"Yes." Athanasius answers. "Now, may we go inside? I would like to partake of her body."
The cop blushes and I cover my face. "I am so sorry."
"No, no, thank you for your time." The cop clears his throat. "Have a good evening."
Athanasius closes the door. "Annoying."
"You have to stop changing like that in public." I sigh. "That could have gone worse."
"I would have killed him." Athy replies.
He's gonna get me killed. Then resurrect me. I can't. "He's a cop, Athanasius, you can't just kill him without three more showing up. They are like roaches."
He nods. "Give him amnesia. Understood." He begins to walk back upstairs.
"Can you do that?" I ask, following him closely.
"I can do whatever I want, rabbit—"
We finish the last part together. "I'm a Primordial."
Athanasius is somewhere downstairs, and while I have a moment to myself I take a shower, and find myself in my closet looking through pictures of Chris and I. I don't miss him.
The closet floor is colder than I remember. Carpet, sure—but it can't keep out the ache that settles in my bones like winter. I’ve pulled down the old shoebox,the one I swore I’d thrown out a hundred times. But here it was. Still here. Still waiting. Like itknewI’d come back.
My fingers tremble as I lift the lid, and there he is. Chris. In glossy, too-happy pictures that didn’t age well. That grin, that stupid leather jacket I pretended to hate but secretly loved. We looked like a couple out of a catalog. Curated joy.
I don’t misshim.
But gods, I miss thefeeling.
The way it felt to have someone’s arms around me at night, his breath warm against my neck. The casual sweetness of a “love you” tossed over the shoulder before work. That grounding weight ofbelonging. Of mattering.
Now it’s just me.
And the ache that creeps in like a draft through a cracked window—slow, unnoticed until it’s all I can feel. That first week without him was numbness. The second? Anger. By the third, I had started to forget. And that was mercy. Until today.
Until I saw him again. I loved him so hard I forgot how to love myself. And now I’m here, crawling through memory, picking scabs I worked hard to heal.
I pulled out the letter. The one he wrote after I found out. All apologetic ink and guilt-washed promises. As if ink could undo betrayal. My chest tightened, ribs closing in like a vice. The familiar sting rose behind my eyes.
God, I wish I hadn’t seen him.It was better when he was gone—when he was a ghost. Now I have to rebuild the wall. Brick by brick. Again.
“Pathetic.”
I freeze. That voice. That deep, hollow sneer that sucks the warmth from the air. I look up—and there he is.
Athanasius.
He stands in the doorway of my closet like it belongs to him. He looks down at the mess around me—the photos, the letter, the trinkets—and scoffs. "You disrespect yourself when you beg someone for bare minimum things like love, attention, affection, support, and consideration. You belong to me, rabbit, do not debase yourself in front of me like this again."
“You don’t understand,” I whisper.
“Don't I?" He enters and quickly picks up the items, shoving them into the box. Athanasius slams it back on the top shelf, before turning towards me."You can't make someone love you by giving them more what they already don't appreciate, stupid rabbit, can you not see this?" He reaches out, lifting me to my feet. His upper hands are on my shoulders, cupping my neck. "I have seen true mates give life and limb for their females and children and that…" He stutters. "Male is not one of them. You sit here and pine for what could have never been." His touch is gentle, cupping my face. His lower hands cradle around me. "You deserve someone who feels you're too important to lose, Ione."
Swallowing hard, I'm trying to blink away tears. What is he saying? "Is it you?"
Athanasius grins, that stupid fanged smirk. "Rabbit, please don't be foolish, I am beyond time and such concepts." He ushers me from the closet. "I was simply seeking to comfort you," Sighing, he opens my drawer and tosses a dress at me. "Now, my siblings will arrive soon, prepare your delicious food for their avatars."
