Eight at night is a strange hour for a visitor unless it’s a booty call, but I didn’t make one. I didn’t invite anyone at all, I rarely invite people here as it is. Maybe they’ve got the wrong house, still they just knock harder. I slowly creep around the furniture, making my way over to the peephole, not afraid, just annoyed. Outside the door is Jonah, a face I hadn’t seen in a long time. Is he still my brother in law even if Justin is dead? He’s almost as angelic as Justin, just had a few personality flaws. He’s got a temper, that explains the knocking. Still he’s dedicated his life to hunting down missing people and stopping those who traverse the darker sides of magic for evil. I haven’t heard from him in a few months. After Justin’s death we drifted apart, both of us reminding the other of the missing bond. Still he checked in on me every five or six months. It felt more like he was keeping tabs on me, but it was good to know someone was still thinking of Justin besides myself.

“Hey, little late for a house call,” I smile and let Jonah in.

“Sorry for dropping by so late,” he lightly touches each of my cheeks with his own. “Couldn’t remember where the house was from the ground. Had to wait until night so I could fly unseen.”

“Too good for a car like the rest of us,” I joke.

“That’s why I ride a motorcycle. Next best thing to flying.”

“You should try Mercedes,” I let him inside.

“You should try flying,” he takes a seat in what grandpa would call the good chair.

A sense of humor and the ability to banter might be the only things that Jonah had over Justin. Three jokes and Justin might not talk to me for the rest of the night. Jonah could go back and forth with me all night if either of us was drunk enough. We used to drive Justin insane which is why he always made sure we wouldn’t be in the same spot with an open bar. We had some really good times together. It just got too hard being around each other without our third piece.

“What made you stop by,” I ask.

“I’ve been having a tough time. It’s the anniversary of Justin’s death. I made it through these last few, but this year just feels really hard,” he tilts his head back and stares into the ceiling.

“I know the feeling, even now I’m so used to him doing certain things for me that I just expect it. I ran out of gas so many times after his death. I just expected him to fill up my car, when I wasn’t paying attention,” I shake my head and laugh at myself.

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“Cars need gas CiCi,” he brings his head back to the conversation.

“And we need Justin,” I add.

“Miss him every day. We weren’t twins and sometimes I felt like the little brother tagging along, but he’s still like my other half. I mourn him every day.”

“You won’t have to for long,” I keep my head down.

“What are you talking about? I’ll mourn my brother forever.”

“Not if he comes back,” I try not to play with my hand too much.

“There is no force on this planet that can pull his soul back from the heavens.”

“What if his soul never left?”

“What did you do,” his tone quickly shifted, a hint of rage.

“I saved him,” I produce the diamond from my purse.

The diamond had grown to become the size of my fist after finally capturing the entire essence of Justin’s soul. Sitting there in the center of the table we both stared at it. The man we had both loved was gone, yet he was sitting right in the middle of my living room coffee table as if he were nothing more than decoration. I had already come to accept it, but Jonah was in shock. He was clearly having some issues accepting the whole situation. He kept beginning to speak, but would stop himself, unsure of what he was supposed to say. No matter what he said, he was going to accept it, but he was trying to find a way to address the situation.

“You can’t do this,” Jonah breaks the silence.

“I can, I’ve studied it over and over again.”

“No, he’s my brother. You shouldn’t have done this. You shouldn’t have done this. Why would you do this? You violated the sanctity of life and death,” he raises his voice like I’ve never heard before.

“What was I supposed to do?”

“Let him die. Let him find peace beyond this plane of existence. It is not your job to play Kharon.”

“How could you be so cold,” I ask shocked by his answer.

“We all have a time to die and we can’t always decide when that is. It is simply the natural order of things,” he argues.

“What would you have done if the love of your life was dying in your arms?”

“I would have let them die,” he answers as if it were a fact of life.

“I’m going to make us some tea,” I excuse myself while he sits in silence.

I’ll give him some time to come to terms with what’s going on while I brew the tea. I probably should have told him sooner. I can’t blame him for being upset with me. How could I? I trapped his brother’s soul here on Earth. I don’t get why people can realize what I did was for the greater good. I would have never done something like this if I had nefarious purposes.

I hear a crash and rush back to the living room. Jonah is already gone, door wide open. Where my coffee table once stood is a pile of wood and shattered glass. Atop it sits the remnants of the smashed diamond. The pieces slowly shrinking as Justin’s soul leaves them behind, fleeing the earth. I know he disagreed with me, but I couldn’t believe he would go this far. To destroy the only opportunity to be reunited with his brother and he would destroy it. I have to find another way.