seemed to creep up her body.

Meadow stood with everyone. She fiddled with her hands, surrounded by her friends.

Sage looked hopefully at Rose. "No cure? Nothing we can do?"

"Not for lots and lots of years." Rose shook her head.

Peter spoke bluntly, "She's shivering."

"She's cold." Ethan recalled, giving a small glance to Meadow. Sometimes he still saw who she once was. But it wasn't his fault, or hers.

Sometimes, the experiment was... still there.

Eileen gave a small gasp in her sleep. The curse was painful, Meadow knew as much. But as the carrier of her children's curses as well...

The curse came higher and higher.

Rose was watching her best friend of many, many years die. In front of the friends she's made, but thank God it wasn't in front of her children.

Meadow was watching her mother die, the same way she did.

Robin's tensity picked up. "She's stopped breathing."

She had stopped breathing, moving in general. She was just barely hanging on.

"...She's gone." Peter brought on fake tears. "Eileen's gone."

Meadow knew it was coming, but still, it felt worse. Her eyes filled with tears, while secretly scowling at Peter.

The entire room seemed to be filled with sorrow, in all except Peter. "Can- can I have a moment alone?"

"Yes, of course, Peter." Rose sounded on the brink of tears herself. "Come on, guys. We have to go tell Cole and Meadow."

Meadow left with everyone else, watching Peter before she shut the door.

And as he was finally alone, Peter dropped the act.

A cursed soul can't necessarily die. It's just in stasis. A coma, easily manipulated. So, Peter lied when he said Eileen was dead, because she wasn't.

Not yet.

He exposed his wife's fully blackened soul,

and cracked it in his fist.

She gasped a final time, before the curse embedded itself into her skin,

and slipped away as her soul disintegrated into dust.

All he could muster for her was a stare. "One down. Two to go."

And then, before he left the room, he heard a faint voice from down the hall.

"Wh- where's Cole and Meadow?!"

As Peter silently followed the sounds, he saw everyone except for his two children.

Oh, FUCK.

To Be Continued in Chapter 42