Memories

"I feel a little lost right now."

She was sitting on the couch in Brooke's apartment, laptop on the table in front of her. She had been back for about ten minutes and was the only one there.

She had never spent much time alone. Her mom had retired from working not long after she was born and the weekends were family time.

Someone had been with her, watching her, since she woke up in the hospital. She was not sure what to do with herself.

~Maybe now is a good time to look at the pictures you were avoiding earlier and process some of your grief.~

She looked at the laptop for a long moment before shaking her head.

"What if I don't want to?"

~That's your choice. Just be warned, the longer you suppress it the more likely it is that you'll break down in front of someone you don't want to. It could be as simple as crying, or as intense as killing someone for a small slight.~

Rowen sighed and opened the laptop, "You sure you don't want to try for world domination? I don't think it would be hard, you'd just have to take over the council."

Gabriel laughed, ~As tempting as that is, it's really not in my plans. One day I will take over for my father and rule over the demons. Until then I would like to enjoy my time.~

"So no freaking out and randomly killing people. There is no way Detective Austin would let us live in peace then."

~And you still have people to find.~

Rowen smiled at the reminder as she signed into the laptop and pulled up the documents folder. She clicked on the first picture and made it full screen.

"My dad and I were happy to stay home and chill, but mom, she wanted to see the world. She would give in to us for most of the year. One week a year we would be forced to go somewhere.

"This picture is from earlier this year. We went to Soniki, this little town that's nestled between the Dancing Stag lake and Violet Gulf. We got to hang out at the beach and play in it's violet waters. Then we went to the lake to fish and feed the river monster, but mostly just feeding the monster.

"It had these beady little eyes and horns on top it's head like a stag. Body was half the length of the river. Gods, that thing knew how to beg. The moment you threw a line out to fish it was watching you, eyes wide. We couldn't tell it no, either."

Rowen's face softened as she recounted the story. Her heart felt heavy and she could feel the sting in her eyes that proceeded crying.

"They were good people, Gabriel. They didn't deserve what happened to them."

~You didn't deserve it either, but life is seldom ever fair.~

Her vision blurred as she moved to the next picture. She had pictures from the summer before, when they had gone to Ilovici and went skiing in the snow. They had traveled by Silver Lake, but had not stopped even though her mother had wanted to.

"I'm going to kill those bastards, every one of them. I'm going to mess up their plans, whatever they are, and then I'm going to travel to all the places my mother was never able to see."

They spent the next hour looking over old pictures before Rowen was at her limit and closed the laptop. She got up and made them lunch with what she could find and what was edible, which ended up being a large bowl of cereal.

"What should we watch?"

Rowen sat down on the couch and turned on the tv. They browsed through the different streaming services that Brooke had.

~Pick a history documentary. Something this cycle preferably.~

"Hmm, how about this one about the war that gave birth to the different countries coming together and forming the council."

~I feel like this is you pushing the world domination option, but I'll say yes anyway.~

Rowen laughed as she selected the documentary and relaxed on the couch with their lunch. They spent the rest of the day either watching documentaries or looking things up on the laptop. When Brooke returned that evening she was greeted by the sight of Rowen sitting on the couch, her full attention on the laptop before her.

"It's rather late, shouldn't you try and get some sleep?"

Rowen looked up and there was something about her face that did not look right. A second later when it spoke Brooke understood.

"She fell asleep hours ago."

Brooke had the urge to run screaming when the growling voice came out of Rowens lips. She knew that it meant the demon was in control of the girl's body. She tried to be as casual as possible as she went to the kitchen to fix herself a sandwich.

"You didn't want to sleep?"

"I have too much to catch up on. Thousands of years of history I know nothing about."

"It's been that long since you were last here?"

"It has."

After she was finished making her sandwich, she grabbed a bottle of soda and sat down in the chair to the side of the couch.

"What are your plans after school? I know that will take up a few years."

"She had chosen to be a mercenary."

Brooke raised her eyebrows at that. She did not reply right away since she took a bite of her sandwich.

"Is there even any need for mercenaries? Things have been pretty quiet in recent years."

"There are always jobs for independent contractors, even if it is just as a bodyguard."

"I suppose you're right."

Brooke tried a few times to get more information from it, but failed and eventually gave up when she started to yawn.

"I'll leave you to finish your research, I'm off to bed."

"Have a good night."

It turned back to the laptop and was lost to the world of internet searches. Brooke shook her head and went to take a shower and head to bed. When she laid down in bed she unlocked her phone and pulled up her photos. She scrolled up until she got to the picture she had last taken with her family.

She lived in the same city as her older brother and parents, but they might as well live in separate districts as often as they visited. She missed them. Not the way her mother nagged her about becoming a witch, but the way they worked well together when they were not fighting.

Brooke wanted to call her mom up and talk about what had happened with Rowen, about talking with a demon. Unfortunately, that would inevitably lead to her mother telling her that becoming a witch would have solved all her problems. It would devolve into screaming back and forth. It just was not worth it.

Instead, Brooke looked at the picture of her family until she could no longer keep her eyes open, then she turned off her phone and went to sleep.