Chapter Fifty-Three → You are loved, don't give up. It's just the weight of the world, don't give up

MOM!? Mom! Trista go call the police.... Trista GO! Mom? Mom, hold on okay, help's coming. Mom.... Mom?.......... Mommy?

"This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't -" Trista's mantra went on like that for hours, like if she said it enough it would come true. It was a simple prayer, a plea that screamed from the most inner being of her core, but it fell onto the deaf ears of the universe. The teen girl was rocking back and forth, not stopping her movement as Tommy crawled up onto her bed, pulling her onto his lap. "This isn't happening." She continued, ignoring her brother as he placed a soothing hand against her back. How Tommy wished it wasn't happening, that they hadn't come home from a party and found their mother dead on the floor in a pool of her own blood. He wished the police chief hadn't been a vampire that had known his family for generations, how he wished they hadn't been told what they had been told. About why their mother was dead, about how that odd pile of ash was really their biological father who was really a evil murderous rapist who had plans to snatch them away in mere days to warp and twist them to be just like him. 

Eventually Tommy managed to get his sister to calm down slightly, but it was largely due to exhaustion. The girl curled up on the bed, Tommy turning to leave her for some rest, instead he just sat, unable to force his feet to hold his weight. How could he walk when the world had been so unceremoniously ripped out from under his feet? How could life go on? How could it not have stopped the moment she died? How could people still get up and live and work and love everyday when it was so unfair? 

"What're we gonna do?" Trista asked gently in a small child like voice, after all, she was just a child, he was just a child. Who was going to take care of them?

"I dunno." He said with a sigh. "I dunno."

Tommy buried their mother alone, Trista couldn't face it. It was too final, it meant she was never coming back, how could she never come back?

When Tommy got home from the cemetery, Trista told him that Tyrone was waiting for him upstairs. The boy went up to find his boyfriend waiting for him, and promptly broke down. Of course, that didn't last long, pretty soon the anger took over.

"Where the hell have you been?" He asked, looking more hurt than angry, although his words held a harsh edge to them. "I needed you and you've being fucking M.I.A for days!"

"Gloria told me you needed time."

"Oh, Gloria told you did she." Tommy said, not even attempting to hide the disdain in his voice for Tyrone's ancient vampiric step mother.

"She said you needed to come to your own conclusions." Tyrone said calmly, like he had been practicing what he was going to say to Tommy for days. And knowing him, he probably had been.

"My own concl.... my own conclusions!? I'll tell you what i've concluded, the second my birthday happens in two days i'm going to take a long walk in midday sun!"

It hurt Tyrone to hear the other boy say such a thing, but he let it go, this wasn't about him. "You have a right to live."

"How could you say such a thing?" Tommy asked, breaking down again. "I don't, the things i heard, where i come from...."

"I know."

"You do? How?" Tommy asked, looking at his boyfriend again.

"The night your mother died, you're uncle came to my house looking for Gloria. He told her everything, and i... well i eavesdropped." Tyrone admitted.

"You can't eavesdrop on her, she's all mind read-y."

"I know, she caught me. But she thinks she can help."

"I don't want her help!" Tommy insisted. "I don't want to think about vampires, i don't want to be a vampire, i loathe everything they are, everything i am!"

"Then let me help."

Downstairs, with a tray of water to dilute it with, Tyrone explained about the cure. How Audra had made it with the help fairy magic, and that was why their great grandfather Zane was never able to perfect it, because he was too human. It was impossible for him to rip out entire stains of DNA without losing what made the person a person, and only with the old Grimoire that Audra had decoded with the help of ancient spirits was she able to keep the strains whole without it falling apart.

"So, it's dangerous." Tommy said, standing off to the side.

"You were going to take a walk in the midday sun anyway, what's dying a few days early?" Tyrone said with a shrug, hoping to god that the cure didn't kill Tommy, but managing to seem aloof about the whole situation.

"I'll do it." Trista said from where she sat.

"Okay." Tommy said with a nod, agreeing that he too would attempt the cure. It was what their mother died for, why let her go in vain?

"Do you feel any different?" Trista asked after drinking nearly her entire glass.

"Nope." Tommy said into his glass as he downed the last of it. "Fucking waste." He muttered, never admitting that all his hopes and dreams had been crushed in that one moment.

"Maybe it needs time." Trista offered.

"I agree." Tyrone said as he walked over to clean up the tray of glasses. "Lets check how you guys are in the morning."

"Are you staying?" Trista asked him, which Tommy was thankful for because he didn't think he could voice his fears of being alone himself. Since they were so close to being legal, child services left them in the house after police were done with it. Their uncle Arthur and his husband Mark came over the day after to clean up the mess that had been left on the floor, not expecting the teens to clean up their own mother's blood but also not expecting them to walk over the stains for the rest of however long they stayed in the house. It was a hard day for all of them, many tears.

"I'll stay." Tyrone nodded.

The next morning, Trista felt no different really as she dragged herself out of bed. It was the last day of school before graduation, so she and Tommy unfortunately had to go in, whether they wanted too or not.

It wasn't until she looked at herself in the mirror that it clicked. "Woah."

In Tommy's bedroom, a very similar scene was taking place. Expect Tyrone stood in for the mirror, but his reaction was appropriate. "Woah."

"What?" Tommy asked.

"You're human." Tyrone said before adding. "Sort of." In truth, now that the vampire DNA was gone, he was more fay than human.

"It worked!?" Tommy exclaimed, torn between crying and jumping for joy. "It worked? My mother didn't die in vain?"

"Your mother didn't die in vain!" Tyrone exclaimed, feeling like he might cry too.

As Tommy pulled him into a tight hug, all Tyrone could think was 'thank you'. He wasn't going to lose him, not now, not ever.

Chapter Notes:

Sad and then soppy, i know, i know. But their mum just died, they weren't gonna joke about it. I moved Tyrone in with them, but since he's underage and still lived with his mothers, he didn't bring any money with them. When i killed Audra off, the children really did have two days until they became young adults. So even though it's being treated like it's been longer than two days since she died in the story, in the game, it's two days. I kept her around until they were almost grown because i felt like it was cheating, killing her off and starting the next Gen before they were technically YA's. And yes, i fiddled with the first picture in GIMP. I was bored, and it was a 'memory' picture.