Everlasting

HIVE Facility, Somewhere in the Mojave Desert. 06:00

“Up and at ‘em, Night Force,” HIVE Director Adeline Kane spoke. Despite the energy of her words, she was far from enthusiastic. In fact, her white-streaked dark hair seemed more and more grey as of late, an effect of the times.

Ahead of her stood her son, Joey, decked out in his white, blue and violet gear, joined by his burgeoning friends, the once-renegades known as Night Force.

“You said it was one job,” spat Alice, the Crimson Avenger. She was tall, draped in a flowing, red cloak, and with a sour look on her face as if the entire world were weighing down on her. The last year had not been kind to her, nor had any year previous for that matter. “I thought we were done.”

“Maybe you were,” Adeline replied plainly. I sent you to the haunting after the funeral because I thought you could handle it. And you did. Seems only fair I offer you another chance to prove your worth.”

Jennie, the green-skinned former-HIVE guinea pig otherwise known as Jade, hung her head. They came back to HIVE to complete a job as a favour to the director, to a grieving mother, when they themselves were still mourning the death of Grant, their leader and their friend. All her life, Jennie was sheltered from the outside world, manipulated and used by HIVE, treated as just another one of their weapons, and after having finally broken out into the outside world, she was sick to her stomach to be stood back in the HIVE Facility. But what Director Kane had said struck her deeply. ‘A chance to prove their worth’.

“Sorry, lady, but we’ve got the worth we need!” Eddie, the Kid Devil laughed proudly. Almost a year ago, it was Kane and her men that stuck him in a cage and sentenced him for execution for the crime of looking like a horned, infernal abomination, but after all his adventures with his friends, Eddie had a new confidence to him. He wasn’t scared of her anymore. “We’re freaking Night Force.”

“What’s the job?” Jennie interjected, paying no mind to Eddie. Behind her, their final teammate Traci looked to her. She felt the same shame, unlike Eddie - after what they had lost - they did have something to prove the director.

Adeline took a sharp breath and then began the debriefing.

⬣ ⬣ ⬡ ⬣ ⬣

Anastasia State Park. St Augustine, Florida. 15:00

Anastasia State Park was a strange place, with acres of plains alongside thickets of twisting pines and narrow palms. The popular attraction was pouring with tourists, cars skimming along the wooded roads leading tours. But it didn’t take much travelling from the beaten path to break into the true secrets of the park. Beyond the copse, beyond the sporadic foliage, Traci led her team someplace deeper. At each turn, every inch of the woods looked the same, making it easy to get lost in the greenery. But, with their charge, getting lost was exactly what they needed to do. After what felt like hours bleeding together, with Traci magically steering them and Alice bushwacking a path with a blade that wasn’t hers, the former finally came to a stop.

“Here.” Traci called out.

Eddie dragged along the back of the pack, his limbs heavy. While his infernal physiology gifted him unmatched endurance and stamina, the same couldn’t be said for his spirit. “Here? I don’t see anything we didn’t see an hour ago...”

Though he didn’t speak, Joey could be heard heaving loudly. The Floridian sun beat down intensely on them from above, the canopies only filtering the burning light. It was safe to say Joey wasn’t well adjusted to the nigh-tropical heat. The mute young man took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from his brow, stood himself up straight, and signed acutely.

“Traci, where are we?” Jennie interpreted for Joey.

“Nowhere,” Traci replied. “And now we’re here, we can start getting somewhere.”

“You’ve been reading too many children’s novels,” Alice grumbled, having long since forgone the familiar comfort of her red leather duster, instead clad in a white shirt and black vest. “Where do we go from here?”

“Well, going off of the notes Director Kane gave us, now that we’re lost, the fountain should be in ‘every and any direction’.”

Alice sighed, impatient. “Who wrote this shit?”

“No idea,” Traci shrugged, “HIVE managed to uncover the instructions from some small hamlet in Europe. They deciphered what they had and, however cryptic, it led them to this park, just like Ponce de León always suspected. Now we just need to get in and out. And we’d be the first to do it.”

Director Kane had tasked the team with following intel to the supposed Fountain of Youth, a mythical spring granting all that drank from its waters a cure for aging. The discovery had the possibility of being monumental, and now the responsibility was theirs.

“So we just keep wandering through the trees and we’ll end up at the Fountain of Youth?” Eddie supposed.

“Not exactly,” Traci replied, “I’ll still need to use my magic to steer a path. The fountain might be in every direction, but it should be more in some directions than others.”

“Does that even make sense?” Jennie asked Joey.

Joey signed back to her. ‘Magic seldom does.’

⬣ ⬣ ⬡ ⬣ ⬣

Anastasia State Park. St Augustine, Florida. 19:00

Another small eternity had passed before, tentatively, Night Force emerged from the treeline. As they passed through the threshold into the clearing, the sky opened. Light blinded the adventurers as they finally came upon what they were searching for. At the foot of the emerald lea was a modest cottage of pristine stone bricks, with a thatched roof and cloud-like smoke billowing from the chimney. It was like something out of a story book. But more striking was what lay between them and the cottage.

At the centre of the open clearing was a single, solitary tree reaching high above all those marking the clearing. The old oak was a harsh contrast to the local climate, but as the team approached, they realised Florida’s humid heat was gone, replaced with a gentle breeze, a soft warmth. Peace. The tree’s trunk was thick, the lines of its bark twisting and turning as the tree climbed. Its branches were mighty, wide and tall; its leaves were thick, an immaculate, shining green, shimmering as the amber light of the sun passed through them.

Joey approached the oak tree, and at the foot of the trunk he found, at around his height, he found what looked like a small hollow no bigger than the size of his fist. Then, as Joey delicately laid his hand on the bark, the tree sputtered and churned, and crystal clear water began to pour from the fist-sized hollow. The Fountain of Youth.

“Joey, you should get back,” Jennie said to Joey, standing a good distance away with the rest of the team. And Joey nodded, backpedaling with caution not to touch the trickling fluid. He turned around to face the rest of the team as he approached them again and then looked across to the idyllic cottage.

“So where’s the fountain?” Eddie exclaimed.

The rest of the team looked to one another before Joey silently pointed to the tree spring.

Eddie clicked. “Right,” he nodded sheepishly. “Yes. Wasn’t expecting like a faucet or anything…!”

Alice looked across to the cottage and pointed, commanding the team’s attention. “There.”

The Fountain of Youth, which was truthfully more of a spring, had been the subject of myth across the histories of countless civilisations, and now here it was. And while the team had been dispatched to investigate the fountain itself, they couldn’t ignore the quaint little house built just a stone throw away.

“So there’s like… a fountain guy?” Eddie interjected.

“I guess there is,” Jennie replied.

“We need a plan,” Traci added. “Alice?”

“Me?” said Alice, surprised. “I’m not a leader.”

“Pretty sure you have more experience with tactics than any of us put together,” Traci replied with a smile.

Cautiously, Alice nodded and steeled herself. “Alright…” She took a second to compose her thoughts, surveying the house’s surroundings before she spoke. “Joey and Jennie, you take the house from the back; me and Traci will get in position East and West. Traci, can you put up some kind of detection spell? I don’t want any surprises.”

Traci nodded, already mumbling an incantation.

“Eddie, you’ve got the front.”

And so each of the team took their given positions surrounding the cottage. Eddie was to act first, but rather than thrash and roar and drive whoever was inside out, the bright-eyed Kid Devil instead took to the front door and rapped five times.

Around the corner, Alice immediately leapt up in frustration. The rest of the team hung back while Alice joined Eddie at the front door. Nervously, her fingers twitched at her holsters before the oak door swung open.

In the doorway stood a man of average height, clad in a hemp shirt and dirty pants. His skin was rough and tanned, and his face was soft, yet weary. As soon as he looked through the door, his eyes immediately darted open at the young scarlet monster standing before him, though he didn’t pull back. No, this wasn’t too unfamiliar to him.

“Hey,” Eddie smiled, “Are you the fountain guy?”

The man paused, a quiet bewilderment worn on his face. “I… yes. Who are you? Who sent you?” His voice was soft, with a slight rasp as if it had fallen out of use, all the while with the purr of what sounded like a Spanish accent.

Eddie began, “We were looking for the fountain and we-”

“You drank from it!?” the man leapt back, reaching down to clutch at a rapier he revealed slung from his hip. Alice wrapped her hand around her left revolver, though so far felt no urge from it.

“Oh, no, we didn’t!” Eddie threw up his hands, startled. As if a sword could even leave a mark on his hide. “We just have some questions!”

“Were you followed?” the man persisted, still clutching his weapon. That same moment, Traci, Jennie and Joey emerged from hiding behind Eddie and Alice. The man pulled the sword half free from its scabbard before being stopped.

“They’re with us,” Alice said plainly. “Now let us inside and you can ask us all the questions you want.”

The man paused again and slowly slid the rapier back into its sheath. He sighed, took a step back, and gestured the team into his home.

He moved with heavy strides, leading the group into a living room best described as cute. The walls were dressed in aged wallpaper adorned with a twisting vine pattern, the floor wooden, with a red and gold rug stretched over it. The sofas were exquisite, a fine leather pristinely kept. The fire roared, emitting a scent that seemed to magically transport each of them to their happy places, even those that couldn’t articulate where that would be.

Slowly, they each sat, while the man was left standing. “Who are you?” he asked.

“We’re-” Eddie began.

“Adventurers.” Traci finished. “We’ve been travelling across the world investigating magical phenomena. As a mage, I picked up a scent and it let me here.”

“A scent?” the man raised an eyebrow with concern. “That’s all it took?”

“Oh, no, that was hardly all it took!” Eddie laughed brazenly. “We were lost in the woods for hours.”

“And you had no help?” the man persisted.

“Well…” Eddie began.

“None,” Jennie finished.

“Who are you?” Alice then probed. “What’s your deal? Why are you here?”

The man went to speak but then stopped himself, surprised. He took a deep breath. He wasn’t used to telling his tale. “My name is Cosme. And it’s my charge to guard the fountain, to make sure that no-one comes upon it, and drinks from its waters.”

“You gave you that gig?” Alice replied bluntly.

“Well…” Cosme pondered a moment. “I did, after I drank from the fountain.”

“What, is eternal youth not all it’s chalked up to be?” Alice continued.

Cosme scoffed. “Is that what you think it does? Eternal youth?”

“I mean… you don’t look a day over 25,” Traci simpered from her seat.

Cosme began shuffling, pacing about the room. “They call it the ‘Fountain of Youth’. That’s what we all were searching for. But, more accurately, it should be known as the ‘Fountain of Immortality’.”

“You’re immortal?” Traci replied.

“As in: you can’t die?” Jennie added.

“That’s what ‘immortal’ means, yes,” Cosme snipped, finally digging his feet down in one spot. “No sleight can kill him. I always persist in the face of any injury. No slings of arrows insult me, nor does time weather me.”

“And you’d hoard this to yourself?” Alice rose from her seat with a new intensity.

A new look washed over Cosme’s face, one of intense sorrow. “It is my curse. I would wish it upon no-one.”

“You’ve got a spring of water that makes anyone who drinks from it unkillable,” Alice asserted. “A cure to any disease or injury. And you’re hiding that from the world? How could you?”

“If you’d lived as long as I have, you’d understand!” Cosme spat back. But Alice didn’t flinch. She didn’t even look insulted. She just stood her ground.

“So you regret it. Doesn’t mean others would. Shouldn’t they at least have a choice?”

“They’d choose wrong,” Cosme persisted. “When I found the fountain, I thought I’d found true happiness. I thought I’d never have another problem in my life. Until the problem was my life. I’ve outlived everyone I could ever care about. I’ve watched a hundred of my sons wither and die from old age. Eternal damnation for my mistake. But this torment… I have to believe it’s worth it if I can assure no-one else makes the same mistake. So I hope you understand that you can’t tell anyone about this place. Far too many would give in to temptation.”

A look of surprise flashed on Traci’s face. “Uhh… Cosme?”

“Hm?”

“You weren’t expecting more visitors were you? My detection spell just went off.”

Cosme furrowed his brow and hurried to the door of his cabin. As he swung it open, Cosme was blinded by an industrial floodlight.

“Maybe they’re friendly.” Eddie said.

Before anyone in the cabin could respond, a crackling voice came over the megaphone.

“This fountain is now property of Mr DeChaunce. Please vacate the property immedi-”

Cosme drew his rapier from his side and charged forward. The piercing sound of gunfire followed as machine guns opened fire on the immortal, staggering him backwards until he fell flat on his back, his clothes in tatters. The man’s body, however, looked unscathed.

“Jennie!” Alice shouted.

“On it!” A ball of bright green light welled in Jennie’s hands and with a sling of her wrist, it rocketed out the door. The forest clearing was bathed in blinding emerald light.

Alice pulled her guns from their holsters and sprinted out the door. Arrayed outside the cabin, a dozen men in black body armor gripped assault rifles. Thanks to Jennie’s lightshow, they were stumbling around blinded.

She raised the guns, and with a staccato pop of gunfire, one of the hired guns fell over dead. While the rest of Night Force surged from the cabin, the blinding light slowly wore off. Gunfire erupted in a chaotic frenzy of combat.

Alice managed to pull herself from the conflict for long enough to bark out orders. “Joey, Traci, protect the fountain! Eddie, draw their fire!”

Traci sprinted towards the oak with Joey following closely behind. The marshy grass beneath her feet would’ve made a full sprint difficult enough, but out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a rifleman taking aim. Traci tried to conjure up a shield, but every damned spell took twice as long, as far from a city as they were.

Eddie leapt onto the rifleman. As he wrestled his target to the ground, Traci saw muzzle flashes between the two and her blood ran cold.

A tense few moments of watching the limp bodies of Eddie and his assailant passed until a crimson thumbs up slowly raised up in the air, accompanied by a groan.

Traci made a mental note to add ‘bulletproof’ to the list of Eddie’s powers as they neared the fountain. A heavy-set man stood by the oak, a cane leaning against his leg. He cupped his hands, drinking down their contents. A droplet of water spilled down his face.

“He drank from the fountain!” Traci said. She recited a short incantation and a purple wall of magic manifested in front of her. With a gesture, it flew towards the heavy-set man. Fear flashed across his face for a moment until the barrier reached him… and passed right through!

“Wh-what?” Traci stammered. “Why didn’t it work.”

Traci spotted another hired gun behind the oak a few seconds too late. He raised the water to his mouth. Then, a rapier punched through the man’s sternum. As the blade retracted, he fell to the ground, dead. Standing in his place was Cosme, a sullen expression on his face.

“Now that he has drank from the waters, no harm may come to him. Mundane or magical.”

An enormous smile appeared on the heavy-set man’s face. “Yes! After all these years, I’ve finally done it!” He turned to Cosme, “You ancient bastard, how’d you hide this place all this ti-” He was cut short as a dime-sized hole appeared in his chest. He glanced downwards in terror before falling to the ground. “I can’t- This isn’t-” He managed to squeak out before his eyes closed for the last time.

As the gunshot rang out, Cosme’s jaw hung open wide. The rest of the hired guns looked equally shocked, though they recovered much faster than the Spaniard. Shaken and badly beaten, the few remaining gunmen retreated into the forest. Cosme was left in shock until he finally managed to ask, “How?”

Traci raised a finger. “Uh, not to interrupt or anything, but are we going to do anything about the rest of the soldiers? They’ve seen the fountain, they know where it is.”

Cosme shook his head. “I suspect that they only found this sanctuary through a path you cleared. Escaping the forest now? At night? Impossible.”

“I think we scared them off pretty good.” Eddie said. “But surely they’ll be able to get out eventually. Maybe they can retrace their steps!”

“Maybe.” Cosme replied without a glance, merely turning to head back to his cabin.

⬣ ⬣ ⬡ ⬣ ⬣

Deep within Anastasia State Park. 19:30

The shellshock had passed, and Cosme had dragged Night Force back into his home. They were lucky none of them were hurt, taken completely off-guard by the surprise assault, but now they had plenty to answer for, having shown off most of their abilities in the fight.

“What was that?” Cosme spat, pacing up and down his kitchen as the team stood dashed about the floor. “I didn’t want to ask about…” He dismissively brushed his hand out at Jennie and Eddie, obviously referring to their ‘abnormal’ pigmentation, “None of what you all demonstrated comes cheap.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Alice turned her head, she had already noticed his eyes lingering on the guns slung at her hips. “What aren’t you telling us?”

“I don’t know much about the world beyond the woods, but I know shooting light blasts, and looking like a devil, and…” Cosme once again looked to the guns. “What did you give in return?”

The penny dropped. ‘He made a deal,’ Joey signed.

“Neron.” Jennie said, realising similarly. “Who hasn’t he got to at this point?”

“So you know his name,” Cosme nodded, disgust in his voice.

“I made a deal, my soul for these powers,” Eddie replied, still ashamed to admit it. “But the rest? Their powers are all theirs.”

“What did you ask for, Cosme?” Alice pressed him. “Immortality? What, the fountain’s a lie? Is that why my guns could kill that guy?”

“No. Hell no,” Cosme spat. “Me and my crew were lost at sea, adventuring. I made a deal to find the shore, agreeing to forfeit my soul when I die. So, feeling clever, I sought out the Fountain of Youth. I found it, and I thought I was a genius. I outsmarted the demon. I’d never die and he’d never get my soul.”

“Explains why he’s making his contracts time limited nowadays,” Traci snarked.

“But why those guns shot that mad bastard dead,” Cosme gesticulated, “I have no idea. He drank from the fountain, she should have been unkillable.”

Joey looked up to Alice and signed. Jennie quickly interpreted for him. “You said they kill anyone that deserves it.”

Alice’s eyes flickered, astounded with herself. “I guess they really kill anything that’s soul is black enough.”

Cosme looked off to the distant for an instant, and then forced himself back to reality. “Thank you all for helping me protect the fountain. You have no idea how much I appreciate it, or how much I appreciate even having company that isn’t after its power.”

“Well,” Eddie grinned, “You wouldn’t have anything to eat to say thanks, would you?”

Cosme smiled to himself. “Of course. Why don’t you all stay the night? Those woods are unnavigable at night.”

“Sounds like a deal,” Jennie replied.

“I hope you like eggs. Last month, my final poultry chicken drank from the fountain when my back was turned.”

⬣ ⬣ ⬡ ⬣ ⬣

Deep within Anastasia State Park. 00:00

In the middle of the night, Alice slinked off out the door and approached the fountain, a million questions and what-ifs swirling in her head. She watched the water trickle and flow into the small pool at the base of the mighty oak, a divot, a hole in the dirt. How could something so powerful, miraculous, life changing, be sat in the dirt, tucked away behind trees in the middle of goddamned Florida? She thought of all the people she had lost: her family, allies, friends, lovers. Fresh off Grant’s death, the death of the first person to treat her like a person since the fire that consumed her any chance at a normal life, Alice was furious. How would the answer be hidden somewhere so insignificant? And how was she meant to feel now she’d found it far too late?

“I hope you aren’t going to drink,” came the voice of the Spaniard behind her.

“You aren’t going to stop me?” Alice grumbled.

“I suppose it’s your choice,” Cosme replied, repeating her prior sentiment back to her.

Slowly, Alice turned to face the immortal man. At midnight, lit only by moonlight and the wisps of flame through the cottage’s windows, he now looked tired, even more so than before. He wasn’t here for a fight, nor a debate, and so she wasn’t going to give him one.

“You’re not going to drink,” Cosme continued. “You’re like me. You’ve had plenty of time already.”

Alice swallowed hard. This man didn’t know her at all, and that was almost comfortable. It made this easier. “Are you afraid of death, Cosme?”

“Not a bit,” he smiled. “I was once. I wasn’t ready to die at sea, I didn’t want my legacy to be leading a dozen good men to their deaths. I didn’t want to leave my bones at the bottom of the ocean. But now? I’d be content leaving a legacy at all. And to do that… you actually have to leave.”

“The legacy I can hope to leave is death,” Alice chewed her words, a pained and distant look on her face. “I’ve left so many dead in my path. That should hurt me, those faces should haunt me. But they don’t.”

“But you’re haunted nonetheless,” Cosme replied.

“Yes,” she nodded. “By the people I couldn’t save.”

“It’s always easier to die than outlive,” Cosme smiled, offering her the most comfort he could muster, “But we all have our duties.”

“But when does it stop?” Alice sobbed.

“I’d like to hope it does eventually,” he replied. He took a step forward. “I think that’s why fate brought our paths together.”

“Excuse me?” Alice recoiled slightly.

“Your guns, they can kill anything. Anything that’s worthy,” Cosme urged. “Well, I’ve done my duty for centuries. I’ve lived in anguish for my hubris, I’ve protected countless souls from sharing my cursed fate. I have to believe in justice. I have to believe I’ve proved my worth.”

“Cosme, what are you saying?”

“I deserve to die,” Cosme hung his head. “I’ve had my time. More time than any man deserves. You want to leave a legacy, to do some true good? If anyone can release me from this hell, it’s you.”

“Cosme, I-”

“Please, Alice. At least try.”

Alice looked off into the trees, and then past the immortal man to the cottage where her friends slept. Her heart ached, for herself and for him. “Okay,” she mumbled.

Slowly, Alice lifted the ebony revolvers from their homes by her sides. She felt the power coalesce within them as she raised them. In her hands she commanded the ultimate power of life and death. And the time of judgement was at hand. She trained her twin weapons at Cosme, the desperate stranger who had poured his heart out for her, and she saw spread over his face a look of absolute joy. Of resignation. Of finally being at rest. He was ready to go home to the unrequited love of death.

But nothing came.

“I…” Alice stammered.

“What?” Cosme eased his eyes open.

“I’m sorry, Cosme,” Alice frowned. “You’re a good man. You don’t deserve to die.”

⬣ ⬣ ⬡ ⬣ ⬣

Deep within Anastasia State Park. 01:30

Jennie stirred lightly in her sleep. She always found it difficult to adjust to new environments, a byproduct of growing up confined to the same four walls, and not even the enchanted comfort of the cottage could spare her from that. She was deep in one of her many recurring dreams, dreams that never formed any lasting images or stories, just feelings. In this one, she was running. Jennie had no idea what she was running from, but the thought of it catching her was so bloodcurdling that she found no need to question its nature. Then, as her pursuer drew near, as her helplessness intensified, she awoke to a crash.

Jennie leapt out of bed hearing the tustling and scrambling coming from downstairs. No cries. Alice and Eddie were sharing a room, Traci had her own, and Jennie was bunking with Joey, but, as she could clearly see as she found her bearings, Joey was nowhere to be seen, which meant--

She darted along the corridor, drumming on the bedroom doors as she went, making sure everyone was awake while the sounds of a struggle continued. She sprinted down the stairs, catching up with Alice, who was already ahead of her. Then, as they burst into the kitchen, they found Cosme throttling Joey, holding him close as a human shield, a glimmering kitchen knife pressed up to his already scarred throat.

“Cosme…” Alice whimpered, if anything disappointed.

“I’ll kill him,” Cosme gritted his death, his eyes wide and reddened. “If anyone tries to cast any spells or shoot any blasts, I’ll slit his throat.”

“Cosme, what are you doing?” Jennie called out.

“She said I’m a good person,” Cosme glared at Alice. “I’ll prove to her, to them, that I’m not! Shoot me or the boy dies.”

Alice’s hands twitched at the guns. “It doesn’t work like that, Cosme!” she insisted.

“I’d slit some innocent kid’s throat for my own selfish gain!” Cosme exclaimed, raking the knife against Joey’s scar, causing him to squirm in pain and discomfort. “Would a good person do that? Would a good person force you to kill? Well!?”

“Think about your legacy,” Alice replied, invoking his past words. “Is this how you want to be remembered?”

“I don’t care how people remember me!” Cosme roared, “As long as I’m not around to hear it.”

Alice slowly drew the twin guns, her face anguished. She only hoped the rest of the team were so focused on him and Joey that they didn’t see the weakness in her eyes. “I can see this is eating you up, Cosme,” she appealed, “I think they can too. You aren’t a bad person, you’re just desperate. The world hasn’t been kind to you, but that isn’t your fault. You aren’t your circumstances, or your mistakes. I know you don’t want this, put the knife down.”

“You’re right,” Cosme spat. “I don’t want this. But if I must… if I have to in order to find peace… then what other option is there?”

“I don’t know,” Alice replied finally. “We never know what’s coming, but we have to believe it’s better than the awful decisions we could make today.”

Cosme spoke plainly, laying out his demands, absolute grief in his eyes, his jaw clenched tight. “Point the guns at me.”

She did.

And though the guns didn’t fire, Cosme felt an eruption inside of him. Even now, they deemed him unworthy of death. It seemed threatening to kill Joey wasn’t wicked enough, or perhaps whatever consciousness was tied to the weapons called his bluff, and didn’t believe he was actually capable of going through with his threat. And so in that moment Cosme had two options. He could double down and kill the boy, prove he deserved his happy ending, or he could return to his everlasting torment. And for some despicable reason, for reasons that left him truly hating his place in the world, he chose the latter.

Cosme was a good person, and so he threw Joey aside. He let out a guttural, primal roar, sweeping his arms across the kitchen counter and emptying its contents onto the floor with a cacophony of clangs. Then, he fell to the ground and began to sob loudly.

Alice slid the guns back into her holsters and did her best to choke back her tears. She stood still, yet her teammates hurried past her into the kitchen. Traci and Eddie shot to Joey’s side, helping him from the floor, though he silently reassured them he was fine. Jennie, on the other hand, moved right to Cosme, standing over him as he bawled.

“Come with us,” she spoke to him. “We come from an organisation that investigates the paranormal. Maybe they can find a solution to… your problem.”

“And what?” Cosme spat between his tears, “Rot in a cell? Live as a guinea pig?”

Jennie held her breath.

“Maybe they help you, maybe they throw you in a cell,” Traci replied, having helped Joey to his feet. “If they do, you’ll outlive all of them. What’s another fifty years in isolation?”

Cruel, but true.

“And the fountain?” Cosme sat on his knees, looking up at Night Force. “It’s my charge, I can’t abandon it.”

“I might already have a solution to that one,” Traci explained. “I’ve been researching dimensional travel a lot recently and I think I might have all I need to exile the fountain to another plain. An uninhabited plain of reality where no-one will ever be able to get to it.”

“And that’s…” Cosme looked off, the implications of his information turning several gears in his head. “That’s possible?”

“We can only try.”

⬣ ⬣ ⬡ ⬣ ⬣

Deep within Anastasia State Park. 01:45

Out the front of the house, Alice, Jennie, Joey and Eddie stood back at four points facing the mighty oak tree that housed the Fountain of Youth. Ahead of them, Traci stood, rifling through her plastic binder of spellbook pages and notes rapidly. Ahead of her, Cosme knelt at the fountain’s mouth. Without words, he traces his fingers along the ridges of the tree’s bark, shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and smiled. After so long, the fountain was an old friend, but now it was time for them to part. With his farewell complete, Cosme clambered back up to his feet and took several paces back, joining Traci.

“Okay, I’m ready now,” Cosme smiled, his eyes still sunken and red.

With a nod, Traci raised her hand through the air, the other grasping the spine of her binder. From the pages she lifted a dozen black sigils she inked in the air with her magic before sending them shooting towards the tree. The ebony markings then encircled the oak and began to spin at a rapid pace, until their edges blurred together to form a complete black ring. Then, the ring expanded, bathing the entirety of the oak tree in pitch black shade. Upon closer scrutiny, it seemed as if the whole tree was sinking into tar. Then, after what felt like an age, thanks to being cut off from the nearest city, the tallest boughs of the fountain tree vanished below the surface of the shadows, and they scattered, leaving only lush and level grass where the tree once stood tall.

It was done.

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Miami International Airport. Miami, Florida. 10:00

Traci fanned herself with six first class airline tickets. Florida was already hot and the packed airport terminal certainly didn’t make things any better. The glamour spell she cast to hide Eddie’s and Jennie’s less conventional characteristics was exhausting. And yet, a plane was better than the thirty-five hours car drive back to Nevada. Lucky for her, Eddie (and his new friend) were there to take her mind off the heat.

“Alright, uhm. How do I put this?” Eddie said. “It’s like, they’re giant metal birds!”

Cosme blinked in confusion. “I have seen many strange and wondrous things in my years, but you say that people ride on these great metal birds? Over great distances?!” He looked incredulous.

Eddie, meanwhile, was beaming. “Yeah! They even go over oceans.”

“How are they kept from falling off these birds?”

“Well, they actually ride inside-”

Alice interrupted, “Enough. You two are giving me a migraine.”

Eddie’s voice went quiet. “We were just talking.”

Traci spotted the sullen look on Eddie’s. “We’re all kind of high-strung right now.”

An excited look hit Joey and he started signing. That same expression quickly became infectious as Eddie and Jennie understood him.

“That’s awesome!” Eddie said.

“What?” Traci asked.

“We should go to the beach! Like you said, we’re all stressed out. We could use some time to relax.”

Alice shook her head. “Out of the question. Cosme needs to get to HIVE as soon as possible.”

“He still will.” Jennie said. “HIVE’s already sending an agent to meet us at the gate. We could send Cosme to meet him, then reschedule our flight to tomorrow.”

“You’re surprisingly willing to bend protocol.”

Jennie shrugged. “I think we’d all benefit from some time to relax.”

Eddie seemed conflicted as he turned to Cosme. “Sorry you won’t get to come on the beach day, Cosme.”

Cosme just laughed. “I have had enough beach days for ten lifetimes, my friend.”