I'm so sorry your 4x4 failed. 
The story looked really good!
On the other hand, I'm glad it's getting updated again.
But it will be better once I tighten up my narrative! And maybe I get to mix things up because I got a female heiress this time. (I got to two in that last attempt, and they were both guys)
I'm glad to be here! I actually have to thank my girlfriend for me getting interested in updating again; I've been bouncing ideas off her recently. And yes, she's read the beginning of the story and
seems to be a fan.
Bryant could easily have ruined Phil's birthday and then made another new enemy for life, lol. So Phil started his eyeliner craze as a child, I was expecting it during his teen days. I had also assumed he was the King of Kings, oh well, if it means a new character I'm all for it.
Ah, I misread your last comment. Of course Phil gets to rule too, in some way, for some time. How else would he have been the Emperor of Evil?
He just has someone powerful to knock down...
I had to get him started young on looking flamboyant. Plus, it's a throwback to his ancestry, because great-grandpa Harwood wore a lot of eyeliner too.
Chapter 120: Two Good-Byes
She should have seen the signs.
Tegan was remarkable in that she was one of the two confirmed only children in the family. Annette might have been, but we assumed that she came from a family of eight frat boy brothers instead. But yes, Tegan did not know the sweet memories of watching a younger sibling grow up. She poured her secrets onto the elders instead. She also adored her parents without a critical word.
For as much time as she spent around her mother, Tegan should have learned about sibling dynamics. Lily stood in stark contrast, at that point with ten or twelve younger siblings she grew up alongside or watched grow up. Unlike most who were the eldest in a large set, Lily had to watch them die. The Reaper tapped the shoulders of most of her 25 or 30 total siblings. She watched few of them, but read the obituaries. At that point? She had long since gotten past grieving Janelle and Selene Kindle.
She and Franco ventured to the swamp one afternoon. The Kindles had lived there for a while, in the old Bayless house. Poor Franco knew that the house had a way of attracting the bereaved. Unfortunately, there weren’t any unrelated attractive bereavers there. That was just a one-time prize. But bereavers there were, and the closest family had to pay their condolences.
“Hey, sorry about everyone in my family calling you an ugly freak,” Lily said to Felix, whose face softened a touch with old age. “But that was never me. And I’m sorry to hear about Nellie too.”
“It’s a lot more peaceful without her,” he said.
“Oh. I mean, she had her nice moments-”
“Lily, don’t try to gloss over this to me. Do it to yourself.”
“Fine, ya toolbag,” she told him. She would have left right there if it wasn’t for Franco insisting on staying.
He and Kraig shared a hug over their losses. Losing a parent was hard too; both was a special level of torture that Franco didn’t want to understand for himself. However, Kraig could take solace in that he’d always have a grandfather and an aunt, for the rest of his days.
So what does this say about us? Maybe it’s about how jaded some of the older ones got. Watching loved ones and family die is part of the territory and I think we all accepted that better than most would. A sense of apathy comes with it as well, the more you see it. That’s my guess, anyways, because I watched only two people die and it got better for a different reason. But after consoling their surviving relatives, Franco and Lily seemed unaffected by Nellie’s death after the initial announcement.
And there lied the problem of the day: they should have cared. Not necessarily because of Nellie, but because it said something about how much time had gone by. She was a lucky woman who lived to a healthy old age, but in comparison to the others in the house, how old was she?
Her death was forgotten amongst the surge of youthful energy that flowed through the main Waverly house.
Phil turned out to be a mischievous boy at first, though not more harmful than that. He loved rigging the showers with dye he picked up from the shops. The elders liked taking him out. His big grey eyes and chubby cheeks got him plenty of attention, and as a rich boy, he got his pick of whatever he wanted to buy. A box of Electric Fuchsia dye didn’t look out of place with the haul of Midnight Black and Nutmeg to keep the elders looking younger.
Annette caught him in the act before someone took a shower, which was going to be her to get the smell of the previous night’s moonshine off her.
“What, you want us with hair more colorful than our skin?” she asked him, seeming like she was full of true, mildly-sober anger.
“Yeah. I think it’s funny,” Phil said. “The look on your face would have rocked.”
“You really think so, kid?”
“Yeah.”
Annette then bent down to pinch his cheek. “Of course it would have been! Your old gram is just messing with you.”
“Can I try what you’re drinking?” Phil asked, with a cheeky grin.
“Wait until you’re a teen. I won’t get shunned for that, at least.”
Aside from trying to cause childish mischief, he decided to be less like he wanted to start the next Gambino crime family and more like a child. His parents bought him a treehouse, which he cooped himself up in a lot.
It was a way for a short kid to feel like a boss. Like he was in control of his tower, until Tegan and Hephaestus had to explain what two adults could possibly be doing up there.
But he had a world of toys and games, of enrichment and a good sphere of influence. Which is why the whole family absorbed some of that and forgot about aging and death.
Hephaestus definitely did. He tutored Phil through his homework each night, and got mistook for his grandfather most times when he picked his son up from school. While Lily spent days carving ice sculptures for the Mayor’s annual gala, Hephaestus took the job of sculpting Phil. In between trying to get his nose right, they played video games. They both laughed together and seemed like the most lively father-son duo in town.
The immortals ended up doing most of the housework out of boredom, but Hephaestus did what he could. He made the beds, or at least his own. He bent over one afternoon to smooth out the blankets after a nap. After that, what could he do? It was a weekend, so Tegan was home. They could mess up those bedsheets again! Or go out for dinner. But he also felt weak in the knees and more weightless than even a scrawny old man should feel.
“Oh god,” he muttered. “Why…not now, okay?”
No, for poor Hephaestus, it had to happen then. They’d spent ages telling him that he was old. It was true, and one mark was passed: he got
too old. And Grim hadn’t missed the directions to the Waverly house that time.
“I don’t want her to see this,” he said, thinking that it was just to himself.
That last wish was certainly not going to be honored. Hearing a spectral noise that she was all too familiar with, Tegan bolted into their room, where she swore she heard the source. Her heart pounded in her chest as she kept telling herself “relax, it’s just another job. Everyone’s fine. [/i]It’s a coincidence[/i].”
“Oh dear god, no,” she whispered, holding back a sob. “No, no, it can’t be today!”
Perhaps in a sad attempt to lighten the atmosphere, Grim got his coordinates off by a few feet. They heard him, but that black cloud was nowhere in sight.
Ah yes, he ended up in Lily’s room instead. Unphased, he called out for his newest victim.
“Hephaestus Taylor Carlton Waverly, it is time to join the darkness!” he bellowed, into the empty room. “Come with me to join those who have since passed from this mortal earth.” And at his command, Hephaestus followed him, through the wall, and into Lily’s room to face his final foe.
He knelt down, pleading as many did. “Look, I want this delayed, just for a little bit. I mean, you see me. I have a young wife, and a child, and...and you spared my father-in-law for the same reason! I just can’t cope with this. I finally felt like I was living after being in some twisted hell for so long-”
“I have heard all these complaints before, Mister Waverly,” said Grim. “But life is a twisted hell. Can you not see it in the faces of your own family? How they become empty, drunk shells of themselves more each and every day?”
“Well maybe it could be better one day. But I just had six years with her. You can’t blame me for wanting more,” said Hephaestus.
“I will let them decide that later. But let me take you with your dignity today.”
Tegan was able to listen to it through the walls, while bawling like a two year-old for the whole time. And everyone else stalled in joining her. After it was over, only then did Piper and Phil walk into her bedroom, in response to her.
“Did it happen?” Piper asked.
“I WANT A FEW MORE YEARS TOO!” Tegan sobbed. A tear rolled down Piper’s cheek too.
“Oh god, I’m sorry,” she said to Tegan.
Phil started to cry like his mother did. “Au-Auntie Piper, can you take me out for some ice cream?” Which is what she did.
Tegan, however, managed to get dressed and go downstairs to the rest of her family, who heard the news and already started planning the burial.
“Honey, I’m...I’m beside myself,” said Lily, opening her arms for a hug. Tegan fell into them and Lily’s motherly warmth.
“It was just too short with him.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“No, no...I need to get out,” Tegan said. “Call if I’m not back within the next few days.”
“Well, where you off to?” Lily asked. “Just in case I need to look.”
“Somewhere outside? Honestly, you know what this is like. How about you leave me alone?”
To drown her sorrows n Tegan sought out not whiskey nor hard cider, but a styrofoam cup of hot apple cider. The mulled beverage was a hit at the Fall Festival each year, and she swore that they finished setting up the day before. Alas, not even that simple pleasure helped. The Fall Festival was slated to start the next day. God, how could she forget when the equinox was?
Still, the trees and weeping willows were always beautiful that time of the year. On that peaceful Sunday afternoon, Tegan could people-watch too. An old couple fed the pigeons before heading inside the consignment store, and some young children ran past her. Maybe Phil knew them, and maybe he could use their company. But Tegan didn’t bother to ask, especially when she spotted something far worse out of the corner of her eye.
It couldn’t be, could it?
He kept his blue denim jacket for all those years. Bryant stood there in the park, as if a psychic sense told him that Tegan was a widow as of an hour ago. That vulture, how dare he try to break the terms of his parole like that? She always wished for the day when he would be gone, and his stay outlasted her own first marriage.
That settled it. She learned to have something of a spine on her fake wedding night, and with five years to hone that strength, Tegan had to stretch. She needed Bryant gone. Gone in her time of need, and gone in whatever joy she could find down the road too.
She approached him, walking with a stern, professional stance. “Bryant, you need to leave,” she said. Her feelings needed to be expressed in no uncertain terms. “You know that this makes me uncomfortable, and I haven’t forgiven you for anything you’ve done.”
“Not even a little bit?” he asked. “You seemed to have been doing well.”
“Sure I was, but don’t be a vulture. Now go, if you know what’s legally good for you.”
“Maybe I just want some advice, okay?”
“And you want it from me?”
“Look, this was a coincidence. I saw you here while getting groceries,” he said. “And it’s been five years or so.”
“You wanted to forcibly impregnate me before being arrested,” she said, between clenched teeth. “Need I remind you of everything you did? Multiple counts of assault, harassment, and years worth of those at that-”
“Therapy helps,” he said, cutting her off.
“Five years won’t cut it.”
“It’s helped, though. I mean, I’m looking for programming jobs now, and there’s this other woman too.”
Tegan held back the responses of “How?” and “What did you do to hurt her?” But she couldn’t leave some mystery woman to suffer just so she could have her peace for once. But she wanted her peace, and Bryant needed to prove that there was some in him too.
“What have they gone over with you in therapy?”
“Entitlement, anger, jealousy, mental illness. It’s what I get in return for walking free, ain’t it nice?”
“I dunno. What’s her name?”
“Viv,” he said. His mouth curled into a genuine smile. “Viv Hacker. Funny thing about her last name...she’s a sys-admin from Starlight Shores, still lives there. It’s a long-distance thing.”
“I remember that you hated me being on your level,” Tegan said. “Look, I want to be happy for you, but you’ve never been aware of what I’ve been through. And I’d find Viv’s address before I’d let you touch her. I’m not happy for either of you.”
“Of course you shouldn’t be. I don’t want to lose someone this time! I need your help with this, Tegan.”
“And why should I help you?”
“Because...because she’ll help me get over it. And once I’m off probation, I can move over there. It’s halfway across the country from you, we’ll both be happy. Like, I think this will help the both of us.”
“You want to keep Viv?” Tegan asked. “Look back hard on the last 30 years of your life, and don’t be that man.”
“What are you saying?” Bryant asked.
“That I want you, screw it, everyone to be happy. I might not feel it now, but I’m open to it happening. But you don’t make people happy. So you want advice? Don’t be a sore loser.”
“Like, if she rejects me?”
“It’s unfair, but...life goes on. Even if you lose the most precious thing in your life, there’s a lot ahead of you. Be open, listen to her and to everyone at least once before doing anything more drastic. Um, talk about this to your therapist and listen to them too.”
“See, even you can be civil to me for once,” remarked Bryant.
“Because I want you out of my life, and maybe Viv is the way out.”
“So, why don’t you look at one thing about yourself, since you’ve been so critical.”
“Okay?”
“Don’t let one person ruin your life. From what I’ve seen, you got a lot of it to live. So maybe stop letting me occupy your mind too.”
“What, you think I’m secretly obsessed with you? Bryant, that’s just plain offensive!”
“Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. But you’re half the reason your life has been mostly ruined. You couldn’t just leave me alone.”
Fighting back the urge to deliver Lily-style justice on Bryant, Tegan loosened herself a bit. Her fingers no longer were halfway to curling up into a fist.
“I’m tired of being your enemy. Just don’t mess this up with Viv. If you like her, and she likes you back, then it deserves to work well,” said Tegan. “But I’ll move on with my life if you move on with yours. No party-crashing, no past antics, nothing. I want us both to have a life-”
“Fine.” He cut her off again.
“Because, well, you are right. I have a lot of one left to live.”
I think that statement set the tone for the final days of reaching immortality for Tegan. For it to come from Bryant unsettles me too, but I think it helped her. It would dishonest to say that she didn’t hurt after losing Hephaestus, and downright disrespectful too. They shared a love that I don’t understand, but then again, a lot of the immortals did. But I will say this: Tegan dwelled on the past less than the others before her did. She drank just for the social benefits. Most of her woes dwelled in the present, after the initial grieving period.
Still, going to bed alone was the toughest part for anyone. And leaving the past where it belonged just meant that she needed dirt to fill her hole.
Word Count for this chapter:
2,703Word Count so far:
254,778
