Leaving

Love kills, makes you blind, and destroys my nervous system.

Leaving

I put the cute notebook on the ground and just sat down next to Coffee. We remained silent for a while.

"Will you come back to school?" I asked later.

"Why bother?" she grunted. "There is no point in it anymore."

I was thinking for a moment.

"What would Jo want you to do?"

She looked up at me with glistening eyes.

"She would want you to do the things she would have liked doing. Visit the places she would have liked. Live a life full of wonder, so that when you meet again you can tell her about it." I answered and as I was talking bitter tears ran down her cheeks. "Live her dream, because you no longer just live for yourself. So come back to school."

She wiped her tears. "You are right."

Silence engulfed us again for a while.

"What would she want me to do?" I asked Coffee even though I was afraid her answer might hurt.

The vampire girl looked at me again. "She would want you to be happy, Shay."

"Happy?" I repeated disbelieving.

"Yes," she nodded. "She would want you to love and be loved."

I pursed my lips into a sharp line.

"I can't imagine I could love again."

Coffee nodded again. "Time will help, I am sure."

Such a generic thing to say.

"But I am glad you are not actively searching for someone to fill her place," she added. "I would have to kill you if you did so soon."

She was serious about this.

"Yeah, I know." I sighed.

"Guys," said Alex and we both looked up questioningly. "There is a tradition in Asia of burning papers for the dead... Like there is paper money or paper clothes. It is believed that they will receive them in the afterlife."

The wolf held up a photograph. The photo showed the four of us on our last carefree outing.

"Let's bring her some memories from time to time," he suggested. "Let's send her lots of nice ones to make her smile."

Coffee's body shook and I thought she was going to cry. Finally, she just said, "She would like the idea of something like this."

Yes, she would.

Alex placed the ceramic bowl in front of the gravestone and bent down to light the photograph. He quickly placed it in the ceramic bowl and sat down between us.

For moments, we just watched as the smiling faces were consumed by the tiny flame, leaving nothing but grey ash.

(...)

Encsi got better within a week, to the point where she was able to move around the house without help. I would have advised her to take a few more days of rest — and peace for myself — but she insisted on going out into the garden occasionally.

She even said that she was going mad between the four walls, so I let her — you simply can't win against a woman's argument. She seemed cheerful — Alex always spent a few hours with her when he had time, so I didn't really mind her. At those times, Encsi seemed to glow.

I could smell love in the air. Shit, where's the air freshener?!

So, I tried not to throw up when I saw them smooching, but I have to say, it took a huge effort. Anyway, at this point I made a disgusted grimace and went into another room without lovebirds.

I sighed deeply. Simon was quietly leafing through a book.

"Now tell me, mate," I began, and he looked up at me, "there are over seven billion people on this planet, and I'm the one who has to put up with the abuse of two of them. Fate is cruel."

I got a mocking smile from Simon, and then the ghost turned his gaze back to the book.

"Thanks," I grumbled. "It's a pleasure to talk to you."

Something rubbed against my leg. I shot a murderous glance at the audacious creature, but the cat only managed a demanding meow. Since Alex spent every spare moment of his time with Encsi, he sometimes forgot to feed the wretch. This would have been fine, as at least the bastard would have starved to death, but this devil cat was cunning, very cunning, and would not leave me alone until I had satisfied his needs.

I growled something like a curse under my nose, then got up and went to the kitchen. I took a sachet from the fridge and poured the contents into the cat's bowl.

"Here, eat up, you demon cat," I said pushing the food in front of it.

Of course, the cursed being immediately set about destroying the food, which was of course his favourite, the tuna-flavoured — and it was the most expensive in the shop.

Of course, the abomination refused to eat anything else, and Alex always had a soft spot for it so whenever we went shopping, he would always be eager to tell me that the poor kitten would starve to death if it couldn't eat that specific brand.

Then I would argue that the fucking cat would not die, it would catch a mouse from the neighbours. At this point, the wolf made a disgusted face and insisted that he would make the cat rather have the kitty food than the mouse. That's why they domesticated the fucking thing, moron!

After that, I said okay, he could buy the cat food, but with his own money — and I was fair enough, I think.

I headed back to the living room to see if there was anything on the telly that was worth watching. After a few minutes, the cat returned and then arbitrarily took a seat on my lap.

I switched channels, but there was nothing on TV but Family Secrets and some Private Detectives. I could live just fine without knowing about how someone cheated on someone.

The next five channels were all soap operas. Well, I got pissed and turned off the damn TV. One minute some girl was on the verge of crying and shouting 'Huan Pali' or something, and the next minute the screen went black. Fortunately, I had the self-restraint not to break the remote control in half, realizing the distastefulness of humanity. How can people watch so much shit?!

I sighed deeply, threw the remote control on the table, then rested my head on the sofa.

School starts tomorrow. It sucks. Not that I'm nervous or anything, since I'm every teacher's favorite, but still, it's our last year... without Jo.

I dropped my hand lightly onto my lap — or rather, onto the cat's body. Of course, the cursed beast kept purring. I closed my eyes and just relaxed — it's been a long time since I emptied my mind and just didn't think about anything.

The cat's fur was silky — I almost didn't notice when I started playing with it. The loud purring soothed me, and I continued to stroke it, though more to ease the tension in my body than to please the cat.

Of course, not ten minutes had passed and my self-indulgent idleness was interrupted. Although her footsteps were almost soundless, I could feel her gaze on me.

"What do you want?" I asked in my usual unfriendly tone, which I was saving for her.

Encsi stepped closer, but I didn't even bother to open my eyes.

"You are so kind to him," she remarked in a friendly, dreamy tone. "Do you like animals?"

"Not particularly," I opened my eyes, then pulled my lips into a little grin. "But I don't hate them either."

I took her in, didn't I? My house is a zoo.

She did her make-up again, as heavy and black as usual — though I liked it better when she didn't.

"Well, to be honest, I was a bit scared when we met again," she admitted, 'You're so... scary sometimes."

Well, no shit. I am scary.

"Thanks," I flashed her a satisfied smile.

Obviously she didn't mean it as a compliment, but she returned my smile anyway.

"Sit," I pointed towards one of the armchairs, "You can watch TV, although there's only fucked up shit to choose from. Well, I don't know, maybe you like soap operas."

"I, no..." she started quickly. "I was just leaving."

I looked up at her in surprise. "You're not staying with Alex?"

She shook her head.

"But you love him, don't you?" the blush on her cheeks answered instead.

"It's better this way," she said, "I'm only going away for a while, not forever."

But I'd prefer the latter...

"Do as you wish," I shrugged.

"I just..." she added. "I want to thank you for what you did for me."

"No," I sighed. "I didn't do it for you at all. I did it for Alex."

"I still owe you a thank you," she insisted.

I'm happy just to get you out of here as quickly as possible...

"I'll see you out," I said, and banishing the cat to the sofa, I stood up.

The most evil beast of hell gave an awkward meow to let me know its displeasure.

Then something happened that I had not expected: Encsi hugged me. Gently, and just barely touching me, she hugged me. I liked the vanilla-scented perfume she was wearing, but I would have bitten off my own tongue before I would ever compliment her.

"Thank you," she said, "I mean it."

I got her off me. I must have looked at her as if I'd just found out she'd been released from a mental hospital because she looked unsure.

"Don't start this sentimental shit. You'll end up crying and soaking my shirt," I said dryly.

Encsi just blinked at me with wide eyes for a moment, then laughed. I raised my eyebrows questioningly. My hypothesis that she had been released from a mental hospital was now proven.

"You haven't changed a bit, have you?" he laughed.

"Look, who's talking," I replied. "You're just as annoying as ever."

She laughed and then started for the front door. She stepped out, but before she started, she turned back to me once more and watched me with her huge ebony eyes.

"See you later," she smiled.

Not if I can help it.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to Alex?" I asked.

She shook her head.

I didn't want to break the emotional moment and make her aware that her plan had failed. Alex was standing in the garden with a shopping bag in his hand.

"Encsi?" in that one word he asked all the questions he wanted to ask.

"Alex," she turned to him in surprise, in that word, and she had all the answers.

Oh, God, I should slam the door now and save myself the drama.

Alex ran and didn't stop until he reached the girl.

"Where are you going?" he demanded.

"I have some unfinished business," she replied.

The scene made me sick to my stomach — seriously, did the TV suck me in and put me in a Latin soap opera? Or is this hell?

And, as in all sufficiently sappy series, Alex felt the moment had come to kiss his beloved — finally destroying my nervous system.

"Ew," I muttered, "can't you at least not do it in front of me? It's disgusting! I'm going to have nightmares!"

When they parted, Alex gave me an irritated look, but Encsi just laughed. After that, she blew one more light kiss on Alex's lips, then sent me one last gentle smile — to which I responded with a disgusted grin — and headed for the gate.

My best friend watched numbly as she walked away and her figure slowly disappeared down the street — I could almost hear the distinctive, heartbreaking music of soap operas.

I got bored of this after about two minutes, so I stepped up to my flatmate and, tearing my gaze away from Encsi's figure, glanced up at him.

"What's for dinner?"

This broke the moment perfectly, and Alex finally realized that he was not alone.

"You couldn't put up with it for a moment longer, could you?" he grumbled, but there was a slight smile on his lips.

Maybe Encsi gifted it to him when she gave him that last little kiss.

You honestly thought I could bear an eternity waiting for my dinner?

"Of course not," I grinned and patted him on the shoulder.

With that, I left and went into the kitchen. Alex followed me after only about five minutes — by then he had his usual grin because he knew. He knew that there was always one beautiful thing about goodbyes — the possibility of seeing each other again.

He put on his apron and quickly gathered the ingredients for the pancakes and the leftover stew from the day before with the sour cream.

"Now, let's get started on those meat pancakes!" he exclaimed and started cooking.

Meanwhile, I picked up my phone that I had left on the table and started reading articles on Kaleidoscope — or at least I wanted to. For a moment I was shocked: I couldn't read it. One moment I was seeing strange, inverted letters that I couldn't make out, and the next, after blinking long and hard, the headline was proclaiming: 

[Crosspherat introduces new reforms.]

I shrugged my shoulders in acknowledgement — surely my eyes were just tired. Little did I know at the time that this tiny, insignificant trifle was the first sign of something huge and sinister.