You told me to dance with the Fae, so this is quite clearly your fault.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Current Date: July 28, 2023

Character: Blair Imani
Race: Human
Age: 38
Current residence: Kahuku, Hawaii
 

---

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around everything and I’m having a really hard time of it. Several rooms on the east wing along the top floor and one floor below are currently under renovation because one particular client decided that setting things on fire would somehow not be that much of an issue. I think we’re lucky that we caught it when we did. It was bad and it had spread somewhat to the adjacent rooms on either side but that was as far as it had gone.

Still, for the time it took the firefighters to get to us, to get to the top floor and to deal with things—we tried with the extinguisher and it wasn’t enough by that point—five rooms had been touched with the centred one being the worst, of course, and just, the flames, the water and the rest, we’re out ten rooms currently but more aptly, it’s closer to thirty since no one wants to be around while they fix up the ones they can. The one that has been turned into a charred mess is going to need to be gutted completely.

The police had to come, of course. Insurance had to step in; we had to understand what had happened, if it had been an accident, if it had been criminal, if, well, we had to figure everything out.

From word of mouth, though I was there when the client who had been in that particular room had been talking about it as we huddled outside with all of our clients—thank goodness during a barely quiet week so we were able to move certain clients to other rooms—they were arguing with someone on their phone about how they’d been the one to tell them to dance with the Fae and that clearly, everything that was happening now was the fault of the person on the phone’s other end.

Ever since we’ve had that one streamer come through, the air around the hotel has changed. I don’t know how to really put it into words. We still get plenty of the rich and famous, that hasn’t changed, but now we get a lot more of the common folk and they’ve learned to make sure they get their rooms in the quieter times. I’m sure some have tried to get rooms when we’re busier, but we’re always booked and at times, some rooms are booked months in advance.

We’ve lost some of our clientele, though. Some are rightfully worried over this new publicity the hotel has been receiving and I can’t say I blame them. I mean, for the owner, it’s a great thing; we always have people in the hotel at all times now and there hasn’t been a single night when we’ve been empty. Not that it ever happened before other than maybe once, twice a year. We’ve always had at least a handful of clients in at all times but now it’s more than that.

With the fire, I’d honestly been worried that some of the hours would be cut since we’re able to sleep fewer people but somehow, this whole thing has drawn in a whole new group of people. The same people who were coming around for the ghosts are now coming around for the Fae or some sort. I wish it hadn’t happened; I really do. I don’t know what answer to give these people when they question me about the paranormal or the fantastical activities that might be happening all around and it frustrates me. And them.

I’ve spent more time behind the bar than the front desk since the incident and I don’t know which is worse. Patrons that have been drinking rambling on and on about what they claim they’ve seen or felt in the rooms or on the grounds, or the ones at the front desk who ask all the questions about the history of the hotel—that I know by heart—and all of its ghosts—that I know nothing about and want nothing to do with.

At this point, I feel as though I’m at a bit of an impasse, but I’ve had this job for just way too long to change a thing. I don’t want to go out there. Sad as it might sound, this is home for me and my brothers and nothing will change that. That and I don’t want to be away from Alexis either if I can help it. We’ve all been here, and together, too long.

Ghosts and Fae be damned, just give me my old hotel back at this point.

Final Word Count: 772

I don’t know what you did to anger the Fae, but it sucks to be you.

Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Current Date: June 12, 2058

Character: Blair Imani
Race: Human – God of Aquatic Life
Age: 73, physically about 23
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
 

---

I’m not sure when I first started to believe in things that were more than just the norm as far as humans were concerned. I mean, up until I died and spent close to five decades in limbo, I was no more than a mere little human. Now, I’m not dissing on humans. Some humans have done great things, just as there are great things out there that have been achieved by other species, I’m sure. I’m just saying.

I wasn’t much of anything back then. I still don’t think I’m much of anything now either, but you know, one of those things.

I mean, I believed when I left my brothers in this place to keep them safe. I knew there were other things out there and I believed. But if we go back say, like, sixty years? As a teenager, I knew, for a fact, that humanity was it—as far as teens know these things, of course. I’d heard people talking about fantasy and about elves and orcs and all, but it was just that, fantasy.

I feel as though I knew enough about that fantasy that, had it been real to me back then, I possibly could have made it out alive. Of course, considering what I know now, I’m aware that my knowledge back then was mostly based on myths and hearsay and, again, I believed it to be no more than make-believe.

Did that change the fact that I didn’t scoff at other passing kids or teens who played into that fantasy knowledge? Of course not. They were more than welcome to play their little roleplaying game, believing in Fae, in Elves, in Monsters with a capital M. All of these things.

Now, thinking back to what little I remember of before—most of it is gone, honestly. Muddled images of my murder and even further muddled images of my childhood—I know that the main subject of fantasy conversation between the kids around my neighbourhood was the Fae people in general. The one with the myths that you should never tell a Fae your name as it would give it power over you and that kind of thing. It’s hard to tell if this was because of the neighbourhood itself that it was such a common discussion, or just because of something else that I was too blind to want to see.

Even now, through these muddled memories, I remember how often kids—and even some adults—would talk about they didn’t know what they’d done to anger the Fae, but it sucked, and it sucked bad. I wonder why this one subject stayed with me more than any others. The rest is mud, why is the mention of Fae seemingly so important that it stayed with me?

There are plenty of things about my past that I can’t explain and that I don’t know whether or not I’m willing to spend time trying to dig into, to explain. Let’s face it. I died. I was murdered. That in itself is traumatizing enough. Then, being dumped unceremoniously out of limbo in the dead of winter, wearing the clothes I’d died in—in the heat of summer—has also left its marks. Then I had to learn that I’d missed out on close to fifty years of my brothers growing up, finding themselves, and finding love.

All in all, it was a lot to take in after Athanaric had found me and brought me back inside where it was warmer. There was just so much for me to wrap my mind around seemingly all at once that if the memory of people being fond of blaming the Fae for everything that went wrong in their lives is what sticks with me of my life before, I might just have to take it as it is.

It’s already been years at this point and even that baffles me. I feel as though it really was just yesterday, so to speak, that I stumbled out of near literally nowhere and into the waiting arms, again, figuratively, of the man who would save my life in so many different ways.

I want to believe that he saved my life possibly about as much as I saved his. That’s what it feels like on certain days. He keeps me safe, and he makes sure my heart stays in one piece and, well, I feel as though I might not be such a bad partner either for him to have in his life. Yeah, in case that was hard to tell, my self-esteem isn’t great though I’ve gotten better about that too.

Final Word Count: 776

Ah, you know, it’s a nice house, but I don’t believe you when you say it’s not being occupied by spirits.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Characters: Blair Imani
Race: Human
Age: 37
Current residence: Kahuku, Hawaii
Final Word Count: 766 words
 

---

I don’t know where the rumours have started, but it has turned the hotel busier than it ever has been. It wasn’t as though we weren’t already working at full capacity during the usual months—summer, holidays—but at least we used to have a lull, now, with this new thing that’s going on—a new sort of show—we’ve been working at near capacity even during the times when things used to be quieter.

I don’t know that I believe in ghosts. I don’t know that I really believe in the supernatural in any way, shape or form. I mean, I’ve had to focus on work and keeping my brothers safe for so many years that I don’t think I’ve really ever had any time to actually sit down and think to myself if I believe or not if that makes sense.

Watching television is also something I haven’t entertained much. There is a television in our suite, but it only ever is on a little while before and after the shift that I tend to work. I keep track of the day’s weather and of anything that might be coming up in the news but that’s the extent of things. The rare times I’m actually off work for more than a day, I prefer to turn to books.

I was a little startled when, suddenly, one very quiet morning while we were working at barely half capacity, to have enough people coming up to sign in—people who had not called to reserve a room and who would have been turned away without questions had they shown up during our busier times. I had to ask myself if there wasn’t a movie production happening, though that seemed unlikely as we would have been told beforehand though it happened before that we house celebrities working on movies nearby.

Most of them had one thing in common, they were talking about this new show about something paranormal or other. It made no sense to me, I tried not to pay attention. My job isn’t to chat with the clients and see what the rumours they have to say are about. My job is to make sure they sign in just fine, they get all they need from the front desk and find their rooms also just perfectly fine. So it didn’t matter to me that most of them somehow seemed to be here, maybe, for the potential filming of a new episode for some weird television show.

All I managed to put together, later on, is that it wasn’t so much a television show as someone doing the whole streaming thing—something else I’m honestly not familiar with though a few of our guests have come with cameras on their person, just filming their whole experience. Someone who supposedly went around quaint little houses in the general area, at times with a medium, or a spiritualist, or whatever person. The owners might claim that their house is a nice, calm and peaceful place but the streamer might somehow try to prove otherwise and that the place is occupied by spirits.

I don’t get it and I suppose that’s one more reason for me to not really pay attention to whatever it is that’s going on with that whole thing. All I know is that the streamer is from around the area and the following coming and going from the hotel are some sort of loyal fans that try to track the person wherever they go. Eventually, I’m sure, they’ll have gone through all the houses in the general area and the hotel will go quiet again.

One way or another, I suppose it doesn’t really matter. It’s just busier when it used to be quiet. Once the bigger seasons begin, all these folks showing up without a reservation for a room will have to be turned away because we’re booked solid, and these bookings usually come in weeks before the time comes. All these others, they’ll just have to find elsewhere to stay. I’m not even sure why these people are really staying here, other than I have to assume that this is closer to the streamer than it is to their home, but it seems like a fairly expensive waste of money to me.

Staying at a hotel, but not even sleeping there at night, so you can try to catch a glimpse of someone in a house that doesn’t belong to either of you? I feel bad for the homeowners, honestly. How many people are huddling outside, at night, while the streamer does their thing?

What would it take for you to listen to me? To truly sit there and attempt to understand my feelings?

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Blair Imani
Race: Human – God of Aquatic Life
Age: 71, physically about 23
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 783 words
 

---

I usually don’t have any real issues with storms unless they’re winter storms, and the wind is battering the house with all of its strength. I think it’s the mix of the white powdery stuff, the cold and the wind that gets to me. I mean, I guess it makes sense, I was spat out of limbo on the very last day of January four years ago, it was cold, though it wasn’t storming, and I wasn’t dressed for it.

I’m not even truly certain why winter storms trigger the nightmares. There was no storm in sight—other than Iblis’ own anger—that day, in Venice. I still remember how clear and beautiful the sky was. In a way, I think it was a pretty sight to die to; not that I got to enjoy it. One stab in, my whole world was going up in flames; I was struggling to roll over; another stab in and I was trying to crawl away. And, after the third, well… I felt nothing anymore. I assume he caught something along my spine and while it’s blurry, I know I faded to dark after that. There was nothing left.

Anything after that is a blank. According to what I was told after they’d looked me over and made sure I was all right, I’d spent about fifty years—forty-eight, I believe—in limbo. They don’t know why I didn’t end up in the Eden. It’s all right, in a way. I don’t know how I would have handled being lost somewhere for fifty years, all on my own, left to wonder. Even if that somewhere was a beautiful, perfect garden. At least, that’s the sense I got from how the Eden was explained to me.

What I do remember from that fateful day, is that we were fighting but when weren’t we? I really thought I loved him; in a way, I know I loved him, that’s beside the point. I loved him and that’s all there is to it. It might not have been the same kind of love I now share with Athanaric but that’s almost for the best.

We were settled at a small café that I can recall, we’d been talking because, yeah, we’d been having a lot of disagreements over the last few weeks, pretty much since we’d gotten off that plane. I remember how he was pleading with me to just listen to him, to truly sit there and attempt to understand his feelings. This had been his usual spiel, though. He acted as though I never took his feelings into consideration, but I did. I had taken his feelings into consideration up until I had to leave my brothers back in Atheria, in that safe place.

I’d started to see something in his eyes, but I told myself that, just maybe, I could fix him. I was a stupid young man, back then. I was just so, so stupid, you can’t imagine. I was trying to understand his feelings, that’s the thing. I was trying really hard to understand them because I wanted to understand that frightening glint in his eye.

He’d just ended up pushing too far on that particular day and I told him that I couldn’t take his vacillating moods. One moment he was bright-eyed and adoring, the other he was angry, it was worse than trying to keep up with a ping pong match, most of the time. I broke up with him, got up, walked away, he followed me and, well, the rest is history.

I don’t know where he was keeping that knife. Not that I remember much about it other than it hurt.

What I do know is that even now, I can’t be in the kitchen with Athanaric when any serrated knives are used and it’s rare that there isn’t at least one in use. I’m no better when we’re on the water. The thing is, it’s not that I don’t trust him. I trust him more than I’ve ever trusted anyone else but even if it is faded, that memory of the knife in my chest, and then in my back, just severing away my life, it left its mark on me. I’m told that limbo taking in murder victims is rare, rarer still that it has ever spit them out because, well yeah, murder tends to leave a pretty ugly mark on people.

I can tell you that this much is true, I’m not even really sure how well I’m functioning at this point, but I take things one day at a time. Maybe, decades from now, I’ll be able to be near him or even help in the kitchen when there are serrated knives involved. Maybe.

There is no possible way for me to believe you without some sort of proof—which! You don’t have.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Characters: Blair Imani
Race: Human
Age: 35
Final Word Count: 683 words
 

---

You can never be too sure of how to handle the kid of some of the celebrities who come to stay at the North Shore. Some of them will turn their nose at the sight of you because they are dead set on believing you are far below their station but some are still innocent enough or open-hearted enough to treat you like the human being you are. I hate to say that I’ve come across more of the former than the latter but, thankfully, both Cha and Choe seem to have better luck than me as far as this so happens and I’m glad for that.

A few days ago we had this celebrity couple whose name I won’t disclose for the sake of, well non-disclosure agreements and all of that rot that are signed and reviewed every year during the yearly review. They came with all three of their kids, one seemed to be late teens and the other two I am more than sure were twins and couldn’t have been older than ten or so. I’m sure that even with just that bare amount of information, people might be able to find out who I’m talking about but that’s beside the point.

Now, the oldest of the three seemed to be set on entertaining their younger siblings and I couldn’t help but smile a little at the sight while I was signing them in. This, as a whole, seemed to set both parents scowling so I schooled my features, finished their signing in and got them on their way to their room with the twins on their heels with their luggage. All three kids seemed to look at my brothers with some curiosity and said nothing.

Since they’ve settled in, I haven’t really seen much of the parents but the kids have been at the pool almost every day and they’re full of energy. I’ve heard a bit of their game and they seem to be living half in a fantasy world which, it seemed odd at first but if that’s how they entertain themselves without needing computers or constant phone access, I can’t say it’s a bad thing. Just yesterday afternoon, they seemed to be playing a game of sorts that didn’t seem familiar to me.

One would offer a statement of sorts and the other two would seemingly have to guess whether they were telling the truth or not. It usually ended up with them dissolving into giggles and laughter. Eventually, the oldest straightened, throwing on their best scowling face but it was clear they were trying pretty hard not to smile. They said something about how it was impossible for them to believe that one particular statement was real without some sort of truth which—and there they paused, one brow quirked and I can’t help but think they knew I was half-watching because they threw a crooked grin my way—and went on to state that nope, there would be no believing any of it because there was no proof.

The serious face only lasted a few seconds more before all three of them were laughing to the point of tears which, sadly, came to a somewhat abrupt halt when their father came down to the pool. The second all three of them saw him, they sobered up and ducked their heads as though chided about being immature. They’re just kids; you should let kids be kids. Trust me, I wish I’d been able to give both Cha and Choe the childhood they deserved but the only way to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads was to work and, well, I’ve been working here for longer than anyone else. I’m not even going to get into that.

It’s sad to see how their parents expect them to behave; it just doesn’t make any sense, not to me. You only have one childhood don’t ruin it by enforcing your kids to act like they’re better than everyone else when they just want to have fun like the common folks.

Shh, let me be sappy. I want to show you all my appreciation.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Blair Imani
Race: Human – God of Aquatic Life
Age: 70, physically about 23
Final Word Count: 678 words
 

---

I don’t really have any good memories of my last relationship. I mean, it ended in my death, so I suppose you could say I have more than valid reasons to not have good memories of my last relationship. The images of it, most of the time, are faded and I try not to think about it much. I manage surprisingly well. On the rare winter night when the wind will be howling against the house and battering its side, the memories will be crisper and my mind will supply nightmares.

These nightmares are, of course, less than pleasant and it’s not that uncommon that I wake up in the dead of the night, drenched and shaking. Much as these nightmares and wake-ups are not uncommon during these storms, the following days when I just am an absolutely sappy mess during which I suppose I could be compared to a puppy as I show Athanaric just how much he means to me are, just the same, the usual occurrence.

In a way, you could say that I’m trying to make up for the fact that I always end up waking him up in the dead of the night when those nightmares do wake up. It has changed since we first started sharing a bed, he’d wake up much more quickly before, he was more alert but I think that he’s settled into our shared life and our shared time on the water. He’s groggier when he wakes up following one of my nightmares and, in a way, I almost feel worse about it.

So yes, usually, the day that follows a nightmare is a day when I’m going to be so sappy you’ll have sugar-sweet crap coming out of your ears. I’ve learned to show more than tell and while that has been difficult, it hasn’t been impossible. It also helps me in a general sense. I feel like I was never very good with words, though my brothers might disagree with me on that subject. Being able to show Athanaric just how much I appreciate him and feel just so absolutely devoted to him is the best of both worlds.

I thought about asking to keep the area around the home as summer year-round last year, but the more I thought about it, the less I felt certain that this was a good idea at all. While I’m not fond of the bitterly cold winter days, I do still like winter to a point and I don’t think I’d do well if the yard was in summer all year round. I did bring it up to him, just once. We talked about it and just, I ended up negating my own ideas on the subject.

I know that I can’t let my past rule me forever. Never you mind that I died and spent I’m still not sure how many years stuck in limbo—so to speak—but I have to let it go. My life is perfect right now. I know that a lot of people might want to claim that nothing is perfect but my life is perfect and you can’t change my mind on that subject. I can’t let my past shadow my present and future.

Just the same, the nightmares really do only crop up in winter when the storms are pretty bad and we can’t control that. It just means that I get to be a sappy mess for a day or so. I don’t think anyone could find any good reasoning to tell me why being sappy would be a bad thing. We all need a little of that in our lives and no one is going to change my mind on the subject.

So I guess that this is just a thing about taking things one day, then the next. There’s nothing else to it and I’m fine with that. Plus, it just gives me an extra excuse to show him how much I love him so, there’s really nothing there for me to complain about.

It was unusually harsh.

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 2nd Generation
Characters: Blair Imani
Race: Human – God of Aquatic Life
Age: 70, physically about 23
Final Word Count: 640 words
 

---

I’m not a big fan of winter. I don’t know whether or not it’s because of what happened when I died or just where and when I came out of the dark. It was cold in January, two years ago and I still remember just being so long, cold and sitting out there in my shorts and t-shirt. I wasn’t dressed for that weather and I think it left a mark on me.

I mean, winter is perfect weather to stay in, nestled close and comfortable but I know that it’s not always an option. I know that fishing still happens no matter the weather and I still find myself feeling safe only when he’s near me in the colder weather. I suppose I should be seeing someone about this but I just don’t know if I should or not. It’s not life-changing, is it? I still function just fine. At least, in my eyes, I still function just fine but I could be wrong to the point of just not seeing these things, I don’t know.

There was an unusually harsh storm at the beginning of the year, I think as a whole, the town got close to four or five feet of snow in the span of a few hours. By the comments I heard, it was unheard of. Not that they didn’t have the means of getting themselves out of that snow and clearing the roads for safe passage but it still was bad.

I thought I was safe in loving the warmer seasons but I was proved wrong this summer as well. It feels like this year was the year of harsh storms. There was the one at the end of winter, there was a pretty bad one at the end of spring that took down several smaller—I admit—trees but they’d just been completely uprooted and had to be taken away. There was a somewhat harsh storm just a few weeks back that was more ‘too much rain’ harsh more than anything else; it rained so much that the streets flooded some and as I heard from the comments, that had never happened either. They drained after a day or so but it was something.

It’s this summer’s storm that still sits with me, though. I’m not sure that I’d have managed to keep my sanity going if he hadn’t been with me to keep me calm but, on the same note, I can’t express how relieved I am that he stayed home with me that morning. It only started with a small drizzle but by midmorning, it was a steady downpour and around noon, the winds had added themselves into the mix and those winds were so strong that they not only tore one of the piers to pieces, they destroyed one of the boathouses, not so much by tearing it apart as, well, one boat somehow got pulled up by those winds and the rest is history as it crashed down on that boathouse.

We lost a few roof tiles but that’s the worst that the house has suffered. I don’t know that anyone else had to deal with heavy home damage—all damage that I know could be fixed within a few hours—but I know that bigger trees were also uprooted during that particular storm. One, as I heard it, just narrowly missed the house it crashed next to and I’m pretty sure it would have taken down a couple of rooms with, if it had happened.

All in all, I’m just glad that everyone has kept safe through this year of weird storms and I’m really hoping that next year is better for all of us. I have a feeling it will be but you know, fingers crossed and all of that. It’s all I can do.

Is it a serious situation?

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – North Shore
Characters: Blair Imani
Race: Human
Age: 34
Final Word Count: 548 words
 

---

At times, I’m left to wonder about what goes on through the mind of some of our clients.

I can understand that some of them think that because they’re rich, they’re above the law, but when a fire alarm sounds very loudly and very clearly in the hallway just outside your hotel suite, it makes no sense that you would be calling down to the front desk to ask if this situation was serious or not.

It just doesn’t make sense.

No sir, it’s not a serious situation, we’re just having fun with the alarms and making sure everyone knows how terrible this place is. So please ignore the shrill alarm just ringing there and begging you to get out of your room and walk to the nearest exit and make it to the gathering place.

You would be surprised by the fact that I have heard this one before. About four years ago, some idiot had been doing who knows what in his room and his drapes had caught on fire. Luckily, it was caught all very quickly but there remains the fact that yes, there was a fire in the hotel, the sprinklers were going, the alarm was blaring and one particular client called down to the front desk to know what it was all about. He was trying to get ready for his hot date, he had paid good money to come here and he didn’t appreciate all the shenanigans.

Thankfully, I’m not the one who was on desk duty during that day because I think I would have let him roast up there. He just sounded so goddamned entitled while Alexis was telling me about the whole thing that even now, years later, I still have issues wrapping my head around the whole thing.

He’d demanded that we turn off the alarm right that instant. He also demanded that we turn off the sprinklers because he had on an expensive suit and he couldn’t get out of his suite because the water would have ruined his suit. There were a few other demands of the sort but right there and then, it was clear that the man was an idiot. Alexis had tried hard to retell the story and keep it as true to the original as possible but it couldn’t have been very difficult, his stories have always been as close as possible, he’s never been one to add too much to the stories.

The idiot didn’t get out of his room until the firefighters were at his door. Even then, it took everything to get him out of there and some of the staff claims that he’s tried to sue the hotel for ruining his vacation. I’m not sure about that one, I haven’t asked and I haven’t really been interested in finding out. I just mind my business in this place, in the end. I’ve lived here, as a worker, far too long to not have learned that a lot of the rich and famous like to keep their lives more than a little private so bothering them about things like these is the epitome of stupidity. Asking for autographs is asking for someone to boot you out on your ass and just…

Do your job and leave the rest alone.

I’ve practically mastered this piece of machinery.

Timeline/World: North Shore
Characters: Blair Imani
Race: Human
Age: 33
Final Word Count: 520 words

---

“No, no you haven’t.” Leaning over my shoulder, his words are low and amused; his breath is warm against my skin. He’s doing it to distract me and it works every time. No matter that I might be focused on what I’m doing, as focused as I’ll ever get, and all he has to do is lean over my shoulder and whisper in my ear and that focus goes right out the window. He knows this and I’m grateful that he doesn’t do it too often. Just often enough that he’s a pest about it and keeps me from finishing certain tasks on time but that’s mostly it.

In the case of today’s disruption, I can’t tell whether I’m bothered by it or not. I’ve been trying to understand how this old pocket watch works and I’ve been at it on and off for a few days at this point and I still can’t make sense of it. I mean, I get the way the gears turn and why they turn, I can take it apart and put it back together with ease but I still can’t get it to actually run and that’s the part that’s been bugging me. We’re a bit far from anyone with the knowledge needed to fix these things for me to go out and check in with them, not that I’d really want to.

This is an old thing, something from my past with the twins, something from our childhood before the house burned down and I found it in my things only recently. We’ve been here for more than fifteen years and I have no idea how it is that I haven’t found this watch before. There’s an inscription on the inside and my thumb brushes over it as he kisses my cheek and leans back to sit on the bed, just watching me. He’s been doing that a lot too. He’s so patient with me, I’m just glad for it.

Making sure all the odds and ends are back where they belong in the pocket watch, I close it, making sure the seams are all properly together and listen for that soft, telltale snap as it clicks back into place. I look at the motionless face and breathe a soft sigh, shrugging as I tell myself that one of these days I’ll get those hands turning again. I’m in no rush, the watch is certainly not about to go anywhere and my brothers have shown no real interest in it. They were too young when the fire burned everything down and have only a handful of positive memories as far as everything is concerned, I don’t blame them for not wanting this.

Putting the small, recently polished, watch back into the small drawer on the desk, I lock that drawer and put the key out of the way before I’m moving back to the bed to settle in for some quiet time. It’s rare to get time off in these parts and I appreciate that time off as much as I appreciate my companion’s patience with me and his teasing, distracting touch.

It hasn’t started yet. There’s still some time left.

Timeline/World: Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Blair Imani
Race: Human – God of Aquatic Life
Age: 67, physically about 23
Final Word Count: 534 words

---

‘Movie night’, it has such a nice ring to it; I wouldn’t even really know where to begin about it all. I mean, I never used to be a big fan of sitting back, snuggling up and watching a movie. That might also have had to do with the fact that he wasn’t much of a snuggler. That’s not really something I try to think about, it makes something lost deep within the recesses of my memory ache and I want absolutely none of that.

At this point in my life though, movie night has become one of my favourite things. Fresh made popcorn, either just with some butter or with a hint of other seasonings, depending on how we feel, blankets to cuddle under in the colder months, the AC running not far in the hotter months but it doesn’t really stop me from settling at his side, maybe not up close and personal but if I focus a little I can listen to the in and out of his breath easily enough and it’s soothing.

It feels good to be alive. I don’t think I could ever utter these words either. Life before him, life before my death and rebirth, it had become something less than pleasant, something I could just barely manage on a daily basis but all I wanted was to keep my brothers safe. What did I end up doing, instead? I abandoned them completely. It is my fault, I accept that readily and I am more than amazed that they’ve forgiven me, at this point. It feels good.

What feels better is the knowledge that tonight is movie night, that tonight; I get to prepare the overflowing bowl of popcorn with just the right seasoning while he picks something for us to watch. I’ve yet to not like the movies that have been picked. Sure, there are types that I like a little less but that’s talked about, discussed. That’s part of being in a relationship with someone, you talk things over, you make sure everything is clear and that if there are misunderstandings, they can be fixed.

How I wish things had been that way before, though perhaps not. If they’d been this way before, I wouldn’t be here now. I’d really be completely and absolutely dead, very likely not having found my way into the dark after everything that happened; only to be spit out I’m not sure how many years later, out in the cold of winter at the end of January of this year. It feels like it’s been so much longer since I’ve come into his life and he’s come into mine.

I guess that’s what it is about, this being in love thing? Real love, that is. What I felt in that prior relationship… I’m just not sure but it is nothing compared to everything I feel now, to how perfect my life seems to be. Never mind the added bonus of the whole never-going-to-age thing, that’s something else. I get to spend eternity with Athanaric, what else could I possibly be asking for? More cuddles, maybe. I love falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat against my ear.