Chapter 183 – Epilogue – Holly Hayfield

More than two years passed since the night of our graduation party. Lilith and I were starting a new school year together, but this time not as students. It was Lilith’s first day on the job and she was justifiably nervous. When the old librarian suddenly decided to retire, Lilith decided to shoot her shot.

I was sitting on the library’s check out desk, watching Lilith rearrange papers and books on the cluttered table. There were so many recently returned books piled haplessly on the desk that she looked overwhelmed. Normally I’d be helping her with this, but she didn’t want me ‘doing her job for her’ on the very first day.

“You should relax.” I said while watching her work frantically. “The kids are going to love you.”

“Kids…?” She asked venomously. “You mean those rotten delinquents? Look at the due dates on these library books that they decided to turn in after my morning announcement. The old librarian practically let them get away with robbery! Things will be different under my watch!”

I laughed at her overdramatic response. She always acted melodramatically when she was worried about something. We’d been living together inside the Meredith Estate alongside a few other friends for almost a full year now. I was coming to fully understand what made her tick.

Lilith was stressed out because she was already behind on the first day of work. She was becoming a member of the staff in mid-September when school started in early-August. There were no student librarian assistants yet, and the former librarian left things in a bit of a chaotic mess.

“Honestly…” Lilith said irritably while arranging a stack of papers. “This would have never happened if I had remained a librarian assistant all this time.”

“Wouldn’t that be amusing?” I asked with a teasing smile. “I’m sure the students would have a lot of questions about a recent graduate continuing to manage the library after graduating in her senior year.”

“You’re one to talk.” She said, sparing a glance from her work to arch an eyebrow at me. “You virtually never even left!”

“That’s totally different.”

“Totally…” She said sarcastically.

I was going to chide her for being stubborn and ask that she let me help her organize things when our conversation was interrupted. Three students entered the library while glancing around curiously. Their eyes locked on me the moment they saw me. They raced over together to greet me.

Addison pushed her two friends out of the way in order to throw herself against me in a tight embrace. Her two other friends followed suit after recovering from Addison’s push. I nearly fell over from all three pressing against me. Lilith watched this behavior with a mix of amusement and curiosity.

“Girls!” I said excitedly. “Did you all have a good weekend?”

They all answered at the same time, making it impossible for me to discern what the hell they were saying. I just laughed and hug them back.

“Is that… Is that who I think it is?” Lilith asked, pointing out Addison.

Addison poked her head from around me to look at Lilith.

“Lilith!” Addison said excitedly. “It’s cool seeing you here! Holly told me you’d be starting soon!”

“That’s Ms. Meredith to you while we’re at school!” Lilith said. “And you shouldn’t call Holly by her first name, either!”

Addison turned to look at me with her big bright eyes.

“That’s okay, isn’t it Holly? We’re friends, right?”

“Of course we are!” I said, hugging her tighter.

“Ugh,” Lilith groaned while returning to her work. “How did you even manage to get kicked out of school anyways? Your sister rarely mentions you, but I’m pretty sure I remember your mother bragging about you during last year’s Christmas party.”

“Uh… Well…” Addison started to say.

“She skipped too many classes to go hang out with her now ex-boyfriend!” One of her friends said while laughing. “Ahaha! She even got dumped in the end! What a loser!”

“Shut up, Carly!” Addison shouted, detaching from me in order to try punching her friend.

She chased her friend Carly around me for several seconds until I physically stopped them by grabbing hold of them.

“Girls, no running in the library.” I said sternly. “We don’t want to give Lilith a hard time on her very first day of school!”

“Thank you.” Lilith said gratefully while cleaning.

“We’ll give her a hard time on a different day, then.” Addison’s other friend said.

“Stop joking.” Lilith said.

I laughed as I let go of Addison and Carly.

“Addie, since you’re here, why don’t you go ahead and show Lilith your new mask.” I suggested.

“Mask…?” Lilith asked.

“Oh yeah! Great idea!” Addison said.

Addison reached into her skirt pocket to pull out a black surgical mask with the image of a damaged teddy bear painted on it. Lilith grimaced overdramatically, as if in intense pain while Addison put it on.

“I see you’re becoming like your big sister in all the worst possible ways.” Lilith said. “We’ve all been a bad influence on you.”

“I think I like you already, Ms. Meredith!” Carly said.

Lilith fell back into the chair behind her and leaned against it heavily. She put a hand up to her temple and stared away from us.

“Please give me some personal space while I reconsider my career choices.” Lilith said in a flat, melancholic tone.

The girls and I laughed in unison.

“Okay girls, Lily and I have work to do in the library. You girls should head to class. Lunch is almost over.”

“Okay!”

“Bye Ms. Hayfield!”

“Later, Holly!”

The three students ran out laughing, probably planning to play hooky instead of going to class. It wouldn’t be the first time that those three got in trouble for it. I’d need to check up on them later. Addison was getting too comfortable with breaking the rules after being sent to this school.

“I’m jealous.” Lilith admitted from where she was sitting.

“Jealous of what?”

“It looks like you’re already loved. I don’t think I’ll be anywhere near as good as you with talking to students. It’s always been one of my biggest fears since before I started attending college.”

I came around to her side of the table to sit on the desk in front of her.

“I don’t think you need to worry about that. Just try to be calm and understanding. Always remember how you felt when you were a student here and administrators were talking to you. Be patient and hear them out.”

“That’s good advice… I feel like I’ve got big shoes to fill here. The last librarian retired out of the blue, and I know I only got this job because of my great grandmother…”

“Don’t say that.”

“But it’s true, isn’t it? I’m mostly a stand-in since no one else was available on such short notice. They knew I planned to work here eventually and gave me an offer. I don’t even know if I can properly manage this job alongside my college responsibilities…”

“You’re not the only one with other responsibilities.” I said. “I’m right here with you, whenever you may need it. Right now, that means helping you with getting this place back into working order. Let me help you put away these books. It’ll be like old times.”

She gave me a soft smile before nodding.

“Okay.” She said. “In exchange, I’ll make sure to return the favor sometime.”

“Actually… I think you’ll be helping me out pretty heavily this weekend.” I said.

“Why? What’s this weekend?” She asked.

“Helga finally gave me the call. She’s ready to start moving her stuff into the Meredith Estate.”

“Finally…?” She asked. “I thought she might live at Autumn Eden forever. It’s about time she moved out of that place.”

I chuckled a little.

“I think she’d stay there if it were up to her. She doesn’t have any legal ground to stand on since it’s the city itself that’s issuing the eminent domain notice. Let’s just be grateful that they were so nice about it and didn’t kick her out immediately when they learned she was living there.”

Lilith smirked.

“That probably would’ve been for the best. The Meredith Estate will practically be a luxury hotel to her, compared to that decrepit old place. It should’ve been torn down much sooner than this.”

“Yeah, well… The outcome is that she wants us to help her move her stuff in this weekend. She already has everything boxed up and ready to go. She’s renting a truck this weekend.”

“I don’t know if I want to help Helga with this.” Lilith admitted.

“What? Why not?”

Lilith folded her arms and gave me an annoyed look.

“It’s my first day working here and she still hasn’t come to visit me.”

I laughed. So Lilith did care about something like that after all. That was sort of cute.

“I’ll send her over during study hall. I substitute for her class all the time anyways.”

The Meredith Estate was in much better shape now that people were consistently living inside it. The act of maintaining it was no longer an occasional event, but a daily responsibility. We were able to live in the place sooner than expected thanks to a change in Mrs. Wilson’s funding scheme.

The estate was no longer a rental building for hosting events, but a dormitory facility for college students. A few of our friends decided to rent a room there, along with a few other college girls that we were less familiar with. It was fortunate that the building was so close to the college that we attended.

Mrs. Wilson was still managing the property while Lilith was busy with college. The residents of the building received a discount for helping around the house. The money from our combined rents was just enough to keep everything in order without dipping into Lilith’s inheritance money.

Part of the reason that Lilith was so adamant about getting a job as soon as possible was to further her plans for the estate. The fact that she was able to get her ideal job at the school so soon was even better. She was already on track to achieve her long-term goals after only a few short years. She was fortunate.

As for myself, I was still trying to define what my long-term goals were, outside of helping the school. It felt like there were so many things for me to pursue that it was hard to narrow down what I ultimately wanted. Would I stay a counselor at the school, or setup an independent practice somewhere else?

For now, I was happy where I was. With all the near-death encounters that I experienced I should consider myself lucky to merely be alive. I never needed to pick up the mask of the Killing Cat after my confrontation with Crystal Gray.

The mask was no longer in my possession. Jacob asked for it as a final favor to Malorie. He wanted to seal it away with the rest of Malorie’s belongings in his backyard shed. He was renovating her old bedroom now that he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby soon.

Lilith managed to get through her first week of school impressively well. Although she might not have had the full qualifications for the job yet, she devoted herself whole-heartedly towards filling the former librarian’s shoes. It helped that she had experience working in that very library.

This weekend was going to be a special one, not just because Helga was finally moving in, but because a lot of our friends were coming over to help. Sam was between semesters at her college right now and had some down time to come and visit. Jay was in town visiting her family and volunteered to help Helga with the move.

Valentina lived with me and Lilith at the Meredith Estate and so was already anticipating Helga’s arrival. Helga’s new room was right next door to Val’s, something that might be a problem considering that Val was learning to play the guitar.

Our home was lively these days, something that Helga might have a hard time getting used to, considering where she came from. It was something that Alyssa had to get used to as well. These days Alyssa was as lively as the rest of us. We were all heavily involved with each other when we weren’t busy.

My roommates felt more like family at this point.

On a similar note, Silver and Naomi also lived with us. The two of them came from strict households and jumped at the opportunity to move in. Silver’s parents were footing the bill for her while she was dealing with college. As for Naomi, she was supporting herself through a part-time job.

It was rare these days that our schedules all aligned so perfectly that we could spend the entire weekend together. I knew this weekend would be a great one when everyone came together like this. A few of my other friends, Ellie, Zara, Suzy, Casper, Charlotte, and Zoe were visiting too.

“Helga, where do you want me to set this massive box of junk?” Zara asked while struggling to carry her box. “With the boxes of junk near your bed? Or with the boxes of junk inside your closet?”

“That isn’t junk!” Helga shouted from beside the moving truck. “Those are healing crystals that I use on my stream to perform a special…!”

“Like I said, junk!” Zara called back. “Closet or bed?”

“Closet, please…” Helga said. “And be careful! If I lose even a single one, Zara, I’ll…!”

“I know, I know! You’ll put a curse on me! Damn!” Zara said. “I’ve never met such an ungrateful witch!”

“You’re going to regret saying that!” Helga said as Zara walked inside.

Silver and I shared a laugh since we were the only ones nearby to see that interaction. The others were already inside of Helga’s new room, getting things ready. Silver and I were unloading boxes from the truck and putting them near the door for the others to easily grab.

“Man, I’m exhausted.” Helga said as she sat down inside the moving truck.

“It’s fine for you to take a break.” I said. “We’re almost done anyways.”

“It sucks that I had to give up Autumn Eden after all the trouble we went through to improve it.”

“I’d hate to tell you that I told you so, but…” Silver said.

“It’s no big deal, I guess.... At least Mrs. Wilson was willing to give me a discount for helping out around this place.”

“And you will help out around this place, won’t you?” I asked her teasingly.

She picked up some loose packing foam and threw it in my direction. It didn’t go very far and landed on the ground in front of me.

“You will be cleaning that up, right?” I asked in the same teasing voice.

“Instead of cleaning, I’m more interested in cooking for everyone while I’m living here.” She said. “One of the many upsides about living here is that the kitchen is impressive.”

“You’ll have to forgo any plans you might’ve had about that for tonight.” Silver said as she picked up a new box. “It’s me and Val’s turn to cook tonight and we have something planned while everyone’s here.”

“Oh? Anything good?”

“You’ll have to wait and see!” Silver said. “Consider it a reward for getting all this work done! Let’s hurry and get this finished so that I can give Val a hand.”

“Give me that box, Silver. I’ll bring it inside while I go and check up on the others.” I said.

“Sure.” Silver said, handing the box over to me.

“Tell them to stop being lazy and double the pace.” Helga said. “There’s a show on TV that I want to catch in a few minutes!”

Silver laughed.

“Look who’s talking!”

“I’ll let them know we’re almost finished.” I said. “And relax, you won’t miss your evening drama show. I promise.”

The girls were taking a while to get back. It turned out that Valentina had completely shifted tasks to focus on cooking, which was fair. She wanted everyone to sit down for dinner before they had to leave. A few would be staying over for the night, but Jay and Sam needed to go visit their respective families while they were in town.

Naomi was claiming to help Val out in the kitchen, but in reality, she seemed like more of a hindrance. I eavesdropped on their conversation long enough to hear that Val couldn’t care less about Naomi’s work-related drama and was just enduring it as she prepared dinner. Still, it was awesome to see them getting along so well like this.

Suzy and Charlotte were getting along surprisingly well. They were resting in one of the guest rooms of the Meredith Estate. Zoe was reading a book in the same room, although this wasn’t a break. She had never helped move boxes in the first place.

Zara and Ellie caught me on the way to Helga’s new room and wanted to ask me about living here in the future. It wasn’t in their budget right now and we only had a few spare bedrooms remaining. Not only that, but there was an active queue of people who applied to live here through Mrs. Wilson. We’d have to talk about this some other time.

Sam, Alyssa, Jay, Lilith, and Casper were debating where each useless bauble and doodad was meant to go. Most of Helga’s furniture was unpacked and in place, but they couldn’t decide where to put her ornaments. And Helga had a lot of them.

She did say to open the boxes for her and start arranging things but gave no specific details beyond that. In the end, we decided to leave arrangement to Helga. I sent the others to retrieve the last of the boxes. As for myself, I decided to take a break in the backyard.

The backyard of the Meredith Estate looked better than it did on the night of our graduation party. It was no longer in a state of untidy disorganization. After a year of labor-intensive work almost every weekend, the garden was starting to come back to life. It wasn’t the amazing botanical fascination that it used to be in the old photos of the place, but there was still time.

I sat down at one of the benches in the backyard and admired the plants that I had so far. Gardening wasn’t something that I did alone these days. Lilith, Val, Silver and Alyssa helped me out with it whenever they had the spare time. Progress was coming along nicely.

Thinking about all the time we spent together out here made me smile. I was looking forward to continuing development of this place with them in the future.

A small stray cat rounded the corner and walked over in my direction. It was the same black-and-white stray that we occasionally left food out for from time-to-time. Normally it was too shy to ever approach any of us while we were outside, but today it was either incredibly bold or incredibly hungry.

It jumped right up into my lap and started purring. This was an unusual, but welcome surprise.

“Hey there, little one! It looks like you’ve finally warmed up to me after all this time, huh?” I asked as I rubbed it behind the ear.

My cat Gabriel was still living at my mother’s house. That was one of the conditions she made when I decided to move into the Meredith Estate. The other condition was that we regularly spent time together. That was an easy obligation to fulfill since she and Mrs. Wilson visited the Meredith Estate together on a regular basis.

“Are you hungry, poor thing? I didn’t realize you were this skinny.”

I picked up the cat and stood up. The cat didn’t try scratching me or breaking free. Instead, it seemed to appreciate being held like this. I smiled.

“How about I bring you inside to meet all my friends?” I asked. “I think you’re really going to like them.”