Unexpected

| xxii | fly, fly away

I wonder if anyone can call out the plot twist that is coming within three chapters...

Also, this will soon get REALLY FUCKING DARK.

Then it's over.

So... Happy endings are not really for me.

xxii~ but in his heart and soul's the kind of good they can't destroy

xxii-xxii-xxii-xxii-xxii

There are certain chances that are given, certain times where the universe appears to grant someone a pardon. If a particular person has had a difficult life, sometimes a second opportunity for love is presented. Maybe a singular moment where they can redeem themselves.

Grayson watches his nephew grow up in the same town he suffered through but loved anyway. Little Jason is soon not so little anymore. His father watches with wary eyes as certain traits come through that are reminiscent of Stephanie Carin. Grayson sees them too.

Jason attends the same middle school that Grayson, Will, and Ian did. He has a little friend there, one that he daydreams about. Grayson sees this sadly, he knows that it is for naught. This little friend of Jason's will break his heart.

It is a strange coincidence when, much to Jason's delight, his little friend moves in across the street and into the house that was once occupied by the only girl Grayson ever loved. Grayson sits in the living room as boxes are unloaded. He sees the girl's mother comfort her as she stares longingly into a snow globe of New York City.

She is pretty, for sure. Her hair is long and smooth, black as ink and the night sky. Her eyes are thin and almond shaped, aiming up to the sky at the corners. Her nose is smooth and her lips plump and pink. She is slender with wrists that look far too delicate. She seems breakable.

Breakable, but beautiful.

"Erin, sweetie, make sure your father knows where his textbooks are." Her mother says.

Grayson freezes. Another Erin.

"Yeah, okay mom," she is considerably more flippant than the other Erin. Grayson cannot help but do a quick comparison. He pictures his Erin, wild-eyed and defiant with her thick, dark hair. Her skin paled by fever, but still warm. Her stature short and stout, and scars and bruises littering her body. She had thin wrists too.

Grayson shakes his head. This new Erin is nothing compared to his.

Jason comes bounding in. The gloomy girl brightens immediately. "Hey, Erry!"

"I don't like that nickname," she laughs. Thirteen-year-old Jason looks small compared to her, they are nearly the same height. She is tall.

"So, my dad says he'll give us a ride to Harold's." Jason looks back towards the door. Erin glances behind herself to look up the stairs.

"I think my mom'll let me go."

"Ask her!"

"Alright, don't be so pushy," she teases him. When she turns away, Jason turns bright red. Grayson finds it adorable how they interact; just like his friends used to so many years before.

He slips from the room unnoticed by the waiting Jason, but he bumps into Erin on the way out. Close up, she smells like berries. It is pleasant, but not his Erin's subtle lavender and paper smell. She apologizes.

"Sorry. Hey, you might wanna hurry, your moving guy friends are leaving," Erin tells him.

Grayson's eyebrows shoot up his forehead, but he nods. She pushes past him slightly too aggressively to be considered polite. His eyes follow her back.