body remained the same.
“I can’t believe I just let Lowery kill me.”
And before anyone could talk to him, Ariel changed over to look like Lawrence, “It wasn’t like there was even an alternative scenario. You just sat there and took it.”
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” the spirit of Hartwell said through Kayla.
Maxwell turned to Aaron and said, “Does anyone else find this disturbing? I mean, I love my grandpa’, but it’s not exactly cool to see his head on my wife’s body.”
Aaron replied, “Yeah, I could see what you mean,” as he envisioned the vampire’s head on Emily.
“Why are you looking at me that way?” Emily stated.
“I’m just glad that Hartwell’s head isn’t on your shoulders.”
“Yeah, me too!” she replied.
Garrison was trying to keep the discussion on track.
“What are your plans, my friend?” he asked Lawrence, his fellow protector.
It was funny to see Ariel sitting Indian style with Lawrence’s mature face with a four-day growth of beard.
“Well, I wasn’t planning on coming back here in the first place. Things were sort of going pretty well and was liking where I was headed.”
Hartwell looked around and said, “All I see is darkness. It’s the place between life and death that we usually get our much-needed rest between battles.”
And all of the people that had been there before nodded their head in understanding.
“Yes, it’s the first time that I have been anywhere but the resting place. And it’s everything I always hoped it would be and more.” Lawrence glowed.
Hartwell asked, “So, are you saying that you don’t want to stay and get back at Lowery?”
Lawrence looked around the room, “You guys obviously have something special that nobody else has. You’ve been able to resolve your unnatural differences and come together as one family. Coming back here after it was all over wasn’t right,” he said and then scratched his head with Ariel’s right index finger. “While we appear to be what we were, I felt trapped in something I could not control until I died.”
He looked around the room and then asked, “There’s only one thing I would like to know before you let me move on. Which one of you killed me when I turned mortal?”
Since Samuel was the one that was previously under the witches spell, he answered.
“It was Lowery’s daughter. He realized just before you killed him that he had a daughter. So he transferred all of those feelings of scorn and revenge to her and she basically turned us all against each other – although I was in a trance and didn’t participate in the competition.”
Lawrence looked at Hartwell and he concurred, “Yes, that about sums it up.”
Thaddeus chimed in, “I’m thinking Viking funeral!”
“Didn’t we do that last time he was killed?” Sharon asked.
“You built a boat, put me in it and then lit the boat on fire when I died?” Lawrence asked.
“Yes, but we didn’t know what we were doing. Some mystical force was guiding us,” Carla said.
“I thought it was a nice touch and it put me in a really good place,” Lawrence responded.
“Then a Viking funeral it is!” Hartwell exclaimed as Kayla shook hands with Ariel.
“I’ll see you all tomorrow morning!” Hartwell said as he looked around the room and didn’t see Maggie. “Hopefully she’ll be back by then.”
“I’ll see you all in the next world. Goodbye!” Lawrence stated as Kayla and Ariel’s heads returned to their original states.
The family worked for the next 20 minutes on building a small boat after putting Hartwell’s head back on his shoulders and propping him in a chair facing the sun so he could be reborn at the first hint of daylight the next day. The knitting club spun a covering for Lawrence’s body in a respectable shade of dark blue and then wrapped him in it on the way out to the shore. It was dark out but every family member carried a torch to signify their participation in the spiritually-lifting, moving-on ceremony.
Gary stepped forward, being the eldest protector of the group, and said after Lawrence was placed in the boat, “This man did not die in vain. He was the ultimate protector of everything that was right until the very end. I am proud to say that we are brothers in protection, and he will always hold a special place in our lives and our hearts.”
Everyone stepped forward and gently dropped their torches in the boat, as Andrew and Aaron pushed the boat well into the water. The glory of the entire boat and the body becoming engulfed in flames was not lost on Maxwell, who thought about fireworks in the background one moment and then he was lighting up the sky as fireworks the next moment.
He came back down to the ground as the group met in one big hug while standing on the beach. Cal then spoke, “This moment should be marked in time, because family should always be the most important thing for us. Whatever comes at us outside this world is not of us, and should be treated as such – no matter how much they look or sound like people we used to love and call family. Everything has its place in our universe, and all else should be treated as if our very survival is at stake.”
He then broke free from the loving bond and said, “Tomorrow we go to war, but tonight let us celebrate!” he yelled as Samuel joined Maxwell in a round of joyous fireworks in the sky as the ash from the boat sunk into ocean and the remains of Lawrence floated up to the sky to reunite with his spirit.
FIFTEEN
“I thought that went rather well,” Billingsley said to his group as he walked into the kitchen the morning after their initial siege with nothing more than a long dress shirt that thankfully covered everything that should be covered.
“Could you put some pants on, please!” Julie Justice yelled.
“Yeah bro, nobody needs to see your giblets when we’re trying to eat breakfast,” Gregory Justice added.
“You know, you two are so annoying that I would have dropped you in the bottom of the ocean, too,” Agent Terrence Carter said.
And then a female voice came from the hallway and said, “I like him that way! That’s why I married him in the first place,” as Maggie Hartwell, formerly Margaret Billingsley, strutted into the kitchen one of Gabriel’s dress shirts barely buttoned and nothing else but a smile.
“Va-va-va-va-voom!” Gregory Justice exclaimed and then he whistled. “You bagged that awful quick, compadre,” he said to Gabriel.
“What is she doing here?” a concerned Randy Prince asked.
“Yeah, what if she is just here to spy on us?” Agent Carter continued the questioning.
“I think she looks divine in that shirt!” Mary Brewster said.
“Yes, I’ve you’ve got it, flaunt it,” Eloise Phillips added.
“Lowery walked through the front door after spending much of the night aimlessly walking around the town.
Billingsley heard Lowery come in and said his female companion, “It was probably good that we waited another night before bringing him in.”
The image of Maggie walked over to the coffee pot and then she morphed back into her original form, Brenda Vinson.
“Whoa! I didn’t see that coming!” Julie Justice exclaimed.
“Who’s this guy?” Agent Carter asked as Lowery walked into the room.
“That is Hartwell’s sire. He’s here to get revenge,” Gabriel stated.
“Cut his head straight off his body yesterday!” a previously pensive Lowery bragged.
He was greeted by cheers and handshakes of congratulation as the away team celebrated an early victory by eating breakfast together.
The sun was clearing the horizon in the East as its strong beams forced its way into the rooms of Hartwell’s house facing the water. The sun room was structured to elicit the maximum power of the rays at the earliest possible time. This fact became painfully apparent to Samuel, who slept in th
e room because he had never seen one of his own come back from the great beyond before. Maxwell was positioned in such a way that he would be exposed in sun before the light hit his great grandfather. He rubbed his eyes in pain from the extreme light, and then he remembered what he was doing there in the first place. So he elevated to his feet and stood in front of Hartwell, blocking the sun’s rays for a moment until he realized that nothing would happened until he moved out of the way.
As the sun ascended into the sky, it reached Hartwell’s feet first and then made its way up his body to his head, which became fused to his shoulders upon full contact.
Samuel couldn’t believe what he was seeing, as Hartwell’s hard drive rebooted and his spirit returned to his body as he calmly opened his eyes. This easy entry was in no way similar in any way to the abrupt restart that Samuel could expect in his initial renewals.
“Good morning, Papa!” an excited Samuel exclaimed.
Hartwell smiled, “What a wonderful way to wake up!” he gushed as he levitated to his feet and hugged Samuel for all he was worth.
Samuel whispered, “We all missed you.”
Hartwell appreciated the kind and warm words but inwardly wondered if they were completely accurate. Although he had a wonderful and restful night of sleep, his first thoughts were of his beautiful family and then he went right back into the quicksand that was Maggie.
“Did she come home last night?” Hartwell asked Gary privately as the family ate breakfast together.
“We had another Viking funeral for Mr. Lawrence last night!” Max blurted out. And Samuel and I