Chapter 22 #2
Sariel poked his head out from the bedroom doorway. He was wearing a pastel pink T-shirt and a pair of matching pajama pants. As soon as he saw Seymour and Day, his halo glowed. “Oh! It is you!”
“Hey! Who the hell else would it be?” Seymour rushed forward to throw himself in Sariel’s arms, squeezing him tight. Then he remembered Sariel was hurt and backed off. “Shit. Sorry. Are you all right?”
“I am all right.” Sariel’s smile was tired, but he had no obvious injuries.
Seymour looked him over. “Really?”
“What about your wing?” Day demanded.
“Yeah! What about your damn wing!”
“Yes! Your damn wing!”
“Language!”
“Calm yourselves. I am fine,” Sariel soothed, steering them toward the couch. “I am resting. I am healing.” He sat them down so that he could sit beside Seymour with Day between them. “Are you two all right?”
“We’re fine!” Day meowed. “We met a big scary man who had an empty universe in his head!”
“Ah. Q.”
“Yeah, he’s a real treat.” Seymour slouched so he could lean against Sariel’s shoulder. “Really liked the part where he bitched out everybody. That was fun.”
“I liked that part too,” Day said with a purr.
“And hey, Shiloh’s okay too?” Seymour nudged Sariel’s arm. “Q. said you two were both restin’ or whatever.”
“Yes,” Sariel confirmed. “Shiloh is all right. He is at his home, also healing. I believe he will make a full recovery. He asked after Izba though, and I did not know what to tell him.”
“Izba is still shakin’ off whatever Faerie did to him. He was with us with the monster mob crowd, but then he left. Said he was lookin’ for Shiloh.”
Day pulled out the Rolodex from her kimono. “Does this mean he is not in here?” She shook it. “Hello?”
The entries on the Rolodex remained as they were, and there was no sign of movement.
Not even a single twitch of a vowel.
“Huh.” Seymour shrugged. “Maybe he got, uh, disconnected?”
“Oh. I hope he is all right.” Day frowned but put the Rolodex away. “What do we do now?”
“I guess we sit on our fuckin’ ass and hope that some stupid magical song ain’t gonna kill every monster in the city. Q. sent Flopsy and Mopsy after the brain, Lou and Mr. Heiss are doing what the hell ever they’re doing, and yeah. We’re here,” Seymour grumbled. “Kinda feels silly.”
“Silly?” Sariel tilted his head. “Why?”
“Because we could be out there helpin’. Doin’ somethin’. Hell, the damn twins are doin’ the damn thing I’m supposed to be doin’. I don’t get why I got put in fuckin’ timeout.”
Sariel arched his brows. “Q. may be concerned for your safety and lack faith in your abilities. I also desperately need to heal, and—”
“No, no, I get that.” Seymour reached for Sariel’s hand.
“Sorry. I guess it was rhetoric, theoretical, or whatever. I just…” He sighed.
“If this really is that bad and everybody else is out there, feels like we should be doin’ more to help too.
” He dug his heel into the floor. “I can’t stop thinkin’… ”
“What?”
“I’m scared.” Seymour squeezed Sariel’s hand and hugged Day closer. “I don’t wanna lose y’all. And yeah, I know Day is safe—”
“Because I am already dead,” she chimed in cheerfully.
“Yeah, but Sariel ain’t.”
“Oh.” Day frowned. “Right.”
“Currently, I may be the safest monster of all,” Sariel said softly. “This house exists within a separate dimension that Mr. Heiss created. His own home is also somewhere within this realm. Therefore, I do not believe I can be affected by what will be happening in Somerstown.”
“Wow.” Seymour snorted. “You mean Mr. Heiss actually did something nice? Holy shit.”
“I am appreciative of his kindness.”
“Is it really a fuckin’ kindness? Or just him protectin’ his property?”
Sariel’s frown deepened. “I do not wish to think of these things. Whatever his intentions, I have no choice but to accept his orders. Even as I long to be out there, helping, searching, doing something—” He sagged.
“Please know my frustrations mirror your own, but I do not have the privilege to rebel.”
Seymour could see the collar glimmering at Sariel’s throat. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too,” Day whispered.
“It will be all right,” Sariel said, his smile mournful but genuine. “We are all together, are we not? That is what matters most.”
“I have spent a very long time being sad.” Day reached out to hug them both tighter, her long tail curling around them.
“I was all alone and the world was so dark. I had only the Inro and the chochin-obake… I missed my parents. I missed my family. I was angry, hungry, aching… I met a few who tried to help me, like Clancy. He was kind, yes… but he was not family.” She looked up at them, purring sweetly.
“But here… I think I remember what it was like. To have one. I feel safe here. I’m happy here. ”
“Yes.” Sariel’s smile grew. “I am happy here now as well.”
“What about before?” Day tilted her head curiously. “You had a family before, didn’t you?”
“I did, but…”
Seymour didn’t say a word. He knew Sariel could refuse to answer the question if he wanted to, but honestly, he was pretty damn curious himself. So, he waited, patiently, trying not to squirm but eager to hear anything Sariel was comfortable sharing.
“I lost them,” Sariel said at last, a slight pinch in his brow. “Or I suppose, it is more accurate to say I lost myself and they did not come looking for me.”
Seymour gave Sariel’s hand a reassuring squeeze.
“Where I am from, the Celestial, is a vast void of darkness. There is light from the stars, the galaxies, countless nebulas, and that which my kind creates by being together. It is from our songs, our laughter, our joy. We spend eons like this, letting the universe float by and basking in that light. For some time now, it was what I missed the most. Its loss hurt more than even their betrayal.”
“The light?” Seymour asked softly.
“The light.” Sariel’s wings fluttered, and his eyes dimmed.
“It was all I’d known for so long, so when I first encountered darkness?
True darkness? I was foolish. I was curious.
I left the light to see what it was, even though my family had warned me not to.
That’s when I was taken. Demons of the Celestial long for our light because they cannot create any for themselves, and they were never going to let me go. ”
“Mr. Heiss,” Day murmured.
“Yes.”
“I can still eat him.”
Sariel smiled but ignored the comment. “I thought my family would bargain for me. Fight for me. Because they would miss my place in the light if nothing else. They said they loved me. They were supposed to care about me. That is what our light is, after all. It is our energy, our love for one another, and why we burn so brightly. But…” He sighed.
“They never came.” Day frowned. “Why?”
“I do not know. I used to want an answer, but I understand that it does not matter. They made a choice, and I made mine. It was when I realized they were never coming that I accepted my place with Mr. Heiss. It is the terms of our deal that binds me to him. That I am his until my family comes to claim me… Which, of course, I know they never will.” Sariel brightened back up, quite literally, as his eyes had their golden glow once more. “But I am not angry now.”
Day’s eyes narrowed. “Even though they left you with that jerk?”
“Even though they left me with that jerk, yes.” Sariel chuckled, bowing his head to kiss the tip of Day’s ear. “I found a new light.” He leaned over to kiss Seymour’s lips. “A new love. A new family. You have both become my light.”
Day purred. “I will still eat him, you know.”
“I appreciate that.”
Day and Sariel now looked to Seymour, and his heart thumped miserably. “Yeah, uh…” He swallowed hard. “Guess this means it’s my turn, right? To share my tragic backstory?”
“Only if you wish to,” Sariel soothed. “We do not have to discuss it if you do not want to.”
“Right.” Seymour let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “So.”
He didn’t talk about his loss much.
Sharing that part of himself made him feel weak, vulnerable, stupid.
However, he had an inkling of a thought that not only would Day and Sariel not mind, but they would understand. They had both lost their families the same way Seymour had—well, not exactly the same, but with enough similarities that he felt confident they could empathize.
Day purred quietly, smiling up at him as she laid her paws over Sariel’s and Seymour’s joined hands. Sariel’s gaze was equally loving, ever patient, and Seymour felt the hesitation still clinging to him melt away.
It was all right.
He could do this.
“My mama died four years ago. Losin’ her was like losin’ my whole world,” Seymour said at last. “I never knew my dad, so she was everything to me. Her parents died young too, so no grandparents, never had any other siblings or cousins or aunts or uncles, so… Yeah. It was just the two of us. But one day, uh, I came to see her after I got off work, and she didn’t answer the door.
“I knocked and knocked. Rang the doorbell like fuckin’ crazy, and I started to worry.
Her car was in the driveway, I’d just talked to her the night before, so I used my key to get in.
That’s when I found her. It was, like, seven at night, but she was still in bed.
She looked real peaceful, but she… Well… ”
Sariel touched Seymour’s cheek, brushing away a tear he hadn’t felt fall.
“They said it was an aneurysm. Took her quick. Painless. Whatever.” Seymour sniffed.
“I spent a long time tryin’ to cope with losin’ her.
I guess I never really got over it. Dating but never gettin’ close, goin’ out all the time, partyin’ a bit too hard, maybe just so I wouldn’t have to think ’bout how much I miss her.
Nothin’ else ever felt right or good or happy, and I had this huge hole inside of me.
I… I was constantly surrounded by people and still alone. Until you guys.”
“Because we are wonderful!” Day declared.