Blood Ever After

2

Kharkiv, Ukraine. 10.33 a.m. September 28th

A soldier dressed in a Russian Forces military uniform stood outside the convenience store, gun ready. Women, children and men had fled, now standing hundreds of meters away. Onlookers peering out from behind buildings pointed and stared.

Cool air breathed throughout, guns exploding in the distance. Bodies lay strewn on the ground, dim in the overcast light.

Some survivors cried and trembled, but what they didn't know was that this had nothing to do with the war.

No, nothing at all.

Far off, that gunfire clattered, while screams rang out in the streets.

***

Tyler once more walked by the riverside.

His parents thought he was out with friends, and he wasn't too worried that he was lying to them. There was, in his humble opinion, nothing wrong with lying, so long as it didn't hurt anyone else, and so long as it improved your life or someone close to you life, that was.

And right at that moment, some two years after Joshi had left this world forever, he needed that time.

He sat on the bank, staring at the trickling water. He didn't like that flowing, flickering nature of the surface, and how in the moonlight those ripples appeared like littles hands waving from all the lost souls drowned beneath.

A burning, red-hot tear sat in his eye, his mind on the boy with the chubby cheeks and wide cheeky grin.

A voice from nowhere: "What you doin' here, boy? Get back home. Our parents will be worried sick 'bout you."

Tyler felt his brother's presence close in from behind. Tyler didn't look back for a few moments—didn't need to. It wasn't unusual for Joshi to come visit him in this form. Staring at those ghostly, waving hands, the night thick above, Tyler said, "Why'd you do it, bro? Why'd you do it?" His voice sounded choked, and he felt suddenly cold. It was still meant to be autumn, not winter. So why the hell wasn't it a little warmer?

He heard the scrub of feet on the sandy pebbles, and soon his brother had sat beside him. In a low voice, the apparition said, "Something's coming, you know, little bro. Something ... something bad." Tyler looked to his left. Joshi, a ghostly, transparent version, was staring at the deep river—the river having turned from brown to black in the darkness—and for once a more serious look marred that chubby face. Soon enough, however, Joshi's old, wide, dimply grin returned, his eyes sparkling a deep brown, the color of the river in the daylight.

A cool breeze swept through the banks, the trees on the far side trembling.

Staring at his brother, Tyler said, "Come on, Joshi, don't change the subject. Why'd you do it? Why?" Tyler's voice now shook more. His eyes pierced into Joshi's. "Did, like, you even think about me? Did you even think how it ... it might change me? Might turn me into something I wasn't before, as well? Did you ever think of that, man? Did you. Did you?" His words now came with more force, and though the image beside him shimmered and twinkled just like the reflection of the moon on the water, how he wanted to strangle it, to throttle it, to hug it until it morphed back into this world for good.

And that night, as Tyler sat on the bus, the long paddocks and old dying farms blank and dark out the window, he said, "Why'd you do it, bro ... why'd you do it?" And in the reflection of the bus window a taller, chubby-cheeked boy grinned back at Tyler.

Outside, the darknees loomed long and large, and the hills disappeared into nothing.

***

Next day, Charlotte walked up to Tyler as he drew his rough wooden plank through the bandsaw. Dust floated throughout the Woodwork room, saws churning. Kids gossiped about the upcoming prom, or what had happened on their favourite show last night, Mr. Jenkin's arching over one of the chests, running his hand over it.