Hire an Incubus

PART III - 31

ONE YEAR LATER

'Come here, come to me!' Lisa said softly. 

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and Lisa could feel the warmth of it on her face. A few feet away from her, sat a small girl. She was quiet, but then again, she was always quiet. Ever since they'd taken her away from Alma Stack and Hercules. Achilles's parents had said that the entire time they'd driven her home she had just sat in silence and looked out the window. She didn't even tell them her name until they had realized that maybe she didn't have one. When Lisa had arrived in she finally spoke. She didn't really talk to anyone except Lisa. Lisa had started to call her Anna and she had started to respond to that name, and now she was just beside Lisa, staring into the sky. Lisa suspected that she was haunted by what had happened to her and she imagined that she always would be. She understood because she felt the same.

Across from her, a younger child responded to her calls of 'come to me'. He had just started to walk. He toddled over to her and fell into her arms. Holding him more securely to her chest, she sank into the soft green grass, laughing as she did. She was almost happy.

The events that unfolded a year ago was something that Lisa thought about frequently. In the months that followed from Alma's arrest, Lisa Farrow had become a household name across the world. Once everyone knew the news of the illegal activity between Hercules, everyone wanted to know about the human girl that had the incubus's child. She had been on the TV, radio and newspapers in countless interviews, speculations, and stories. It has caused a knock on effect and once her story was out, there was countless other ones. So many families were coming forward with a human-incubus partnership. It was phenomenal press for the supernatural rights movement. Adam's sacrifice had helped it too and Lisa had named her son after him.

Hire an Incubus folded. As soon as it had been linked with Hercules and Lisa, it failed. It seemed that at long last all their enemies had disappeared and Lisa was finally safe to live her life. But there was something that hadn't changed since that fateful day.

Achilles was still gone.

Lisa had waited for him to come back. She really had. She had times when she thought she had heard something in the middle of the night only to wake up and find no-one. Ezra and Aster had tried to sense him, but to no avail. A year had passed and Lisa really didn't know if he was ever coming back or if he was even alive.

She sat with Adam and Anna and it was like they were almost a family.

'Let's go inside, shall we? We'll see what your grandparents are doing.' Lisa, holding Adam, stood up. Anna followed behind her and they walked back into the house. Lisa had decided to stay with the Starlings because it was the best thing for them all. Moving back to her old place would have been too painful and there wasn't really much there for her anymore, besides Alison, who came to visit regularly enough anyway.

Achilles's parents were sitting inside reading. 

'Good evening Lisa.' Ezra said, looking up from a book. 

'Hi, we were out in the garden, weren't we?' She smiled at Adam, who giggled in return. She put him down and watched him walk slowly over to Ezra. It was strange because the entire time she was pregnant, she had felt completely connected to Achilles, until he had disappeared. It had lessened and lessened until one day she had just woken up and felt nothing at all. It was unbelievably sad. 

'I think Aster is coming over later.' May said quietly from her chair.

'That's nice, it's been a while since we've seen him.' Ezra replied. 

Many of the days passed like this now. Lisa didn't know what to do anymore. The children were her only reason to get up in the morning and she didn't know how long it would take to get over Achilles or if she ever could.