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Izzy met Riley’s gaze as he began the explanation of his plan, turning to look to Cerasus when Riley addressed him. She looked back to Riley slowly, glaring at him as he chuckled.
“What?” she interrupted at Cerasus starving to death. She inhaled and looked back to Cerasus when Riley elaborated, her head tilting only slightly when Trevor interrupted.
Izzy looked to the ground as Riley finished answering Trevor’s question. He had been quite serious about no one winning or losing. Her attention snapped to Cerasus. She swallowed as he begged for his death, for her sake. When all was said and done, Izzy slowly stepped in front of Cerasus, knelt down, and sat back on her feet. Her decision indeed.
If she chose Riley’s plan, Cerasus would remain alive, and she would not be a murderer. But, as Riley put it, her life would be dedicated to Cerasus, and he dependent on her. His life would forever be in her hands, and she would never be truly human. And, of course, there would be Cerasus’ ire to deal with. He had made it quite clear how he felt on the topic.
In doing as Cerasus bade, he would get what he said he wanted, and she would return to humanity in its entirety. But she would have killed him now not in defense, but ultimately for her own selfish gain, playing a part in the suicide he had wanted to commit. Could she live with herself for doing that?
Whichever she chose, she had to be certain she was willing to suffer the consequences for the rest of her life, no matter how long that ended up being.
She closed her eyes and took a deep, heaving breath. She swallowed hard, then slowly, her jaw set in her resolve.
“I’m sorry, Cerasus,” she said softly without opening her eyes. “No... no matter how noble you think it is, your way is a coward’s way out.” She looked to Riley, her eyes glistening wetly. “I’ll do it.”

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This morning, not even the shouts and thuds of her brothers waking here irritated Izzy as it usually would. That was a sound of normalcy, a sound she had never thought she would miss. She needed to get up, anyway, as reluctant as she was to do so. She pulled her blanket over her face for a moment, hiding it from the sun filtering in through the curtains of her window.
She peered out of covers and glanced to the clock on her bedside table. With a sigh, she forced herself to get out of bed. How she had missed sleeping in her own bed.
Quietly, she made her way to the restroom. With a shower and a fresh coat of glittery navy nail polish in place from the previous night, the world felt almost normal. But only almost. Even a long, hot shower could not wash away the last two weeks.
Deciding to find something to better hide the marks on her neck than her hair once she got back, she collected her usual walking stick which she had brought back with her, and paused with her hand on the doorknob. This would be the hard part, pretending for the world that the last two weeks really were nothing but an impromptu camping trip and not a series of life-altering events. After bracing herself and doing her best to put on her normal irritated expression at being woken before noon on summer break, she headed downstairs. She brushed her brothers off as quickly as she could, then headed outside. She hesitated for a short moment before stepping directly into the sunlight, two weeks of avoiding it quickly conditioning her against it.
Though her bike still sat in the garage, after so long of being incapable of enduring the sun, she wanted to enjoy the comfortable warmth of it on her skin, even the muggy heat of the late-June day. Her bike could wait until next time.
The walk to the school took longer than she anticipated, but she made it nonetheless. Inside, the rubber bottom of her walking staff thudded against the cracked tiles as she made her way to the third floor.
She stopped when she heard Riley call to her from one of the classrooms, and entered. “Sorry,” she offered. “The walk took longer than I expected.” She shook her head at his question. “He’s made this journey too many times already. I wasn’t going to ask him to make it again. This is my burden to bear, not his. Besides, we both know you really were trying to avoid him.” She glanced behind her to the doorway and hall beyond. She bit her lower lip, a feat she had nearly given up on. “How is he?” she asked quietly.

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“Would you keep them to yourself even if I did?” Izzy asked not unkindly. She looked to the floor at her feet. “I’m glad he realized what Cerasus was doing. If he hadn’t...” She shook her head, then gave a nod in thanks. At least she knew he would be lurking around, even if she would not always see him. Her gaze followed Riley’s cigarette when he used it to point, surprised when she realized she had not noticed him in the same room.
Though her night vision was scarcely a ghost of what it had been, it was still enough for her to make out what Cerasus had been reduced to. Her eyes met his for a brief moment before she had to look away.
“Is... is he stuck like that?” she asked, sparing Riley only a quick glance as she leaned her weight on the staff and ran a hand through her hair. It felt odd not having it up. “Or will he age? Will I still age, for that matter, or am I stuck as a teenager for the rest of ever? However long ‘ever’ ends up being. How often will he...” her hand moved through her hair, and her fingertips gently brushed the marks on her neck, “will he need to feed?”

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Izzy gave a humorless chuckle as Riley finished. “You make it sound like I’m dog-sitting or something,” she grumbled. She glanced back toward the child’s corner. Slowly, she stepped toward him, her gaze on the floor and grip on her staff tight. She sat near him, her staff held in both hands near the end of the shaft and back bent forward slightly.
“Hey,” she began awkwardly, not entirely sure how to even try starting a conversation with him. Even if he would not speak, she had come all this way to check on him. There was no sense in leaving until she at least attempted to talk with him. “How are you feeling?”

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Izzy held her breath as she returned Cerasus’ detached gaze. No, not Cerasus, not anymore. What sat before her now was all but an empty shell of the man he had been, the anger in his dull golden eyes chilling.
“What?” she asked, looking to Riley as he began. Her face fell as he continued. She had not thought about it like that. But now, looking at the child sitting in the corner, the truth of his words hung heavily around her. “I-I didn’t... That’s not...” She gave a jittery exhale. The room around her suddenly felt like it was closing in around her and the child, the cold the walls managed to retain seeping into her bones. “I need some air,” she finished hoarsely, scrambling to her feet. She all but ran down the steps, her head bent and stomach churning.
Just outside the front door, she stepped to the side and leaned against a patch of wall not coated in ivy. She ran a hand down her face. She had turned Cerasus into the very thing she had loathed being. A pet. No. She had still had her will, her moxie. What was the once grand, proud Cerasus was now little more than a wisp of his former self, stripped even of those.
She sunk to the rocky ground with a sob, her staff clattering to the weed-caked ground beside her, and placed her head in her hands as tears spilled from the corner of her eyes.
“What have I done?” she moaned into her palms in scarcely a whisper.

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Izzy gasped and scrambled further from the door, her hands on the gravel and pieces of crumbling bricks behind her, when Riley’s voice came from the doorway. She gave an exasperated exhale at being startled by his sudden appearance.
“I had no other intention,” she muttered, reaching for her staff and using it to help her back to her feet as Riley continued speaking. Though she knew he had heard it when Trevor used it, she looked at him in surprise when he called her by her name. Unsure what to say to his offer, she watched him return to the school, sure the noise he made on the main floor was for her benefit.
She stood there for another few minutes, her gaze distant in thought, before she took a breath then entered, heading once more to the top floor. In the room where the child sat, unmoving, she leaned her staff in the corner opposite him. She spared him a quick glance, wondering if he had even slept, then went to sit beside him, leaving only a few inches between their sides, and mimicking his position.
She sat there for a couple minutes, letting the silence fill the room, her gaze on the far wall.
“You have every reason to hate me,” she finally said without looking to him, unsure if the child was even listening, if enough of who he once was remained for him to so much as lend her a thought. “But the choice I made was not to turn you into...” her lips curled down as she snorted, “into my pet. It was just... the better option. You said you’d made your choice when your first thrall killed himself.” She paused, her head bending to look at the tops of her bent knees. “Like I told you, I know what it’s like to lose someone you care for. I... I lost my best friend because I was too stupid to suggest turning back. Our parents were friends before we were born, so we practically shared the same cradle. We were more like sisters than anything.” She tried to swallow past a lump in her throat, her voice heavy with emotion, and eyes watery. “In the blink of an eye, she was gone. Fourteen years of friendship severed in the matter of seconds.” She exhaled shakily. “It’s been almost four years. It didn’t take the town long to forget about her, but not a day goes by where I don’t miss her.” She crossed her arms atop her knees, and rested her forehead on them. “That might not seem like a long time to an immortal, but to us humans, it may as well be an eternity.
“I’ve been where you are, wanting to follow in her footsteps so I wouldn’t have to wrestle with the pain of it anymore. I...” she swallowed, her voice growing softer, “I tried. But at the last second, I couldn’t. But it’s a good thing. If everyone else in this wretched town wanted to forget her, then I was the only one left here to keep her memory alive. There wouldn’t have been any poetic justice in it, just a cowardice and insult to her memory. And I wasn’t going to take part in you making that mistake.”
Izzy straightened and wiped away a tear with the back of her hand. “So. Hate me all you want, Cerasus. Spend the rest of however long our lives last now giving me the silent treatment.” She turned her head to look at him, her gaze boring into him. “But no matter what happens, I will not give up on you, and I won’t let you give in.”

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Izzy nodded and sighed at his anticipated silence. Slowly, she straightened one of her legs on the floor from where she sat, reached into her pocket, and removed a hair tie. Pulling back her hair, she quickly tied it up, exposing her neck. Without a word, she scooted closer to him and reached to wrap an arm around the child’s frail form. She refused to let her hold on him falter, careful for fear of hurting him as she tried to turn his attention from his struggles to her throat. She almost sighed in relief when her efforts worked, and he calmed down. She inhaled sharply when she felt his fangs pierce her skin, but it faded quickly, replaced by the sensation of him drawing her blood.
Confident he would not try to pull away, she loosened her grip on him, one hand awkwardly rubbing small circles on his back, trying to convey that, no matter how things felt today, they could only get better.
She took a slow breath and closed her eyes.
Her last statement to him was more than just a promise, it was a vow. She was not here out of obligation, but because she wanted to be. Fate had dealt out her cards, but she was the one who had chosen to play them in this way. No matter what the future had to dish out, they were in it together, bound by invisible threads they had unknowingly been weaving together from the night they met, threads strengthened by the scars they now shared.
This, Izzy felt, was only the beginning of their story, a story of two wounded, fractured souls.

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Izzy laid contently in the caress of her bed and welcome coziness of her puffy comforter. It was suspiciously quiet outside her door for a Sunday morning, but she was not about to complain. She would take all the relaxation she could get. For a couple minutes, she listened to the sound of her heartbeat, focusing on its calm, steady rhythm. The thu-thump of near-humanity.
In her partial consciousness, her thoughts wandered lazily, swinging from one topic to the next: Trevor and the relationship the two of them had, despite their many differences, how things would be without him, and everything he had done and was still doing for her, unsure if she could ever repay him for his kindness and sacrifice; what she and Cerasus--or, at least, what remained of him--had become, and the pains they shared; Riley, staying at the abandoned school, doing who-knew-what to pass the time until he decided to leave for his next adventure, and that she might bring him a deck of playing cards for in the meantime; that it was rather stuffy beneath the pillow she had over her face, and she should seriously think about looking into finding black-out curtains for her bedroom.
She groaned inwardly when she heard her door squeak softly open. She could not get a break, it seemed, even with the days of the glorious summer vacation coming to an end. Though she had dreaded it when it began, now, she wished it did not have to end, that she would not have to add school on top of everything else she had on her mind. She waited for whichever of the two little demons that called themselves her brothers to make their presence known, wanting to prolong her time in bed as much as possible.
Alas, her efforts were rewarded with Blake’s newest attempt at being an alarm clock.
She gave a gasping moan in pain as his elbow dug into her stomach, knocking the wind from her, and her upper body sprung up, arms reaching to try shoving him away.
“You little brat!” she growled once she could breathe again, strands of her hair sticking up in odd angles as it settled around her face. Her gaze focused on Blake sitting on her legs, her gaze murderous. Her glare only darkened at his question. “When you grow up.” She moved her legs in an attempt at pushing him off her bed. “Get outta my room, or I’ll make your bacon extra blackened for the next year.”

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“I’ll give you PMS,” Izzy grumbled under her breath. She rolled her eyes as her brother’s friend comment, and slowly pulled her feet under her, sitting cross-legged on the mattress. She had friends. One, anyway. But the connection their trials had initiated, and the attraction toward him she had felt grow over nearly the last two months, left her, in the very least, confused.
She looked to Blake, and sighed. Trying to turn her thoughts into a question as nonchalantly as she could, she leaned back on her arms.
“Speaking of friends,” she began, a mildly taunting tone in her voice, “How’s the girlfriend doing? You never did tell me how you two met.” She leaned forward, resting her chin in her hand. “How’d you figure out you liked her as more than just a friend?”

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Between Blake’s familiar posture in her chair, and the contempt displayed almost satisfyingly on his face at her questions, Izzy tried to suppress a grin, resulting in a rather tight-lipped smirk.
“Sure he does, but I’m asking you, not him.” She cocked her head slightly in her hand, then her face fell as Blake’s expression changed.
“Of course not!” she answered too hastily. She felt her cheeks growing hot, and looked to her covers, letting her hair fall over her face and hoping it would hide the blush.
She scowled at his final comment. “Fine. If you’re going to be that way about it, forget I even asked.” With her glower plastered on her face, Izzy tossed her blanket from her and stood. “I’ll be down to make breakfast in a few minutes.” She stepped toward her bedroom door to head to the bathroom and complete her usual morning routine.