Typical Rock and Roll

Typical Rock and Roll
By:
Meg Hughes


    “Typical…” I muttered under my breath. I pulled my jacket tighter around myself as I scurried down the alley and past a homeless man.  I pulled my coat tighter against myself, feeling his stare. I glared at him. Who was he to judge me? Him in his grimy tee shirt and stained jacket. Who was he to look at me as if I was the wrong one? Who was he to ruin the dully typical day? Or was it typical for him too? Was it so typical that he’d become a permanent fixture to the wall next to that trashcan? Everything that day had been typical. Typical morning, typical school, typical work, typical home, typical Seattle weather. Everything in my life was predictable. Not that I minded. Typically predictable was relieving. It was safe. I didn’t usually mind the weather, either, but every now and then you need a break from rain. Don’t get me wrong. I love nothing more than to sit somewhere and just watch the rain, smell the rain. It was my safety net. But who needs a safety net on a typical, predictable day? See, that’s the thing about typical days. When you look back, they’re not all that typical. But I didn’t know that. I didn’t know because the unnatural hadn’t happened yet. My typical night would find me safe at home, under soft, warm blankets. I wouldn’t know until the next morning just how untypical that day was.
*
Earlier that day…
    “Vicky!” Mom bellowed up the stairs, “Hurry up! December’s ready to go!” I sat at the counter, drumming my fingers against the lipstick-stained rim of my coffee mug. Vicky still wasn’t ready for school. It wasn’t her fault. It didn’t take her long to get ready. It’s just that she had really, really bad timing. It didn’t help that our mom had started going wacky on us since the divorce: doing things like rearranging the furniture until four in the morning, like last night, or handwashing the dishes at three, even though we had a perfectly almost reliable dishwasher. Nights like last night left them both more than a little cranky. So I just chipped away at my black nail polish.
    “But Mom, Dee doesn’t mind!” Victoria whined from the top of the stairwell, placing perfectly manicured hands on her hips. Dee was what she called me. I guess it was too much of a mouthful to say ‘December.’ Mom brought her hand up to her temple and snapped back at her, “No buts, missy. Now you get down here this instant!” Victoria huffed the whole way down the stairs, pulling her pale blonde hair into a sorry attempt at a ponytail. She tugged at the hem of her retro black and white dress, careful to keep the big plastic rings she wore from catching on the fabric. Vicky got her looks from Mom. Slender curves, pale blonde hair, porcelain skin, and gorgeous hazel eyes. I was more like Dad had been: tall, shaped like a stick, except for my chest. I was awkward, and the black dye-job on my hair didn’t help the fact that my paleness looked sickly. Sunken gray eyes didn’t help it. I looked dead, half the time.
    I grabbed the keys from the counter and nodded at the door. Vicky’s retro style didn’t bother me as much as it used to. I was more on the rock-and-roll side. One thing we had in common was our obsession with amazingly short skirts and even more amazingly tight tops. I got in the car and waited for Vicky. I spun the bracelets on my wrist and rubbed at the only ring I’d worn since Dad left. It was a claddagh ring that he’d gotten me for my tenth birthday.
*
    When we got to the school, and I pulled into my parking place, I leaned over and grabbed a pair of sunglasses and a black-and-white polka dotted scarf. “Come here,” I told Vicky, waving my hand wildly towards me as she leaned over. I wrapped the scarf once around her head, tying it into a knot behind her ear, and handed her the sunglasses. “Okay,” I shifted back, “Me?”
    Like I said, rock and roll. I was wearing an AFI tee, a tie skirt, a tie loosely knotted across my chest, fishnet stockings, my ‘hooker boots’ and my usual assortment of jewelry. Vicky nodded and the typical day began as predictably as ever.
    The rest of the day is somewhat of a blur. But that part sticks out. It’s one of my most treasured memories. I’m not really sure why - probably the normality of it. Everything seemed so simple, so… right.
    What I was doing that night was waiting for my sister. She was supposed to meet me at seven. I stayed until eleven, and she never showed. I was pissed, but I figured she’d forgotten or just gone somewhere else. I didn’t have time to regret those thoughts when the police told us what had happened to my baby sister. I couldn’t. I needed to be there for Mom. I had to catch her when she fell to her knees, sobbing and pleading with God. Saying that it wasn’t real, that it was a nightmare. I had to go to the morgue and be strong as I identified the corpse on the table as my little sister. I didn’t have time to blame myself for not protecting her. I was too angry. I was angry because somehow the funeral home ‘lost’ the body. But they didn’t really lose it. I’m not an idiot, I know what I saw. I didn’t have time to sleep. Not between my mother’s breakdown and the images I saw whenever I closed my eyes. Images of my sister lying on a cold metal slab. Her eyes staring deadly up at nothing and the wounds on her neck. That and the pentagram necklace we each had stained in her blood.
    I went to school anyway. The teachers all gave their regrets. A bunch of bull was all I heard as they told me they ‘understood’ what I was going through. No one understood… because no one knew. But I did. It had been a strange fascination of mine. And I was only beginning to learn that nightmares are real. That they’re in the shadows and that the only way to beat them was to jump headfirst into their darkness and become part of their world. Anger and passion were one and the same as I took the plunge. I may as well have sold my soul to the devil. But nothing’s worse than Love’s revenge. And that was on my side.
*
    “Research… research… research…” I repeated as I skimmed the shelves, trying to find… There it was! “Research!” I announced proudly. I grabbed the book and added it to the pile I’d accumulated. I made my way to a table and dropped the books on it, grunting as I did so. I sighed and plopped into a chair cattycornered from a guy in a black tee with ‘I mock you’ written on the front and jeans, who looked at me through brown hair that fell into his face. It was kind of cute. You know, with the bangs falling into his eyes and that thing were you flip your hair to the side so you can see? He raised an eyebrow, “Into the occult, are we?” I grinned grimly. I wasn’t good at small talk, “Vampires, to be more specific.” He nodded and shrugged, “Interesting choice. Why?” I stared at him. For some reason I didn’t think that ‘my sister was killed by a vampire and I think he turned her into one, so I have to kill her and the son-of-a-bitch that’s her sire’ would keep me out of the loony bin. I shrugged instead, “Gotta have a hobby. To each their own, right?” I picked up the first book and settled in. I went there every day for a week. I sat at the same table with the same guy, Tommy Dwyer, and read up on my vampire lore.
    The end of the week, Friday night. I looked up when Tommy tapped my shoulder. “December, they’re closing up.” He pointed over at the desk. I sighed, seeing he was right. I followed Tommy out the door, and he turned around. “How serious are you about all those vampire legends and stuff?” I stiffened and looked him up and down, crossing my arms defensively. “I’m not some psycho, if that’s what you mean.” His eyes bulged out of his head and he shook it. “No, no… I meant, there’s this place a couple blocks from here. I know the lady that owns it. Deep stuff. She actually believes in it, so… I thought…” He shrugged, “They’re opened for a while still, and if you want the real deal, I could take you there.” I smiled. He was just standing there in the rain, shifting nervously with his hands balled up in his jacket pockets. I nodded, “Okay.”
*
    I wouldn’t have ever known it was there if Tommy hadn’t tugged on my jacket. Whatever was behind the windows you couldn’t see because of the black curtains that hung there. The only sign of a business was the engraved name on the glass door, Dark Pretense, right above the name Liadan Cross. As soon as I opened the door, I smelled incense and spices. The air was thick with them. But there was something else. I felt something. “That would be me,” A crackling voice called out. I looked around the shop. I saw eye of newt, jar of screams, a soul orb, chicken’s feet, holy water, stakes, tarot cards, but no person. I frowned, “Who’s there?” The voice cackled, “Come in the back, dearie, if you’ve the power and the nerve.” I set my jaw firmly and headed to the beaded curtain in the doorframe behind the counter. I walked through it, followed closely by Tommy.
    “Well, well.” The crone sitting by the table with a crystal ball on it spoke, “Thomas, you brought us a little witch girl, did you?” I shook my head. “I’m not a witch. I just need help.” She pondered it, staring at me. I looked at her closer. She was what you thought of when people talked about gypsy fortunetellers. “It’s possible,” She murmured, “You’re a young one, aren’t you? A dangerous little witch looking for revenge. Ah, sweet Love’s bitter rage boils through your veins. But I’ll not mistake my words, child. You’re a witch of power to walk through my wards without name-key.” She nodded to herself, watching me with her cold blue eyes. I turned to Tommy, “Name-key?” The crone cackled and grinned, “Specific invitation, dear. Do you not wear the symbol from your neck? Does it not hang to your heart? Silver dear? Just like your sister’s.” I faltered in my belief that the woman was a raving lunatic. “How did you know that?” She hung her head sadly, tutting to herself before returning her gaze to me, “Poor girl’s dead, nothing you could do. Let her go. Poor poppet. You’re too special to lose to revenge, kitten.” I clenched my teeth, “I’m not going to let something run around with my sister’s face.” The old hag looked at me steadily, “But willing to leave your mother with another parting to plan? Silence, young one. So much to learn.” And she fell silent. But then she whispered softly. In the voice that your favorite grandmother would use when she’s worried, or scared, “But there’s no changing you, is there?” I looked down at my hands, fighting back tears, “No,” I whispered. Rage and fury and loss and everything I’d felt, but been too afraid to show, burned behind that one word. “Hmm.” She stared me right in the eyes. I met her gaze, focusing my emotions there as well. “Here’s a deal for you, ducky. If you survive your mission, this revenge, come back to me. Then I’ll teach you the ways of a true witch. Promise this and I’ll help you avenge your dear one. I’ll tell you all there is to know of the vampire you once called ‘sister.’ A’ right, ducky?” I breathed deeply, “I’ll do whatever it takes.” My eyes locked with hers again, “I believe you dearie, and what a shame it is.”
*
    I’d done it. Not exactly selling my soul to the devil, but it came in a solid second to throwing my life into her hands. The woman believed in fate. She lived for it. I couldn’t tell Tommy what she’d told me… at least, not most of it. Tommy hated destiny. To him, everything had a purpose and nothing was unavoidable. There was always something you could do. I wasn’t going to waste time arguing with him over it. Instead I shoved a stake up my sleeve, another in the small of my back through the hold that my skirt had on my hips. My pentagram hung out of my shirt. I’d managed to hide a bottle of holy water between my breasts and had another strapped to my thigh. I shoved a dagger into my right boot. Tommy stood there and did the same. We were gearing up for battle. I wasn’t sure why he agreed to help me, so I asked him. He smiled, “Can’t let you go out there alone.” Hmm, so he liked playing big protector? Fine, let him. I needed all the help I could get. There was the simple stuff: stake through the heart, holy water burns them, can’t go out into direct sunlight, beheading… that sort of thing. But there was also the super strength thing.
    That could be a problem. They were strong, which meant we had to be quick and smart. Liadan told me that if I got into the really bad kind of trouble that I’d know what to do. I just needed to have faith. That’s kind of a funny thing. The last thing my father ever told me was to have faith and to never let it go. According to Liadan, anything that symbolized our faith would help protect us from the vampires. I had faith in my father. I knew that he wouldn’t have left if he didn’t have to. Vicky never believed that. She thought he was scum to leave Mom that way. I don’t disagree with her… but there has to have been a reason he didn’t take us with him. Mom still loves him, and I don’t think he ever stopped loving her. It was the one thing that my sister and I could never agree on. ‘Open your eyes, Dee! He gives us nothing, we owe him nothing. He left us, remember?’ but she was wrong. He would have told me. I know he would have… but I’ll never really know.
    “Ready?” I asked Tommy. He nodded, “I need to stop by my house and tell my brother I’ll be out late, though.” I shrugged and followed him out of the shop to his car. It’s not everyday that you hunt down a sadistic vampire that used to be your closest friend. I hoped it wouldn’t be hard. You never know. It killed me to think of that thing having her face, but it was still her face. My jaw tightened. My mind was set… that beast had to die.
    The only thing I thought of the whole way to Tommy’s house was that I might not be strong enough when it came down to it. I could fail… but I wouldn’t. Failing didn’t mean dying. It meant dying without bringing them down with me.
    I walked with Tommy up to the door. I hadn’t really been around people since Vicky died, so, yeah, I was a bit nervous. Tommy sensed my uneasiness, “Don’t worry. You’ll like him. He’s… what’s the word… human.” He grinned widely and went to open the door. A guy in his bathrobe opened it before his hand touched the doorknob. At first I thought he was just tired… but that was until I saw his body fall to the ground, before I saw the marks on his neck, before I saw my sister wiping his blood off her mouth. And I felt more emotion then I ever had felt before. This was what it all came down to: her and me, and Death fighting for us both. Seeing that image made it abundantly clear that there was no choice. I couldn’t lose… I wouldn’t. And then it spoke.
    “Dee! What a pleasant surprise! I was going to find Mom, but… you’ll do.” She grinned wickedly, and terror rose in my throat. I choked it down and let my instincts take control. I grinned back at her. “Well, so long as you were thinking of me…” I punched her in the face. She looked at me, amused and mildly surprised. “Well, well. Dee, you finally grew a pair! Who’s the cutie?” She licked her lips as she eyed Tommy. I sneered at her, “Just some guy… but considering you just killed his brother, I’m betting he’s going to get to be a pain in your ass pretty soon.” She smiled, “How soon?” I shrugged, cool and collected is me… ok, actor is me, but still. “I’m thinking right about now.” And Tommy flew at her. She tossed him out of her way with one punch.
“Don’t get in my way, December,” She hissed my name, “I’m the chosen one now. Looks like you weren’t Daddy’s little princess after all. I’m the one with the power, that’s why I’m here.” I shook my head sadly, “You were a mistake, Vicky.” She howled at me, and I stood there watching her. “No!” She screamed, tears starting down her face, “You killed me, you’re the reason I’m here. You weren’t the right one so he picked me! I have the power because you wouldn’t have been able to handle it. I’m the one who has to deal with you and all your problems. You and Mom both, with all the denial! Never willing to admit that Dad didn’t give a shit! Always defending him! NO MORE!” She charged at me and swung with all her weight behind her. I ducked and swerved as she kept her attack coming strong. I caught one punch with my hand, another with my stomach, another with my face, but I got a few knocks in there too. My eyes were burning. She’d sounded so hurt and betrayed. She hit me, yelling and screaming and sobbing, blaming me for all her problems. But I wasn’t the problem.
    I lifted my arm and blocked her swing, then shifted my weight down to block the kick she sent there and punch her in the gut. She stumbled back with a gasp of shock. My face twisted and contorted until I couldn’t see through my own tears. I did her as good as she’d done me. I hit where I sensed her. I blocked when my gut told me to. I followed my instinct. When I couldn’t sense her anymore, I fell to my knees. The tears had stopped. She was limping to the doorway. When she reached it, she turned around and laughed, “Let’s see you protect Mom now.” And then I melted out of consciousness.
*
    I woke with a ringing in my ears and a warm gush of something running down my face. Tommy leaned over me, wincing. “You okay?” he asked me. I nodded and sat. Blood rushed from my head and everything tilted sideways. I brought my hand up to my face and when I pulled it away it was red with blood. It was then that something hit me. I scrambled to my feet, “Mom.” I gasped. I looked around and fell on top of a table as I bent over to pick up the phone. I leaned against it for support and dialed the number. “Fay Walker, please,” I spoke into the phone. I remember what Mom was like before she fell apart. She was one of the strongest people I knew. It just goes to show that even the strongest things can be broken down until there’s nothing left. “Hello!” My mom’s cheery voice answered the phone. “Who’s there?” I gasped as pain flared through my ribs. “Mom?” Her voice quickly turned to worry, “December? Where are you? Where have you been? When are you coming home?” I tried to calm her down, “Mom, I’m with a friend, I’ll be there soon, okay?” In my head, I could se her frowning. Just like she used to when I was little. “December, what’s going on?” I breathed shallowly, “Mom, you’ve got to listen to me…” But I heard another voice on the other end of the line. “Mommy?” the voice said. I froze in place, listening to my mother say her name. “Victoria… Vicky?” Then the line went dead. I stood up and walked to the door, “We have to go.” Tommy stood, “Why? What happened?” I looked at him, my face grim. “She has my mom.” And with that, we were out the door.
*
    I’ll never truly know what happened. I know that Mom must have been relieved to see Victoria and probably thought it had all been a bad dream. I know the look of surprise on her face as I ran into the room just in time to see Vicky, or what was left of her sink her fangs into Mom’s neck. And I know what she said to me as I held her in my arms only moments before she was gone. That second that she was in my arms I knew that I had failed. Not in the way I had thought I might, I had failed my mother. I had let her down just like I had let down Vicky. I just wasn’t good enough. There was still blood caked on my face, and my tears over her must have made the image of me horrifying. Then she whispered to me, “He never wanted to leave… He loved you both so much… never forget that. He’ll find you one day. Make him proud, baby. Make me and Daddy proud.” Her hands slipped from between mine and her breathing faltered, then stopped. Mom was strong right up until the end, and I had to be just as strong if not stronger. I would make her proud… I wouldn’t let her down again. I stood as Tommy joined me by my side. “We’ve got a bitch to kill,” I muttered and I turned from my mother’s body. So much death lingered around me now… too much… but I had to be strong. For Mommy, and for Daddy too.
    I ran down the steps. I could hear the sirens already. No one would believe that a dead girl had killed her mother, and I’d left proof that I’d been there all over the apartment. Time for running. Tommy stepped in front of me. “What are you doing, December? What the hell are you doing?” He was angry, I got that, but I didn’t have time for his games. “Tommy, promise me one thing.” I stared into his green eyes steadily, “Don’t kill her.” He swore at me and kicked the garbage can over by the park bench. “No, December, you can’t ask me that! She killed my brother, and you want me to let her walk?” I shook my head. “No, Tommy. It’s my kill. Mine, not yours. Promise me.” I walked over to him. He was breathing too deeply, trying to control his temper. I grabbed his arm and searched his eyes. “Promise me.” He didn’t want to let me do it, but he nodded. He let me have it my way. He looked away from me, defeated. “What about her sire?” I hesitated. “I have to kill him, Tommy.” He shook his head. “No, you don’t.” I closed my eyes. “Yes, I do. It’s my destiny, Tommy.” He just kept shaking his head. “There’s no such thing as destiny.” I swallowed a lump in my throat. I needed to have that destiny, because without it, I was wrong, and we’d both die. “Tommy… He killed my sister for a reason. Liadan was right. I’m a witch. I didn’t know it… but… my dad’s family, they’re all witches and wizards. This vampire, Smythe… It was foretold that a witch in my family would be the one to kill him. One of tainted blood, half-human. He thought it was my sister, but it’s not. It’s me. That’s why my dad always tried so much harder with me, why he pushed me. But Smythe got it wrong, and it’s my job to finish it. I have to do this, Tommy, I have to. If I don’t, I’m nothing. I’m a failure.”
    Tommy looked at me, just looking. I felt something in my stomach, I think people call them butterflies, and he shook his head. “You’ll never be a failure, December. You’ll just be dead.” I blinked away tears. I’d cried too much today. “No, if I fail at this, then they all died for nothing. Tommy… I can’t live with that.” I started to cry, and he pulled me to him. He wrapped his arms around me, and I felt safe. I felt tired, sad, and lost, but safe. I wasn’t alone anymore. I pulled away and wiped my eyes. I was the next Walker witch, it was in my blood. Victoria was wrong about me not being able to handle it, because she wouldn’t have ever believed it in the first place. It had to be me, the believing, trusting idiot that I was. Tommy was still looking at me, it felt weird to have him watching me. Not a bad weird, just weird. And the next thing I knew, he was kissing me. I hadn’t really kissed anyone before, not in a way that counted. Little kisses here and there without much emotion in them. This kiss was pouring out its emotion, the same way my tears had before it. Nothing spoken, everything said. It was the kind of kiss you have, just in case one of you, or both of you, end up dead. It was a good-bye. I’ve never liked good-byes. It was just easier when Dad left, nothing was final without a ‘good-bye’. Vicky was still with me, that way. Mom didn’t say good-bye either. They’d never really be gone unless they said ‘good-bye’. But I don’t think I minded this good-bye. Because it still wasn’t said. It was there, but it was only an ‘if’, it wasn’t for certain. I liked that. The further along the day got, the less I relied on ‘predictable’ or ‘typical’. A day wasn’t just a day, it was a cluster of moments and memories. And just like that, the kiss was over and we were running down the street, and away from the cops.
*
    I didn’t realize just how much I’d changed in a week until I stood there, watching my sister. “Thought you could get away?” I asked her. She whirled around and grinned, “Hoping to be followed, more like.” She prowled towards us, until a tanned hand found its way around her neck. And then he was there. Smythe, supposed Lord in the vampire world. Nearly eight hundred years old and he couldn’t wait any longer to draw us out. The only reason he was alive this long was the prophecy, no one would touch someone they knew they couldn’t kill. He looked at my sister, “Now, now, dear one, don’t do anything rash.” He turned to study me with his dead brown eyes. He didn’t have any emotion, I was sure of that much. He was a dark man, like he’d been out all day working in a field, his nearly black hair swept away from his handsome face.
    “It’s been too long since one of your family has stood up to me, young one. You’ll do no good, you’re not the one that’s meant to do this, you’re weak.” He circled my sister fondly and looked back up at me, “What is it that you’re planing to do?” I shrugged, “Kill you both, preferably… but I’m perfectly fine with beating the crap out of you.” He laughed at me, the nerve this guy had was astounding. “My question for you is how you planned to escape destiny.” He puzzled it. So he hadn’t managed to figure that part out, had he? Oh well, not really worry girl here.
    He flew at me and I threw my hands up in front of my face. I tumbled over and brought him with me. “Now Tommy!” I yelled at him. Tommy ran up to Smythe and punched him repeatedly. I turned and ran at Vicky. She screamed as I grabbed her perfect blonde hair and yanked. As she tended to her head, I pulled the bottle of holy water out from under my shirt and threw it at her. The bottle broke as it hit her face, cutting it and allowing the holy water to do its job. I pinned her down and straddled her, trying to keep her still as I took the stake out from under my skirt. I brought it down hard toward her chest, but her hands caught it and she pushed it back up at me. I only had one chance to do this right, as she started to turn it toward me. I pushed up with my legs, letting go of the stake. I flicked my wrist and the other stake slipped into my outstretched hand. I buried it in her heart just as she buried the other one into my gut, blood spurting out all over the ashes that used to be my sister. I wiped the sweat and blood off of my face and yanked the stake out of my gut with a squelching, sickly pop. I grunted and held it for a second. I blinked away the pain and nausea before I stood, gasping for air as I did so.
    I ran as fast as I could to where I’d left Smythe and Tommy. I tripped on the way down a hill and looked up just in time to see Smythe sink his teeth into Tommy. I screamed and Tommy fell. No, I’d just watched my mother and sister die, now wasn’t going to be the time for another death. I didn’t even have to do anything. I was swept away in a river of feeling. I was numb, and cold and lost, I was warm and loved and happy. I was angry and scared and sick, calm with comfort and wild with rage. I let my world revolve around it as my fingers dug into the grass, into the earth. It was a pattern, and energy. It was me. It was focused and determined and there. It was alive and ready to burst. There was so much. I had always repressed my emotions, and now they came to me all at once. It pushed and pulled and hunted for a way out of me. And then it found it. It focused and a blue light seared from the pentagram I wore. I won this. I didn’t fail. I would save him like I couldn’t save them. I was there to protect them and I failed, but I wouldn’t fail him. It wasn’t my destiny to fail, it was my destiny to succeed. And I did. The light faded out and I saw the world differently. It was like looking at the negatives of a black and white picture. The world was black, sketched in white. And I saw him… Smythe. And it all rushed out in a blue burst of cold flame. And he was gone.
    I looked over with my new sight at Tommy in a crumpled heap on the ground. I pulled myself to him with my arms, my legs were too numb for use. I cradled his head in my lap and I cried. He was gone… but he couldn’t be. I’d promised. I’d failed again. Then the world changed colors again. There was light, not blue light. I was still in my world of negatives, but the light here was a dull pink. There was another kind of power here. I didn’t know what to call it, but it was there. I closed my eyes as a new pain tore through me, worse than all the rest. I remember screaming in mid sob, but I don’t remember hearing it. I opened my eyes and Tommy was still in my lap. Warm, fresh tears ran down my face. More tears. This was good-bye, when I held him and asked him not to go and he did anyway. I wiped away the tears, it hurt to look at him. But I did… and I saw him move. I held my breath and his eyes fluttered open. I realized at the last minute that I’d forgotten the last part of the story Liadan had told me. ‘You lost him, but he’ll come back to you, dearie. They’ll come back for you.’ And he did.
*
    Now I’m sitting in this car, staring at him as he’s driving. The radio’s on and the music is carrying us with it. We have to leave Seattle, but we don’t mind. I’ve got a Dad to find. I couldn’t save them all, but I saved Tommy. I hadn’t known what love could feel like ‘til then. It was real, I knew that now. There’s a difference between loving a person and loving your family. I didn’t have a family anymore, so Tommy filled up my quota. I know that I used to take life for granted. What with the ‘typical’ and the ‘predictable’ and the ‘safe’. Back then, I had been cynical and never even realized it. I don’t take things for granted now. Now there is no ‘everyday’. There’s no ‘predictable’ or ‘typical’. There’s just now. There’s me, and Tommy, and our rock and roll, flying down the highway. Playing hero and dealing with the paranormal. At least until things in Seattle cool off. Then it’s back to Liadan Cross’ shop to make good on my promise. Until then, I hold on to my short skirts, tight shirts, my ‘hooker boots’ and my memories. I’ll never be able to hate Vicky for what she was. It was her nature. I can’t be mad at her anymore for being what she was. So I’m letting her go. I’m letting it all go. I’m starting over with Tommy. Just waiting for the typical to rock and roll. Because there’s nothing in the world that’s like us, and our typical rock and roll.

THE END