House of the Damned

The Other Stories

Seven

The Other Stories

It’s only three days before I’m back at work. Two of those days I spent unconscious and the last I slept through. It’s not enough to fully recover from that beating I took, but it’ll have to do. Emily had to stitch up two of the deepest gashes, but aside from that nothing was too bad.

I end up working a later than usual shift, cleaning the kitchen with Em. There’s an awkward silence between the two of us, but neither of us tries to end it. We do our work without conversation until Emily blurts out an apology like word vomit.

“Em, it wasn’t your fault and you know it. Don’t worry about it. I honestly should have known Mars would try something like that and I should have told Michael to just let it go if it happened.”

“You can’t predict everything, honey. No one expects you to either. You’re only human.”

I smile. “Thanks, Em. Any idea which side Venus picked?”

“She’s remaining neutral this time around, but she and Mars are sleeping together again.”

I sigh. “Because that always ends well.”

“For demons? It does. The fact that it only ends in a breakup and not a deadly fight is wonderful. Amazing even. Count your blessings, honey.”

“Believe me, I do.”

She changes the subject, throwing me off a bit. “How are things with Michael working out?”

I shrug. “We’re both still alive. That’s progress, I think.”

“She break him, yet?”

“No. I don’t think so. I think he’s…less willing to do something like that again, but if he thinks the gain is worth the punishment he’ll risk it.”

“So how do you feel about that? Happy he’s still fighting or scared you’ll both get killed?”

“A little bit of both. I don’t want to see him break. He’s a good kid. But we’re both going to get killed if not worse if he doesn’t.”

She nods. “I know. But you and Richard are both still alive even after all that happened.”

“True enough. We barely survived that, though. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking back then.”

Emily cracks a small smile. “I’ll never forget Venus’s expression when you punched her in the face. It was the craziest thing I’ve seen in all my time here. It was insane. Brilliant, but insane.”

I chuckle. “It was great, wasn’t it? I paid for that though. She was not happy.”

She shudders. “I thought she was going to kill you for that.”

We fall silent for a moment until she sighs. I glance over at her and actually notice that something is bothering her.

“What’s wrong, Em?”

“Nothing. Venus just happened to mention the date to me today.”

I raise an eyebrow in response. “And…?”

“Tomorrow would have been my three year anniversary with Andrew. Which Venus knows.”

“Oh, Em.” I set down the plate I’m washing and pull my friend into a hug. She sighs again.

“It wouldn’t be so depressing if we could have actually gotten married, you know? But Venus claimed my soul on our wedding day. An hour before we were going to say the vows and it just sucks.”