Moonlight Denial: Shades of Moonlight Book One

Hey guys and welcome to the next chapter of MD and the final chapter in the Felix saga. Woot! It’s been kind of a hectic week for me, but I was able to finish this chapter, kinda late, but still finished. So here is the link to my replies to my wonderful reviews and then enjoy the chapter!

Replies: http://darkness80.livejournal.com/

************************************************************************

“Evan!” Felix cried out. He tossed aside the gun and sprang from his chair to run to Evan.

Nicoli clenched his eyes in pain at how happy Felix sounded. He was overjoyed to see his murderer and it killed Nicoli completely.

Felix collided into Evan, wrapping his arms around the other’s middle, and hugged him tightly.

“Oh, you have no idea how good it is to see you,” Felix chimed happily, his cheek pressed against Evan’s chest. “I’ve been going nuts here all by myself. Ethan hasn’t visited me in days, so punch him next time you see him.” His brows furrowed and he pouted. “Evan? Come on, hug me back.” He grinned up at the other. “No one else is here. You don’t have to feel embarrassed about hugging the street punk.”

Evan’s face was expressionless. He just stared at Felix with cold eyes. He did what he was asked, though, and loosely put his arms around Felix.

“That’s better,” Felix said, snuggling his face into Evan’s chest again.

It was so hard to watch. Nicoli had his arms around himself, his nails biting into his flesh. He wanted to yell at Felix to get away. To run from Evan. But nothing would help. This was just a playback of what had already taken place. Nothing could be changed.

“So, why are you visiting me?” Felix asked. “You haven’t come here before.”

“I wish…” It was the first words Evan had said and it was so soft Nicoli almost didn’t hear it.

“What?” Felix asked.

“I wish I could say I was sorry,” Evan said, speaking up. “I wish I could say I was sorry for what I’ve done and what I’m about to do, but I can’t because I’m not. It’s what has to be done and neither of us can change that.”

“Evan…what are you talking about?” Felix asked. He tried to step away, but Evan held him tighter. “Hey, what are you doing?” He now started to struggle, but Evan wouldn’t relinquish his hold, instead he only held Felix in a vice grip. “Let go, you’re hurting me.” He began to push against Evan desperately, his fear evident. “Evan, let go!”

Felix gave one final push and Evan released him, causing him to fall to the floor. Felix whimpered and gripped his wrist that he had hurt in the fall.

“Evan, the hell is the matter with you?” Felix said, glaring up at him. “You’re not acting right.”

“Oh, aren’t I?” Evan asked, raising a brow. “I think I’m acting just fine.”

Felix swallowed thickly as he stared at Evan warily. He obviously knew something was wrong.

“What did you mean just now?” he asked slowly. “About being sorry for what you’ve done?”

“I just simply meant I wish I could be sorry for the heinous things I’ve done, that the others would call crimes.”

“Crimes? You’ve never done anything bad.” Felix watched Evan carefully as he crouched down and took Felix’s chin in his hand.

“How sweetly naive you are. I’ve done plenty of terrible things that the others will never forgive me for.” He smiled for the first time and it wasn’t the gentle smile he had before, but a malicious one. “I know Aria would never forgive me. Not with the way she looked at me when I stabbed her in the heart.”

Felix gasped and jerked back, away from Evan’s hand.

“W-What? What are you talking about? You-no, Dimitri and them were the ones who killed Aria. You couldn’t. Y-You wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t I, now?” Evan asked, resting his chin on the hand Felix moved away from. “Do you also think I wouldn’t pass along information to Dimitri or help him find ways to attack the clan?”

Felix’s eyes widened and he slowly crawled back from Evan.

“N-No, it can’t be. You-You’re the traitor? It was you?” His eyes glazed over with tears that delicately fell down his cheeks. “It was you all along?”

Evan lifted up his hands and gave a casual shrug.

“I’m afraid so.”

Felix shook his head numbly.

“N-No. How could it be? Not you.” The tears were coming heavier now. “You…you were the one that killed Aria…and Stephen?”

Evan nodded.

Felix’s shock seemed to trickle away and anger filled him instead.

“How could you!? How could you do that!? They were your family, they loved you! How could you kill them like that?!” he screamed.

“It’s not as hard as it sounds,” Evan said, that sickening smile still on his face. “Aria was a threat. I wasn’t about to sit back as she hurt Dimitri. And Stephen.” He scoffed. “Stephen was nothing but an ingrate. Dimitri gave and offered him everything and he just turned his back on him and for what? For Isaak and Conrad? For Cora? That was the stupidest mistake he ever made. One I made sure he paid for.”

Felix stared at him, unable to comprehend what was going on. Not able to believe that someone he loved so dearly would betray him and his family. He bent over and clutched his head, his nails digging into his scalp.

“No, it’s not true. It’s not true, it’s not true,” he said over and over, crying and shaking his head, as if doing so would make the world right again.

Evan watched him cry for a bit. There was no remorse in his features, no sympathy or pity. He simply gazed upon Felix and his tears in idle curiosity. As if it was a strange spectacle.

“You know,” Evan said, softly, gently. “Your tears are wasted on those who are already dead and if any of those tears are for me they’re a waste too. You should save them for those who are in danger of joining Aria and Stephen.”

Felix slowly looked up at Evan and the growing fear was evident in his eyes.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

Evan smiled again.

“Remember what I said? Besides wishing I could be sorry for what I’ve done?”

Felix’s eyes widened, the answer coming to him swiftly. He backed up further and there was a distinct tremble in his body.

“What are you going to do?” he asked. His eyes followed Evan as he slowly stood, that smile only increasing.

“It breaks my heart to say it, Little One, but I’m going to kill you.”

Felix gasped, his body’s tremble turning into a quake. His tears were a stream now and it seemed like their flow would never ebb.

“You’re going to…why? Why are you going to…?” He just couldn’t bring himself to say it. “Evan, you’re my friend. I thought you cared about me. I trusted you!”

For the first time Evan’s smile fell and he shook his head almost sadly.

“Believe me, Little One, it’s going to pain me to do it. I do care about you, more so than I ever thought I could for a human. I wish there was some other way, but there isn’t. It would be foolish of me to ask you not to hate me for this, but you really only have one person to blame. He’s the reason why I have to do this.”

“Wha-Who?”

A different air circled Evan. It was of pure hatred. It seeped from every pore in his body and made him appear ferocious, making even Nicoli shrink back.

“Ethan, he’s the reason I have to do this.”

“Ethan?” Felix almost whispered.

“Yes, the one person I hate most in this world. I’m going to ruin him the way I’ve been dreaming of for years. It’ll be a sweet victory that I’ve waited so long for.”

“Hate? How can you hate him? He’s your brother.”

“A fact that I despise very much.”

“Where is this coming from, Evan?” Felix asked in bewilderment. “I’ve never seen anything that resembles hatred come from you.”

“That’s because I’ve had to hide it oh so carefully for so long.” Evan sighed, placing his hand to his forehead. “I’m so tired, Felix. So tired of pretending. So tired of bending over backwards, feigning feelings that aren’t there.” His hand dropped and the smile returned. “No more of that. Can’t you see? Dimitri has freed me. He’s taught me so much. Taught me that I can be my own man, that the crutch I’ve been carrying for so long isn’t needed. I love that man so much and I’ll never be able to repay him for what he’s done for me.”

Felix was shaking his head, staring at Evan as if he were a stranger.

“You’re insane,” he whispered. “Don’t you hear yourself? That man is a monster.”

“Don’t say that!” Evan yelled and the wrath he exuded made Felix cower. “Don’t. Ever. Say that,” he growled lowly. “I wouldn’t expect a child like you to understand. No one understands what he’s gone through, how much he has suffered.” His features smoothed over, the anger disappearing. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters, at this very moment, is what I have to do now to get back at Ethan for all the years of torment he put me through.”

“What torment? What the hell are you talking about? Ethan loves you, Evan, can’t you see that? He would never do anything to hurt you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Ethan is more of a monster than I am,” Evan said, his voice quite and his eyes distant, as if he were staring at some hidden specter. His vision then came back into focus and caught Felix in his sights. “That doesn’t matter, though. I won’t try to make you see Ethan how I do, you love him far too much and he loves you just as much, which is why you have to die.”

“W-What?” Felix asked, the fear returning. His eyes shifted to his right side and he began to scuttle back in that direction as Evan calmly walked towards him.

“Yes, as of now you are the closest thing to his heart, even more so than I am.”

Nicoli was shocked to hear so much bitterness come out in those last few words.

“I know Ethan. Losing you will utterly destroy him.” His sick smile returned. “And that’s what I’m aiming for. As much as killing you will hurt me, it will bring me more pleasure to see the mighty king fall in ruin. With that, Little One, I bid you a fond farewell.”

Evan advanced, his intention clear, but Felix had other ideas. He rolled over onto his hands and knees and dove for the chair he had been in. He grabbed something up off the floor and turned on Evan, still on his knees. The lamplight reflected off the barrel of the handgun he had tossed aside earlier. With a guttural cry Felix fired, the shot of the gun drowning him out.

He continued to fire, squeezing the trigger over and over until the chamber was empty and his next shot gave nothing but a click. He was breathing heavily, but all sound left him and his eyes widened in fright at what he saw. No bullet had hit their target. Instead they were all suspended in air just an inch from Evan’s person, frozen in time.

Evan chuckled.

“Nice try, Little One.” He lifted his hand, two fingers pointing upwards. “My turn.” The fingers fell in Felix’s direction.

Felix screamed as the bullets changed course, whizzing passed him. They all went by harmlessly, hitting everything around him, except for the last one. Felix cried out in pain as the last bullet grazed his side deeply. He bent over, his elbow meeting floor, clutching his side with his other hand. His shirt was dyed red almost immediately. When the shock passed Felix took his hand away and looked at it. His palm was stained crimson.

“I find it silly that Ethan gave you a gun of all things to protect yourself with,” Evan said, as if he and Felix were having a casual conversation. “I mean, what is a gun going to do against a vampire, really?”

Felix didn’t reply. His eyes slid over to the door that was still open. It was the only way out. It was his only escape. Felix, despite the pain he must have been in, scrambled to his feet and bolted for the door. He was only a couple feet away when it swung closed of its own accord.

Felix ran into and immediately began trying to wrench it open, but no matter how fiercely he pulled on the doorknob, it wouldn’t open. The surface of the door was tinged red as Felix began pounding on it.

“No! No!!!”

He shrieked when Evan was on him in the blink of an eye. He pressed his body against Felix’s back, pinning him to the door.

“Shh, shh, shh,” Evan whispered in Felix’s ear as the other shuddered and whimpered. “There’s no need to scream like that, Little One. Hush now.” He brushed a few strands of hair behind Felix’s ear. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.” He placed a kiss on the side of Felix’s head, making the other release a light sob.

“I won’t lie to you, Felix,” Evan said, his voice soft and calm, almost soothing. “I won’t make this quick and painless. This is going to be torture, blindingly painful and extremely drawn out.” Evan placed his hand on Felix’s blood drenched side and there was a cry as he dug his fingers into the wound there. “Just close your eyes, Little One, count to a hundred and you’ll be in paradise where there is no pain and no suffering. You deserve that much.”

Without warning Evan grabbed the back of Felix’s shirt and threw him across the room, making him collide with the bookcase. It wobbled dangerously after Felix collapsed to the floor in a heap, but continued to stand proud. Felix weakly tried to get up, groaning pitifully.

Evan watched the feeble attempts as he rolled up his sleeves.

“Human’s should never meddle in the affairs of vampires,” he said and a jolt sparked down Nicoli’s spine. “The consequences are too tremendous to bear…as you’re about to find out, Little One.” Once his sleeves were out of the way he advanced towards Felix.

“Let’s get started.”

Screams. There was nothing but screams. They pierced through Nicoli’s core and it took everything in him to not be shattered completely by them. Other sounds soon joined. The snapping and cracking of bones, the ripping of flesh, the gurgles of pleas coming from split, blood soaked lips.

It was terrible and lasted for what felt like hours. Nicoli was sure he was going to die along with Felix as he watched the torment Felix was subjugated to. It was too much, he couldn’t take it. Even so, he never looked away. Not once. He made himself watch every second of Felix’s torture, even when he was blinded by his own stinging tears.

Felix was showing him something so personal and so secret. Something no one else had seen besides Felix and his murderer. It was a gift. A horrible, terrible gift, but it was a gift and he wasn’t going to insult Felix by looking away.

Evan was relentless. As soon as one bone was broken he worked on dislocating a joint or cutting helpless skin. He never spoke and his face was as expressionless as when he had first arrived. He was a monster, a true coldhearted monster.

Nicoli bit into his finger hard as he watched Felix still try to get away. Even after everything he was still bent on escaping.

Felix inched across the floor, using only one hand to pull himself. His other arm and legs had been broken in numerous places and were useless. It wasn’t clear if he even knew where he was going. One eye was swollen shut and the other was blind in fear, panic, and pain. His instincts had taken over and he tried to get as far away from his attacker as possible.

Evan slowly followed after him. Simply watching as he took small steps behind Felix’s slow retreat. He seemed immune to what he had created. He wasn't affected by Felix’s tortured state or by the whimpering sobs that were produced. He just idly looked on with no remorse.

“All right, Little One. That is enough,” Evan said after Felix had crawled a few feet from him. He lifted his hand and made a gesture towards him.

Felix let out a warbled shriek as he was pulled back towards Evan by an invisible force. He dug his fingers into the floor to try and stop, leaving behind scratches in the wood. When he was back over to his tormentor, Evan made another hand motion and Felix was flipped over onto his back.

Evan knelt down besides Felix’s bruised and battered body. He delicately wiped away strands of hair that were once a beautiful, bright yellow, but were now matted with dark red blood.

“I wish I could say I was sorry for doing this,” Evan said again and there was actually a tinge of regret in his words. “I will never be able to make it up to you. All I can give you now is an easy, blissful death. It’s my last gift to you.”

Evan slipped his hand underneath Felix’s neck and lifted him up ever so slightly. Then Evan bent down, opening his mouth and Nicoli saw a flash of fangs before they sank into the flesh of Felix’s neck.

Nicoli couldn’t see Felix’s face, a curtain of golden waves blocking him from view. But Nicoli could hear him. He could hear the strained whimpers and how Felix’s breathing became heavier and heavier. Each intake more labored than the last.

Felix’s good arm was laid out at his side. Nicoli watched as the fingers twitched uncontrollably, the muscles doing a dance underneath the skin. The hand then began to tremble and the fingers began to clench inward towards the palm. Tighter and tighter. Nails lightly touching one another. Then, all at once, the hand relaxed. It lay still, motionless. It would never move again. Felix was gone.

Nicoli fell to his knees, the spell he had been in broken. He covered his face with his hands as he began to sob uncontrollably. He never imagined Felix’s death was that terrible, that prolonged and that heart wrenching. He had thought Felix had died swiftly and with little pain, but Meier wouldn’t even give him that.

Nicoli couldn’t stop crying. He tried. He willed the tears to ease and disappear, but they wouldn’t. He gave out a watery gasp when arms came around his shoulders and a head burrowed itself against the side of his neck. He gripped Felix’s arm, the embrace making him cry harder.

They sat there for a long time. Nicoli sobbing into Felix’s arm as the other held him tightly. Finally, Nicoli’s weeping began to ebb and he simply sniffled into the ghostly appendage.

“You know,” Felix said softly, making Nicoli jump from the sound. “Meier was right. He did give me a blissfully peaceful death.”

Nicoli pulled away and looked at Felix strangely after wiping his eyes.

“Dying from a vampire’s bite is actually one of the better ways to die,” Felix continued. “As they drain you to the point of death, you enter this euphoric state, becoming oblivious to your surroundings. No pain, no anything. Just a sense of ecstasy and then you slip away, as if you’re going to sleep. The only difference is you never wake up.”

Nicoli sniffed as he wiped his nose on his arm.

“Why did he have to do all of that stuff before it?” he asked.

Felix shrugged.

“Not sure. I guess he just really wanted to show Ethan how much I had suffered by his hand before I died. The worse condition Ethan found me in, the more painful it would be for him.”

Nicoli shook his head and wiped the final stray tears from his eyes. He wanted to cry more, but he finally had enough control to push the feeling away.

“Are you going to be okay?” Felix asked.

Nicoli found it funny that Felix was asking him that when it was Felix they had just watched die. In a normal situation it should have been Nicoli asking Felix if he would be okay after reliving the final moments of his life.

“Yeah,” Nicoli said, dabbing at his nose a final time. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to cry you a river.” He wasn’t sure how he was ever going to live that one down. He blinked when Felix did something wholly unexpected. He laughed.

“Eh, don’t worry about it. I promise not to tell anyone unless you do something to really piss me off.”

Nicoli couldn’t believe it. How could Felix joke and laugh as if they hadn’t just watched him get brutally murdered? Of course, Felix did have several years to come to terms with his death, but it still jarred Nicoli.

“Now watch,” Felix said, pointing out in front of them. “You’re about to see something that few have ever witnessed.”

“What?” Nicoli asked, looking where he was directed.

“A ghost being born.”

The room around them had been getting increasingly dimmer. Everything had started to turn grey and black and the furniture and walls around them had begun to smudge and become indistinct.

Then, after Felix had drawn Nicoli attention to it, everything began to come back into focus. Color rushed back into the surroundings and the room was whole again. Nicoli was heavily confused. If Felix was dead then everything should have disappeared and turned to black.

It took only a second to realize that Evan had moved Felix’s body. Felix now lay in the very center of the room and Evan began to arrange his limbs the best he could. He placed Felix’s hands on his chest, having to snap the broken arm into place since it was at such an odd angle, and he straightened out Felix’s legs as far as they would go. When he was done it looked like Felix was lying in a coffin, ready for his final burial.

Evan stroked Felix’s head and bent down to place a kiss directly on Felix’s bloody mouth. He then got up and walked over to the chair Felix had been occupying. He moved it so its back was facing the door, but its front facing Felix’s body. Then he picked up the book that had toppled off Felix’s lap, sat down and began to casually read.

Nicoli shook his head. That bastard. Evan was nothing but a bastard. Nicoli would have snarled and griped about it, but Felix tapped him on the shoulder. When he had Nicoli’s attention he pointed toward the body.

“Watch,” he said again in a hushed whisper.

So Nicoli watched. He focused his eyes on Felix’s mutilated body, though he wished he could just banish the sight from his memories. He was about to ask what was supposed to happen when he saw something.

Tiny, shimmering flakes began to appear on Felix’s body. There was just a few at first, but more and more kept appearing until almost every inch of Felix was covered in them. Then the sparkling flakes began to float into the air. They came together and twisted around each other, forming a miniature cyclone that rose higher and higher into the air.

Nicoli stole a glance towards Evan to see his reaction, but he was motionless. He just kept reading, unaware of the change that was happening to Felix.

The head of the shimmering cyclone moved off a few feet away from Felix’s body. It then collected in a ball. The ball began to spin, the flakes moving around each other, faster and faster and as they did the ball grew smaller. It spun itself into the size of a golf ball and then it condensed itself even smaller before it imploded in a great show of light.

Nicoli stared in awe, wondering what he had just seen. Remnants of the flakes fell to the floor before disappearing, but left in their wake stood a figure. It was Felix and now the past and present Felix’s were duplicates of each other, right down to the cut of their hair and their tattered clothes. The curious aspect, though, was that the past Felix looked dimmer and more transparent.

The new specter stood completely still, his head slumped forward and eyes closed. Then he groaned. Felix lifted his head and blinked. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, as if waking from a long sleep.

“What happened?” he murmured before looking around. His eyes widened. The room was a mess. What furniture there was had been toppled over and there was blood splatters and smears everywhere.

“Holy shit,” Felix said as he looked around. “Who died?” Then he spotted the body on the floor. With tentative steps he drew closer. When he was at the body’s side he dropped down to his knees, not able to look away from it. “He…looks like me.”

Felix reached out a hand. A sharp gasp sounded and he wrenched his hand back when, instead of touching the body, his fingers went through it. That’s when he realized something wasn’t quite right with him. He stared at his hands, flexing his fingers, gazing at their translucency. He looked down at his torso and the rest of his body.

“What’s going on? What happened to me?” he asked to his surroundings, getting to his feet and looking around for answers. Then his eyes landed on Evan. Nicoli could tell just from Felix’s face that everything, every little detail of what had happened, came rushing back to him. Such rage overtook him and he rushed at Evan.

“You bastard!” Felix screamed, punching and clawing at Evan’s head, but his fists went through harmlessly. “You killed me! You killed me! How could you do this?! How could you!?”

Evan was oblivious to it all. He simply sat, lazily flipping through the pages of the book. Not giving Felix one ounce of his attention. After several attempts Felix fell to his knees and let loose a series of screams and wails, mourning his own passing.

“Why can’t Meier see you or feel that?” Nicoli asked. “Vampires can feel your cold, can’t they?”

“They can, but not at this time,” Felix told him. “I’m a newborn ghost. I have absolutely no power. No one can see me or feel my presence. It takes time to learn everything that I can do now. So, at this point, I am invisible and soundless. A hidden shadow on the world that no one knows is there.”

Nicoli was quiet as he watched the other Felix cry and feebly attempt to punch Evan’s knees. Nicoli pondered what that would be like. To be in the world, a being that did exist, but one that no one could see or talk to. It was a horrible thought.

“What happened next?” Nicoli asked, wondering where they could possibly go from here.

“Well, about an hour later, maybe less, maybe more, I had no sense of time then, someone else came to the house.”

Felix waved his hand and time leapt forward. When it settled Evan was still where he had been. The other Felix, however, was wandering around the room, putting his hand through the walls and whatever else he came across. Felix, Evan and Nicoli all lifted their heads when a door opened and closed somewhere in the house.

Just by the sickening smile that crossed Evan’s face Nicoli knew who it was. Ethan.

“Felix! I’m ba…”

The joyous greeting trailed off. Ethan knew something was wrong. Nicoli could practically feel the dread that filled the house. The sound of running feet filled the air and a moment later the door burst open. Nicoli knew the first thing Ethan saw was the blood soaked room. He gazed around, as if in a daze. Then his eyes found Felix’s body.

“No.” The word was whispered from Ethan’s disbelieving lips as he stared at the mutilated body laid out in the middle of the room. Then, all at once, reality washed over him.

“Felix!” he screamed as he dashed over to the body. When he was there he collapsed to his knees, his eyes never leaving the destruction that lay before him. “No, Felix, please, no,” he said over and over.

He reached out his hands, wanting to touch Felix’s face and body, but they hovered instead. As if Ethan couldn’t bring himself to touch Felix because then it would all be too real.

Nicoli’s heart clenched terribly when red tears trailed down Ethan’s cheeks. He had never seen Ethan cry before and now he wished he never had. It was too painful. He watched as the new spirit Felix walked over and crouched down across from Ethan, on the other side of his body.

“Ethan, I’m here. I’m right here. Please don’t cry,” he said, reaching out a hand to stroke Ethan’s face, but it went unnoticed.

“Why? Who would do this?” Ethan asked, his tears dripping off his chin and landing on Felix’s crimson stained body. “God, no. Please, God, no.”

“A vampire pleading to God. Now that’s a bit ironic, don’t you think?”

Ethan jumped at the new voice and whirled around. He stared with wide eyes at his brother, who had been sitting behind him the whole time.

“E-Evan?” Ethan stuttered, not comprehending what was going on.

“That is the name people call me,” Evan said as he closed the book and stood up.

Ethan continued to stare at him, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Then he took in Evan’s appearance. He was covered in blood. Blood that Ethan no doubt recognized as Felix’s right away. Ethan’s eyes then trailed back to the body before him then back to Evan.

“No, it can’t be,” he said, the pieces falling together in his head.

“Go ahead and say it, Ethan. I know you want to,” Evan goaded him.

“You’re the traitor?” The words didn’t sound anywhere close to the truth because Ethan didn’t believe them.

“And we have a winner,” Evan said, and clapped his hands in congratulations. “I knew you could figure it out. Of course I had to go to extreme measures for your tiny brain to grasp it, but you got there in the end.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Ethan murmured with a shake of his head.

“I wouldn’t expect you to. No one will,” Evan told him.

Ethan gazed down at Felix’s body and was finally able to place his hand on Felix’s forehead. A few more tears fell as he clenched his teeth in grief stricken anger.

“Why?” he bit out. “Why would you do all of this? Work with Dimitri against us, put the family in constant danger…and now this?” He stroked Felix’s hair as he spoke.

“Don’t forget about Aria and Stephen,” Evan said.

“What?”

“I was the one that killed them. I was the one that stabbed Aria when her guard was down and the one that made her brain implode to make sure she died just a bit quicker. And I was the one to cut off Stephen’s head as Seth held him by the hair. That pathetic wretch hardly even put up a fight.”

Ethan shook his head and covered his ears. As if that would make him forget what he had just heard.

“No, I don’t believe this. Not you. It can’t be you. It just can’t.”

“Deny it all you want, Ethan, but its true. Would it have convinced you more if I had killed your pet in front of you?”

With the mention of Felix Ethan stood and bared his fangs, the tears still falling.

“Why? Why would you do this to him, to us? Why would you betray us like this?”

Evan chuckled and his smile returned, flashing his fangs.

“Now comes the time that I have been waiting for. I get to say the four words that have been brewing in my throat all this time.” His smile faded and the anger from before resurfaced. “Ethan, I hate you.”

Ethan’s mouth fell open and he looked like he had just been punched.

“W-What? You hate me?”

“Yes, with every fiber of my being,” Evan snarled.

Ethan was still flabbergasted. Not knowing how to take it.

“You did all of this, because you hate me?” he asked. Evan nodded. “Since when?”

“Since always. I’ve always hated you. Possibly from the time we were born. It’s hard to say.”

“Wha-That can’t be right. Dimitri must have brainwashed. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I know perfectly well what I’m saying. And no one has brainwashed me. Dimitri is the one that has freed me from the chains that bound me to you for so long. I no longer have to be the little puppet that follows after your flock of sheep. I can be rid of you, now and forever.”

Ethan stared at Evan, the words still not processing. Even when he looked about the room and down at Felix, he still couldn’t grasp what was being told to him.

“You hate me enough to do all this?” he asked. “Why do you hate me?”

“Because I see you for what you really are,” Evan hissed. “Everyone sees you as the golden boy. Everyone is just in awe of your very presence and being that they fawn over you blindly. With that ability you get whatever you want, take whatever you want.” Evan spat the word “take” and his eyes grew sharper as he spoke.

“My whole life I’ve watched you twist and use people to your benefit and because even I thought you were above it all, I said nothing. I stayed in your shadows because I thought that was my place, no matter how much I hated it.” The turbulent, vapid air about Evan eased and his features softened. “I should have listened to Mother from the very beginning and rid myself of you when I had the chance.”

Ethan’s eyes widened at this point and so did Nicoli’s. The mention of Ethan and Evan’s mother sent a chill down his spine. She was the one that started it all.

“Mother?” Ethan asked.

Evan’s smile returned and Nicoli was struck by how crazed that smile made him appear.

“Yes, Mother. Were you aware just how much Mother despised you? Loathed you? Her hatred went beyond even my own. From the moment you were born she had a vision of what kind of despicable being you’d become and wanted to rid the world of you.” Evan laughed and began to circle around Ethan with slow steps. “Did you know that Mother tried to kill you several times when we were children?”

“What? That’s a lie,” Ethan said, following Evan’s every movement.

“No, I quite assure you, it’s all true. She used to sneak into our room with a kitchen knife to kill you in your sleep until Father put that lock on the door. When she was in charge of our daily baths she would hold you under the water, trying to drown you, until Father would rush in and stop her. What, you don’t remember?”

Ethan was shaking his head vigorously, closing his eyes against images that were no doubt brewing underneath the lids.

“No, it’s not true. It’s not true,” he muttered over and over. Nicoli wondered if all of that had happened and Ethan had somehow repressed the memories.

“Oh, but it is,” Evan told him. “One time, when we were playing out in the yard, Mother took Father’s rifle and tried to shoot you down from one of the windows. It’s too bad Father watched her like a hawk, stopping her at every turn.” His smile eased into a gentler one, a remnant of his old, kind smiles.

“At least she had me. Oh, she loved me more than you could ever imagine. She always said that Satan had cursed her with a demon child, but that God had looked down on her in pity, so He blessed her with an angel in the form of a second child. I was Mother’s everything when you and Father turned your backs on her. The only one that was there for her was me. It was always me and she taught me how much of a despicable lot both of you were and are.”

“Mom was ill, Evan, you know that,” Ethan growled. “How can you take anything she said to heart?”

“Ill, right. The only reason she was “ill” was because she was driven mad by your very existence!” Evan yelled, his anger flaring again. “You ruin everything you touch and Mother was proof of that. She truly saw the demon you are and it drove her into a madness she could never recover from. But she loved me with her whole heart. She was the only one that saw me as me, not as your shadow or counterpart. She tried to get me as far away from you as possible, to free me from your hold, but she wasn’t strong enough. She did everything she could for me, and what did you do? You killed her!”

Ethan was taken aback by the exclamation, but soon his own anger started to filter in through his shock.

“I didn’t touch her, Evan. She killed herself.”

“Yes, she took her own life, but the only reason she did so was to get away from you,” Evan said.

“That’s not true.”

“Oh, but it is. She told me all about it in the note she left me.”

“Note?”

“Yes, her suicide note. I found it a few days after the fact, tucked underneath the lid to the keys of the piano. She loved that piano so much. It was addressed to me and only me, so I never had the urge to show it to you.” By this time Evan had made a few full circles around Ethan and came to a stop at the chair from where he started. He sighed as he took a seat, lacing his fingers together.

“She told me how sorry she was that she had to leave me. The last thing she wanted was to leave her angel at the mercy of her demon son, but she had no choice. She couldn’t bear living in the world anymore, not so long as you were still in it and she had no chance of getting rid of you as long as her beloved husband was around. Did you know that Mother still loved Father very much? Even after he neglected her so very thoughtlessly? That man was a fool to forsake her love so.”

“Dad loved Mom,” Ethan said. “He may not have showed it outwardly, but he did love her.”

Evan laughed and shook his head.

“You are a deluded fool, aren’t you?” he asked as he stood. “Did you really fool yourself into thinking that we were a happy little family? It appears your powers of illusion even work on yourself. No, Father had no love for Mother. He proved that time and time again as he let Mother waste away into nothing.” The smile came back and it seemed even viler than before. “That’s why I took such great pleasure in acquiring revenge for her the night I killed him.”

Nicoli gasped along with Ethan and the newborn Felix.

“He-He killed his own dad?” he asked.

Felix nodded gravely.

“Ethan never told me that,” Nicoli said, thinking back to everything Ethan had told him about Ethan’s human family, but that had never been mentioned.

“I don’t know what Ethan has shared with you, but this fact was probably too painful for him to tell you. The knowledge that Evan killed their father has always been an extra sensitive subject with him. Him and his dad were very close,” Felix said.

Nicoli shook his head in disbelief. Evan had killed his own father. He was already a monster in Nicoli’s eyes for everything he had done, but now he was beyond evil for the simple fact that he had committed the act when he was still human. Before they had ever met the clan or knew of the existence of vampires. Evan was a murderer before Dimitri had ever come into his life.

“No,” Ethan said, shaking his head as all color drained from his face. “No, Dad died of a heart attack.” His voice was soft and shook terribly; not wanting to believe for a moment what Evan said was true.

“Yes, a heart attack that was caused by the poison I laced in his beloved cigars,” Evan said, his chest even puffing out in pride. “Oh, don’t look so heartbroken, Ethan,” he cooed. “Those blasted things would have ended up killing him sooner or later. I just saved them the trouble.”

Ethan stood petrified by Evan’s words. He looked ready to shatter into a thousand pieces. Then a great wrath overtook him. His lip rose in a snarl, showing off his lethally pointed fangs and his eyes began to glow with an inner rage, illuminating his eyes a brilliant, fiery teal.

“You bastard,” he growled lowly. He then sprang at Evan with a deafening roar. “You bastard!”

Before he could get close enough to do Evan harm, a force launched from Evan’s very being and threw Ethan across the room into the wall.

“Temper, Brother, temper,” Evan tsked. “Why don’t you just lay back and let me finish?” He held out his hand and Ethan was pushed down onto the floor from where he had been trying to get up. Ethan thrashed and struggled, but could not throw off Evan’s mental hold.

“That’s better,” Evan said, slowly walking over to Ethan. “Yes, I killed Father, but you should be thankful because I almost took your life that night as well.”

Ethan stopped his futile struggles to stare up at his brother, who now loomed over him.

“What?”

“Yes, I had had the thought that I should take that time to get rid of you as well. You know that cup of coffee I gave you after we had Father’s body taken away? That was what I was going to slip the rest of the poison into and then stage your body like you had committed suicide, just like Mother. It would have been easy to convince the authorities that you had been so distraught by Father’s death that you couldn’t handle it and took your own life.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Ethan spat.

Evan placed his foot on Ethan’s chest then bent down, resting his elbow on his knee.

“Because I was weak,” he said, his voice low with a vicious edge to it. “After Mother died I was alone. I thought I was doomed to live out the rest of my existence with no one by my side, but you were there. You took me in with your sugary sweet words and false assurances that you would always be there for me. Mother’s voice was always in the back of my head, telling me not to trust you, to remember what she had taught me, but I was a weak fool that didn’t want to be alone. So I allowed myself to be beguiled by you and to believe like everyone else that you were some kind of Godsend. That was why I let you live that night, because I fooled myself into thinking that I needed you and that fear of being alone stayed my hand.”

Evan removed his foot and walked a few feet from Ethan, his back turned to the other.

“Because with Mother gone, Father dead and you following soon after I truly would have been alone. That was something that terrified me to my very core, so I stayed with you and let myself be lost in the delusion that you actually cared for me, instead of using me as a tool to make yourself look better.”

“I do care about you, Evan,” Ethan said.

Evan ignored him and flicked his hand in the air. This allowed Ethan to move again and sit up.

“But not anymore,” Evan said, turning to Ethan with that smile. “I’ve come to realize that I don’t need you and that I don’t have to let you take everything away from me that I hold most precious.”

“I haven’t taken anything away–” Ethan was cut off as Evan made a backhanded motion and Ethan’s head cracked to the side as if he had actually been hit by a physical hand.

“Liar!” Evan roared. “Close that filthy mouth of yours you vile, lying demon. You know very well that you take everything that is mine and claim it for your own. Even my most precious, sacred treasure. Not anymore.”

“What is he talking about? What did Ethan take from him?” Nicoli asked and Felix just shrugged.

“I don’t know. I’ve asked Ethan and even he doesn’t know what Meier meant by that and Meier never saw fit to clarify.”

“I can now be rid myself of you forever. Dimitri has been my savior in all of this and after tonight he will officially take me in as his child. I have already grown much under his partial tutelage and now that I won’t be oppressed by you I can only grow stronger.” Evan took a step closer to Ethan and laughed when his brother scrambled to his feet and took a defensive stance.

“Oh, don’t worry, dear Ethan, I’m not going to kill you tonight.”

“You’re not? I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“It is, trust me, but I just won’t be doing it at this moment. For now it will bring me more pleasure to watch you drown in your sea of pain and loss. That’s more of a fitting gift than I could ever ask for. I will come for your life one day, though. Be rest assured. Until then, I hope your torment eats you from the inside out. Goodbye.”

Evan strode toward the door, making his leave.

“Evan, wait,” Ethan said, holding out his hand as if he could stop Evan, which, surprisingly, Evan stopped.

“That’s another thing,” Evan said, turning back toward Ethan. “I will no longer be going by Evan. From this day forth I shall be known as Meier.”

“Meier?”

“Yes, because while you may be the oldest, Ethan, you have no right in being the head of the family. So I shall be taking our surname on as my own, claiming my rightful place as head of family.” Evan, now Meier, smirked. “See, I can take things that don’t officially belong to me, too. I guess I learned something from you after all.”

Then he was gone.

Ethan stood alone in the room, staring after his brother, not aware of the two onlookers or of the ghost that stood by his side, trying to give him words of comfort. Ethan numbly walked over to Felix’s body and stared for several moments.

Nicoli didn’t know how to react. He had just watched Ethan’s entire world be torn apart in an instant and he could literally see the world crashing down on Ethan’s head. That was why he wasn’t surprised when Ethan dropped to his knees and began to scream and cry out all of his pain and all of his suffering.

“Poor Ethan. Poor all of you guys. None of you guys deserved to go through any of this, especially with what happened to you,” he muttered.

“I wholeheartedly agree with you, though I’m surprised you were actually able to sit through all of that. I was sure it would have been too much for you,” Felix said.

“I’m sure I’ll be having nightmares for the rest of my life. So, I guess we’re done.” He quirked a brow when Felix shook his head.

“Not quite.”

“What more could there possibly be?” Nicoli asked.

“Do you remember what I said before we started all this? About Ethan being in danger from himself?”

“Yeah, now I do,” Nicoli said, having forgotten about it with everything he’d seen. Now that he was reminded of it he couldn’t help being curious about what Felix had meant.

“Well, what I’m going to show you will make you understand, but first it starts with what happens just a little while after this.”

Nicoli didn’t notice when time skipped forward. Maybe it was because hardly anything had changed. The only thing to have moved was Felix’s body that was now being cradled in Ethan’s arms from where he knelt on the floor.

Ethan was lost in his sorrow. He held Felix to him, his eyes blank as the tears fell. The sound of a door opening and the thunder of many running feet coming towards the room didn’t even stir him.

A moment later the whole clan came flooding into the room. They all stopped short from what lay before them. Several had to do double takes at the carnage they saw and they added their own sorrow to Ethan’s.

“Oh no,” Conrad said, standing at the head of the group.

“No, it can’t be, it’s not true,” Faith said, standing besides her father and shaking her head in disbelief.

“Oh, Kitten. Not you,” Andre whispered, turning his gaze from the scene before him.

Gavin said nothing, simply bowing his head, but his sadness was evident; then Cora, who Nicoli had expected to scream like she had for the others, made not one sound. She just leaned her back against the blood covered wall next to the door, slid to the ground, and burrowed her face into her knees as she cried quietly.

“Ethan?” Conrad called out, but Ethan did not respond. Conrad tentatively walked to him and knelt down. “Ethan, what happened?” he asked, placing his hand on Ethan’s shoulder.

Ethan sniffed, tucking Felix’s head underneath his chin. He rocked back and forth a few times before being able to speak.

“It was Evan,” Ethan whispered into Felix’s hair. “Evan did it all.”

Conrad was lost for words, staring at Ethan with his mouth agape.

“Evan? You mean Evan has betrayed us?” he asked and Ethan nodded.

There was sudden movement as Faith fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands.

“No! It’s not true! It’s not true!” she screamed as she began to sob.’’

Gavin was the first to go to go and consol her. Conrad looked like he was ready to go comfort her, too, but Ethan spoke before he could.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Conrad asked softly.

Ethan sobbed and held Felix’s body tighter.

“It’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”

Conrad enveloped Ethan into his arms as much as he could since Ethan refused to let go of Felix.

“Hush, don’t say such things.”

“It’s all because of me. It’s my fault,” Ethan muttered over and over as he was rocked in Conrad’s arms.

Nicoli couldn’t fathom why Ethan blamed himself. It wasn’t as of he had any control over Meier’s actions. The man was damaged. There was nothing Ethan could do to help that.

Nicoli’s attention was diverged from the clan as past Felix went from person to person, waving his arms, desperately trying to catch anyone’s notice.

“Guys, I’m here! I’m right here. Why can’t any of you see me? Why can’t you hear me? Look at me, damn it!”

But no matter what Felix did, no one knew he was there. He was a voiceless, invisible specter.

“How long was it before anyone could see you?” Nicoli asked.

“A while. I had no control over my spiritual being, so I had no idea how to make myself visible to them. But I had bigger problems to worry about.”

The room began to change and morph, transporting Nicoli and Felix to another place and time. Nicoli found himself in Ethan’s room again. He couldn’t help but notice that Felix’s clothes and personal items were still littered about.

“It’s been a couple of weeks since that night,” Felix said. “I’ve been officially buried and they had a funeral for me. It was a nice service, actually, but Ethan wasn’t handling the situation well.”

Felix pointed toward the bed and Nicoli gasped at what he saw. Ethan lay there, as still as the dead, and he didn’t look well at all. His pallor was sickly, a pale meant for a true corpse. His hair was dingy and lay limp around his face. The teal eyes that usually held such life appeared hollow and vacant and blood tears were crusted to his cheeks. It was a terrible sight.

“What’s happened to him?” Nicoli asked.

“He’s not taking care of himself. He’s hardly moved from that bed and he’s eaten practically nothing. His grief has just consumed him.”

“Oh, Ethan.”

What made the scene even harder to look at were the clothes that were laid out beside Ethan. It was one of Felix’s outfits and Ethan lay on his side, his hand clenching one of the sleeves, as if he were holding Felix’s hand.

Past Felix sat at the end of the bed and from his expression he found everything just as sad and pitiful. He turned when there was a knock at the door, but Ethan didn’t move.

The door opened and Faith came in. She took one look at Ethan and sighed.

“Ethan, you have to get up,” she said as she went to the side of the bed. When Ethan didn’t reply she placed her hand on his arm. “You need to eat. You need to do something.”

“I’m not hungry,” Ethan murmured. His voice cracked and sounded worn, like he hadn’t used it in a long time.

“You’re starving. You haven’t fed in weeks. Ethan, please, everyone is worried about you.”

Ethan didn’t react to her words, didn’t look at her. He just lay there, staring in front of him.

“I should have seen it,” he finally said.

“Seen what?”

“The pain Evan was in. I should have seen it and helped him somehow. I should have let him know how much he meant to me. I should have kept him from Mom. I should have protected him. I could have prevented all of this. Everyone would still be alive. Evan would still be here if I had just taken the time to see that something was wrong.” He shifted his face further into his pillow. “It’s all my fault.”

“No, it’s not, Ethan. How could you have known? Evan was a master at concealing what he was feeling.” Faith sighed and laid her head on Ethan’s arm. “I keep thinking that I should have known something was wrong, too. Next to you I knew him better than anyone, though maybe that means neither of us knew him at all. I also keep thinking that if I had just loved him a little more maybe he would have stayed. As it is, Ethan, there is nothing we could have done and blaming ourselves isn’t going to help or bring anyone back. So, please, get up.”

But Ethan didn’t move and the aura of guilt driven sorrow didn’t leave him.

“I’m tired,” he said, closing his eyes. “Just leave me alone.”

Faith lingered and looked like she wanted to say more, but nothing would come out. Defeated, she left.

Felix gazed at Ethan sadly before rising up and drifting after Faith. It appeared he had learned that his feet weren’t bound to the earth like the living.

Nicoli followed Felix out of the room and watched the other trail after Faith.

Faith’s brows were peaked in concern and she chewed on her knuckle as she walked.

“I’m worried too,” Felix told her. “I’ve never seen him act like this.”

Faith didn’t reply.

“If he knew I was here, maybe it would help him. Faith, you have to know that I’m here. You have to tell him. Please, hear me, sense me, feel me, just know that I’m here,” he pleaded.

Still Faith did nothing. Felix flew ahead and stood in her path. That only succeeded in having Faith walk right through him and continue on her way.

“Faith, wait,” Felix called to her. He watched her walk away and a look of absolute desperation crossed his face. He took in a giant, unneeded breath and yelled at the top of his lungs, “FAITH!!!”

A curious thing happened in that split second. It was so slight Nicoli almost missed it. For the barest of seconds Felix’s spectral body took on a denser color of grey and his voice was more solid in tone.

Faith whirled around, startled. She looked all around the hall with wide eyes and Nicoli’s heart skipped a beat. Had she heard Felix? She took a couple steps closer, still searching the hall for anything out of the ordinary. Then, in her soft, child-like voice, she uttered a name.

“Felix?”

Felix clapped his hands and practically danced in front of her.

“Yes! Yes, Faith, I knew you’d be able to hear me! It’s me. It’s Felix.” His smile faded, however, when she continued to look around, never focusing on him. “Faith? Can’t you see me? Can you-Can you hear me? Faith?”

She couldn’t. For that one miracle she had heard him, but now he was mute to the world again.

“Felix?” Faith called out again. “I could have sworn. It sounded just like…” Her eyes rimmed red as tears gathered. She let out a sob before spinning around and fleeing through the hall, her crying trailing after her.

“Faith, no, wait!” Felix called, but she was already gone. He sighed, looking crushed, and with a hanging head he retreated back to Ethan’s room.

“So that was the first time you had used your power,” Nicoli said.

“Yes, the only problem was I didn’t know how I had done it, or how to do it again,” Felix told him. “After that first time, though, I began to practice, to try and will myself into being for the others. First learning how to do that is one of the hardest skills for ghosts. It takes some years to get that far.” His eyes became downcast and he shook his head. “I was about to get a crash coarse with what happened next.”

The hallway disappeared, but the next destination was unlike any place they had gone to before. They were on a rooftop to a very tall building. It seemed to be the tallest structure around. From the black blue sky it was clear that it was almost dawn.

Nicoli turned as past Felix slipped through the stairwell door onto the roof. He looked around in perplexity before turning to the door as it opened.

“Ethan, what are you doing here?” he asked as Ethan slowly walked out.

Nicoli had to blink. Ethan was worse than before. He was still sickly looking, but now he looked like a man that had been starving for years. His clothes hung off his body that seemed half its normal size and his cheeks were hollow and sunken in.

“How long has it been?” Nicoli asked, not able to take his eyes away.

“A week or two from the last memory we saw,” Felix answered.

Nicoli shook his head. He never imagined that this was what a starving vampire looked like.

Ethan walked a few feet from the door and then stopped. His energy appeared to be almost used up and he couldn’t go any further. He glanced around and then turned to face the East and stared intently at the sky that was lightening by the second.

“Ethan, come on, go home. You’re weak, you need to rest and fed. What are you doing up here?” past Felix said, standing beside Ethan and looking around at the surroundings.

Nicoli was wondering the same thing. What would Ethan be doing on the roof of some random building? Did he just want to be alone, away from the clan? His mind raced, but stilled when Ethan began to speak.

“Why did everything turn out this way?” he mumbled, his voice weak and tired. “I thought I was doing everything right, that life was good. Now I’ve lost everything, my cousins, my brother…and even Felix.” A few tears trailed down his dirty face. “Felix, I’m so sorry. If it wasn’t for me, if I had just taken you to live somewhere safe like I said I would, you’d still be alive.”

“But I didn’t want that,” Felix told him. “I wanted to be with you and the others. It was my choice to stay and I don’t regret it.”

“And I’m sorry, Evan,” Ethan continued. “I should have been there for you more. I should have seen what was wrong and fixed it before you felt the need to do all of this. I failed you as a brother.”

“Don’t apologize to that bastard,” Felix said. “It’s not your fault. He’s a deluded murderer!”

“I’m nothing but trouble for everyone. Everyone is suffering because of me.” Ethan stared at the sky that was becoming a light blue now. “They’d all be better off if I wasn’t around.”

It hit both past Felix and Nicoli at the same time what Ethan was planning to do. Nicoli started to shake as he looked from Ethan to the sky that was announcing the arrival of the sun.

“Oh my God,” Nicoli whispered. “He’s going to kill himself.”

Present Felix nodded solemnly.

“Yes, he was so consumed by his guilt and grief that he saw no other way. He blamed himself entirely for what had happened and sought to punish himself for it.”

Nicoli shook his head in disbelief. No, it didn’t seem possible. He thought to the Ethan he knew, the boisterous, mischievous vampire that was always the life of the party and could make most anyone smile. It didn’t seem feasible that a man such as that would try and take his own life. Now it was far too clear what Felix meant by Ethan being in danger from himself.

Past Felix went into mass hysteria. He flitted around Ethan, trying to push and pull him to the opened door of the stairwell.

“Ethan, don’t do this. Please, it’s not your fault. You can’t do this. Please, snap out of it. Ethan, I don’t want you to die. That’s not going to help anything. Please!”

Nothing helped. Ethan still stood, waiting for his end to come, completely resigned to it. Felix kept trying, though. When he still couldn’t make Ethan moved he walked around in a circle, pulling at his hair, desperately trying to think of what to do. He gasped when he looked to the sky. Light was emerging as the sun began to peak over the horizon. Even with just that amount of exposure Ethan’s skin was already beginning to steam from his weakened state.

“Ethan!” Felix screamed and lunged at Ethan. In that moment Felix’s body lost its transparency and he became a solid mesh of greys and whites.

Ethan only had enough time to turn his head before he was hit with such a powerful tackle it sent both him and Felix flying through the stairwell doorway. The next moment there was the sound of great weight tumbling down the stairs.

Nicoli was quick to follow, taking the stairs two at a time. When he reached the landing he found Ethan and Felix sprawled out in the most uncomfortable positions. Ethan was the first to sit up. His right arm lay limp at his side, the shoulder having come out of its socket. He took hold of it and with a groan he shoved it back into place with a crack.

“What the hell was that?” he said. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open when he gazed at the shifting figure beside him.

“Ugh, it's a good thing I can’t feel pain anymore or else that really would have hurt,” Felix murmured, rubbing his head.

“F-Felix?” Ethan said.

Felix sharply turned his head and the two stared at each other for a long time.

“Ethan, can you…can you see me?”

Ethan absently nodded his head, still not believing his eyes.

“Yes! Finally! It’s about time,” Felix said joyously. He gasped when Ethan leaned forward and tried to wrap his arms around Felix, but they only went through him.

Ethan pulled back in bewilderment, staring at his empty arms.

“How is this possible?” he asked, clearly disappointed he couldn’t hold Felix.

“Well, as far as I’ve been able to come up with I’m a ghost now. I’ve been trying to tell you guys that I’ve been around the whole time, but no matter how hard I tried none of you saw or heard me until now.” Felix looked up toward the top of the stairs, full sunlight now filtering through. “Though I’m not sure how I was able to push you down here.” His face instantly changed into that of anger. “Speaking of which.” He lunged at Ethan, punching him over and over, though the fists did little more than go through Ethan’s head. “What the hell did you think you were doing!? You were really trying to kill yourself, weren’t you?”

Ethan looked away in shame.

“I…It seemed like the right thing to do. After everything it's the least I deserve. For what happened to you, I deserve to die a thousand different ways.”

Felix’s hand went through Ethan’s cheek as he tried to slap the other.

“You selfish asshole. Do you think I want that? Did you really think that for one, fucking second I wanted you to kill yourself because of what happened to me? I died so you should die? What the hell is the matter with you?” Felix demanded. “That wouldn’t make me happy. That wouldn’t bring me back. Did you even think about the others? They’ve been through just as much pain and heartache as you and you want to add to that by offing yourself? Get a grip, Ethan.”

Ethan couldn’t make his eyes meet Felix’s and he shook his head as crimson tears slid down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he sniffled.

Felix sighed and leaned forward, pressing his lips against Ethan’s while trying not to go through him.

“Stop being sorry. It’s okay. I was able to save your ass before you could go through with it.” He touched his forehead to Ethan’s and the two looked into each other’s eyes. “I’m here now. It’s going to be okay. We’ll get through this.”

Ethan let out a light sob as he brought up his hands to gently touch Felix’s cheeks.

“I missed you so much,” he whispered.

Nicoli watched the two huddled together as the stairwell around them started to disappear.

“I still can’t believe that Ethan tried to kill himself,” Nicoli murmured. “That just doesn’t seem like him.”

“Grief makes people do strange things,” Felix said quietly. “Ethan just couldn’t deal with what happened, but after this he got better and was able to revert back to almost his normal self.”

“Where are we going next?” Nicoli asked, his skin still crawling. He just wanted to forget what he saw, forget what Ethan was about to do. He gasped when his face was cradled between Felix’s hands and their foreheads touched.

“Now, we go home.”

Then freezing darkness consumed him.

===============================Ch. 67 End

Whoo and the memories are over! I know they took a bit, but I hope you guys enjoyed them all the same. You finally got to see how Felix died. Meier didn’t make it pleasant at all. And now you guys got to see why everyone is so sensitive about what happened back then with Ethan. He tried to commit suicide. I bet you guys would never think Ethan would be capable of something like that, but Felix is right. Grief makes people do strange things. It may clue you in on why Conrad is the way he is and some other things that will be explained further in the next chapter.
And in other news, I got another fanart, yay! It’s a really cute one of Andre and Owen and it’s Owen’s first fanart, woot!

http://dragkyn.deviantart.com/#/d2sf7dp

It’s very cute, so go look at it!

So, I hope you all enjoyed it, no matter how sad it was and the next chapter will having Nicoli back in the present. Okay, so until then guys, be good! *huggies and lickies*