I woke up in my bed, Tate sat at the edge with a look of concern on his face. He watched me carefully as I sat up and rubbed my eyes.
"What happened?" I asked, as the last memories I had were of Derek's place.
The thoughts of what happened there, made my skin prickle with goose-flesh. I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly cold.
Tate watched my actions for a few seconds. "I don't know, Fox. You came home and passed out..." His voice trailed off and he furrowed his brows. "Fox, what's in your bag? I can't even go near it."
The book. That's what was in there. "Something." He gave me an imploring look, waiting for a better explanation than that. I took a deep breath and drew my legs up to my chest.
"Something that I hope will help send you all to the afterlife." I was loathe, for some reason, to tell him exactly what. "Where is my bag?"
He pointed towards my bedroom door, his facial expression telling me he knew something was up, but he didn't ask further questions. "Downstairs." Came the short answer.
I nodded and got out of bed. I was still wearing yesterday's clothing, minus the boots and socks. I had been asleep for a while. But maybe that was normal, after all, I did pay a price for this book. What did I even know of such matters, as the ones of what I sold?
I padded down the stairs and towards the front door, where my messenger bag lay in the middle of the room, right about where I passed out.
I registered the sound of Tate walking down the stairs and towards me, as I reached down and picked the bag up.
As soon as I did, many of the house's residents made themselves known. I could only assume that they'd witnessed Tate unable to even touch the bag holding the book, and had also given it tries. Curiosity probably led them to be surrounding me.
Many of the kinder spirits wore worried expressions. They were my friends, to a sense, and probably worried what kind of thing had I gotten my hands on, that could be so powerful. The other, the more malicious ones, looked angry. I figured their greatest worries were that I had found a way to banish them.
If that was true, I could only imagine that the ones I had befriended, had watched over and protected me from harm as I slept.
I looked around the room, taking in curious and hateful expressions. They'd find out anyway, what I had. So I reached into my bag and removed the book.
Expressions did not change, they probably had no clue what it was that I was holding.
"This book," I started, looking around at those who were around, "may be your salvation," I looked towards the Harmons, Tate, and a few others, "or your damnation." My eyes wandered over the spirits who had tried harming me in the past.
I held the book a little higher, for all to see. By this time, every resident had shown themselves. They stood around me, in a large circle. Tate and Violet had taken to my sides, their presences were comforting and safe.
"What can a book do?" Chad asked, a sarcastic humour in his voice.
I pulled the book to my chest and looked him in the eyes. "I'm not sure yet. But I'll figure it out."
One by one, the house's dead residents vanished from view, until the Harmons and Tate were the only ones left.
"What exactly is it, Fox? It feels..." Violet trailed off, searching for the correct word, her eyebrows knotted together for a moment.
"Unnatural." Tate finished her sentence and she nodded at him.
"It's Death's Grimoire. A book made by, and owned by, Death." I knew that even though I could only see Tate and the Harmons, that we probably weren't the only ones still in the room. But I didn't care. There was a safety in this book.
Vivian's eyes widened for a moment at my revelation. "Fox, I'm afraid to ask how you even got your hands on such an item."
Tate reached out to put a hand on my shoulder, but stopped. "I can't even touch you when you're holding it." He said softly, downcast.
"It wasn't easy to come by. Nor was it free." I dropped my gaze and looked to the floor.
"Fox, look at me." Ben, the only father figure I had ever had, -which is ironic since he's dead- spoke up, his voice serious. I looked at him reluctantly. "What did this book cost you?"
All eyes were on me, waiting for the answer I was going to give.
"My humanity."
A/N: Hey, guys! So thanks for all the comments, I love ya'll.
So one of you asked if Fox was bisexual. The answer is yes, she is. She's only ever been in love with one person, before she came to the Rosenheim house, and that was Sunny.
Before Tate, she'd never fallen for a boy. But before Sunny, she had never fallen for anyone.
The character of Sunny is based a bit off of a character that had been in the Buffy spin off series, Angel. Just as originally, Fox was based on Connor.
XD
