Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever...”

            Real love is forever, I remember saying that, believing it. That was a long time ago when I thought that this world was fair. My mother was a junkie who never took care of me, not until that night, the night that changed it all. Shelly and Eric took care of me as far back as I could remember, but one night they were brutally murdered. Exactly a year later, when I had lost all hope, the crow brought Eric back for just one night to bring justice to the world. He avenged their deaths. And though I never found out what he did or said to my mother, she changed. And life was great for a few years but as with everything else, goodness started to decay again. A new gang leader emerged starting the tradition of wreaking havoc on ‘devil’s night’ again, the night before Halloween just like top dollar, fun boy, and all of the others. They were all gone but their greed and evil lived on in a new gang. A gang that was far worse than those who inspired them. They knew about Darla, my mother, turning away from that life. They came around trying to lure her in and teach them all the ways of the former gang. She refused and eventually she was killed. It was made to look like an accident, but I knew better. I loved her and she was all I had but I didn’t take her death nearly as hard as I did when Shelly and Eric died. I remember it was on a Friday night and every detail is seared in my brain, it was raining that night. My mom’s death wasn’t as long ago but I don’t remember what day it was exactly. I just know my mom was gone, it was my senior year of high school and again I was left alone. That was the really hard part, having a ray of hope just to watch it disappear again. Now, about a year later, waitressing at the same broken-down shithole of a bar my mom did, I make just enough money to get by. But it’s almost not worth it, to put up with all the harassment from the junkies that come to get drunk and shoot up. Is this really better than starving to death? I sometimes wish I had been able to go with Eric and Shelly, there’s nothing for me here.

            Detective Albrecht, or as I call him Darryl, is getting too old to care about what happens to this town. He’s got enough battle scars and to truly fight evil it’s going to take a lot more than one good cop among a bunch of bad ones who are just as bad or worse than the gangs. The ringleader of the new group is named ‘Kill Switch’, he has all the police on his payroll except Darryl. It’s about midnight when I finally get off work, tomorrow is ‘devil’s night’ and the anniversary of Shelly and Eric’s death. I can’t wait to get out of this smelly old damp bar and out into the chilly night air. I walk out the doors and my shoulders slump. It’s raining again, which is just perfect because I have no car and have to walk home. I cross my arms to the cold and the glimmer from my ring catches my eye. I look down at it, it’s mine now, but it was originally the ring Eric had bought for Shelly. He left it with me after he had gotten justice for his murder and then saved me and the city from Top Dollar.

            I stare at the ring and instead of heading home, I head to the old church, the one where they are buried. I walk through the rain and am soaked to the bone when I get there. The place isn’t used anymore, and no one takes care of the graves beside it, I haven’t even been here since Eric left me the ring. I walk over to where they are buried. Despite the rain, the moon peaks through some clouds letting me see the names on the headstones. Somewhere in the distance, I am sure I can hear the caw of a crow.

            “I miss you guys, more than anything,” I say, “my mom is gone now too, but it was still good while it lasted.” I don’t want to be too negative because Eric has done so much to help me. Rain starts pouring harder, and I break, “it’s so bad Eric, I wish you could come back like you did before and make it better, I need you, things are so bad and I have no one,” I sob. “It feels like nothing is going to ever change, this place will never get better, I wish you would have taken me with you,” I pause because the wind is drowning out my words. Then I scream, “and I hate this stupid rain!”

            The wind quiets enough for me to hear someone say, “can’t rain all the time.”

            I whirl around with my heart in my throat, it sinks when I see Darryl standing a few feet away. The wind or something tricked my mind into thinking his voice was Eric’s and when I see that it isn’t, it breaks something more inside me. Even after I thought there was nothing left to break.

            “I guess you had the same idea as me,” Darryl says when I don’t say anything.

            “Yea I guess so,” I mumble.

            “Are you doing okay?” he walks over slowly and puts his hand on my shoulder. I turn my head and look into his eyes. He is weary, but I still see that light in them.

            “Who is in this town?” I ask.

            He sighs, “Sarah, I can’t pretend to know what you’ve been through…”

            I hold up my hand to interrupt, “you do know, you’ve been there through all of it, none of this is your fault.”

            Tears fill his eyes and he drops his head, nodding slightly. He’s been waiting on me to say that for a year. After I yelled at all the cops last year for ruling my mother’s death an accident. He felt responsible for her, and for Shelly, Eric he got to make peace with. When he didn’t say anything I said, “I mean… at least you care.”

            “I can’t do it alone, the more I fight, the lower on the ladder I go,” he says, “bad apples spoil the whole bunch.”

            I giggle, “that’s a little cheesy.”

            He laughs, “come on, I’ll buy you a hot dog for old times sake.”

            “Thanks, but I think I’m gonna stay here for a while,” I say.

            He nods and then walks forward, placing his hand tenderly on Shelly’s headstone for a second and then Eric’s, a look passes over his eyes and he nods to me quickly before turning to leave. He doesn’t move as fast as he used to, I’m not sure if it’s because of age or despondency. I watch him leave and then hear a flutter behind me. I spin around expecting to see a specific type of bird on Eric’s headstone. But instead, there is a dove perched on Shelly’s.

            “Who are you?” I ask it. It tilts its head at me and looks at my exposed stomach. There you can see part of my largest tattoo, the white bottom of a wing. All across my back, I have a crow swooping up towards the left from the right, and below it, a dove swooping up towards the right from the left. They cover almost my entire back, from my shoulders to my waist, and so far left and right that the wings come around my side on left. The outer wings of both birds wrap around me almost in a hug. I got the crow for Eric and the dove for Shelly.

            “You like my tattoo?” I ask the dove, lifting my shirt more and turning to show it more of the tattoo, it coos at me lightly and I smile. “Shelly always liked doves, she used to read me a story about a crow and a dove,” I tell the dove. I’m not sure why I’m standing here in the middle of the night in a graveyard talking to a bird, but it feels right.

“You know the story?” I ask the dove; it looks at me with a soft look. “The dove is bragging about having a lot of babies and the crow says that more babies mean more things to worry about, I’m not sure what the message is in that, I never had kids, but Shelly liked stories like that,” I sigh. The dove walks back and forth on Shelly’s headstone for a moment, I continue, “she used to say that when a dove visits you, it’s a message of love, sent from God, sent in times of crisis, is that why you are here?”

The dove flies over my head and into some trees and I spin around to watch it go, “I guess not,” I mumble. I hear rustling in the trees and see a light, so I start to walk toward it. I see a woman in the trees in a white dress, she walks out of the trees and I see it’s Shelly. That’s when everything went black. I woke up in a daze and saw shelly with her hand on my cheek.

“Shelly?” I ask.

“Remember Sarah,” she says, and her voice sounds distant.

“Remember what?”

“Remember the dove,” she smiles, and I fade out of it again. I dream of being a small child in Eric and Shelly’s apartment and we are playing with napkins. Eric folds them into origami birds. He flies one towards me, making me and Shelly laugh. Shelly holds one up and starts telling me about the dove, “a dove is the symbol of peace, hope, and life, it is said that if a dove visits you, you are being asked to look within yourself to release your emotional disharmony, they come to help us heal from pain.”

            Eric smiles at her, “you are so beautiful and wise.” She smiles back and they both look at me and I have one of the tissue doves on like a hat and they laugh, pulling me into a hug with them both. I awaken with a gasp and sit up, sucking in the air desperately.

            “Shelly?” I whisper. No one is there with me and I look around, I’m still in the graveyard but I feel strange, different. I turn around and there the dove is again on her headstone, looking at me.

            “What did you do to me?” I ask it. It flies into the air and makes figure eights until I stand up and follow it, then it flies toward the gate to leave. I blink and suddenly I can see the ground from the air, I scream and open my eyes. I don’t know what’s happening to me, it’s like I had a bird’s eye view of the ground. I look up and the dove is flying around again not moving forward or away, she’s waiting. She’s waiting for me.

Chapter Text

“it is said that if a dove visits you, you are being asked to look within yourself to release your emotional disharmony, they come to help us heal from pain...”

I follow the dove though it’s difficult to keep my balance. Every time I close my eyes, which is frequent since I feel lightheaded, I see things from her angle. And from her angle, things look off, like I’m not seeing things through human eyes. I stumble along down the street; I don’t even realize where she is taking me until we get to the building and I look up. The top floor has a round window, boarded over. Their apartment, Eric and Shelly’s.

“No, I don’t want to go in there,” I mumble knowing it doesn’t matter how far away she is, the dove knows what I’m saying. She swoops down and lands on my shoulder, fluttering my cheeks with her wings. She purrs softly into my ear, wanting me to be brave but understanding my hesitation. I don’t know how I have the ability to understand her, but I suddenly do. I should be terrified by it, but all I feel is peace. I sigh and start up the stairs to the condemned building. The front door is gone, replaced by boards like it has been for years. I had to break in years ago, looking for Eric when he came back. I have to pull some boards off and it’s a lot easier than it was when I was a kid. My own strength is surprising, maybe it’s because the boards are getting old. The dove is already inside as I crawl through the opening I’ve created. I stand up and the flashbacks are staggering. It’s almost too much to bear and I have to close my eyes but when I do I can still see it from the dove’s perspective.

“Close your eyes please,” I beg. She does it and I wonder if this is how we have to live, if I will have to wait for her to sleep so I can. I get my balance and suck in a few deep breaths and finally open my eyes. I try to focus on smaller details. These are just bricks and piles of wood, there’s a brick that’s crumbling out of the wall. It’s not the same place I used to know, this is just a building. I start to climb the stairs, even though they creak and groan, I am not frightened. I make my way up to the top floor. Eric and Shelly’s old apartment still has faded police tape lying on the floor in front of the open door. No one has even bothered with this place. It’s really surprising no one in the new gang has taken the building over. It’s not fit to live in for normal people, but they usually don’t care about that. I can see the giant window from here, the one Eric fell from. I go inside and look around. It’s hard to breathe but I’m not sure if it’s because of the dust or the memories.       

The dove perches above the door leading to the attic and coos, she wants me to go up there. I make my way over and go into the closet-sized room with a ladder to the attic. I have a flashback of a memory that isn’t my own of Eric guiding Shelly up this ladder when he proposed. She told me in such detail that I can see it vividly. I follow in their footsteps and climb up. There are no beautiful candles or a ring waiting for me. Just some old boxes and a lot of dust. The dove flies past me and lands somewhere over in the corner in the dark. She knows something I don’t. I walk over and wipe some grime from the window to let the light from the street shine in. The dove is pacing on a chest, it was Shelly’s. She put all her most precious things in here. I open the lid and the dove relocates to the windowsill, her shadow falling over the contents of the chest. On the very top are white feathers, unbelievably white considering how long they’ve been rotting in here. I try and move them and then realize they are all part of one piece. I put my hands under them and lift them out. There isn’t enough room up here to stretch them out and see what they are, so I set them aside for the moment and look back into the chest. All that’s left is a masque. I remember this so well; it was a Halloween costume that Shelly wore one year. The wings are angel wings and she wore the mask as well. It is a gold Venetian masquerade masque. She looked so beautiful; she wore them with a soft white gown. She had looked like an angel to me.

I lift the masque and hold it up to my face, there is no string or anything to hold it on. I take it and the wings and crawl back over to the stairs; the dove follows so I guess we are done up here. Back in the living room, I look around again waiting for the dove to show me what to do. She goes into the bedroom and I follow her, once there I see Eric’s old leather trench coat. I take it and bring it back into the living room. Going on instinct I take the wings and unfold them. I fit them onto me over my own shirt. I hear a tearing sound and then, pain. Blinding, unbelievable pain, like someone, is driving a couple of machetes through my back. I go to the floor and scream in anguish.

When the pain finally eases up a little I am sobbing and coughing. I raise up to one knee and look up. I can see out the broken window, somehow the boards have been blown off. I remember how Eric felt somehow, I feel something like electricity coursing through my body and I bow my head and raise to my feet. I feel the vibrating energy flowing through me and out of my fingertips. I hold my arms out and adjust my back muscles and I feel them. I feel them like they are my own limbs, wings. They are mine now, a part of my body. I raise them out and the dove comes and lands on my outstretched hand as a flash of lightning lights up the room. I look up, out the window and I see it. I see the city like I never could before like I feel the pain of its inhabitants pulsing through the air. I suck in some air and turn toward the bedroom. I sit down and look in the makeup mirror. The sad clown mask eric modeled his own makeup is still there hanging. I touch it gingerly.

“I miss you, and Shelly,” I whisper, recalling the words I said to him in here years ago. I hear an echo of his voice when I had given up calling to him, “Sarah, I do care.” I close my eyes remembering. This time I don’t see from the dove’s eyes, I try to and there it is, her perspective. I have control now; I can choose when to see through her eyes now. I look at my own reflection and gasp. My once dirty blond hair is now almost white. It’s still long, down to my waist. My skin is paler, and my eyes are brighter blue. The dove lands on the vanity table in front of me holding the masque in her beak. I pick it up and she lets go, I place it on my face, and it stays. I don’t know how because there are no strings. I pull it off to make sure it isn’t stuck, it comes off. I put it on and adjust it to my liking. I take out some lipsticks and start to go for the black but then I glance up at myself again, with the gold masque on, I pick a gold lipstick instead.

“Do you like it?” I ask the dove; she coos at me. I touch the sad clown mask again, “Eric, you really saved me, but there’s a lot more work to do, the people in this city are suffering in misery, they are drowning it… and if the crow couldn’t find dry land,” I stood and walked back to the big window in the living room, stretching my wings out once again, “maybe the dove can.”

Chapter Text

“There is a French Proverb that says, ‘Dread the anger of the Dove’; indeed…”

            I sat in the window looking down to the street below, I keep the masque on. I pick up Eric’s old guitar and strum it as I wait. The dove had gone out looking for the person I needed to talk to first. His name is ‘Stacks’, at least on the streets. He is a part of Kill Switch’s gang, they call themselves ‘the forsaken’. Stacks is the money guy and if anyone would crack under pressure and tell me what I needed to know; it would be him. He was less in the gang than he was the gang’s scumbag accountant. I play some of Eric’s old songs, singing them to myself. ‘I could start a band’, I think to myself. I had been in one in high school for a while. I named us ‘hangman’s last laugh’ in honor of Eric’s band. I thought it was clever, but we were the joke. I practiced all the time, but the rest of the kids didn’t care about the music, they just wanted to be in a band. They thought it would make them cooler or something. Darla loved it, she was so supportive of everything I did, even when I sucked at it.

            I sense I should check in on the dove, so I close my eyes and search for that feeling. It is an odd thing to just know what to do, everything is instinct now. I start to see a room, it’s blurry at first. Then it starts to clear up and I can see a big room, with almost no furniture. There is one desk in the corner, Stacks is sitting behind it counting money. Drug money, stolen money, blood money. I want to open my eyes and go over there, but I have to keep my cool. I watch what he is doing as well as I can. The dove is on the windowsill, if she goes in he’ll see her, so I can’t see all the papers on his desk. I’ll have to look at them when I get there. What really matters is whether or not he’s alone. I need to be prepared. She knows what I need to see and flies to other windows, no one else is there. I sit Eric’s guitar down and stand up. I go get his leather trench coat, which would have been too big for me except now it will be perfect to hide my wings. I fold the coat and tuck it up under one arm. I step up on the windowsill and stand there looking down. This is where Eric fell to his death. I’m about to go out the same window, and if I’m crazy and just hallucinating all of this, join him. I stretch my wings out to get ready.

            I look down once more and take a deep breath, “screw it,” I mumble and step out. I feel an urge to tilt my body forward. My wings catch the air and I glide parallel to the street below. I feel the cool night air on my skin and it’s amazing. No one lives on this side of town anymore. The few people I see below are so out of it they wouldn’t think anything of seeing me fly above them. Still, a few blocks over there are more people. I can’t fly all the way over to Stacks’ place, someone might see me. I bring my feet forward and drift downward slowly, stepping lightly onto the street. I land softly on one foot and then bring the other down and look around to make sure I’m alone as I bring my wings down onto my back. I take Eric’s trench coat and put it on and it’s snug now because there are lots of feathers back there. I see the edge of one feather sticking out the bottom of his coat and it has blood on it. The fusion process must’ve caused some bleeding from my back. I’m not sure if I should go find a shower or a birdbath, but it’s going to have to wait until after my visit to Stacks. The blood will work in my favor and creep him out more anyway.

            I start down the street and head for the building Stacks is in. Once there I fly to the roof and wait. I close my eyes again and the dove has flown in and is perched on one of his file cabinets. She flutters her wings causing him to turn around. He sees her and gets up; she flies to the other side of the room and he follows. This is when I make my move. By the time I’m inside he’s chasing her around trying to shoo her away. He hears me as I walk up behind him and spins around surprised.

            “Hey Stacks,” I say.

            “Haystacks?” he says, I roll my eyes and knock him out. By the time he wakes up at his desk chair, I am putting a c.d. in his stereo. There is an olive branch laying on his desk in front of him where all the money was. His arms are tied behind him and he rolls his head around trying to wake up.

            I push play on the stereo, “you’re awake,” I say tilting my head at him sweetly.

            “What is this?” he snaps. Stacks is a smaller squirrely man, he looks like a stereotype of a used car dealer.

            “Not a bad music collection,” I say as ‘zombie’ by the cranberries starts to play, “I’m a little surprised.”

            “Who are you? What’s with the mask, Halloween isn’t until tomorrow,” he says. I walk over and stand in front of his desk.

            “You don’t remember me?” I tsk at him, “I know you weren’t that drunk, you and all your… buddies at the club, throwing money at me, telling me to dance…” I pick up the olive branch and hold it to my face, “to strip…”

            “Darla’s girl?” he asks, “look I had nothing to do with that…”

            “SHUT UP!” I shout, “I’m not here for revenge, this is a peace offering, don’t you know what an olive branch means?” He looks confused so I continue, “do you still want me to?” I ask.

            “Want you to what?” he asks, looking nervous.

            I giggle, “to strip?” Before he has time to answer I throw off the trench coat and drop it on the floor. My wings spread out and I look over at him suggestively. He looks a little stunned, but it hasn’t sunk in yet that they aren’t part of a costume. I jump up and land on his desk, I dance a little and crouch down dropping the olive branch onto his lap, he looks down at it. I grab his chin and force him to look at me.

            “What are you? What are you doing?” he starts to tremble.

            “I thought you wanted to watch me dance,” I pout, then I giggle again.

            “What do you want from me?” he sputters.

            “I picked this song for a reason,” I say, taking a knife I found at Shelly’s out of my thigh-high boot. I take the tip and point it at his temple, “what’s in your head?”

            His bottom lip starts to tremble as a tear falls out of one of his eyes, he looks at my wings again, “who’s blood is that?”

            “It’s mine,” I say.

            “Please,” he pleads, “you want money, I have a lot of money here.” He looks around at his desk where he had stacks of money, but they are gone. I finally let go of his chin and laugh, throwing my head back.

            “Money? Money, whoo hoo, money, is that all you got?” I ask, I do a backflip off his desk, landing in front of it, I slam my hands on his desk and lean over it. He leans back frightened. “I’ve already got all the money,” I say before I walk over to the trashcan in the corner and dump all its contents onto the floor, which includes all the money he had on his desk and in several other places I had found while he was passed out.
           

            “Hey, that’s not all mine,” he says.

            “Who’s is it?” I smirk.

            “I’m the money guy, you know?” he attempts shrugging.

            “This money was taken, from the people out there,” I nod out the window, “every last dollar and dime, was taken from someone’s corpse, whether they were murdered or are still out there now, starving, dying, raped, addicted, even the police won’t help because of this garbage right here, lives ruined over... paper… thing about paper is, it’s flammable.”

            I take a bottle of liquor I found in his mini-fridge off one of his shelves and start pouring it over the money, “and you work with the one’s doing it all… the ‘forsaken’… Gunner, Bullet, the beautiful Barracuda…” I take a matchbook out of my pocket and they all light in my hand, “Kill,” I drop it, “Switch”

            “Hey! No! They’ll kill me!” he starts yelling.

            I walk back over to him and stand behind him, I place the knife in his tied hands, I lean over and whisper in his ear, “I want you to tell me everything you know, help me find them… come and find me, if you make it out,” I giggle and start walking away.

            “Hey, don’t leave me here!” he shouts. I grab my coat and go over to the window, I turn and wink at him before I leap out into the night air. The dove follows.

Chapter Text

“For some people, the dove represents a time of mourning… but what is mourning if not a new beginning?” 

 I knew Stacks could get out; I didn’t even tie him up that well. His shock and fear of me kept him in the chair more than the flimsy rope I tied his wrists with. I landed on a nearby roof and jumped down into an alley so no one would see me. I folded my wings and put on my coat. It’s strange that I think of it as mine now, even though it was Eric’s. I pull out some of the cash I kept for myself and start counting it. I’m not a thief but that entire pile of money couldn’t come close to the amount Kill Switch and his gang has taken from me and Darla. But I only took enough to get what I need. I put the money in a pocket inside the coat, Eric probably kept a pistol in here at some point. I shake the thought away, I can’t get distracted now that I have things to do. 
 I walk to the nearest pawn shop, Gideon doesn’t pawn anymore, someone else stepped up to take his place. It’s closed but I still plan to leave some money for whatever I get. I open a window and climb in. I can hear loud music coming from above me. People party at all hours in this town, especially on this night of the year, “fire it up!” as they say. I don’t know how they found out the old chant of Top Dollar’s crew, but it really gets to me when they start it at the bar. I shake off a memory of Fun Boy, Darla on his lap, her laughing at me when I was hungry asking for money. That was before she got straightened up. All those years that she was better just rushed by, and it feels like a dream. The Darla I remember most is the one that partied all the time. I pick up a snow globe from a shelf and throw it, it smashes and sends liquid and glass shards across the concrete floor. 
 “What the hell?” I hear a gruff voice from the back room. I grab the nearest thing I can find and it’s a crossbow. I have it aimed at his head as soon as he opens the door behind the counter. 
 “Whoa,” he holds his hands up. 
 “Hi,” I say, “I’m a little late and I needed to buy something.” 
 “We’re closed,” he says still holding his hands up, he starts eyeing the space under the counter.
 “If you move at all, I will put this arrow through your brain… keep your hands up and we will both be cool, got it?” I ask, he nods, “good… so… how much for this crossbow?” 

       ********
 I walked out when I was done, shoving the arrows into my bootleg and throwing the strap over my shoulder. I put the trench coat on and hide a few other items in the inner pockets. The dove flies over me on her way to find my next appointment. I follow beneath her not knowing where we are going. I get lost in my thoughts and before I know it we are at the bar. The one that I work at, Club Trash, appropriately named. I hesitate and she lands on the door frame and coos at me. I take a deep breath and step inside, where I am engulfed in loud music, not good music, but loud music. It’s crowded, at two in the morning when it should be last call, things are just heating up. 
 Someone grabs my shoulder, “Sarah, what are you doing here?” a drunk coworker cackles at me. 
 “Looking for someone,” I say. 
 “Finally decided to join the party huh?” she leans on me and almost falls over. I pick her up and drag her to a barstool.
 “Something like that,” I mutter, looking around the room. I don’t bother asking her if Gunner is here, I know he is and she’s too out of it to help. I eye her up and down, “aren’t we supposed to stay sober while on the clock?” I ask. 
 “Pfft…” she spits at me. I roll my eyes and drape her arms on the bar, so she doesn’t fall over. I spot Gunner over in the corner booth surrounded by women. If he were anyone else on earth someone would call him attractive, he’s always surrounded by women. He’s part Italian and African American. His muscles bulge out of his t-shirt despite all the drugs he does. Probably shoots up HGH along with everything else. I wrestle my way through the crowd as a live band on stage makes noises for them to fall around to. 
 “Gunner!” I yell over the noise. 
 He looks up, “well, well, look who came back,” he sucks in some smoke from whatever he’s got rolled up with some weed. 
 I smile at him, “can we talk?” I nod toward the stairs, “alone?” 
 He smiles at the women around him, “sorry ladies I’ve been trying for this piece for a long time, excuse me.” They look sad and move out of his way as he climbs out of the booth and takes my hand. 
 “What’s with the costume lady?” he asks. 
 “I wanted this to be special,” I lean up and whisper in his ear. 
 “Ohh, kinky…” he licks his lips suggestively and I bite my tongue and smile back. I lead him over to the stairs and up to a room set aside for ‘privacy’ of customers who want it. I walk in ahead of him and he starts to take my coat off of me. 
 “Ahh, no no,” I say backing up and pulling something out of my coat pocket. I hold up a pair of pink fuzzy handcuffs. 
 “Ohh I knew you were freaky… like your mama,” he says. I grit my teeth and start to go for my crossbow hidden under the coat. The dove coos loudly at me from the window making me jump. I suck in some air and drop my hand. 
 “Uh huh,” I nod and smile at him again. 
 He smiles back and takes his shirt off, “so you want me to put them on you?” he asks.
 I shake my head no and bite my lip, “no, I want you to wear them.” 
 “It’s always the shy ones that want to be in charge, come on then,” he says taking his pants off and climbing onto the bed. 
 I saunter over to him and climb on top of him, I straddle him and push him back. 
 “Whoa, rough, I like it,” he says putting his hands on my hips. I grab his hands and push them back to the metal headboard and cuff one wrist. I loop the other cuff behind a metal rail and cuff his other wrist. I lean down like I’m going to kiss him but stop and smile in his face. 
 “Gunner,” I whisper. 
 “Yea baby,” he moans back.
 “You’re going to get screwed like you never have been before,” I say, I climb off of him. I stand at the foot of the bed and drop the trench coat off of myself, letting my wings stretch out. 
 “What the-” he starts to struggle. 
 “Remember last year? Right before Darla… well you know,” I pause and laugh with no amusement. “It was about a week or two before that, you and a few others thought it would be funny to send her a little message, through me… this is the same room isn’t it? Of course, not all of you got a turn, because Big Joey stopped them but you… you were quick, I can’t really see why so many women like you so much,” I stop and laugh. 
 “What is this? Revenge? You liked it, I know you did,” he spits. 
 “Keep telling yourself that Gunner,” I take my crossbow out and put an arrow in it, “I’m going to give you a couple choices, apologize and promise to change your ways, and you can leave… sort of a …peace offering,” I say as I walk over and drop an olive branch on his chest.
 “Fuck you,” he says.
 “Alright, choice number two, where do you want me to stick it?” I ask. 
 “What?” he coughs, still struggling to break the handcuffs, they look like the plastic kind because of the pink fuzz, but they are real. 
 “Isn’t that what you kept asking me? Now it’s your turn… this arrow… where should I stick it? Your head,” I aim it at his forehead, “throat? Heart?” I giggle and then whisper, “it’s up to you baby,” repeating his words from a year ago back to him. 
 “You crazy bitch,” he growls. 
 I giggle, “this can be quick, like you, or slow and painful, NOW PICK!” I hear people out in the hall looking for him, “oops, too late.” I aim the arrow at his throat and pull the trigger. It goes through and he starts to gag. 
 “This is going to take a while, and I have other friends to visit,” I say walking over to the window. I see him eyeing me as I walk over to the big window, the dove stays and watches him as he sees me flying out into the night.   

Chapter Text

“When someone you love dies, they live on in the memories of those who can’t let go, they are never really gone.”

            I sit on a roof nearby and watch the ambulance take Gunner’s body out of the building. Some women are standing around crying but mostly to get attention from the cops who are questioning them. I see Darryl writing his report and smoking a cigarette, he told me he had quit. Maybe it’s been a hard night, maybe I’m to blame for a little of it. I hop over the ledge and land softly in the alley to get a better look at what’s going on. I want to make sure Gunner is gone. I lean out and look around the building to see and Darryl looks up, sensing someone watching him. He turns towards me and I duck back into the alleyway. The dove is watching him from an awning nearby and he’s making his way over to me. I throw on my coat and wait. It’s really dark and I back up, so he won’t see me.

            “Who’s back there?” he shouts down the dark alley at me. I don’t say anything and he steps forward.

            “You don’t want to do that,” I say, trying not to sound like myself.

            “Don’t move,” he says holding his gun up at me.

            I feel an urging from the dove, and say, “I thought the police always said ‘freeze’.” I know who I’m quoting and can tell Darryl knows too. He looks stunned for a second and almost drops his gun. He shakes it off and looks back at me curiously.

            “You move, your dead,” he says apprehensively.

            I chuckle, “here’s where I differ from my predecessor, I’m very much alive…and I move,” I say as I throw the coat off quickly keeping ahold of it under my arm as I take off, moving my wings swiftly as I navigate through the darkest parts of the alley. The dove watches Darryl’s face for me as I leave. He saw something, but he doesn’t know what exactly I am. He puts his gun down, stunned, unsure whether to be frightened or exhilarated and maybe a little relieved. I can’t read minds but emotions, similar to Eric I have supernatural empathy.

            I see Gunner is dead, so I move on to the next, Bullet, brutal Bullet. I’ve had nightmares about Bullet that were so frightening I would wake up in a cold sweat. Like most of this town, I imagine. I don’t know where he might be, unlike Gunner who liked to be out on the town showing off, Bullet likes to hide. If he’s after someone he will wait in a dark alley like it’s the barrel of a gun, then bang, he shoots out and you’re gone. In a way at least, unlike real bullets, when he hits you, it’s not over quick. He likes to play with his prey, torture, he gets enjoyment out of watching people suffer. And unlike Barracuda and Kill Switch, who have minions around all the time outside their lair, Bullet travels alone. Most of the time anyway, sometimes Stacks is with him, collecting the money Bullet beats out of his victims. He wears a trench coat full of tools to torture people slowly with, he loves to play Russian roulette with his victims. Most of his methods involve a bullet in some way. He’s going to be hard to catch because he’s quick.

            I walk down the worst alleyways in the city just waiting for him to come to me, I’m trying to bait him. I start to whistle cheerfully and most of the street people move out of my way uncomfortably because they think I’m insane. I smile at most of them making them even more uncomfortable. It doesn’t take as long as I thought it would, mostly due to the dove’s help. He is at the back of an alleyway torturing someone when I float in, landing just behind him. I see my own shadow fall over him and the bricks in front of him. He pauses looking up at the shadow. He spins around ready to attack but I lift up out of his grasp, this is when I see that his victim is Stacks.

            “My old friend Stacks,” I say.

            “What the…” Bullet is staring up at me.

            “That’s her, I told you, she’s the one that took all the money,” Stacks shouts.

            “I guess you weren’t lying about a winged monkey taking the money after all,” Bullet sneers at me, more amused than frightened by what he sees.

            “Excuse you, I’m a dove,” I say, I land on top of a nearby trash bin. Bullet starts moving toward me, but I jump and do a flip in the air over him, landing between him and Stacks. He lunges for me again and I jump out of the way just in time, this time landing on the side of the building. I flap my wings as I climb the side of the building like a spider.

            “Get down here and fight me,” Bullet growls. Stacks has backed into a corner of the alley, shaking and unsure who to be more afraid of, me or Bullet. I hesitate because I am truly terrified of him and I wonder if I should have planned longer for this. Then I feel something like someone is watching me. I look down and the alley is gone and in its place I get a vision, a vision of Eric, tying someone up inside a car. It’s blurry and faded but I know now what I need to do. I know it’s him telling me I can do this, just like he did. I don’t want to shoot Bullet, it’s too quick, painless. Not after all of the torture he’s inflicted onto people in this city. I do a jump kick and land my heel into his temple; his eyes roll back and he lands on top of Stacks.

            “Please don’t hurt me,” Stacks whines.

            “I won’t if you help me,” I say. I make Stacks help me move Bullet quickly to a nearby truck and lay him on the sidewalk. Stacks is almost giddy about getting rid of him, but I tell him to go wait in the alley for me, and that if he runs, I will find him anyway and all deals are off. I know he will listen because he doesn’t have anyone to protect him anymore. If Bullet didn’t get the money off of him, he’s as good as dead to Kill Switch and the rest. I’m his only chance to survive the night. I look for the right things quickly and when I see the right thing, I run back and have Stacks help me load Bullet into a truck full of gas tanks. Someone left the key in it; I tie a rock to the gas and start the truck as Stacks backs up trying to get away from me.

            “If you run I’ll find you,” I say, not looking back. As I get done getting Bullet set up, I poke him until he wakes up. He can’t move because I tied him down.

            “What is this,” Bullet grumbles. He can’t even blink because I’ve taped his eyes open.

            “I’ve turned you into what you’ve always wanted to be… Bullet,” I say as I take out my crossbow. I tear off a piece of his shirt and wrap it around the tip of an arrow and soak the fabric in some gas I got from one of the tanks. Just before I close his door I put the truck in drive, and it starts moving. As it heads down the road toward the pier, I load my bow, light the fabric and take the shot. The timing is perfect as the truck flies off the pier and explodes. I walk over to Stacks who is standing there, unable to take his eyes off the burning remains.

            “Don’t you love fireworks?” I ask him.

Chapter Text

“Some people think grieving is five steps but it’s millions, it’s every step you take when you feel them everywhere…”

Stacks was more than terrified enough of me to tell me everything I needed to know about where to find Killswitch’s hideout. I knew Barracuda would be there with him, along with over a dozen other members of his gang. He told me they keep guards up everywhere even blocks away from the building. At least I’ll know ahead of time, the dove will keep an eye out. But before I head there I go to say my goodbyes, just in case. I know he’s looking for me and I know exactly where’s he’s going to be looking. It’s good because if any place is home, it’s there and I want to be there if it’s the last place I get to be.

I walk up the steps again and I’ve already broken in once tonight, but I can tell by the boot prints in the dust that I’m not the only one. Someone came and left once, I hope he comes back soon. I make my way slowly up the stairs and back to the bedroom. I look at the costume on the bed, the dress Shelly wore with these wings. I look in the mirror at my outfit and decide it’s not good enough for Killswitch, I look like the girl he sees at the bar, the waitress. Of course, he hasn’t seen me in wings but still, this is a special occasion. I get undressed and it is extremely difficult considering my new appendages. The dress is backless, so I simply step into it, thankful it didn’t take as much effort. I’m going to need a new wardrobe that considers my new body. Unless of course I don’t make it through the night, then I won’t have to worry about it. The dove is over by the window looking down at the street, I see someone coming through her eyes and make my way downstairs to greet our guest.

Crouching on a caved-in wall on the first floor, I hide in the shadows waiting. He takes his time climbing into the building through the debris. He starts to walk right past me and I don’t want to startle him but he shouldn’t be going upstairs, it could be dangerous.

“Looking for someone?” I ask.

He spins around and grabs his gun and flashlight, pointing both at me. He’s too stunned to say anything.

“If you’re going to point that thing, aim for the heart, I’m not sure there’s anything there,” I giggle.

“Sarah?” he breathes a sigh of relief mixed with confusion, he looks closer and I smile at him, “where did you get the costume?” he asks nervously.

“Oh, these?” I look at my wings, “a friend left them for me, but I think I’ll keep them, I seem to have grown attached to them if you know what I mean.”

“I saw you, after Gunner… they just found a body in the river too, couldn’t tell who it was…”

“Bullet,” I interrupt, “dental records will have to prove that I imagine.”

“Sarah, if you killed them… that’s murder,” he says.

I laugh, “and? Is that suddenly illegal in this city?”

“I’ve been through this once… you’re not…”

“Dead? No,” I hop down and stand in front of him, “at least not yet.”

“What are you planning? How? How did this happen to you?” he asks.

“Killswitch… the rest of them, someone has to stop them… and as for how I’m not sure, it just sort of happened,” I shrug my shoulders, and wings.

“So those are… a part of you now?” he asks shining his flashlight on my wings, checking them up and down.

“Pretty sweet right?” I turn and show him my back, I cleaned the blood off earlier in the river, so it doesn’t look that gruesome.

“Sarah, I’m worried about you, Eric was…” he starts.

“Stop, I’m not Eric, I know that but he had a limited amount of time, I don’t think I do, I mean this was a gift, I was chosen to do this but if something happens to me tonight…”

“Don’t say that don’t do it, whatever it is you’re planning, it’s dangerous, he was already gone, he had nothing to lose,” he says.

“Neither do I,” I scoff, “I mean the gang, their name… ‘the forsaken’, to join as a woman you have to let Gunner rape you and beat Barracuda, which I plan to do, kind of ironic considering I’m more alone than any of them.”

“You’re not alone, you have me, you have friends, your coworkers,” he says.

“I’m the only one that can protect this city, you try but…” I shrug again before I turn and start walking away.

“I just wanted to see you before… well, just in case,” I stop talking before the lump in my throat gives itself away.

“You going to fly off into the night again? Just like that?” he asks.

“I thought I’d use the front door,” I give him a sad smile and he looks down unable to control his emotions as a tear falls to the dust on the floor, making a dark spot. I know this is hard on him so I leave before he can look back up at me again. I’ve said my ‘goodbyes’ in case something happens, and I leave my emotions with Darryl.

Chapter Text

“there is a quote that says that in certain situations the law is not adequate, that sometimes it’s necessary to act outside of the law, to pursue natural justice, this is not vengeance, no, not revenge, it’s punishment.”

I walk halfway down the block because I know he’s watching me, wanting to see how I do it. Wondering if it could really be so, and I want to delay his satisfaction when he sees what he knows he saw earlier is true. No one else is around and the dove lifts off behind me, I see Darryl through her eyes, watching me. I lift off and close my eyes for a moment to catch his reaction. He doesn’t look surprised, instead, he looks proud and a little worried. I open my eyes as a tear falls out, I don’t dare look again.

I make my way to the farthest side of town, the one with the abandoned warehouses, the dove goes ahead of me taking notice of all the men on guard. I land on the roof of a building and have her go count them and make a mental note of their locations. She goes to the very last building on the block, the warehouse right on the river. She flies into an open window and perches on some scaffolding. I can see most of the layout, I see Killswitch and Barracuda sitting at a giant table drinking liquor. Several other men stand around, some are on guard but most of them are just sitting around laughing or doing drugs. Suddenly I start to hear muffled sounds and I open my eyes to look around, but nothing has changed. I don’t hear any more until I close my eyes again and then I realize that the sound is coming from the warehouse. The dove is letting me hear what she can hear.

“We have to find the bitch,” Killswitch says.

“What if it’s like last time, Stacks said she could fly,” another man says. They are talking about me, so I’m a bitch, that’s nowhere near the worst thing I’ve been called. But did Stacks break our deal or did he run his mouth before I got Bullet? It doesn’t matter much because I’m going to make sure he goes to prison either way. He isn’t safe out here with the gang anyway, he’ll be begging to be locked up out of state, even if I take down most of the gang tonight. I listen for more information; they are going to try and plan what to do about me. I smile at the notion of being a thorn in their sides.

“What with that crow bastard that took down Top Dollar? That’s a street fairy tale, that son of a bitch is dead and buried, right beside his whore girlfriend,” Killswitch chuckles. I swallow hard and grip my own hands as tight as I can. I can’t go in there hotheaded and reckless. They plan to go out in pairs looking for me because I killed a couple of their members. This is a bad idea on their part because I can take on two of them on my own. They would have been better off to all gang up on me at once. I wait until they are all out of the warehouse and take off. Better to start at the head of the beast and takedown Killswitch. I have a couple of extra weapons tucked away. I left my/Eric’s leather trench at the apartment. I plan to leave here in a red dress. I haven’t tried firing my crossbow while flying but there’s only one way to do this, so I pull it out of my boots and fly past the row of windows near the roof of the warehouse. I aim and my arrow shatters the window perfectly. I now have a limited amount of time because the element of surprise isn’t an option now.

I float into the open window and land in the middle of the big open room, on top of the table they had all been sitting at. I don’t see anyone, so I close my eyes for a second. The dove has followed Killswitch and Barracuda into a back room where they are watching me through the door. It’s a door to my left and I don’t wait a second before aiming my crossbow at the door and firing straight for his head. I fire and then close my eyes as I see my arrow go through the door and miss Killswitch’s head by centimeters. He screams and falls back against the wall, like a coward.

“Go out there, fix this,” he shoves Barracuda who squints at him. I can’t read her expression, but she doesn’t look pleased.

“What is that thing?” she asks.

“Just go get rid of it,” he hisses.

“Oh, alone?” she scoffs.

“I’ll call for backup,” he says.

“That’s not what I-” she says but before she is finished, he opens the door and shoves her out with me, and locks the door. I suddenly realize the dove is locked in there with him and can’t go outside and watch for other minions.

“Well that was rude,” I say to her.

“What do you want?” she asks.

“I want him,” I say.

“In what way?”

“Oh, don’t worry honey, I’m not trying to steal a boyfriend who would do something like that,” I grin at her.

She looks flustered before she clears her throat, “so what are those? Some sort of Halloween costume?”

I flutter my wings and fly up into the air and then land right in front of her, I shove my crossbow back into my boot. She’s too stunned to do anything to me in my moment of being unarmed. I reach behind my back and pull out a samurai sword that Eric had for decoration, but it’s real and sturdy.

“Stay back,” she puts her hand out.

“Just get out of my way,” I say.

“Not a chance,” she says taking out a katana, her signature weapon. She takes a stance against me and I yawn. She tilts her head at me, “you look like her alive, I wonder if you’ll look like her dead too.”

I see red and lunge at her, I don’t have the self-control to realize this is exactly what she wanted. My physical reflexes are all that saves me from her blade as I spin out of the way and back around to hit her katana with my sword. She holds on to it and strikes at me again. We do a little basic fencing around the room and I know I’m running out of time before the others get here. She is trying to keep me busy; I leap up and fly over her and spin around and land behind her. She spins around just in time for my blade to slash her arm. She drops her weapon and I grab it quickly. I jump up and kick her chin before she has a second to realize what happened. She lands on her back and I cross her katana with my sword to form an X and put it over her throat. Trapping her to the floor with a blade on each side of her neck.

I lean forward over her, “one chance, change my mind.” I don’t explain but I can tell by the look in her eyes that I don’t need to, a tear falls out of the corner of her eye.

I try not to let it get to me but she starts to whisper, “they made me do everything… I,” she coughs because the blades are tight against her and she is scared. She continues, “you know what it’s like to grow up here, it’s kill or be killed out there… I couldn’t beat them…” she sobs, “so I joined them, Gunner was making me have sex with him all the time and I was just fourteen,” she sobs.

“Get to the point,” I growl trying to cover the empathy and cracks in my voice.

“Killswitch offered me a position as his girl, to protect me if I joined the gang and helped him run it,” she says.

“He protects you, huh? Well, where is he now?” I ask.

“Please,” she whispers. She’s probably telling the truth but I’m not stupid enough to trust her.

I take the blades away and put them both in the makeshift sheath on my back, “I’ll tell you what, I’m not going to use weapons on someone who is unarmed, get up and fight me.”

She looks stunned and crawls backward, “I’m done,” she backs up under the table with her arms around her knees, she’s not scared of me so much as she is jaded by them.

I back toward the room Killswitch is hiding in, keeping my eye on her as I kick the door in. He backs up into the far corner as the dove flies out the door. He looks at it suspiciously and then at me.

            “Don’t you recognize me?” I ask.

            “No, should I?” he sneers.

            “You killed my mother,” I say.

            He smiles, “you’re going to have to be more specific.”

            I start walking into the room, fighting flashes of memory of Killswitch in my home, threatening my mother, me crying, begging them to leave. I want to make him suffer but it’s so easy to just put an arrow through his skull. I reach for it, but I blink just in time to see a bunch of men running at me from behind. I spin around and pull out both my sword and Barracuda’s katana. Looks like I’m gonna need to take them all out, I start slicing into them to clear a path form myself. I jump into the air and re-sheath my blades. I fly around them all, they all look up with their mouths hanging open. I land on a stack of boxes and shoot into the group of them with my crossbow a couple of times. I fly across the room shooting arrows into the mass of men. Someone starts shooting at me with a machine gun and I swoop low and duck behind another stack of crates. Barracuda is back there and holds out her hand.

            “Give me my Katana,” she says.

            “No way,” I say.

            “Even with your powers or whatever, you can’t beat them all by yourself,” she says. I look into her eyes and somehow, I know, I can feel it. I take the katana and hand it to her, waiting to see if she proves me wrong.

            “You ready?” she raises an eyebrow at me. I nod and we go back and take them down one by one until no one is left.

            “Where is Killswitch?” I shout.

            “He ran out the back,” Barracuda says. I nod and smile at her. She returns the gesture.

            I go out the back door and see Killswitch climbing onto a yacht and untying it from the dock. He always planned to ditch his gang if things went wrong, that’s why he hid this back here. I leap up and fly over and land on the deck behind him.

            “Going somewhere?” I ask. He spins around and has a pistol in his hand. I grin at him as he holds it to my forehead.

            “Look where mine is aimed,” I say. He looks down and I have my crossbow aimed directly at his crotch.

            “I can survive that, I doubt you’ll survive if I pull the trigger,” he says.

            “You said ‘the crow’ was a fairy tale… but you know he was a friend of mine, Eric… you know what made him so hard to beat?” I ask. He just stares at me, so I continue, “he was dead,” I laugh.

            “What are you trying to say you are too, that you’re some kind of angel or something?” he asks.

            “No… no I’m not dead, but my point was not that Eric couldn’t be killed, it’s that he didn’t care… dead people don’t tend to worry about dying… and though I am alive we have that in common, I don’t care… I have nothing to live for besides destroying you…” I say.

            “Then why not aim for my heart?” he asks.

            “Because I know you don’t have one…” I back up.

            “Then how will you kill me?” he asks.

            I laugh, “I’m just killing time… waiting out the clock.”

            “What clock?” he asks.

            “The one on the bomb on this yacht,” I say. He looks confused and then looks back at the dock that we have drifted yards from.

            “If you put a bomb on this boat, why would you try and stop me, why would you get on it?” he asks skeptically.

            “I wasn’t trying to stop you, I just wanted to look in your eyes when you realize you’re going to die… the way so many people have died at your hands… and to ask… why?” I ask.

            He laughs, “oh does someone need closure?”

            “Your death is my closure, I’m just curious if it was worth it? What was it all for? Money? Fear?” I ask.

            “Why? You want to know…why… why so many people have suffered and died, because of me… why? Hmmm, that’s an interesting question… the same reason Top Dollar did it I guess… because it’s fun, it’s as simple as that, having power and hurting people is high like no other, isn’t that why you’re doing it? It’s satisfying isn’t it?” he asks.

            “Don’t compare me to you, you sadist, I don’t hurt innocent people… in fact I let your girlfriend live, and she is on my side now, just so you know…” I grin.

            He scoffs, “girlfriend? She wishes, I just used her to get what I want, I never cared about her.”

            “Oh really?” a voice says behind him, he spins around and sees Barracuda, she shoves her katana through his gut. He gasps and coughs and turns back to me.

            “There isn’t a bomb you idiot,” I say, then I aim an arrow between his eyes, “goodbye kill...” and pull the trigger, “switch.”

Chapter Text

“sometimes that soul can come back, to set the wrong things right…”

            “Thought you’d be here,” I say.

            “Well, I’m glad to see you here on this side of the ground,” he says. I wonder how long Darryl has been here at the cemetery wondering if I was going to end up here beside of them. Eric and Shelly. He hasn’t looked at me yet, but I know he won’t react to all the blood on me. I saunter over next to him, he’s holding his hat in his hands looking down at their tombstones.

            “I did it,” I say.

            “So, did he,” he says.

            “But I’m going to stay,” I nudge him with my elbow and he finally looks over at me, he looks me up and down.

            He sighs, “I guess I’m going to have to get used to worrying about you then.”

            “You aren’t used to it by now?” I tease.

            “You know what? You’re right, at lease now you have help,” he looks over at the tree the dove has landed in.

            “It’s not just her, it’s you, them,” I gesture to the tombstones, “even people in this city, you know some people are evil but some of the so-called bad guys are just people out of options.”

            “Oh, so you learned something too?” he grins.

            “Yea, it’s been a long night,” I say.

            He smacks his lips, “yep, I better get going, it’s almost morning.”

            “Thanks,” I say.

            “For what?” he asks.

            “For worrying about me,” I say.

            He smiles, “I’ll see you later kid.” Then he walks away, I watch him go and then turn back to my other friends. It’s quiet and I sit, cross-legged on the ground in front of them. The dove flies over with two lilies in her beak. I take them and lay one of each on their graves.

            “I won, I know there’s going to be more work to do but this battle is over, and look at me, celebrating in a graveyard,” I say.

            “Safest place in the world to be,” I hear behind me. I spin around and there they are, holding hands and smiling at me.

            “Eric, Shelly!” I jump up and run to them to hug them, but he holds out his arm to stop me, I stop, “are you real?”           

            “Oh, course we are,” Shelly smiles, “more real than ever.” 

            “We just aren’t… solid,” Eric says.

            “Oh… so you’re not here to stay?” I ask.

            “We are always with you, watching over you,” Shelly says.

            “Who do you think sent her?” Eric asks pointing to the dove who tilts her head lovingly at him.  

            “I miss you guys,” I say.

            “We miss you too Sarah, but our time is done, it’s your time now, don’t live in the past or in your grief,” Eric says.

            “Protect this city, make it better, that’s how you can truly honor our memory,” Shelly says.

            “You did good tonight, don’t give up, and know that we are watching out for you,” Eric says.

            I start to cry, “I love you guys.”

            “We love you,” they say at the same time before they fade away. A sob escapes me but then I remember what they said, I can’t stay stuck in the past, I must go on with my life. I will not give up on this city, but I also can’t give up on myself. I am still alive and there is a reason for that. Not just to be a hero that stops the bad people in this place, but to love others, to find others who need friends and protection. That is the true message to take from the loss of Eric and Shelly. Not to wallow in grief over their passing but to honor their love by loving and helping people we still can. Thank you, Eric.

Author note: Thank you, Brandon.