"It's been almost three months since the horrific accident that claimed the life of-" The blonde-haired newswoman began, the end of her sentence interrupted by his thoughts.

 

'Has it really been that long?' He looked at the glass on the coffee table for a moment before leaning forward and picking it up, taking a swig of the ice-cooled liquid it contained inside it's crystal walls.

 

"And although the police insist that a conclusion cannot be drawn from the evidence collected at the scene," he slammed the glass down on the coffee table as he again glared at the screen, "there is still a public outcry for an answer." And lo and behold, as predicted, now came the footage of the crying mourners -- a sea of black and tears. He felt his stomach churn as he watched the pallbearers carrying the casket down the church steps, having caught a glimpse of his own face at the time as they cut to a close-up of the procession.

 

It was this very behavior that confused him; he lived through the whole ordeal, why subject himself to watching scenes of it every night that only caused him to relive it? It was hardly something Carey wanted to remind himself of, especially since he was one of the few who knew the truth about the accident.

 

"Why do you still watch that?" A female voice asked, taking him a bit by surprise as he hadn't even heard the front door open. He looked up to see his twin sister, Karissa, frowning at him over the stack of thick books in her arms.

 

"Why do you still do that?" Carey nodded at the books. In the last few weeks, no one had seen Karissa without a book in her hands. Karissa shrugged. "Well, there you go."

 

"At least I'm doing something productive." Karissa stated before walking down the hallway, nudging her bedroom door open with her shoulder and kicking it shut once she was safely inside.

 

"And at least what I'm doing isn't taking over my life." he muttered to himself as he changed the channel, despite having lost all interest in watching television.

 

"I heard that!" she shouted, "And I'm telling you for the last time, it's not taking over my life!"

 

"And I'm telling you for the last time," Carey was now standing just outside her bedroom door, "That we can't spend the rest of our lives looking for the answers that we may never be able to find." He sighed. "We tried, Kariss."

 

There was silence for a moment, and Carey figured she'd fallen asleep. Karissa's sleeping pattern had become even more random, and Carey would often catch her sleeping at inopportune times. He cautiously opened her door and stepped into her room. He quietly sighed as he looked around at the scattered papers and books all over her tiny living space. Sitting cross-legged, one of her newly-acquired books in her lap and leaning back against her propped-up pillow, Karissa's sleeping form occupied the only empty spot on her bed.

 

Carey crept over and slowly pulled the book off of her lap, placing it -- still open, of course -- on top of the nearest stack of books. He tried to clear off a bit more space for her to stretch out, but deemed the act impossible and instead opted to search for an extra blanket for her. He returned to the living room and took the blue throw blanket from the back of the couch, pausing mid-exit as he heard his familiar -- and loud -- ringtone blaring, quickly retrieving the vibrating and blinking object and answering the ill-timed call without acknowledging the Caller ID.

 

"Hello?" He whispered.

 

"Carey?" A male voice asked.

 

"Who wants to know?" He hastily returned to Karissa's room and draped the blanket over her as best as he could, closing the door behind him as he left.

 

"It's Kevin." The guy on the other end answered.

 

"What's up?" Carey asked, not sure how else to respond. He'd actually been avoiding this phonecall, especially after the way they'd all left things. The events that occurred after that didn't do much to help him find a reason not to dread this conversation.

 

"Don't know." Kevin replied. "Maybe you can tell me?"

 

"What makes you think I know, what with me being here and you being there?" Carey sat down on the couch and once again picked up his glass, gulping down some of his drink while he listened.

 

"You and Karissa kept tabs on us when we slept two doors down from you, I doubt you'd be less watchful with us further away than that."

 

Carey opted to hold off on his instinctual first comment about Kevin's statement. "You'd be correct, then. And nothing's been coming up on my radar, otherwise it would have been me calling you first."

 

"Really?" Carey knew this was coming. Might as well get it out of the way now. "Because I was starting to think you'd been killed."

 

"Then you wouldn't have had time to call me." Carey told him. "Once word got out we were done for, any and every demon that ever merely considered going after you would have been on the hunt."

 

"Was that supposed to prove my point, or yours?"

 

"I'm not trying to prove a point at all, I'm just telling it how it is." Carey again checked to see if Karissa had woken up. "Everything and anything that needs to be taken care of, is being taken care of. You've got nothing to worry about."

 

"I've got plenty to worry about. I have to worry about being hounded with questions about my bandmate's death every damn time I walk out the door, I have to worry about being murdered every damn time I make a move-"

 

"I think I basically just covered that one. So why don't we just cut out the crap and get down to why you really called."

 

"That is why I really called."

 

"Okay, then let's move on to why else you really called."

 

Carey heard a sigh on the other end of the phone. "Fine. I was calling to check up on you guys. No word from you for three months-"

 

"And you missed us?" Carey grinned. "Well maybe not just you, but... You get where I'm going with this." Carey continued after Kevin hesitated to reply, "And I must admit, things aren't quite the same around here these days..." Carey trailed off, hearing sounds of movement in a room down the hall. "Look, I've got to go. I'll call you back when I can."

 

"Wait, Ca-" Kevin began, cut off by Carey hanging up the phone.

 

"Who was that?" Karissa asked with a yawn.

 

"Some guy I met the other day, Jason." Carey lied. "Calling to invite me to a party tonight."

 

"Oh." She casually flipped open the book she had in her hand. "Maybe you should go with him."

 

"Nah, I told him to get Lee to go. You know it won't take much coaxing, Lee loves a good party."

 

Karissa smiled, her eyes never leaving the pages open in front of her. "That he does."

 

"K, I'm over here."

 

"I know." She replied, her gaze still fixed on the book. "I'm gonna... Yeah... Goodnight, Carey..."

 

Carey sighed. "Goodnight, Karissa." He sat in silence for a few minutes and watched the shadows being cast on the walls by the nearby buildings and the setting sunlight before he finally decided to get out of the house for a while. 'I'm really starting to wish someone named Jason had told me about a party tonight.'

 

~Fifteen Minutes Later~

 

Carey arrived at the door and was a bit hesitant about walking in. Would he be welcome? What would they say when they saw him? He really didn't know why he wanted to come here, but he figured this would be as good a place as any to come to if he was looking to do something. He knocked on the wooden frame of the door a few times, peering through the window for any signs of recognition.

 

"BE RIGHT THERE!" A male voice called. Carey smiled a bit as he heard what sounded like something being knocked over and quickly spared from hitting the floor. "Carey?"

 

"Hey, Lee."

 

"What're you doing here? D'you need me to go get Grandp-"

 

"-No, man, no demon-duty for me tonight." Carey quickly answered. They stood at the door for a few moments before Carey spoke again, "Are we gonna stand here all night, or what?"

 

"Oh yeah, come on in." Lee moved aside to let Carey in, then walked beside him as they made their way through the store.