Tainted Happiness {Formerly Returned} (Book 4) (Completed)

Chapter 6

Kait POV

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My last conscious memory kept replaying. All I could see was Dave grabbing Cory, breaking his neck and drinking him dry of every last drop of blood. When Cory died, I felt a part of me rip away and I passed out. The events that happened next weren't anything new to me. I traveled down a tunnel similar to the one I experienced when I tried to commit suicide and found myself walking into what would've been a paradise to me when I was roughly 14. Even at the time I would have thought it was a nice vacation spot, but I didn't have any feeling for it. I didn't remember anything about the place except for the name, East Harbor State Park.

I walked into what must have been the main camping area and saw Cory lying back in a Zero-Gravity lawn chair. Thinking he was still alive and that we were just teleported here, I ran over to him and gave him a hug.

"Kait why are you here? You're not dead." he said when he saw me.

"Dead? Then this place really isn't East Harbor State Park?" I stuttered, beyond confused.

"Kait, this is just where we go when we first die. We only stay here for a week to a month. Didn't you meet Him when you entered?"

"Him? Who are you talking about?"

"God. Didn't you meet him?"

"No. Was I supposed to? I was just walking through this tunnel and I found myself in front of the entrance. You're the first person I've seen."

"That's what He meant when He said you're Torn." Cory said, apparently coming to some sort of realization.

"Torn?" I pondered, confused again.

"Kait, your soul was ripped from your body and torn into pieces when you watched your ex-husband kill me."

"But Melanie watched Vince die! Why wasn't her soul Torn or whatever?!" I shouted.

"She'd already been kissed by death when you saved her right after your honeymoon with Dave. You haven't been kissed by death yet and watching me die caused your soul to detach itself from your body and it was Torn on the way here."

"Why didn't your soul become Torn when you came here?" I asked.

"My body was already dead when my soul was taken from my body. Your soul is gone from your body, but your body itself is still alive." He explained.

That caused me to fall to the ground and begin crying.

Melanie POV

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"Well now what do we do?" I pondered.

"We split up. A few of us should take, um, I guess Kait's body and haul ass to Court in an attempt to see if anyone knows anything about this. A few of us should take care of funeral and cremation of Cory's body, and a few others should go from place to place searching for possible answers among human and alchemist archives. We should see if we can find some of the Keepers. They might know something." Rose explained.

Rosa spoke of the Keepers only occasionally. She wasn't exactly a fan of them, but her family almost reminded me of her description of them. I wasn't really sure exactly what they were other than that they were communes of Moroi, Dhampirs, and Humans keeping the old traditions from the times where Moroi would willingly marry Humans or Dhampirs without concerns for social protocol or judgement. The Keepers also thought that Moroi should be fighting Strigoi along with Dhampirs and believed that all modern Moroi and Dhampirs were "tainted".

"Are you sure visiting the Keepers is really a good idea?" I asked.

"Melanie has a point. The Keepers aren't necessarily the most willing to give out information and can be rather savage at times." Janine commented.

"But it's better than nothing! They could have passed down stories and information that was forgotten by us! Look at what they can do with elemental magic! They know attack spells that have long since been forgotten. Look at that and then tell me they may have forgotten old stories." Rose defended.

"Okay, fine. Then you go visit the Keepers. The rest of us will make ourselves useful by actually gaining some information." I spat.

"We're not getting any farther by arguing about this." Dimitri stated.

"He's right. None of this is helping Kait." Janine said.

Rather than arguing some more, we got our groups decided. Janine and Mikhail Tanner would stay here and deal with Cory's remains, Rose, Laura, and myself went to Court with Kait's body, Dimitri and Jacob went to find the Keepers and contact Alchemists, and Mason and Maria stayed to look up information from Human archives.

"Okay, those of us that need to leave, we'll get everything packed up tonight then leave an hour after dawn. Set your alarm clocks to wake you up at 5:30. It's already 9 o'clock at night, let's get packed up and go to bed. We'll have a long day tomorrow." I ordered.

Rosa, whatever happened to you I will fix it. I silently added.