Beginnings

When death comes so easily to those you come into contact with too many circumstances present an opportunity for beginnings. I struggle against my own nature to make the most of these opportunities to avoid this familiar path.

For a long time after Ngozi passed it was difficult to feel anything beyond loss. Our relationship was far from perfect but it was a wonderful constant to know that she was there and I felt a deep sense of purpose ensuring that she was as well as she could be. For as long as I knew her I tried to look out for her and in many ways I felt like I had failed her.

Still, on that final night when it seems she knew better than we did how close to the end she was she thanked me for all that I had done. Her life she had said had not been without consequence, but that she had a life to work on and make something of would not have been were it not for my intervention and she was grateful.

She had made peace with Richard and had managed to mend the broken fences between all of us in one final act of compassion and this wonderful gift was not lost on me. While it would be sometime before I felt comfortable around my own kind once more, her actions had only strengthened my resolve. I felt an even deeper sense of responsibility to look out for those who were ill prepared to protect themselves from my kind. With her dying breath she guaranteed that I would do the same for others.

Louis saw my need for distance and took command of the coven eventually finding a new base of operations. He was always better suited and prepared to lead our kind and I was grateful that he was ready. It would only be for a time he said and we all consider you our leader, they always would.

Richard had found his wife’s final tormentor before he left the island and so had experienced a deep sense of accomplishment that did little to balance his profound sense of loss. But I thought that in time he had a good chance at a life, although I suspected that he too felt a deeper obligation to the memories of those he lost…