I Was a Teenage Necromancer

Chapter 21-Aftermath

"Hey, Bess?" Amber asked to the other ghost's back, staring off into nothing as the sun's vibrant colors streaked through the sky. The battle had, throughout all its' stages, lasted about six hours. The rest of the time was trying to get organized and trying to put everything as back to normal as they could.

The cleanup had been remarkably simple. Bluntly speaking, there wasn't one. After a heated discussion, which Amber would charitably call bickering, Scott, Pete, and Cross had decided there was really nothing they could do. The damage to the town was simply too widespread, and relatively too minor to actually care about. Some smashed windows, dented cars, destroyed fences, all could be blamed on a pack of particularly vicious Halloween vandals. The melted street was a case of a freak lightning strike, quite mysterious. And thanks to the whole town at the party, there were no witnesses to contradict the story.

The police Cross had pulled in weren't local, and hadn't either wanted trouble or to be seen as madmen, so after the matter was settled they had went back home after being sworn to silence, too loyal or afraid of Cross to do otherwise. It wasn't a perfect cover, but as no one involved wanted the truth to be known, the public would have to accept the official report. And if people's memories during and after the party were fuzzy, that what people said and what they personally remembered didn't line up; well, that couldn't be blamed on the heroic detective who had exposed and captured one of the Craven Falls Killers, now could it?

Rumors of packs of monsters, a zombie apocalypse, and a giant stomping through town circulating for weeks afterwards were completely dismissed, too outlandish for anyone to actually believe, a weird prank at best. After all, it's not like anyone had any actual proof, right? And really, it was completely ridiculous.

Bess was staring at the rising sun, completely entranced. She had been doing nothing but staring at the horizon for the last several hours until Amber worked up the courage to get her attention.

"Hmm?" Bess grunted, not turning around.

"I just..." Amber started, but her voice gave out. What to say? What to do? Thank her? Curse her? "I..."

"I'm not apologizing." Bess interrupted. "I'm not asking for your forgiveness, either. I know the decision that we, that I made. It wasn't...the best, in retrospect. But. I made it, and I must stand by it. No matter what. What we did...you can't take something like that back."

"No, I suppose you can't." Amber murmured. There was a moment of silence between them, broken only by Scott directing the remaining zombies to rebury themselves in their graves and to try to clean up as much as possible along the way. Along with promising a very irate Detective Cross that he would in fact release control over them. Bess grunted.

"Still, though. We screwed you over. And not just you. After finding out what it's like..." She stared at her translucent hand, glowing a faint orange. "I find that I can sympathize."

"I just wanted you to know...I never hoped that you would find out what it's like to die. No matter what happened between us, you were my friend at one point." Amber said. Bess finally turned to her with a sneer on her face, blinking back tears.

"You know, it's t-that kind of attitude that made you unfit for the coven. N-No wonder Stephanie made you a t-target." She bit back a sob. Amber slowly walked over and stood beside her in the sunlight. Not close, not comforting, but there nonetheless. After a minute, Bess calmed down. "So. What happens now? I get exorcised, sent on?"

"Afraid you're not getting off that easy." Scott said walking up, yawning and sipping coffee. He really did not need Cross grousing at him after such a long night. So what if the bone giant couldn't be broken down into individual bodies anymore? That wasn't a consideration when he'd designed the spell, and they managed to fit it into the warehouse just fine. It even helped put the roof back on. "You're getting a nice, cozy cell for your troubles." She frowned.