Gen 3 - Chapter 5: Time to Say Goodbye

Mom, also being a huge bookworm, figured out eventually that Mackenzie's old room was perfect for just.. sitting around and reading. So, I think I figured out the perfect name for it, at least until we decide to remodel it - the book nook. Sound good? I thought it did, since that's all that Mom or I seemed to use it for.

So, I hadn't ever noticed Jere really socialize much with girls at school. Or with anyone, really. But, evidently he did, because on the worst possible day he could have invited a friend over, he did - not that he knew it would be the worst day to invite a friend over at the time. It was Penny Christmas, the girl that had the same fashion sense as Eulalie, but because she was 'odd colors' - I found her fascinating, myself, I love Berries and all similar, and had never really met any before her and her siblings, though she told me she wasn't technically a Berry - she wasn't allowed in their group. She and I had talked a couple of times, and one of those times I learned that she liked Drazen, but he'd never noticed her. He'd been too busy with his guy friends through the entirety of his high school career. 

But now, naturally, as he saw her standing by herself in the kitchen, having been abandoned by Jere as soon as they got home, I saw the look he gave her. Like, 'oh, wait, she's a girl.. a pretty one'. He quickly threw away his empty plasma juice box, and went to talk to her. 'Introduced' himself. Like he even needed to. I let a tiny smirk play across my lips, before leaving the room to let them be alone - and take a shower, I needed one.

Mom had been exhausted for ages, and I was afraid that her time was getting close. She insisted it was just because she did so much all the time. But, guess who was right and who was wrong? I didn't want to be right. I'd never wanted to be wrong more in my life, but when you're a genius vampire, it's really hard to be wrong. 

When I stepped out of the shower, I heard Zach and Drazen scream almost in unison, "MOM, NO!" A cold rush of fear ran through me, and I got dressed as quickly as I could, running downstairs and into the kitchen, Quin right behind me. 

There she was, translucent, floating in front of the trash can.. I couldn't help the anguished sob escape me when I saw her that way. Behind me, I heard Quin choke out a quiet, "Mommy..?" It was probably worse for my siblings - they'd never seen death first-hand. They weren't there when Ms. Bernabe died.

Eulalie seemed to be taking it almost the worst, probably because she was Mom's little sunshine. Mom hadn't spoiled her, exactly, but I know she was Mom's favorite, just like Drazen was Mama Elvy's favorite. It didn't bother me, except now, because it was obviously making this so hard for Lalie. 

When the grim reaper showed up, he wasn't too terribly intimidating, because at first all we could see of him was his hand and the tip of his scythe. But still, all of us cried out more, and I can't even be sure we were speaking real words. None of us wanted her to go. Jere wasn't there, I'm not sure where he went, but I know that if he'd been there, he'd be in the same boat as the rest of us.

Poor Penny didn't know what to do, and I debated telling her to just go home, but I was too busy crying for my Mom. 

When the grim reaper actually came into the kitchen, Mom practically greeted him with open arms. I don't think she really.. noticed any of us, crying for her to come back. I could hear her ghostly voice saying, "Hey there, Grim. Long time no see." I couldn't quite hear what he said. Did he even say anything? I couldn't hear what Mom said after that, her voice being too echo-y and ghostly and we were all too loud, but I saw her shake his hand. I knew she'd been ready to go for a long time, she wanted to join Mama Elvy, and death was just another experience for her, but it still hurt to watch her disappear. I forgot how much a parent dying hurt.. it was like when Mama Elvy died all over again, but even worse because now I was the woman of the house, and Drazen was the man of the house. We had to take care of the triplets and Lalie. I wasn't ready for that responsibility! Mommy, come back..

We placed her outside, next to Mama Elvy, with matching flowers. I had wanted to read 'When in Doubt', but I thought that it would make a better tribute to her than almost any of her other books. I hugged it, before placing it down in front of her grave. "You should have had Mama Elvy make you a vampire, Mom.. what are we gonna do without you?" I whispered, and then wiped at the tears that were still streaking down my face. I needed to go to bed. I trudged upstairs, and laid down on the cold stone 'bed'. I began to ponder why we chose to sleep on these sad excuses for beds when we could snuggle into warm beds, and I debated going downstairs to sleep in my Moms' bed. But I was asleep before I could actually do so.

Waking up to a cold, empty house had both me and breaking down in the morning. Our siblings had gone to school, so it was just us. No sound downstairs of the roots music station, or clacking of the computer keys, or the sound outside of the blowtorch from inventing.. nothing. We both looked at each other after we broke down, then headed downstairs for breakfast, silently. 

We both sat at the table, and I looked at the ice cream container directly in front of me. I stared at it for several moments, before a sad smile came to my face, and I looked at Drazen. "You know something I'm going to miss? Having plates and ice cream containers sitting around with our plasma juice containers. Smelling the food from the few times when Mom would actually cook for herself, too.." A sad smile crossed his features as well, and he nodded lightly.

"Yeah. Me too."

After several days, I suddenly remembered that I had missed Marcelo's birthday. Immediately, I felt like a bad girlfriend, and then I reminded myself that my mother had died - I had a good excuse. Sort of. I still felt guilty, so instead of moping around the house while the teens were off at school like I had been doing so far, I grabbed my phone and called him up. "Hello? Dahlia?"

"Hi, Marcelo.. I'm sorry I missed your birthday - I hope you had a happy one anyway."

"How could I have a happy birthday when I know you're suffering? I mean, it was nice I guess, but I celebrated more for Genevieve's sake than my own.. are you okay?"

"I'm.. oh, Marcelo, can you come over? I'd rather talk to you in person. Please."

"Of course, I'll be right there. I may be late, there's some things I need to do first, but I WILL be there today. I love you, I do. See you soon."

"I love you, too.. see you soon." I clicked the off button, then waited at the window. I needed him. I was going to let the heartache out this time - it hurt too much before, Drazen was right, and if I didn't let it out, I would eventually break.

It was far too long before he actually arrived, since I'd called while my siblings were still at school, and he finally arrived after dark. I understood why, I tried to stay out of the sun as much as I could. But I still was very nervous and fidgety as I waited for him to show up. And over-emotional - I found tears running down my cheeks at one point, and Drazen glanced over at me from his easel. I assured him I was fine, and I could tell he didn't believe me, but he didn't say anything and just went back to painting. When I turned back to the window, I saw Marcelo walking towards the house from the road. Before he could even really get to the parking lot, I had run out of the house and stopped in front of him, barely not tackling him with a hug.

"You're really late." I told him first, then stayed silent a moment, my eyes moving over his newly-adult figure. Once I'd taken him all in, I brought my eyes back to his, and smiled. "You look great, by the way."

"I'm sorry I'm late, the things I had to do took longer than I thought they would. And.. really? I look great? Thanks.. you look great, yourself. This is my first time seeing you since you aged up, too. You're absolutely breathtaking."

"Breathtaking? Hardly.." I said, shaking my head lightly. I had been holding my tears in all day, and couldn't hold them any longer, so I kind of threw myself on him, bursting into tears. "Oh, Marcelo.. both of my Moms are gone.." I sobbed into his shoulder, and I felt his arms go around me. 

He mumbled reassurances to me, and I couldn't quite tell what a lot of them were, but they helped. Just having him hold me helped. We hadn't really been very outward with our affection since the first day we got together, so this felt incredibly good. Especially since.. I didn't tell him, but it wasn't just the fact that Mom had died that I was crying about. That was the main instigator of my tears, but I was also letting all the sadness from my insecurities, all the frustrations and doubts I had concerning his and my almost-relationship, and.. well, just everything.

When I finally calmed down, quite a while later, I pulled back and mumbled an apology. "Dahlia, don't apologize. That's what I'm here for.. I'm not the best with emotions, but I'm good at being strong for others. That's what I did for Genny when Dad died, though we were just kids, I comforted her more than I cried."

"Thank you, Marcelo.."

We stood there in companionable silence for a little bit, but then he had to go to work. I gave him a quick kiss goodbye, then headed inside. I wish he would quit that job. He wanted to be an astronaut, he told me so, so why was he still working at the mausoleum?

Days went by slowly, and all of us found our own ways to cope with the loss of Mom. I'm not entirely sure what Jere, Zach, and Lalie's ways were, but I knew Quin had taken up writing. He had started a book called 'The Other Dimension'. I wondered what it was about, whether it was about death, or.. well, I'm not sure, but I did have to wonder what it was about. 

Drazen was still painting, but he'd started painting in a 'somber' style. Everything was blue and black and depressing, most of the time. 

Me? I'd taken to reading Mom's books in Mom's room, instead of reading other things in the book nook. Sure, I'd read in Mom's room before, but now that's where I always read. It still smelled exactly like her, and I felt like she was still around if I read in there.

And here I'd thought the pink and purple painting of the plant in the music room had been my favorite of Drazen's! Maybe the depression was good for his artistic skills. I stared at his new painting of the plant in the basement hallway for quite a while, and I could have stared at it for the rest of the day. It was gorgeous.

Everything seemed to make me break down anymore. And whenever it did, I invited Marcelo over to comfort me. Most of the time, he'd come over, comfort me, and leave for work. But one night he didn't have to go to work. I didn't realize this until later, but I won't get ahead of myself.

Quin was watching the romance channel after getting home from school, and when I went to join him, I froze next to the TV, staring at the channel. "Romance.." I mumbled, and then burst into tears. "Mom would have been so proud of you, watching romance instead of horror.." I blubbered to myself for a moment, until he told me to get out of the way, it was coming up to the good part of his movie, and so I did, grabbing my cell phone. I needed my daily fix of Marcelo again. "Hiya, Marcelo, can you come over?"

"Sure, I'll be right there."

I went to wait for him outside, because that's where we always met, since he always had to leave immediately. As I waited, I saw Mom pop out of her grave for the first time, and smiled somewhat sadly to myself. She wasn't the same, but seeing her still made me feel better. When Marcelo showed up, he walked up to me and smiled. Before he could say anything, I grabbed him and began to kiss him passionately, instead of crying on his shoulder like usual - seeing Mom helped. Oh, it had helped so much. 

The next hour or so (could have been longer, really) went on like that, until I found that I couldn't really keep my eyes open anymore. I mumbled an 'I love you' to him, before heading inside and to bed. I thought he'd be leaving any moment, because I didn't know that he had Wednesday nights off.

He didn't go home after that. He just stuck around outside, until it was beginning to get light outside. What I heard of this, I got later from Lalie and Marcelo - when my little sister woke up and saw him standing out there, she went out to invite him inside. Not to try and steal him from me, she assured him of this, because she thought he and I were far to cute for her to ruin it. I thanked her and hugged her when I heard that - it made it feel so much better to be with Marcelo at that fact. 

But anyway, after they got inside, Eulalie had one of her neurotic attacks, which dissolved into sadness about Mom again, since she never got to talk to Mom last night while she was out. The next thing she knew, she was clinging to Marcelo and crying on his shoulder, and he was holding her. They told me that she apologized profusely when she came back to herself, and he told her it was absolutely fine. 

Not long after that, I got up, and when I was drinking on my plasma, Marcelo suddenly walked through, carrying a crushed plasma juice box, and I kind of spluttered at seeing him. "Marcelo!? What are you doing here?"

"I stayed the night. Unfortunately, I should probably be getting home now.. I just wanted to see you one more time before I left, though. Now I have. I love you, see you later."

"Love you.." I said, as I watched him leave. If I'd have known he was going to stay I would have had a cup of coffee instead of going to bed!

Well, I wasn't going to just accept him leaving. Oh, I let him leave, but after I finished my plasma juice, I rushed around the house getting ready for the rest of the day. I had meant to just get ready and leave, but by the time I finally got ready, the teens were already home from school. I walked into the living room towards the front door, and kind of froze, because there was Quin, in mid-air, upside down, with the new virtual-reality game we got recently. Drazen was at the easel, and Eulalie was standing just in front of me, also staring at Quin. "What's..?"
"I'm not sure," Eulalie replied, shaking her head.
"Evidently, virtual reality makes one float," Drazen piped up, and glanced over. "Really, we're vampires and we have ghosts that live with us at night. This really shouldn't be all that shocking."
"True.." I said, before shaking my head. "Well whatever, I'm going to Marcelo's house. See you all later!"
"Have fun, but not too much fun if you know what I mean!" Drazen called after me as I trotted out the front door. I went bright red, but didn't dignify that with an answer.

 When I got there, like usual I went to ring the bell at the gate. I was actually let inside this time, and I saw Marcelo headed towards the front door. "Marcelo! Hi!" I called out, and walked up behind him, smiling. He turned, and gave me a.. strange look. My smile faltered. "I figured I'd pay you a visit, and apologize since we really didn't get to hang out much earlier.."
"Dahlia.." he started off, and if my heart beat it would have dropped at that tone. He kind of sneered slightly, then snapped at me, "Would you leave me alone, already?! I love you and all but my life is NOT focussed on you! I'm tired! Come on in if you REALLY want but please stop stalking me!" He then turned and went inside.

What had just happened? I stood outside for several moment, silent. My eyes burned and blurred with unshed tears - did he really feel that way? Like I was stalking him, not letting him have any peace? Thinking about it, I suppose it was true. I wasn't letting him have his life separate from me, I was treating him as if we were an official couple, or married, or.. my own personal therapist. I thought about just leaving, I even turned to leave at first. But that would be giving up. I wasn't exactly a quitter. I could at least apologize to him. Nodding lightly, I walked back inside, and found him in their.. living room? Sitting room? I'm not sure what it would be called, but I sat on the love seat behind where he was glaring a whole through the wall.
He stood there and I sat there in silent for a long time. What was I supposed to say? I thought we'd been getting along great, but I only saw it from my own point of view. He'd just groan up, and was still getting used to being a full-fledged vampire, not to mention his Mom had gotten remarried to someone only a few years older than me. All we ever did when he came over, was I cried and he comforted me. My gosh, I was selfish, wasn't I? But he could have said something. I looked up at him, finally, and stared at his back, unsmiling.
"I'm sorry.. I'll give you space if that's what you want. I guess I wasn't thinking, I mean, we're not really together technically, and I was treating us like we were, and I wasn't even very good at it, was I? I never asked you how you were doing. I always just cried on you. Then I didn't even invite you inside last night, or tell you 'goodnight', I just went to bed because I thought you were going to leave.. I never ask your work schedule. I really should, I guess, I shouldn't just assume. I'm sorry. I'll just go.."
"Sit down." he sighed as I started up, and I nodded, then did as I was told, confused. I thought he wanted me to leave him alone? He turned around, and walked over to the loveseat, sitting next to me, then cuddling up to me. I blinked, then put my arm around his shoulders, wondering what he was doing. I was perfectly willing to cuddle though. "Don't do that. Don't beat yourself up and over think what I said. I just.. I took out how I was feeling on you. I was parched, had been out in the sun too long, and am exhausted, since I didn't sleep last night. I was just heading in to get plasma when you showed up, and my red head temper got the better of me." He yawned then, and closed his eyes. "I told you I'm not good with emotions or any of that. We really don't spend that much time together, except recently, and even that isn't nearly as much as other couples do. It's my stupid job, it always has me bone tired.."
"Why don't you quit?"
He sighed deeply. "It's a little complicated. I want to get a job in the military, but every time I apply they turn me down. And even though we're rich, I want my own money, you know? For when I move out. So I keep my crappy job at the mausoleum." He shrugged, then sat up, and gave me a quick kiss. "I'm going to go to bed now, okay? I love you and take none of what I snapped at you to heart. You aren't stalking me. You're hurting and just need comfort from the one you love." He then stood up, and I told him to sleep well, before watching him head to bed. I then went home and went to bed myself, feeling a little better after we talked, but I still felt like maybe I didn't know how to be a proper girlfriend.

  

The next night, it was the triplets' birthday. We all should have known, since their birthday was right around the same time as Marcelo and Genevieve's, but it had completely escaped all of our minds because of Mom's death. Zach was inventing when his birthday caught up with him, and he grew up into a handsome young adult. He definitely was unique, but I couldn't say that he was unattractive. Actually, if I was a human and not his sister, I'd probably be attracted to him in a fearful sort of way - he looked quite intimidating, even though he completely wasn't.
Jere's caught up with him while he was sleeping, and he he grew up into an adorable, but handsome young adult, full-out vampire. He still looked like the baby of the family. 
Quin was playing on the keyboard, even though he knew his birthday was coming since he'd been outside to see Zach have his. He grew up handsomely as well, and kept his style, despite it being more of a teenager style. It just fit him, completely and totally. 
It was a much cheery subject to end that day with, because earlier in the day I'd read Mom's email - which I decided to keep and use for myself, since the other family members already knew it - and there'd been one from Aunt Katina, and one from Uncle Feliks. Uncle Rhett and Uncle Tony had passed away since Mom had, and Feliks mentioned that the doctors said he didn't have long left. So the triplets' birthdays cheered me up a bit, after having gone to get Uncle Rhett and Uncle Tony's remains from the mausoleum to put in our backyard with the rest of the family members we had. Kind of creepy, I suppose, but.. oh well.

(A/N: Yeah, all of the second generation Parodis began dropping like flies. It was really sad. And Marcelo wasn't helping my sanity, what with him always telling Dahlia that he "didn't feel like" come over, or coming over for only a few minutes then leaving for work or home. There were a lot of calls where he refused to come over that I didn't include in this - and there are whole lot more. And then, finally, I just decided to send her over to his house, and when she talks to him, he snaps at her! If I didn't know he wasn't, I'd have said he was over-emotional or dramatic. Anyway, so, the triplets new traits.. Zachariah got flirty, Jeremiel got ambitious, and Quintus got hopeless romantic.)