He’d left before Olivia even asked him to. This time had been different. She’d expected to be shoved back in that tiny space, to watch through a keyhole as Samuel controlled her body like a puppet. But instead, it was like having a copilot. Not fun at all, but she was there beside him, ready to pull back the controls at any moment. 

Then he left and everything had vanished so abruptly, going black before she could fully process it. She woke up with tears on her face and an overwhelming need for her mother. 

“I’m right here,” her mom said softly from above her. “It’s alright.”

Olivia opened her eyes. She was lying on the couch in her own living room and her mom was holding her hand. Her other hand was resting on Olivia’s forehead. 

She stayed where she was, only moving her head to look around the room as the memories of what happened came back. Her mom was sitting beside her and she was wrapped tightly in the chunky purple blanket she had thought was in Andrew’s apartment when it burned. On the other couch, Noah was lying motionless, also beneath a blanket. He looked foggy through her tears, but then she blinked and it was gone. 

“How long-” she started, then coughed. “How long has it been?”

“Just a couple hours,” her mom said. “Celine Beckett and Iris Davies both said not to worry. You want to tell me what happened?”

After a glass of water, she laid out everything for her mom and by the end of it, they were both crying. 

“It was my choice this time,” Olivia said, leaning her head on her mother’s shoulder. “I chose to help this one.”

Her mother nodded, her own eyes bright red. “It’s alright,” she repeated quietly. “They said you two used an enormous amount of energy to help those kids, so don’t worry about anything. Cleo and I have Mia, so just rest for a while.”

Olivia nodded and her mother smiled at her. “You know what this reminds me of?” she asked, nodding toward the other couch. “When you were thirteen years old and both you and Noah had the flu. Remember that? Thomas couldn’t get off work and asked if I’d take him too.”

Olivia remembered that day. They’d done basically this, lying on either end of the couch in her childhood living room with sitcoms going all day. The TV was off right now, but she felt just as safe as she had back then as she laid back down and fell back to sleep.

—-

Olivia woke up again to the sound of Andrew and Noah talking softly nearby. As she opened her eyes, she could see Andrew was sitting on the other couch. Noah’s head was in his lap and he was looking up at him as they talked.

“Oh, he took all the credit,” Andrew said with a laugh. “It was the best marketing campaign I’d ever worked on and he just swooped right in, didn’t he?”

Noah laughed softly and Olivia could see the adoration in his eyes as he looked up at Andrew. She almost didn’t want to let them know she was awake, but then Andrew looked over at her.

“Hello,” he said with a smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got hit by a train,” she replied.

“Honestly, close enough,” Andrew said. “Celine dropped off food and said to force you to eat it if you refused. Want me to get you some?”

“I can get it,” Cleo offered from where she was sitting comfortably at other the end of Olivia’s couch.

“No, I want to walk. Where’s Mia?”

“Your mom has her,” Andrew said. “They went to her house for supper.”

Olivia slowly stood up and went into the kitchen. Andrew wasn’t kidding. The kitchen table was covered in takeout and when she came back with a single slice of pizza, he frowned and shook his head, twirling a finger to motion for her to go back. Only after she added some chicken parm and garlic bread did he let her off the hook.

She wasn’t hungry until she took the first bite. Then it was like a switch had gone off inside her and she ate silently as the others continued to talk about Andrew’s greatest betrayal. Once the food was gone, some of that exhausted ache went with it.

“He left before I even told him to,” Olivia said, feeling for the amulet where it was securely back around her neck. “What do you think that means?”

“I’m not sure,” Andrew admitted. “Do you remember what happened?”

She thought back. “Yeah, mostly,” she said. “And I could feel him. He was just scared and confused and lashing out. But he listened to Billy, didn’t he? Up until the end?”

Noah nodded where he was still lying down. “What comes next?” he asked.

“No idea,” Andrew admitted again. “I told Iris I’d call her when you two were up.”

“How did we get home?” Olivia asked, realizing suddenly.

“We basically carried you home. Erm, you woke up for a bit, both of you. But you weren’t in good shape.”

She tried not to let the fact that she didn’t remember that bother her. It was a totally different situation from before.

“How long have I been asleep?” Olivia asked after getting another plate of food.

“About three hours since the first time you woke up,” Andrew said. “I’ve been talking to Iris, things are rough downtown.”

“What do you mean?”

“Power lines were torn down all along the main drag,” Cleo said. “There’s been no power for about three hours now in the center of town.” 

“Your car is still under that tree and there’s been reports of two more cars getting crushed in the same way outside Town Hall,” Andrew added. “No one was injured, thankfully.”

Olivia set the food down. “Have we made things worse?” she asked.

“No. This is just more lashing out, no different from before,” Andrew said. “And we’re making progress. We reached Samuel, yeah? And it’s not like he wasn’t destructive before. He tore up the bloody cemetery and he’s been smashing windows long before now. Iris has spent a fortune trying to fix the damage since she summoned him.”

She didn’t feel much better, but it did help a little. “So what now?” 

Hopefully the answer was that she was done and never had to see another ghost for the rest of her own life. Unfortunately, Olivia knew that was unlikely. 

“I’m going to see what help Celine needs at the House of Pizza, then talk to Iris,” Noah said. “And I was planning to go to an AA meeting tonight, but I can skip that and go straight over-”

“No, go,” Liv and Andrew said in unison.

They looked at each other and Olivia tried not to laugh. Cleo didn’t say a word as Noah tried not to look offended. “I guess I’m going to an AA meeting, then,” he said, with a testiness Liv was going to chalk up to stress and not call out.

He got up and stretched. “I’m going to go get ready for that.”

He seemed to be over it, so Olivia wasn’t concerned. But she was currently home alone except for Andrew and Cleo, who were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. So she was going to take another nap.

———-

Celine was back at the House of Pizza as soon as she’d helped get Noah and Olivia back to their house, not wanting to leave Andrew alone to get them there while Iris dealt with the aftermath in her shop. They’d been a little better by the time they actually left the shop, but both had passed out again in the car and had barely been able to get into the house. Cleo had been there with Olivia’s daughter and taken over so that Celine could go confirm that the damage downtown had, of course, impacted the House of Pizza.

“The windows are shattered,” she said over the phone to Roman as she and Charlie continued to nail up the plywood they’d kept out back from the last blizzard. 

She was exhausted from all the work they’d just done, but not feeling as bad as she thought she might be. Cutting the door had been more like undoing a few of the stitches she’d put into Noah’s energy, which made the process significantly easier. When she’d done it all those years ago, it had been a full, careful cut each time, made from scratch. But here, the existing tears from Vivien’s energy wipe already had the potential to turn into this, and she’d just had to shape them safely into the door he envisioned. But it had still required energy and now she was eating most of the post-lunch slice pie in between nailing up boards over their broken windows.

“I’m going to kill that little shit all over again,” Roman said.

She felt like she should remind him of the tragedy of Samuel, but she was ready to kill that little shit as well. She struggled to link the two entities still, but this was the last thing the shop needed. They didn’t have enough plywood to cover all the windows, and she knew that they’d be jacking up the price for it in the surrounding towns after what happened here. “I’m going to head back to the Countess after we’re done,” she said. “It wasn’t too successful, but we did manage to make contact with Samuel. Which is why he lashed out.”

“He was doing that already,” Roman pointed out. “Are you sure you-”

“We’re almost done,” Celine interrupted before he could yet again offer to risk his own freedom. “We’ll wrap up, then I’ll come there. We can’t do anything else until Noah and Olivia are up for it, anyway.”

“They’re alright?”

He still sounded worried. “Yeah,” she said gently. “They’re both fine. They need rest and a ton of food, but they’re fine.”

“Good.”

“I need to go,” she said as Charlie came back out, holding another massive piece of plywood, the last one in their stock. “We can talk about what to do with this place when I get back tonight.”

——

Charlie noticed Baxter first, coming to get Celine after he’d finally convinced her to sit down and take a break. She was back on the phone with Roman to inform him of yet more damage that couldn’t wait, when he hurried into the dining room, carefully avoiding the shattered glass on the ground.

“Celine,” Charlie said, the urgency in his voice making both her and Roman stop talking at the same time. “Charles Baxter is outside.”

“What?” Celine stood up as Roman started to say something. “He’s here at the shop?”

“No, sorry, he’s on the street, assessing the damage.”

“Shit.”

“Celine, don’t go out there,” Roman said.

“He’s not going to kill me in broad daylight,” Celine replied.

“I’m on my way.”

“Roman, I swear to God, if you cross that town line-”

“He’s on his way over here,” Charlie interrupted. “I’m here too, let me go talk to him. I’m bigger.”

She couldn’t argue that. But she was also one of the owners of this business, so she shouldn’t send Charlie to do all of her work for her. “Rome, I’ll stay with Charlie the whole time.”

“She’s scarier than I am,” Charlie added. 

She laughed, even as the front door of the shop opened, then flung itself closed again like it was on a spring. Outside, Charles Baxter staggered backward, a stunned look on his face. At least Celine could be satisfied that her wards were working.

“Don’t come in, Charles!” she called over through the broken window that had yet to be boarded up. “It’s all broken glass, stay out there.”

She had a bit of extra protection for them if they just talked through the shattered window. Technically, nothing physical was going to keep Baxter out if he wanted to try anything, but he wasn’t going to enjoy the experience if he tried. And Celine was still not completely convinced that he’d intentionally try anything too ridiculous, but she was going to keep herself and Charlie as safe as possible after the stunt he’d pulled with Andrew.

And keep him the fuck out of her place of business so he didn’t try to burn this one down as well.

“Celine!” Baxter exclaimed, all warm concern. “The council is checking in with all the businesses along this row, making sure that the earthquake didn’t do too much damage.”

“An earthquake, huh?” Charlie glanced at Celine.

“You didn’t feel it, son?” Baxter said, looking up at Charlie. “What do you think did all this damage?”

Baxter looked like hell and it would maybe take Charlie a second and a half to kill him stone dead. And she could tell that Charlie knew it too. “Yeah, earthquake,” he said, voice dripping with disdain. “That’s what we’re going with.”

Baxter gave him a long look, then turned to Celine, who still had Roman on the line. “The town council is here to support your business throughout this,” he said, face politely thunderous. “Please let us know how we can do that.”

“We need more plywood,” Celine said, keeping her gaze locked on his.

“Is that all?”

“No. Not by a longshot. But I don’t believe I’ll get even that.”

Baxter narrowed his eyes, then walked away without another word. Charlie and Celine watched as he made his way down the sidewalk toward the next building. She looked at Charlie. It didn’t matter, did it? Even if Baxter didn’t mean to actually be dangerous, he was.

“He’s gone,” she told Roman. “We’re going to board up the last few windows, then I’m sending Charlie home to be with his kid. I’ll be joining you and ours after that.”

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CONTINUE TO EPISODE 34

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