They were receiving credible death threats, yet the authorities dismissed them.

A group of nerds was bound to have a conspiracy theorist or two within the group and they had more than that now because it was pretty damn clear that something was amiss. As they packed up their fake foliage and unplugged the last computer, they all knew that continuing to work on Project Present was a risk, and some weren’t willing to take it.

No one faulted anyone else. The dropouts were going to move on to other work and those who couldn’t let it go… Well, they were putting their lives on the line.

Before this, they may not have done it. It was an app for god’s sake! But the powers that be saw it differently and that made it more important. It was Reginald’s work, after all, and maybe he knew more than he ever let on. Maybe he kept it secret to keep them safe.

They would never know unless they started digging.

The sale of Pacific Systems Strategies was a loss for the community, but everyone understood it. The surrounding area was still shocked by the brazen daytime murder of Reginald Gold, with his young niece witness to it no less. The story, of course, was mostly scrubbed, but the community remembered. He was not missing his wallet, his car was not taken. He was shot and left for dead and now the whole place was shuttered.

It was strange no matter how you looked at it, but most people were not equipped to handle the implications so they chose to ignore it. Though they looked at the empty building and knew something wasn’t right, they pushed their minds elsewhere. They had enough things to be worried about without a government cover-up mere blocks from work and home.

While grown-ups were busy living life and trying to ignore conspiracies, Luna saw the mailman deliver a large envelope to the front door and Ant definitely talked to him a little too long for basic pleasantries, but like the people she didn’t know who remained near Ungle’s shot-site, she had other things to be worried about.

The way Cædmon looked at her was not normal and neither was the way he did whatever she told him to do. He accepted things way too easily.

"You’re right about him,” she told Donner, worriedly. “I don’t know about this anymore. He makes me nervous and I’m never nervous.”

It wasn’t something she could describe, the off-putting feeling was goosebump-inducing.

“To be fair, that is the general reaction to vampires,” he explained. “His attitude toward you notwithstanding, any mortal in his presence would be concerned, though for different reasons and they would be unable to pinpoint exactly what was wrong. Though you don’t have the words, you recognize the problem.”

“Right, they’d be wondering if he was going to suck them dry and I’m afraid he might try to kiss me. Those are different problems, Donner!”

She was about ready to forget the whole thing, but she didn’t think she’d be able to get rid of him. Telling him to go away might send him off, but what guarantee did she have that he wouldn’t creep on her out of sight? Following her around as a crow. And what if she was right and he was that bird she saw way back when? That was super sus. She was like four then and in a bathing suit and that was wrong.

Wrong.

“It could have been a normal bird.” Donner didn’t sound so sure though. Even he was skeezed out by the possible situation in the past, plus what they already knew was happening now. “If we weren’t desperate to get into Arcane, we’d put it off,” he said, “but the fact is we are. You can kill him afterward.”

Or maybe leave him to Ink Pen because life would be better if Cædmon never existed.

That thought put her more at ease. One way or another, she would be rid of him and she could deal with this whole mess for a little while. Once she found her trash father, Cædmon was wiped from the universe.

“Donner, I feel like there are a lot of rotten people in my life.”

“Everyone thinks that.”

Maybe so, but did they have a master manipulator for a father and a pedophilical vampire following them around? She thought not.

“If you are Life,” he said. “Then you got yourself into this mess for some insane reason.”

“That makes no sense. Why would Life do this shit? Life can do anything.”

“One would think.”

But perhaps not. In any event, he was also not comfortable with Cædmon and the amount of time they needed to spend in his presence, but if they could get through it then it would be done.

And they’d be left with Ji-hun.

Who was another problem but more of a known quantity.

As far as she knew, Cædmon wasn’t around at the moment and Donner informed her more about the vampire race, what he knew of it at least, in his absence.

“I was missing information,” he admitted grudgingly. “So there is no telling what else I do not know, but that means they’ve hidden the reality of their situation very well. You can’t take anything he tells you at face value. Though he follows your directions, he may lie to you if you ask him anything of importance directly.”

She knew that much. “I wasn’t going to ask him anything at all. It would tip him off.”

“That is the best course of action. From my original viewpoint, vampires were rather weak creatures, depending on the blood of the living to keep themselves from insanity. Unfortunately for them, though they may live a hundred years in that manner, the madness eventually claims them. Humanity was not made to continue living. Their minds cannot comprehend the changes, the losses. The blood of others does something to dull the sensitivity to time’s passing, but it can’t hold it off forever.”

“So, basically, there’s power in people’s blood?”

“There is power in all blood. This has been well-known for most of human history. It wasn't until modernity that people decided that couldn’t be true, like most things they would classify as supernatural. It is more comfortable to believe there is nothing real that they cannot see or test directly. Wrong, of course, but easier on the psyche.”

“But lots of people believe in ghosts and stuff.”

“Because they can experience it to some extent, but many more do not. I doubt anyone seriously believes in Life as a force with an identity.”

He was probably right.

She went indoors then, Cædmon nowhere in sight since she sent him away the night before, and she wondered how she would make contact with him again.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“No doubt he’ll be back on his own,” Donner said. “Daylight must still be uncomfortable for him.”

Ant was seated at the dining room table, hands trembling as she held an opened envelope and the paper that came from within. When she saw Luna, she sucked in a deep breath and stilled. It wasn’t so much shocking as it was depressing. She’d known, of course, that the company wasn't going to recover, but to see it happen was difficult. Reg built it from the ground up and now it was gone.

Like him.

She was determined to make a new life, but that didn’t mean it was easy. She still felt guilty for the thing she had going on with David, the mailman, and it was hardly anything. She knew Reg would never want her to spend life alone, but it was still hard. They’d been together for so long, shared so many things, so many firsts. She loved him so, so much.

And then he was gone. Just like that.

It didn’t make sense, but what was she supposed to do about it? She could let herself wallow, die to the world, or she could pull herself together and march on. If it was her? On her own? She wasn’t sure where she’d be. But with the girls to think of... She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t give up. The very idea of leaving them with a dead father and the shell of a mother was horrible. She wouldn’t do that to them.

Georgia had an easier time of it than she’d expected. Of course, she was very young and spent more time with Mommy than Daddy from the beginning, but it wasn’t simple to explain that he couldn’t come back. The open casket service, though it was emotionally draining, was for the best, she felt sure of it. Hard as it was to see him still, it made it real for all of them and the makeup artist did a wonderful job. He truly looked at peace and that was the image she wanted to carry of him. Not those awful final moments in the hospital.

As for Luna, she was as unpredictable as ever. The child was clearly advanced and Autumn wished so badly that Reg was around because he would know more than her about what to do, but the online community was very helpful. There were many suggestions for how to connect with and support a gifted child. Mostly, however, she left Luna to do what she wanted. She was obedient, never a troublemaker, and she understood so much.

Honestly, she wasn’t sure where their relationship stood as a family, but it wasn’t hostile at the very least and she supposed everything else would come with time. Like all the rest of life, time was the main ingredient. There were 24 hours in a day and that was the same for everybody. She was determined not to let them go to waste.

This farm was an attempt to do something real. The chickens, the vegetable garden, planting fruit trees, she, herself, would not see the benefit of all of this in the long run, but she hoped it would pass on to Georgia and Luna. That they would keep going, one way or another. That the lessons of life and death, of taking care of vulnerable living things, would not leave them. It was so much more meaningful than spending their days inside a classroom.

There was the creeping worry that she wasn’t doing enough somehow, but they were thriving. She was doing the right thing. She was. Even if she had to re-convince herself of it sometimes. From healthier eating to outdoor play, they were gaining so much from all this.

She remembered the days of being vegan. It was an attempt to do something, to make herself a purpose because she felt like so many decisions she made were unnecessary in the big scheme of things. Of course, she didn’t recognize that at the time. She was living the modern woman’s life and assumed she would have eventually gone out into the workforce, searching for something else to do, too. Because the dishwasher, the television, the dryer, made life so easy. Too easy.

Out here in the country, she did the dishes by hand. Watched the sunset. Hung the laundry to dry in the breeze, or on the covered back porch if it was raining. She wasn’t sure what the difference was, but the actions of the every day were more fulfilling now.

She tightened the knobs on the cupboards herself and painted over peeling spots. She was planning on replacing some of the floorboards come summer.

And maybe she wouldn’t be doing those things alone.

David was a widower. He had three children to support. Twin sons and an older daughter.

But that was thinking too far.

Her eyes followed as Luna left again, back out the door with a chicken salad sandwich in hand, and then she forgot her niece ever existed.

“Ant seems to be doing okay,” she said, as she munched on her lunch. “Hey, can I make food?”

“No,” was his immediate answer, but then he remembered who he was dealing with. “You shouldn’t be able to. That violates natural law. Nothing cannot become something. It’s not exclusive to food, no one else would be able to call forth any object where it did not previously exist.”

“Okay, but wouldn’t I be, like, putting together molecules or something? It’s not made from nothing. It’s being put together. I got rope before.”

“That shouldn't have worked and no. Then you’d be using pieces of the universe and who knows what effect that might have. You’re better off creating yourself the lo mein from nothing at all. Forget it. You'll do what you want.”

“Chicken lo mein,” she clarified. “That was great. It had egg in it and everything. Even the vegetables weren’t bad.”

“That would be the msg.”

“What’s that?”

“Mono-sodium glutamate. A flavor enhancer, though itself is tasteless. It’s an ingredient in Asian cooking.”

“You know a lot of stuff about random stuff.”

“I pay attention to headlines. There was a push to ban it several years ago, with claims about how it must be unhealthy. Whenever a coordinated effort is made to convince the public of something, I take note. If everyone is reporting the same thing, there’s something else going on.”

“What was with the msg thing?”

“I’m not sure. It may have been a simple control issue or an effort to make use of different items. If someone had a cousin working in the industry, with a product that may be used as a replacement, for example, they could have gotten involved. People don't want to give up what they’re used to, but if they can be convinced that something is detrimental to themselves or their children, and offered an alternative billed to be as good but healthier, there is money to be made.”

“Yeah and? Msg was bad how?”

“It’d been used for a hundred years and no one had a problem with it until some doctor had heart palpitations and other issues after eating Chinese food. From what I understand, he gave several possible reasons for the sudden turn in his health, but the public focused on that particular ingredient. Of course, now that governments around the world say it’s safe, I doubt it. However, I’m also not concerned about you, or even myself, keeling over dead because the additive was in a bowl of ramen. It was used for decades with no issue, I don’t see why it would be a problem now. Unless the foods used to produce it are genetically modified and the changes-”

“Okay, okay! That’s going too deep for me, I’m done now.”

The real point was that she could make food and no one could stop her.

Ant was a good cook, and she made way better food than she used to, but somehow Luna was hungry all the time and she’d feel bad if she went around asking for more food if she didn’t have to. Going to the store was a whole thing. Twenty minutes in both directions and it was great that they could do curbside pickup, since it kept Georgia from asking for everything she saw, but it was somehow unsatisfying.

Fried rice appeared, along with the rest of her favorites from that single, magical visit to the Chinese buffet, and even though the memories that came after it were dark, this remained light. It was the best time she’d ever had.

It was too bad it could never happen exactly the same way again.

“Does everyone feel like that?” she asked Donner, as she stuffed herself to bursting. “I know it’s useless, but I still want it to be different.”

“If anyone doesn’t have those feelings there’s something wrong with them. If there is any spot of happiness in our lives, we wish it would last forever. The fact is that it will not, it can’t, and there is no holding on to it. People that try find themselves as mad as disintegrating vampires.”

That was kind of a sad way to go, but not as sad as Ungle, so she didn’t feel too bad. Donner wasn’t sure exactly how they did it, but anyone who was a vampire chose to become one. It wasn’t some accident. They all knew their future. According to him, Cædmon was a freak of nature.

“I don’t care to understand how it happened,” he told her as she vanished her licked-clean dishes. “Immortality, though I may continue to seek it in some capacity, is no longer my main concern. In any case, I would not want to live as the vampires do, regulated to the dark of night and blood drinking.”

“Yeah, food is good. I wouldn’t give it up for anything!”

It was simplistic thinking like that that made him remember her age. Despite the growing body of evidence that she was not limited to what she appeared to be, Luna’s mind was mostly that of a child. It was perhaps the reason she could so easily kill. She wasn’t concerned about consequences, having experienced few herself, and the idea of caring for the life of a stranger was difficult. She was not without empathy, which was why she chose Ink Pen as her vehicle for the full destruction of memories, but she expressed it in ways no one would call normal.

Overall, she was concerned with herself and that was not strange at all.