Epilogue
Two weeks later
“Look at poor Godwin’s sink, will that come out?
” Athens said in half jest, Godwin already butting in and saying it was fine.
Godwin stepped over to wash his hands and smiled softly, looking up at the dark brown disaster all over Dariel’s head and ears and…
face. How did I manage to get it on my chin?
He thought, catching an awkward glimpse at himself in the mirror.
“Is that your natural hair colour?” Godwin asked, looking for a towel to dry his hands.
Dariel scrunched his face. “Not really, I’m hoping it will fade to more of a coppery blond. It’s meant to…” he held up the dye box with a smiling woman on the cover with a very different hair colour to what Dariel was currently sporting.
“I liked the icy blond,” Athens stated from the doorway, arms folded. Dariel couldn’t quite make out if that was meant to be as harsh as he’d taken it.
“It will fade,” he said, quieter and more embarrassed.
Finally Athens’ facade cracked. “You could have any hair or no hair at all and it wouldn’t change my opinion of you.”
“Oh,” Dariel said in realisation, dropping his head and blushing. A drop of excess dye landed on the cream bath rug beneath his feet and he bent to stop it a second too late, mind not really engaged with his surroundings.
“Right, that’s it, I’m grabbing a bin bag. Head over the sink, Dariel.”
Dariel did as he was told, Athens leaving the room and Godwin squeezing his shoulders.
“You’re very handsome, Athens thinks so too. He says it a lot,” Godwin whispered, the pair of them locking eyes with their mirror selves. “You will suit this hair!”
You are very handsome, John.
Friday night became Dariel’s turn to cook. Or at least it was heading that way. He didn’t mind, just needed to refresh his memory on most meals. The most he’d ever cook for himself in the past was the occasional rare steak or maybe a burger if he was feeling extra low on energy.
Now he was serving up the finest spaghetti bolognaise north of Italy. Well.
“If it’s shit, we can raid Godwin’s wine cabinet to wash it down,” he said, lighting the candles in the middle of the table, the two men already tucking in. Dariel and Athens had very small portions, eating more for politeness, but Dariel still tried. Godwin seemed to be enjoying his.
They talked, as they usually did. Athens had been drawing up some design plans the past few days and wanted to share his ideas.
Godwin cleared up, as per his role for the evening, then they retired to the library, falling into routine.
Godwin lit the fire. Athens sat down last. “Well, what a lovely evening. I’m getting rather used to this, aren’t you?” He addressed them both, free hand patting Godwin’s inner thigh. “I definitely think green. For the box room.”
“I agree, though I may be biased.” Godwin nodded.
“I’ll be able to take the empty boxes down to the recycling unit tomorrow, they empty the bins every other Friday, right?
” Dariel joined in, thinking about how much they’d managed to clear up in such a short space of time.
They’d emptied most of the downstairs in the two weeks since they joined him; the whole place lighter and more… alive.
There were just a few more things they needed to clear out.
And it was as if Dariel and Athens thought it together, right then, in that moment.
The fire cracked. Athens tapped his foot. Dariel rubbed his hands against the chair.
“I think it’s probably time I get this thing off my chest. Since we’re all sticking together now, for however long we want. You all deserve to know the man you take to bed each night. I apologise it took this long for me to bring it up.” Athens spoke first, taking a sip of wine.
Dariel knew immediately. Maybe it was time.
It is.
Athens placed his glass down. “I met my maker in the early nineties, not long after I started to medically transition. He found me, charmed me with his words and actions—making me believe he was the only one on planet earth who would truly understand me. Of course I know now it was all lies. I was in my mid-twenties, but still barely felt like a man, and hadn’t even been my true self for long, not in society at least. He preyed upon that.
” Athens absently grimaced at the memory.
“We dated for years. Everything felt right, and normal… until it wasn’t.
I’m not sure I noticed when things shifted, because I forced myself to believe it should have been obvious from the start, but it doesn’t really matter, he was inside my head without me having any power to stop it.
” He looked away, distracted by the thoughts before turning his attention back to Dariel and Godwin.
“I should never have introduced him to Sophie. Should have never brought him to our home. I was with him for five years, and I never even guessed what sort of monster he was. And I’m not talking about being a vampire, no, he was rotten to the core.
Foul, foul man. There’s not really much else to it.
He came to our home one night in a fit of rage, never explaining why, and attacked me all because I tried to calm him down.
He threw me into the coffee table, knocking me almost unconscious.
Then I watched, dizzied and in pain as he stabbed Sophie with our own kitchen knife,” he pointed at his chest with a sharp nail three times.
“She was pulling him away from me. Tried to stop him from hurting me, and all I could do was watch her eyes glaze over as she lay in a pool of her own blood—my hands too far to reach for her. He staggered back after that, humanity taking over or whatever, then he looked at me, knife still in hand. It would have been a lot easier if he’d let me go with her, but oh no, he wouldn’t let his precious little boyfriend die, so naturally he turned me.
I’m glad I at least fell unconscious quickly, I didn’t put up a fight. ”
It was harrowing to picture, Dariel clutched his shirt tight in his fist. He wasn’t the only one carrying the pain of death.
“I woke up alone in the field behind the apartment complex as the sun rose the next morning, the sound of sirens and paramedics waking me fully. He’d just left me. Turned me and left me. Got scared and ran off, probably. Ha. Well, there was only one thing I could do—I went to track him down.”
“I hope you killed him.” This was Godwin, fist almost crushing the stem of the wine glass in his hand.
Athens raised a brow in surprise. “Oh, I did. I watched the life leave his eyes. Made it slow and agonising. I bled his confession to me; what he’d done to me, why he killed Sophie.
He begged me to spare him, promising he would change, claiming he never wanted me to leave his life.
It changed nothing. He’d taken my best friend from me, who was to say he hadn’t done it countless times before through countless lives?
What would stop him from doing it again?
So I slit his throat and held his head back as his life soaked the grass beneath us.
Beautiful image, sorry if I put you off your wine, Godwin. ”
Godwin shook his head. “You did the right thing.”
“Glad we’re on the same page then, would have been terribly awkward if you were against a little murder.”
“Self-defence.” Godwin shrugged passively—something Dariel noted he’d started doing a lot as he grew more comfortable with their company—finding himself again. Dariel smiled, nodding.
“The fire. My wife and… my unborn child died in a fire,” he said.
It was only right he shared this properly now—it felt right.
All attention turned to Dariel. “I got home from work to see our house fully ablaze. I ran inside, no care if it burned me, and I screamed her name. I cried out for Annette, and it’s been so long now, I don’t even remember if she ever called back.
I told myself she did for a long time, to blame myself.
To prove I could have saved her, that it wasn’t too late.
I know now there was truly nothing I could have done.
I’ll never know who saved me, my dreams show me faces, play out all the false memories I created, but it doesn’t matter now.
I’m here, I’m alive, and, well… life has to go on, doesn’t it? ”
“Life goes on…” Athens agreed.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I understand it means nothing saying this, but I mean it… You’re both here now. Strong and alive and human and… well, my life sounds rather simple in comparison, doesn’t it? What a fool that makes me,” Godwin said.
“It isn’t a competition.” Athens shook his head.
“It doesn’t matter what has happened in your life, how good or bad you might think it was…
we all hold things differently, our experiences and emotions are just as valid, no matter what.
What happened to Dariel and I, it was horrific, something no one should ever have to go through.
You didn’t experience that, but you lived through something different, and it sat with you all the same.
” Athens patted Godwin’s leg. “Though there were some similarities, I’ll never feel what Dariel felt, he’ll never feel what I felt.
Neither of us went through what you did, though we can all still empathise with each other, can still listen, and learn and…
well now we can all grow from it. Together. Isn’t that right, Dariel?”
Dariel emptied his lungs. “John. My name is John.”
Both men looked at him, a million questions in their eyes, until there remained only one.
“I was born John Farlan in Sheffield 1942. Married Annette Everett in 1962. I’m sixty-four years old.”
‘Well hello, John. It’s nice to finally meet you.’ Athens smiled then he clapped his hands, sitting back. “Don’t expect my birth name any time soon, that’s well and truly dead and buried, along with my ability to die, it seems. Funny how life turns out.”
Godwin was the first to laugh, before they all joined in.