An orange cat, completely dazed and wide eyed, stared straight up at her. She crouched down towards it, and it jumped into her arms. She rested her forehead on the cats, closing her eyes and the cat did the same.

Even animals loved her.

“She's like a princess,” Jerome commented.

Celestine heard him, turning to us and began walking towards us with the cat. “Do you want to pet her?”

Jerome reached his hand towards her, the purrs loud. “She's cute.”

Celestine nodded. “And pregnant.” The cat shifted and stretched in Celestine's arms, showing off her large belly.

“Are you going to take her home?” he asked.

“Silias doesn't allow animals,” she said. Just as Celestine crouched back down to release the cat, it sprinted and disappeared into the alley.

“You need to get home before curfew, Celestine,” I said.

She nodded.

“Why didn't Niko take you home?” I asked.

“We bumped into Iri before he could,” she explained. “But I'm a bit upset with Silias, I'm not sure I want to go home tonight.”

“You can come with us,” Jerome said. “Vulture is sleeping at mine tonight.”

I don't recall agreeing or being asked to do that.

She nodded, following us. Where was she going to go if not with us?

Jerome didn't live too far, just a few blocks away. It was a small apartment building, only four stories with about five small flats on each level. As we took steps up, I noticed Celestine falling behind.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

She flickered her eyes back to me, giving me a nod, and I didn't pester her more on it .

As Jerome fumbled with his keys, she stared at the door across from his. “Who lives across from you?” she asked Jerome.

Jerome turned to look at the door, shrugging. “Some lady and her kid.” He finally managed to unlock the door and pushed with his shoulder, jamming it open. We entered his small, quaint flat. Celestine took a shower and Jerome gave her a shirt to borrow.

“Let's go to that frozen yoghurt shop I told you about tomorrow,” Jerome said, rummaging through his fridge for some food. I don't know how he's still hungry, we literally just ate.

“Sure,” I said, slumped on the sofa. “It must be bloody amazing if you killed two people for it.” We had a movie playing, but we weren't really paying attention to it.

He snorted. “It was about the disrespect, Vulture!”

Celestine emerged from the bathroom, Jerome's shirt going down to her knees, the back of it damp from her hair. It revealed some of the scars and bruises on her body that were recent and Jerome sympathised with it. Her arm was bandaged, and I still hadn’t asked her about it.

“Are you hungry, Reaper?” Jerome asked.

“No, I'm okay,” she replied, making her way towards him and hopping up the counter. They chatted a bit, while Jerome made himself a simple sandwich. “You make money playing video games?” Celestine asked him.

“Yeah, for some reason people like to watch me play.” He shrugged, spreading peanut butter onto his bread. “But I also enter competitions as well and they often have big prizes.”

“You've cut yourself,” she said.

Jerome looked at her confused. “Did I?” He hissed, lifting his finger to see the tip of it bleeding.

“With a butter-knife?” I chuckled .

“It’s still a knife!” he snapped at me.

Celestine took his finger and licked the tiny bit of blood off. Jerome's face flushed from the touch and his eyes widened, quickly looking at me.

“How did you two meet?” She wondered, releasing his hand, distracting the both of us from what she had just done.

“Gods.” He chuckled at the memory, going back to his sandwich, unable to contain himself enough to tell the story.

“We've known about each other for years,” I said from the sofa. “But we didn't meet until two years ago.”

“I found Vulture buried alive in the woods,” Jerome said with a wide smile.

“What?” She glanced at me. “How?”

“Some people tried to kill me.” They captured and tortured me for days and when I finally made it home, Niko scolded me, thinking I had just gone off on my own like the teenager I was.

Even though I was dirtied, battered, and bruised, he assumed I had just gotten into another bad fight. I never bothered correcting him.

“And then?” she urged.

I shrugged. “I got my revenge.”

She and Jerome later joined me on the sofa. The two weren't focused much on the movie as they continued to talk.

Celestine rested her head on my arm and was the first to fall asleep. “You can put her on my bed and sleep with her,” Jerome said. “I'll take the sofa.”

“No, it's your place,” I said.

He laughed. “Are you two going to squish on the sofa?”

“You don't want to sleep with me tonight?” I teased. Celestine's clearly been rubbing off on me.

“Wow,” he said. “Calm down, we've only been on one date. ”

Turning off the television, we left Reaper on the sofa and went over to his room, changed into new clothes, he let me borrow some as well.

Jerome let out a sigh. “This was a good day. Thanks.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it was.”

His bed was quite large, enough space for the both of us to lay comfortably without touching each other. The bed moved as Celestine crawled in between Jerome and me. “You left me,” she whined in a sleepy voice.

Jerome laughed. “Sorry.”

She made herself comfortable between us and forced both of our arms around her, facing Jerome, her back pressed against my chest. I exchanged an awkward look with him. Maybe, I should move to the sofa. I carefully removed my arm off of Celestine but she gripped onto me, keeping me there.

“This is so weird,” Jerome said into the silence, afraid to move.

“Only if you make it weird,” she muttered.

My eyes slowly became heavy, and I buried my nose into her hair.

“Is this actually okay, Reaper?” Jerome asked, even though she's the one who made him do it.

She nodded. “Yeah. I just want to try something.”

“Try… What?” But the words barely left my mouth as I fell deep into slumber.

***

I was back in the middle of the salt flats again. The house behind me was in the same distance it always was. Though, I wasn’t alone this time. Jerome stood a few metres away, his mouth agape, eyes wide, looking around us.

“Where are we?” he asked, his voice echoing.

“The salt flats,” I said, but that was as far as I knew.

He turned to meet my eyes. “How did we get here?”

Underneath me, on the other side of the water, a younger version of Jerome dragged the corpse of his latest victim behind him by the ankle, a shovel in his other hand.

Leaves, rocks and branches caught on the person's hair, creating a trail behind him. Jerome’s breaths were heavy, sweat dripping off his face, the summer night warm.

“That’s me!” Jerome said, crouching down towards the water, squinting his eyes. He touched the water as his younger self passed him. I followed the image from the surface and Jerome quickly followed with me.

The younger Jerome released the person's ankle, letting it fall to the grass, and stared at the space before him.

He wiped his damp forehead before aiming the tip of the shovel at the ground and started digging.

He was about halfway through when he heard the ground just a few metres away moving, but he dismissed it, most likely an animal digging.

Younger Jerome glanced at the noise and let out a shout when he saw the hand, it pushed the ground out and away until a head finally stuck out. “Bloody hell.” A younger version of myself groaned, gripping onto his head.

“This is how we met.” Jerome breathed.

“Are you a zombie?” The younger Jerome asked younger me. “Is this the start to the apocalypse?” He looked up at the sky, cursing Poiesis.

Younger me gave him a weird look. “What? No.”

“Then, what are you doing coming out of the ground like that?”

“How else was I supposed to get out?” Younger me grouched, pulling the rest of his body out of the ground. “I was just buried alive.”

Younger Jerome chuckled. “Not your night, hey?”

“Not my week.” younger me corrected, patting the dirt off him. Younger me noticed the corpse sprawled on the side and younger Jerome tightened his grip on his shovel. “Need any help with that?”

Younger Jerome glanced at the body, relaxing. “ Sure.”

I felt another presence nearby and turned to see Celestine staring at us. She had her silver hair and that white dress. “Celestine?” I called for her. Jerome looked up.

***

I woke up to Celestine gone and Jerome snoring in front of me.

Getting out of the bed, I looked to see if she was even still here, but she wasn't. I'm not sure how she snuck out without either of us waking.

I changed back into my own clothes and told a sleepy Jerome I was leaving and he groaned, waving his hand in the air. “Yeah, alright, see you, Psycho.”

“Socio,” I said back.

Jerome and I ended up meeting later that evening for frozen yoghurt and somehow, we ended up making our way to Niko’s favourite bar.

Jerome pushed me as we entered Skol and I instantly retaliated, grabbing him, shoving his back onto the bar, before stealing one of the liquor bottles aiming it above him. “Drink up, Jerome.” A sinister smile on my face.

Jerome opened his mouth, sticking his tongue out allowing the alcohol to be poured into his mouth. He coughed and spurted the liquid out. “Shit, Vulture.” He pushed me away. “Not tequila!”

“You shouldn't have pushed me,” I spat back, but stopped, putting the alcohol back on the bar.

“Oh, but if you pushed me—”

“Shut your bloody mouth,” I growled.

Jerome rolled his eyes and spotted something in the distance. I followed his line of sight and found Celestine and Niko sitting in a lonesome booth, opposite one another. “Oh, hey, Daddy Vulture.” Jerome shouted.

Niko lifted his glass in a greeting.

Jerome took that as an invitation and made a beeline for the table. “Reaper.” He cupped her cheeks in his hands. “Why were you crying? ”

“What?” Her eyes wide. “I'm not crying.”

“Were.” He emphasised.

“Um…” she hesitated, shifting her gaze to Niko.

“She's just had a rough day,” Niko said.

“Who made you cry?” I asked from behind Jerome, my hands in my pockets.

She shook her head. “No one, I'm just tired.”

We all knew that wasn't the truth, but none of us argued.

Niko couldn't help his chuckle.

“What?” I said.

“It's just quite funny,” he laughed. “You two are so rough with each other and everyone around you, but when it comes to Celestine, you're both so gentle.”

I snarled at him.

Jerome slid in the seat next to Celestine, forcing her to scoot over, and stole a handful of the chips that sat in the centre of the table.

I roughly pulled Jerome out of the seat and took his spot.

He rolled his eyes, sitting next to Niko. “What are you two doing here anyway?” Jerome asked, stuffing his mouth with the chips.

“I just finished training Celestine for the night, we stopped to eat before I take her home.” He then looked at me, a bit of a wary warning. “Speaking of, we should get going. Move Cinth, so she can get out.” Jerome also got out of his seat and she and Niko left.

“You're still not allowed near Reaper?”

“No,” I replied, sitting back down and taking a chip from the bowl that was left unfinished.

Jerome sat back across from me. “Well, maybe one day you'll get to claim her.”

“I did claim her,” I muttered, “Silias stole her from me. ”

“Excuse me, what?” Jerome asked. I told him the story, everything that had happened between Celestine and I, leaving out the part about Phobus and the prophecy of course.

“Damn,” he said. “That's… A lot.”

I didn't respond, allowing him to take the last chip.

“What are you going to do?”

I shrugged. “What I do to everyone who pisses me off.”

He smirked, knowingly. “Nobody messes with Vulture.”