Renata
She sighed as she sat in the tub, soaking in the warm waterâalone, as Tahoma was on an evening run. She looked up at the plain bathroom ceiling, ears ringing with silence. Well, there was the sound of the radio from the kitchen. Soothing jazz. Occasional blues. The droplets falling from the faucet. Chirping crickets.
She closed her eyes, intending to enjoy these sounds, but her mind had other plans in mind.
Flashes of her old life made their way through her thoughts. Her old city apartment. The nights where she'd simply fall into her bed, having worked through endless piles of emails, filing documents, struggling not to fall asleep as she stared at the screen for hours on end. That delicious protein shake shop she'd visit every other Sunday. The midnight runs to whatever fast food place her heart desired. She recalled her nights spent in bed with beautiful women, with beautiful men, finding satisfaction and comfort in all walks of life.
Scents of tea. Of cumin and burned peppers. The sour taste of lime. Ice cold water. Hot summer days at the beach, indulging in purple snow cones and chili soaked chicharrones de harina.
So many luxuries and treats she enjoyed but never truly appreciated as she should have. And now they were gone. They belonged to a different person from a different time, before she had become familiar with the cold.
And while it was gone, while Death no longer loomed in Renata's bones, deep in her gut, at the very bottom, right at the center of her entire being, there was this smallest piece of it. Like dust collecting in the crevice of the floor, never to be reached or touched again. It wasn't an echo, more similar to a phantom of a feeling.
In these moments of quiet, she could sense that little bit of lingering, painful wisdom. Having become what she did, having experienced what she experienced, nothing like that could ever fully be forgotten. With this residual sensation, she could still sense things. More specifically Death, of course. Only if she focused really well, gave attention to that cold, sinking feeling could she tap in a smallest portion of what she was once plagued by.
Like some chilling warning, Keone's face came next in her vision.
She sat up, frowning. The water sloshed around her, hitting against the tile.
Urged by concern, she stepped out and wrapped herself in the big robe folded on the counter.
She listened to her instincts as she walked through the quiet house.
She padded across the wood and toward the back door. As she stepped out into the humid air, she looked directly at the small guesthouse, where Keone had stayed to himself for days now since they arrived.
And there he was. She watched as he quietly shut the front door and took a few determined steps forward until his eyes set on her. He froze, and she took the opportunity to close the distance between them.
She finally took note of his hiking boots and the straps slung over each shoulder. That cold feeling worsened as she studied his solem expression. "Going somewhere?"
He directed his hazel eyes to the groundâshe much preferred them to the red. "I'm leaving."
She didn't expect him to say that. "You are?"
"Yes." He cleared his throat. "I need to be on my own."
"Oh..." She hesitated. "Are you sure?"
His shoulders remained straight and stiff. "I am. I'm not even sure why I've stayed as long as I have."
"Right...Well, I never got to thank you for what you did for Tahomaâ"
"It was nothingâ"
"That's not true, Keone." She shook her head as he tried to shrug her off, which sort of pissed her off. "I know how much pain you were in. You didn't have to do that."
"I deserved worse. Still do."
As much as she would have rathered to remain in her delusional hatred for this infuriatingly impulsive and admittedly sexy man, her heart cracked on his behalf. "Maybe," she agreed, "but not for me. I don't want that, not anymore."
His face turned confused.
"I just want to be happy and enjoy what time I have left...and you don't have to hurt yourself to somehow make me feel better. That's wrong. It always was." She knew it would be even more mature to say, 'I forgive you', but that still wasn't completely right in her heart. One day, she would, she just couldn't fathom it yet.
"Thank you, Renata. You've given me more grace than I've earned."
He began to walk, but she stepped in his path, making them bump chest to chest. "I know what you're going to do. Don't."
"How...?"
"Just don't. It doesn't have to end like this. There is so much to doâ"
He cut her off with this strangely jaded smile. "Thank you, but..." he looked off to the distance. "I've lived more than enough lives. I just want to be with the water once more. I want to go home. With my ladies. Mar. Kamea"
"Those are beautiful names."
Keone's eyes became distinct. "I can only meet my mother, and my wife in my dreamsâversions of them, anyway...My time here is done, Renata."
Why on earth did her throat tighten with emotion? She should have been jumping for joy, but she just couldn't, not when her heart was breaking for this sad, dejected person. But beneath his pain, she knew his resolve to move on was even stronger. She couldn't fathom talking him out of it when this was clearly all he wanted. So, all she could offer was, "They must have been amazing women, loving your annoying ass and all."
He smiled wider. "Yes." The expression dropped. "It's been so long. What if they forgot me? They'll be there afterward, waiting, won't they?" His eyes snapped toward her, begging and hopeful.
She nodded. "Yes. They're there."
"In the blue?"
She thought back to Angel's home. "No, somewhere even better. You'll see as soon as you get there." That place, she had no power over when she was the grim reaper. It was beyond even death.
And just like that, she'd given him the comfort he searched for. His entire body invigorated with peaceful resolve. "Good, that's good."
Her sentence came out rough, "you don't have to do it alone."
He studied her face. "I won't be alone." He hesitated. "I wonder...how things would have happened had I not acted so rashly."
Renata couldn't help herself, and also hoped Tahoma wouldn't kill her, when she took a hold of him and slammed her lips against his. To her surprise, he held her with the fiercest of grips and kissed her right back. She had to admit she'd thought about it before this moment, but that was a secret she was determined to take to the grave. When they pulled back, she breathed against him, "trust me, we would have absolutely boned." They both laughed quietly in the dark.
"Well," she sighed, and dusted off his shoulders, though there was nothing there, "good luck, I guess."
He lingered longer than she expected. "Goodbye, Renata."
She swallowed back her damned treacherous tears. "Bye."
Keone
He'd made it onto the road, thoughts filled with the odd farewell he shared with Renata but mostly occupied by the blurred faces of his beloved ladies, ones he hadn't openly grieved for in the longest time. Angel advised for so many centuries that he should focus on his main objective, to help keep the undying in place. In a way, by protecting the humans, Keone had convinced himself he was somehow earning the forgiveness of his mother, and his wife. Like he had committed the greatest sin by living on while they were gone.
Now, after learning all Keone did about Angel and why all of this happened, he'd finally felt the answers to his questions come upon him, like a mother softly shushing their crying baby.
He walked into the cover of the darkness, utilizing the compass gifted by a townsfolk as he began his journey down south, toward his true home.
"Hey!"
Keone looked ahead to see Tahoma jogging straight for him. He tensed, wondering if a fight was about to ensue.
Tahoma's intensely scrutinizing face transformed with half-serious accusation, a warmer regard Keone did not expect in the slightest. "Did I see what I think I did?"
"Yes?"
Tahoma gave a pout. "Why? Are you leaving or something?"
"I am."
"Good." He crossed his arms over his bare chest. "Should I be worried that kiss changed your mind?"
"It didn't."
Tahoma scoffed. "Shows what kind of taste you have." He eyed him, making Keone become hesitant from how much his eyes lingered in each spot. "I can't believe she forgave your sorry ass. You don't deserve it."
"I know."
"Well, then," he stepped closer, making Keone look up in question. In the next instant, Tahoma grabbed Keone by the neck and pulled him into fierce kiss. Again? Keone jolted in shock, and hated how he also grabbed the man right back despite how crazy what they were doing was.
What. The. Hell.
Keone audibly gasped as Tahoma pulled back, laughing his ass off. Tahoma shrugged in response to Keone's most likely disturbed expression. "Well, it was that or a goodbye punch to the faceâdecided to be in solidarity with my woman."
They both whipped around upon Renata's amused shout, "Tahoma, you're so bad!"
Like bees to honey, Tahoma was sucked right back into the alluring vortex that was Renata. He immediately began jogging in her direction, as though nothing had happened in the last thirty seconds that wasn't out of the ordinary.
"Goodbye, asshole!" Tahoma threw out, never looking back.
Keone, shocked and more unsure than he cared to admit, watched on as the pair reunited.
With now two peculiarly timed kisses on his mind, he smiled fondly, feeling lighter than ever.
The next step didn't feel as difficult as the last one.
And forward, he continued.
To the water, we go.