25. Brain Okay?

“ W ell, that was fun!” Octavius beamed as he jumped into the van, smiling at Turney, who was in the driver’s seat.

His zombie bun stared, looking…his best guess was baffled. Yes, baffled.

“What?” he asked, tilting his head.

“That was the opposite of fun!” Turney snapped. “And what took you so long? Min-Ji’s attorney had me out in thirty minutes, before I even got a chance to make my call!?”

Octavius stared wide eyed. Knowing that answering truthfully was a bad idea, he slowly averted his gaze. “Well…I was just…”

“He was having fun,” Scarlett stated, exposing him—the traitor!

“Octavius!” his zombie bun growled.

“I suppose that is why Karis looked so amused when she came out,” Min-ji said slowly.

“I mean…when else am I going to get a chance to pretend to be a criminal who's being questioned by the police?!”

“Oh…my…” Theo started to laugh.

“Octavius, the police literally think you are a MURDERER!?” Turney bellowed, before taking deep breath in and out and groaning. “Oh, my head…my head.”

“But I’m not a murderer!”

Well, he hadn’t murdered anyone this century…

He frowned. At least, not that he could recall. But it’s not like the ones he killed before this century were nice people… And if there was someone he was forgetting, like, Octavius was sure they hadn’t been good either! He always considered it less murder and more taking out the trash.

“If only being innocent actually mattered to the ‘justice’ system,” Theo snorted. “While I’m pretty sure they know you didn’t do it, they still think you are involved in some way.”

Turney let out another, in his opinion, dramatic groan. “Octavius, can you please just admit now that someone is trying to kill you?!”

“No, no, no, no. NO! I refuse to believe that, as I haven’t done anything to anyone here. And I want to have fun! So we will continue to have fun, and ignore the bodies!”

“Octavius!” his zombie bun ground out.

“Nope!” He laughed. “Now, there is a musical dining theater that has a ducktastical performance with flying pianos that I want to watch, and that is what we are going to do. Because, musical fun, and they have a whole long list of milkshakes—I want five of them!”

Turney sputtered, “Y-you…” The man’s mouth snapped shut, as he made a deep and very odd, long winded growling noise. “Mmm, you do not need five milkshakes, Octavius! Do you even know how much sugar that is?!”

“I do not, and I do not care!” Octavius said, sticking his tongue out. “But maybe I’ll have ten instead of five!”

“Turney, take some nummies,” Scarlett cut in, before the zombie had a chance to respond.

Turney blinked, huffing as he opened the middle console and grabbed a bottle, popping a few zombie nummies into his mouth before putting it away.

“Octavius,” his friend said slowly.

“Yes?” he asked, not daring to turn and look back at her, as the tone of her voice was not very friendly.

“Stop antagonizing your boyfriend.”

“I’m not?—”

“Don’t deny it,” she snapped.

He hmphed. “I want to have fun, not work!”

“Brat,” Turney grumbled.

Octavius stuck his tongue out again, and Turney stuck his tongue out back.

“What happened to Octavius the investigator, huh?” the zombie asked snidely.

“I’M ON VACATION!” he cried. “Now drive!”

Turney had to say, he was feeling less grumpy…now that the brain supplements had hit his system. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t realized he was hungry, but… Maybe the stress of getting told to either drive the van full of his friends to the police station for questioning, or be handcuffed and brought in, had…made him miss the signs.

He eyed the restaurant from his seat. It was similar to the first restaurant they’d been to, with the wood paneling, minus the stage, but the carpet was checkered shades of blue instead of reddish-brown. There were also just pianos on the ceiling, and what looked to be a lot of rigging and harnesses, likely for the performers.

“Okay, so I’ll take the milkshake banana smoothie, the peanut butter blossom shake, the plain vanilla, the snickerdoodle smoothie shake, and the caramel apple crisp shake! Oh, and could you make sure they are all really well blended?” Octavius asked with a bright smile, the vampire basically bouncing in his seat with excitement as he ordered his next sugar high.

Though…he couldn’t lie…those all sounded delicious. It was a real struggle to not go overboard with the things he ate, considering he not only had a sweet tooth, but now didn’t have to worry about weight gain…or human health problems… No, just the normal, average, everyday zombie problem of having to replace an organ or two due to rot… Ugh, so normal… Another issue he was hoping to push off far, far, far into the future.

“Uh, sure…” the waitress said, before slowly adding, “I’ll see what I can do. Anything else to…drink?”

“No! That’s all, I believe!” Octavius giggled happily, and after looking at the rest of them, he reaffirmed, “That’s all.”

“I’ll be back with your drinks…as soon as I can.”

Smiling as he watched her walk off, Turney sighed and looked over to the vampire. “Sorry for yelling at you.”

Sure, they bickered sometimes, and maybe the argument had been normal enough for them, but him actually being angry wasn’t. Not over something so small, and really, just Octavius being his normal oddball self.

The vampire blinked, staring blankly, before he started to frown. “What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’?”

“Turney, let it go… Just let it go.” Scarlett gripped his shoulder.

“Wha...” He trailed off, eyeing her. She was shaking her head.

Oh, for the love of… His boyfriend had already forgotten about them arguing!? How?! It happened like a maximum of forty minutes ago!? “Is his brain okay?!” he gasped.

Theo snorted, but said nothing.

Min-ji apparently didn’t care that he was being faced with the fact that his boyfriend sometimes had the memory retention capacity of a goldfish, as she just continued to look through the menu.

Scarlett sighed. “It’s…fine…he just doesn’t always retain things he sees as unimportant.”

“Why does it feel like you are talking about me?” Octavius asked, eyeing them suspiciously.

“Because we are!” Turney huffed.

The man’s head tilted, as if he was thinking over what they had said, before shrugging. “Well, she’s right. Besides, remembering too much insignificant nonsense makes my head hurt.”

“I see…”

Oh God, it was really a miracle that Octavius remembered that imprisoned witch, not once but twice…

“So, Turney, as you got to experience the other side of the law,” Octavius started. “Has it brought back your urge to fight against it?! As a lawyer?!” The vampire stared at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

“I…” He hesitated. “I don’t know.”

The man slumped a bit. “Oh.”

“Octavius…me becoming a lawyer, I’m just not sure about it. And honestly…” He glanced at the others, clearing his throat on finding them all looking at him. “I’m failing to remember why it was so important to me that I became one…and if there is a point anymore.”

Octavius frowned. “You don’t remember why?”

“I mean, I remember the initial childish reason I had, but by the time I pursued it.” He shrugged. “They just don’t seem worth it now.”

His initial reasons…were a mix of anger, and the need to make sure that victims like his parents, and their loved ones, weren’t brushed aside by high-powered attorneys who worked the system enough to get their rich clients off.

Even though it wasn’t the first time, the drunk driver who had killed his parents had gotten the lowest sentence possible to start with. But then the system had the audacity to let him out on ‘good behavior’. The bastard had killed two people, yet barely served two years.

Turney’s thoughts, at the time, were that he wanted to sue on behalf of any drunk driving victim’s families, leaving these assholes with nothing. Not that the particular rich bastard who killed his parents didn’t have money to lose. But as he’d gotten older…his thoughts had changed from helping victims to…wanting to be rich and famous.

If those were his real reasons now…were they good enough to keep going?

“It’s okay to pursue careers for childish or even non-important reasons,” Octavius said with a small smile. “We have many lifetimes to pursue things for the serious ones.”

“It’s not like if you choose to do this, that you have to do it forever, or even practice at all really,” Theo mused thoughtfully. “The good thing about having long lives is that, at least career- wise…you can change your mind frequently, without worrying about time passing.”

“Just think, if you get your license, we won’t have to call a lawyer the next time we’re arrested, or rather, the next time we are threatened with arrest,” Min-ji said with a smirk.

He snorted. “That’s not comforting.”

Octavius giggled. “It likely will happen again.”

“Again, not comforting,” Turney scoffed.

He looked at Scarlett with a brow raised when she lightly nudged him with her foot. She was the only one who hadn’t said anything. “The question is not what you should do, but what do you want to do? You have a lot of people speaking on a subject that, in the end, is your choice only. The loudest being Octavius, who you love, but I feel we all know his reasonings are centered around his own guilt over you having to take a break from school in the first place.”

“I—” Octavius started to say.

“Quiet.” She shushed the vampire when he tried to deny it. Octavius’ mouth closed, his lips pursing into a pout.

Scarlett, of course, ignored him. “If you don’t see a reason to go back right now, then don’t. Do something else… Do nothing. Take the time to decide what you think is worth pursuing right now. You are the only one who can decide if it’s worth it. As much as you do have the time now, an infinite amount, there is no reason to force yourself to do something when you find it pointless.” The zombie looked to the pouting vampire. “And Octavius, you know as well as I do, the minute you find a task pointless, you abandon it, or try to get out of doing whatever it is.”

“I know…but…I…” Octavius grimaced, trailing off.

Turney grabbed one of his boyfriend’s hands and gave it a squeeze. “Octavius…if I don’t go back…would that be fine?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t force you to… I just…” The vampire sagged a bit, letting out a soft whine.

Octavius’ reasonings for wanting him to go were clear. Maybe once his own were, he could finally decide what he wanted to do.

“Octavius, if I don’t go back—and I’m not saying I’ve decided yet—please know that it wouldn’t be because of you. It would be because the changes in my life have removed my reasons for going. My own mindset would be to blame, not you.”

The vampire slowly nodded, a sad smile slipping onto his face. “Part of me worries that all of these drastic changes, that my existence in your life has led to, will make you resent me one day…”

“Never,” Turney said honestly. “I may be unclear about law school, but I know that I could never resent you for coming into my life. You may eventually drive me insane, but I suppose—” He laughed, “—it will be a welcomed loss of sanity.”

Octavius chuckled. “Well, someone has to do it.”

“So…sweet,” Scarlett said dryly, though she was smiling.

“Sickeningly sweet,” Theo agreed with a wrinkled nose.

“Disgustingly sweet,” Min-ji snorted.

Turney snickered as Octavius stuck his tongue out at them. But then the lights began to dim, and the vampire let out a cute giggle, clapping excitedly as he whisper-yelled, “Oh, they’re starting.”

Octavius looked upwards as music began to play.

Turney peered up as well when spotlights turned on above. Pianos played a fun, fast tune as they ‘flew’ around on the ceiling.

SNAP!

Turney flinched at the sound. He only had a brief moment to duck, as one of the pianos swung down over their table, barely missing Theo, who, like him, had moved just in time. As the last of the ropes broke, it swung forward and landed on the table right next to theirs…crushing the two people seated there.

Turney stared at the quickly forming blood puddle that was seeping out from underneath the now broken piano as the screams started. Sighing, he slowly looked back at the others. “Octavius…”

The vampire held his hand up to stop him. “I know…I know… Someone is trying to kill me…” Octavius groaned. “Let me…actually call my lawyer this time.”

“Why don’t you just let Min-ji call hers? She is still here, and is likely the only one who can get here fast enough,” Scarlett suggested.

“How did she get here so fast?” Theo asked. “Or did she just happen to be in the state?”

Min-ji shrugged. “Magic.”

“Right… If you don’t mind, Min-ji.” Octavius sighed. “Tell…her…we may actually get arrested this time.”

Turney glanced back at the fallen piano and crushed table, and the only emotion he was feeling was…tired. “You know…I am starting to see how one can be desensitized by death.”