4. Good For Us

F inishing off the last bite of his cow brain filled taco salad, Turney set his fork down and took a sip of his soda, his eyes on Scarlett the whole time.

The other zombie sat across from him, her large emerald-green gaze locked on Octavius. Her stare was surprisingly blank, considering the vampire had just shared his vacation idea. But blank it was.

He was also reading nothing from her. Just a big fat nothing as she sat there quietly with her red lips, perfectly styled, short, bob length copper hair, in a green sweater, black buttoned pencil skirt, and green slippers.

After a few more moments of silence, filled with Octavius loudly drinking down his fruit smoothie, Scarlett, expression still void of any emotion, firmly said, “No.”

Min-ji grimaced next to her, but remained quiet.

Turney’s gaze flicked to his boyfriend. The vampire’s lips pursed around the straw, before letting it go, and loudly proclaiming, “But we have to! It will be good for you!”

“We can go later,” she said stiffly. “Right now, we have to stay here.”

“What good will be done by us staying here, Scarlett?” Octavius prodded.

“G—” Scarlett cut off, swallowing audibly as she grimaced and said nothing else.

Turney cleared his throat. “Scarlett… Wouldn’t it be better to get away and not think about what could happen?”

She eyed him, and while it wasn’t unfriendly, it wasn’t friendly either. Though, Turney still didn’t feel anything negative coming through the bond, so he kept going.

“I can tell…you’re…” He trailed off, wincing as he felt a spike of emotion from her. Mostly just a jumbled mess of them—fear, worry, sadness, confusion, anger, and irritation. The last was what she settled on.

Months ago, their connection had changed. On bonding with Min-ji, Scarlett had closed off their bond to hide her emotions from him. But when she’d reopened it, it was like, from that moment on, the zombie shielded less from him. Letting him experience more of what she was feeling.

Turney wasn’t sure why, and he hadn’t asked, but part of him wondered if it was her apology to him, for blocking so completely for days.

Not that she had needed to apologize. Scarlett did still shield somewhat…just not nearly as much as before. He…was still failing to shield much at all from her, but he figured it would be like that for a long, long time.

Scarlett took a deep breath, and he felt her emotions recede. “Go ahead… I don’t think you will be revealing anything everyone else doesn’t already know.”

“You are sad…and worried, and stressed, but it’s not just you.” He looked towards his boyfriend next to him. “Octavius, you are the same.”

The vampire blinked. “Me?”

“You hide it…almost too easily under your hyperactive, chaotic personality. Considering how often you openly display all that you are feeling, I’m slightly surprised that you are trying to suppress it at all. But you are, and when you don’t think anyone is looking…sometimes your expression changes, showing all that you are hiding.”

“I’m…” Octavius winced.

Turney smiled gently, reaching out and taking one of the vampire’s hands. “In this case, you are right. Getting away would be good, not just for Scarlett, but for you too.” He looked back at the other zombie. “So, why not just go, have a good time? Forget for a bit?”

“I think we should go,” Min-ji stated. The black-haired woman did not flinch or seem deterred in the least when Scarlett turned to her sharply, eyes narrowed. “What will staying here accomplish? Will it delay anything? Change anything? Going away for a week… It makes sense.

“When we come back, that is when we can face the hard decisions. You know, as well as I do, as well as Octavius…maybe Turney, that nothing you do now will stop what is set to pass from coming.

“What will come to pass is going to happen, whether you are here or not. So why be here for it? Why be here counting down the minutes, agonizing over it, when you could clear your mind somewhere else? Have a little deserved fun. Take a breath.”

While Scarlett’s expression had smoothed, she said nothing, and Turney felt nothing.

Octavius stared at his stubborn best friend, and could practically see the cracks forming in her resolve.

“Scarlett.” She looked away from the witch to him, when he reached across the table and rested his hand on one of her clenched fists. “We have done all that we can. You know that. Just as you know, if there was anything else that could be done, we would be doing it.”

Her gaze softened, the sadness creeping in. Octavius blinked rapidly, to hold back the tears as his heart clenched for her and Godric.

“Let’s get away from here. We can just not think about any of it for a while,” he rasped softly.

“I…” Scarlett sighed, and took a few deep breaths in and out, despite not needing to breathe, before finally saying, “Fine.”

“YAY!” Octavius cheered, putting his hands up in excitement.

His friend rolled his eyes. “So, where exactly are we going?”

“Oh! This super fun-looking water slash adventure park, slash hotel, slash convention center in Maine!”

“A…water slash adventure park, slash hotel, slash convention center in Maine?” Turney asked slowly.

He beamed at his zombie bun, and nodded enthusiastically. “YES! And apparently, next week, the park will be changing to fit the theme of the upcoming convention! Not that I know what it is yet! Either way, don’t ask me the name, or the exact location, as it’s a surprise…”

Octavius blinked cutely as the zombie’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Ahh, his boyfriend was always so…untrusting about his surprises. Not that he had any reason to be. None at all…

Well, the scary surprises had definitely not been appreciated…and there were a few other times… But really, how could he be blamed for any of that?! It’s not as if it was his fault that what he found fun wasn’t always what Turney found fun!

Turney’s bullshit radar was going off. “How exactly did you find out about this water slash adventure park, slash hotel, slash convention center in Maine?”

“Oh! I got an email. In the official company email inbox. Just came right to [email protected] email! Several actually, and they all looked really fun, cool, and sparkly!”

Turney grimaced—Oh…no… When had the vampire started…monitoring the company email?

Octavius had a private email… One that, from his understanding, Scarlett monitored fully, to make sure he didn’t see or click on anything he shouldn’t—like scams.

He glanced at the other zombie. Scarlett shrugged, telling him she had no clue when he started doing it either—great.

Meeting the vampire’s excited gaze again, he asked, “An…email? Are you sure…you aren’t being scammed?”

Octavius blinked, his head tilting way too cutely. “How can it be a scam? They have a website!”

His frown deepened. “Octavius…many…scams have websites.”

“Well…” the vampire huffed. “It’s real! I looked it up and found reviews and pictures and everything! Anyway, let me book our stay!” Octavius pulled his phone from his pocket.

“Will there even be any rooms available with us booking this late?” Scarlett asked.

Which was a good point… He’d imagine a water slash adventure park would be… Water park?

“Octavius, it’s March… Isn’t it too cold for a water park to even be open in Maine ?”

“Oh! Well, it’s apparently in a heated dome… Not that the cold would have bothered any of us…” The vampire wrinkled his nose. “Besides Min-ji…and Theo…that is…” Octavius waved his hand. “Either way, I just got another email this morning that said there are plenty of rooms available, so I’m sure we will have no trouble booking. In fact, let me do so now!” Octavius flipped open his purple Galaxy phone and started tapping away.

Turney felt that he now had more than enough reasons to be concerned about the vampire opening emails by scammers… Someone should probably start monitoring the company email more closely… Though, he’d have sworn that was already Cormac’s job. “Did you even ask Theo if he wanted to go?”

Not looking up from his phone, Octavius said, “Yes! I sent him a voice text earlier.” The man tapped one last time on his phone, before beaming. “And that's three rooms booked! They even allow pets… Not fish, sadly…but…Sprinkle can come! Though, I suppose, she could have come anyway, because she is officially Theo’s guide cat.”

Yeah…he was still a bit surprised by that one, as he assumed Sprinkle staying with Theo was temporary. But then, he supposed, temporary to Octavius probably meant something different than it did to Turney. Hell, he was sure it would change for him eventually too, considering he now had eternity. What was ten or more years when you had forever?

“Why do I feel like I dodged a bullet by saying yes…” Scarlett drawled, the zombie eyeing Octavius suspiciously.

The vampire stared back at her, his eyes big and wide. “Whatever do you mean, dear friend?” The man gasped in fake outrage. “Are you suggesting that I, Octavius Evander, your dearest and oldest friend, would do something so unsavory, such as kidnapping, just to take you on vacation?!” Octavius crossed his arms with a hmphed. “I would never!”

Turney and Min-ji snorted at the lie, while Scarlett let out a deep and heavy full body sigh.