Red As Roses and Black As Night

Epilogue

Henri closed the front door of the house. He welcomed the sound of the radio, the smell of dinner in the oven. He hung his jacket up on a coat hanger and took off his shoes.

Raphael glanced out the kitchen door. "You hungry?" he asked Henri. Henri shook his head and heading into the kitchen, wrapping his arms around his husband. "One of my co-worker's daughters got into My Little Pony. It reminded me of...of them." Henri whispered into Raphel's shoulder.

Raphael's smiled faltered. "They're fine, okay? Safe, in Heaven."

"But their bodies aren't. And we left them, out in the forest...we left them..." Henri whimpered, breaking Raphael's heart. He took off his oven mits and pulled Henri into a tight hug. "Yeah, I know. It hurts me a lot too. My sister....but we need to get over it. It's been eight years, Henri. Life needs to be lived."

Henri opened his mouth to protest, but then the front door opened. "Papa! Daddy! Guess what, guess what!" cried a little girl, bouncing into the kitchen. She held out a piece of construction paper with stick figures scrawled across it in crayon. "Its you guys and me and Emma and Danny!" She told them happily. Henri smiled and ruffled her red curls. "It looks just like us." he told her, making her giggle and run off.

Raphael shook his head. "I think we should tell them about Fane and Illea, and everything else."

"What? We can't, we have to--"

"We have to protect them. By doing so, we warm them of the dangers out there." Raphael whispered. He turned around when the timer went off and took the chicken out of the oven. Henri sat down at the kitchen table, rubbing his temples. "Fine, but we wait until Rose is older. She's only six."

"No. We need to tell them now."

Henri looked at Raphael, heart in shreds. "Okay. But after dinner, please."

Raphael gave Henri a weak smile before calling to the house, "Dinner's ready!"

Thumping of feet came from all corners of the house until everyone was huffing and puffing at the table. Emma, now eighteen, tapped the table. "So, today a school, this guy at school came up to me--"

"Guy?" Raphael and Henri exclaimed in unison. Their previous mood has vanished.

"Yes, a guy. He was really nice to me, actually. He looked a lot like my brother, only paler. He shared his lunch with me, even."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Ew. You shared food? With a guy?"

"You have a problem with that, you expired coupon?"

"I was the easy bake oven and Rose was the expired coupon!" Danny whined.

Henri stiffened. "What exactly did he give you?"

"Uh...part of his sandwich, a few French fries, and he let me waterfall his...tea, I think. It tasted really weird."

Henri's heart fell. Raphael backed into the stove, hands trembling. "O-out." He whispered. "Out!"

Emma's face fell. "What? What did I do?"

"I said out!"

"For talking to a guy?!" Emma cried, standing up. Rose began to cry, and ten year old Danny just looked around in confusion. "You don't like guys? Don't worry, I'm not a guy!" Danny cried, which drew attention to him for a few seconds. "We can talk about being trans later, Danny, but right now, Emma needs to leave!" Raphael seethed.

"But I didn't do anything!"

"You will! You will die and then kill and then you'll end up just like your parents!" Henri shouted, which just made Rose cry harder. "I thought you were her daddy's!"

"We adopted her, just like you and Danny! Emma, leave!"

"Fine! And I'm not coming back!" She cried, storming out of the kitchen. But the front door never opened. Instead, all they heard was a thud of a body to the ground.

And if you listened carefully, you could hear the whispering. "Ring around the rosies..."

The lights flickered out, and Rose stopped crying. You could hear labored breathing coming from Danny and Rose, though. And then the soft, light footsteps of Emma coming.

She peeked her head into the kitchen, limbs shaking and tar coming from her mouth. "I'm coming back..." she whispered, and Henri began to cry. "Not again. Please, not again." He whimpered.

Then he picked up Danny and Rose, looked to Raphael, and leapt out of the kitchen window. Raphael disappeared, invisible to all eyes, and followed them.

And throughout the night, you could hear her laughing.

Her laughing, and her saying, "I will always be here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey, the book is done now! The end! It's dedicated to my wonderful friends, Kas, Freya, Seon, Blake, Ange, Aria, and anyone else (sorry if I forgot you I'm just bad with names). Thanks for supporting me with everything even if we've never met before heh.

Anyways, I hope you all watch what you drink.

Unless you like ripping the heart from your loved ones and feasting upon their flesh, their blood coating your hands.

(Just kidding!)

(or am I)

Thanks for reading!