Finn's Story, Part 2

As Stevie slammed the door I couldn’t help but wonder if I would ever see her again. In a swirl of emotion, I began to wonder if everything we had worked for was finally over. A feeling like a twang of pain began circulating in my stomach, making its way up to my chest. I didn’t mean to upset her, but I had lost everyone that I had ever loved up to this point. That’s the curse of being immortal. Sure, it has its perks, but the loneliness is overwhelming sometimes. I laid down on the sofa that Stevie had moved into my apartment and just stared. I must have gone into a trance because the next thing I know there came a bang at my apartment door. It snapped me back into reality. The knocking became more incessant and I got up from the couch to see who was banding. It was her. Immediately, I came back to life. All the worry and doubt that I had experienced suddenly went away, as she stood there in the doorway in front of me. “Hey…” she whispered. “Uh… hi.” I managed to choke out. “Look, Finn. I’m sorry, okay. I don’t do so well with confrontation. I don’t like to argue. Ever.” she said. “No, no. I know. It’s fine. Come here.” I replied, motioning her to come in. She stepped out of the doorway and into my apartment. I wrapped my arms around her as she sobbed into my chest. Seeing her like this made me feel an emotion that I can’t put into words. It filled me with pain… even more so than the thought of never seeing her again. I didn’t like to experience the hurt she had, but it ran deep. I picked her up in my arms and carried her to my bed. I laid there next to her with my arms wrapped around her. Neither one of us uttered a word. I stroked her silky hair and as I did she fell asleep. We laid together in the bed for a couple of hours. When she finally woke up she turned over. She kissed me on the lips. Then she stared deep into my eyes. “Finn, you know it’s been about 6 days since I’ve heard from you?” she asked. “Yeah? I’m sorry. I don’t know what comes over me sometimes. I go into these, like, spells or something. It’s not sleep, but I’m not too aware of my surroundings. It’s almost like my body just freezes and I’m stuck in reality doing nothing.” I replied. “I get that,” she said. “Sometimes, I feel like I’m traveling through life, seeing it through somebody else’s eyes. I know I’m here and I know I’m inside of my own body. I just feel like it’s all a dream, you know?” “Yeah, tell me about it,” I responded kissing her forehead. “Look, you don’t have to worry. I love you. I will make sure that you have what you need. I will make sure that you never go without. I will do that for you and I will also do that for our child.” I reached my hand down placed it on her stomach. To my confusion, Stevie pushed my hand away. For a second she grimaced as if I had ripped her soul from her body. “Finn… there is… no child,” she retorted. “But you told me you were pregnant…” I replied perplexedly. “Yeah, Finn… was. I was pregnant. I’m not anymore. The other day after I left I drove to LA. I don’t know why. When I got there I took… I took care of the problem.” she began to cry. “I don’t know what you mean by that, Stevie,” I responded. My mind began to swirl again. I could feel myself slowly beginning to come undone. “I got an abortion, Finn.” She blurted out. “I got an abortion.” “I don’t understand…” I trailed off. “It’s a procedure where they take…” she began. “For the love of God, Stevie. I know what an abortion is. I’m from 19th Century America, not the Roman Empire.” I responded. “Then, you know,” she said. It all began to boil up inside of me. The years of loneliness. My own death. My Mother’s death. Charlie. Margeurite. They floated through my mind like dust in a ray of light flooding through a window. “No,” I stammered. “No… no, no, no, no! Wh-what have you done?” I belted. “You wretched woman! You’ve killed my child! I gave you the gift of life and you’ve destroyed it!” Tears began rolling down her face as she responded. “Finn, what was I supposed to do? You don’t know that I can even carry your baby. You’re not even supposed to be alive.” “You could have tried! You could have at least tried! You could have talked to me about it before you allowed those monsters to pull my child out of your womb! We could have done this together. I thought you loved me?!” I yelled out in a fury. “I do love you, Finn. That’s why I came back, I was worried about you.” “You were worried about me,” I laughed. “No, no… you don’t worry about people. All you care about is your music. All you care about is yourself.” “That’s not true!” Stevie sobbed. I leaped up from where I was at. In one smooth move, I flipped over my chest of drawers. “Don’t you lie to me!!” I yelled out, enraged. I felt my eyes bulge out of my head. I cannot recall ever having been so angry. “Finn, stop. You’re scaring me.” she cried out. “You know what? I”m going to need you to go. Now.” I replied. “What?” she stammered. “I’m going to need you to go and never come back.” “Finn, think about what you’re saying, she responded; but I couldn’t. All I could think about was my child inside of her womb and how bad it hurt me that it was no longer there. “I can’t love a murderer, Stevie. What you did was wrong and I want no part of it.” I gently picked her up from where she was. I carried her to the front door and set her back down on her feet. Then, I opened the door. “Go back to your life. Go back to your music. Go back to Lindsay. Go back to whatever you want to do with your life, but I don’t want to be part of it.” “Finn, please…” she tried to reason. I looked down at her from where I stood. I could see a frantic, pleading look in her eyes. She looked lost, like a wanderer without a home. I could see the pain her eyes. I knew she was telling the truth. I knew that she loved me. I loved her back. I loved her more than anyone I had ever loved. I loved her more than I loved Margo. But she had crossed the line. More than that, it was clear that our relationship was never going to work. Stevie deserved somebody who was normal, who could give her a normal life. As much I wanted to be there for her, it became apparent that it wasn’t going to be possible. Being friends wasn’t an option for me. I didn’t want her to happy with anybody else. I also didn’t want to see her go, but I knew that I needed to stick to my guns for her own good and for mine. “Don’t make this difficult. Just go. Please,” I whispered. like She walked out of my home that day and I felt my world crumble before me. I closed my door and locked it behind her. I could hear her sobbing in the hallway. I fell to my knees, then to the floor. I began shaking violently, overcome with emotion. That is the last thing I remember. I slipped away, out of my conscious state of mind. In my new subconscious form, I felt no pain. My mind went to a very dark place where it doesn’t exist. It’s like I was immune to it. I knew what had happened, but I just didn’t care. I knew that I had lost the love of my life. I knew my unconscious body lay on the floor of my apartment, but I didn’t care. In the moments following my emotional collapse, I discovered a source of power. It was like a bubble that surrounded me. I don’t know if it was growing within me because of the emotional outburst or if my robust energy had called it forward. Either way, I didn’t care. I stayed within the energy bubble. It felt like a drug as it surged through my astral body. It allowed me to amplify the power that I had developed since being brought back to life in the cave. In a matter of minutes, I progressed the magic that I had exponentially, which is more than I had progressed to date. It gave me a feeling of euphoria, unlike anything I had ever experienced. This state in an alternate reality I was experiencing is where I first met Kraven. Kraven was also an immortal, but he is much older than I am. He appeared in an astral avatar, unlike any entity I’ve ever experienced. He had slicked-back black hair that went halfway down his back. He wore a black trenchcoat. Within the pockets of his trenchcoat were all sorts of souvenirs and magical relics he had collected along the way. He was what the vampire universe calls a miner. I found that out later. He travels the astral realms looking for energies such as the one I was experiencing. What I can’t understand is how he found his way into an astral space that existed within my mind. When a miner can’t find a power source, they manifest on Earth as sanguine vampires and get their fix through human blood. He chuckled when he saw me in my bubble of energy. “First time?” he asked with a sinister laugh. “Uh… yeah. I think so.” I responded. “Oh trust me, you’d know if it wasn’t.” he chortled. “Right. So, uh, what’s going on.” I asked. “May I?” he nodded toward where I stood in the energy. “Uh, sure,” I responded. Kraven joined me inside of the bubble of energy. “This is called acquisition. It’s ingestion of energy. This energy is heavily concentrated. I mean, heavily. I can tell you are the kind of vampire that gets its energy from the sun. That’s great and all, but… little secret? Not all of us are like that. Some of us need to supplement in other ways. I am a miner. When I can’t get my energies from the astral realms, I have to resort to more conventional means.” “You’re a sanguine, then. I‘ve seen them before, but I’ve never known one personally. So, you drink blood?” I asked. “Only when I have to. It’s extremely addicting. You feed once off of a human and next thing you know a hundred years have gone by and you don’t know where you’ve been, how you’ve gotten there, or anything else. It’s a rush of euphoric energy, unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. Take it from me. Stick to the astral. Stick to sunshine. You don’t want to get caught up with blood.” But I did want to get caught up in it. I loved the way the energy had made me feel. I wanted more of it. I craved more of it. When I was experiencing acquisition my mind would go numb and I forget about her. I forgot that I had once again lost the love of my life. I would forget that she had robbed me of my child. I’d forget everything. All that existed was me and the energy. Looking back, I should have listened to Kraven. He knew what he was talking about. My first drink of blood was from a homeless man I found in San Francisco. Taking blood for the first time was something of an indescribably feeling. I know most people reading this will most likely be humans. They won’t be able to identify with what I’m saying. When you swallow blood as a vampire, it’s different. It is sweet to the taste and it quenches a thirst that you never knew existed. The power and energy of their life force runs through your veins like morphine. Suddenly you feel more alive than you’ve ever been before. Then, in a few minutes, it is over. Like a junkie who needs heroin on the street, it’s all you can think about. You want nothing more than to feel that high, but at the same time, you know that you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing. It doesn’t stop you from doing it, because all you want is that feeling– the numbing exhilaration of the power running through your body– to help you forget about the pain. It also allows you to grow in power and potency, but more on that later. I ended up losing everything– my apartment, the job I had managed to get, the small circle of friends that I had managed to develop. I lost it all. On the other hand, I grew immensely in power. As Stevie went on to join a band called Fleetwood Mack, I lived in the shadows. I didn’t want to hurt anybody, but the high that I got from blood made me forget everything that I had ever been through. When I drank the blood of other people through their veins, I could relive their lives and see the kind of people they were. I could experience their energies and their prime existence. The more blood I drank, the more powerful I became, the more knowledge I acquired. The more knowledge I acquired, the more magic I was able to create. Not long after my first taste of blood, I was fully hooked. I needed it day and night. You would think that this would be some sort of amazing thing. You would think that the ascension of power that you experience when drinking human blood as a vampire would be incredible and to a point, it can be. However, as Kraven explained to me before, you don’t really understand how much time has gone by while you are under the influence of blood. You don’t really understand how much the blood gets inside of your head or how much it expands your power. Years had gone by since the last time that I had seen or heard anything of Stevie. Of course, I watched as she grew into what she had always wanted to become. She had become a wildly successful recording artist, all thanks to a man who didn’t even love her for who she was. He didn’t even know who she was. How could he? Through the distance between us, she seemed to be fairing just fine. On the other hand, I was spiraling. I had made my way through LA and the bay area drinking the blood of human after human as if I had been at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Some of them died. Some of them probably wished they had died. It was on one particular evening that I met a woman at a bar in Frisco, right around the corner from my old apartment. I often went back to my old stomping grounds. At least that’s what I called them. South Carolina wasn’t home to me any longer. I didn’t even know the east coast anymore. I told you a while back that I could still get drunk from alcohol. My body processes it pretty much like a human’s body would. It’s doesn’t even hold a candle to the way blood makes you feel, but it’s a decent way to pass the hours. While I was in the bar I met the woman. If I’m being honest, I can’t even remember her name. Maybe it was Lori. Perhaps she was Angela. It didn’t really matter to me. By that point, I had become sloshed and really just wanted somebody to pass the time with. Long story short, things started to get hot and heavy between us at the bar She invited me back to her place. I used to love it when they did that. That meant I was getting sex and blood. It was the perfect combination to really drive a vampire man wild. However, this particular night was different. I don’t know if was the alcohol or if I had just been feeling different. I was in this lady’s bed with my head between her legs. I was going to town and she was yelping loud enough to have woken the neighbors. I came up from down below, fully engorged and ready to let her have it. I slipped myself inside of her and doubled over to kiss her neck. As I began to thrust rhythmically I could hear her heartbeat accelerate. I could smell her blood circulating through her body as her heart raced. I looked down at a vein in her throbbing neck and I wrapped my hand around her throat, speeding up my thrusting. She was tight and I enjoyed being inside of her. I looked down at that vein on her neck and it was calling my name like a whisper in the wind. I let my “fangs” as they are called out. I could hear the music in the background and my vision was blurry. The anticipation of the blood I was about to drink became too much to bear. That’s when I looked down and Stevie’s soft brown eyes were looking back at me. “Stevie? What the…” I called out. “Go ahead Finn, drink from me. You know you want to. Kill me like you do the rest of them. They won’t ever find out. It’s just the two of us now, Finn…” I heard Stevie’s voice say. I stopped thrusting. “Stevie, is that really you?” I asked frantically. “What? Who’s Stevie?” the anonymous woman’s voice returned. I looked back down and it was no longer Stevie. The woman’s face had returned to her previous state. “Uhh… nothing. Nobody.” I replied. I got up from her bed and put my pants back on. “Look, I gotta go” “Are you kidding me right now?” she asked. “Nope. All jokes aside.” I replied. “Yeah, whatever, loser. It wasn’t that great, anyway?” she angrily responded. “Uhh, I doubt that is what your neighbors are going to say in the morning. But listen, I can’t stay here with you right now. If I do something bad will happen. I promise you. But it was nice to meet you, okay? You’re a fantastic woman. I’m just gonna go…” I made my way out of her door as the woman cursed at me and called me just about every name under the sun. I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t harm her, not after seeing Stevie’s face. In fact, that woman was pretty lucky, because I was about to lunge before that happened. As I walked outside the woman’s apartment, my mind became clouded. What just happened in there? Had my life and addiction to human blood become so bad that I was now hallucinating? For the first time since becoming immortal, I was actually worried that I might somehow die… again. Was that even possible? I don’t think it is. In fact, I know it’s not, but that’s all I could think at that moment. My vision became blurry and my head began to swirl. I became unsteady on my feet. I was just on the brink of consciousness when I looked up and saw a face that kind of looked familiar, but then I drifted away. When I awoke, I found myself on the astral plane. I was inside of a bubble of energy. I was no longer dizzy or woozy. I could think clearly. I was not alone. To the left of where I was laying was Kraven, the miner that I had met several years back when I first realized that I could astral travel within my own mind. “Well, it’s good to see you’re awake.” Kraven laughed. “Yeah… uh… thank you,” I responded. “No need. I’m immortal. I literally have all the time.” He replied. “Hey, I didn’t think vampires could sleep?” I asked. “We can’t,” he responded. “What happened with you is a unique experience that hardly ever happens at all. Honestly, I’m not even sure what to call it. I’ve only ever seen it happen one other time– in the Middle Ages to a guy named Norvard.” “Right, so what happened exactly?” I inquired. “Well, it seems to be a common misconception that vampires can just drink and drink and drink blood without any recourses. That’s not true. What happened to you is simple. You consumed too much human blood. Your brain is short-circuited. The stress got to you. That’s why you were hallucinating. It’s why you passed out and it’s why you were out for three years? “Wait, what?” I felt like maybe I could have passed out again. “Yes, your mind went dormant. Luckily you’ve maintained all your powers. I was able to use my own abilities to read you, so I knew what I was dealing with. “It’s been three years.” Yeah, friend,” Kraven replied three whole years. I placed you in this power chamber so you wouldn’t lose anything. You had grown so much that I didn’t what you to come back down from where you were. Still, I knew you needed help. So, I helped.” “Well, it’s appreciated,” I replied. “Hey, Finn. For what’s it worth. You are one of the strongest vampires I’ve ever met. Even when you were down. Your body is like a battery, man. I don’t know why. I don’t know how. It’s like you are some kind of anomaly. I want to take you someplace. I don’t often reveal its location. It’s not that it’s hidden from anyone. It’s that very few people have the mental dexterity to be able to experience it.” “Okay. Let me check my schedule,” I laughed. “Thank you, Kraven. Really. I don’t have many friends. I didn’t even know why this destiny was chosen for me. All I know is that I was brought back to life and given a second chance.” “Yeah, Finn.” He responded. “I don’t know much about second chances and I’m usually a loner myself. There’s just something about you. There’s a different kind of energy within you. Sometimes, even the greatest don’t know they’re great until they know. Get it?” “Yeah, I get it,” I responded. “I was a brand-new vampire once, too. I had an elder named Celemus. He rescued me from a burning hut. I was just a young child. The intruders killed my family. They left me to burn. Celemus found me there. He took me with him, He raised me until I was a man. Then, he gave me an ultimatum. Either I stay with him and I get transformed into a vampire. Or, I leave and join the world. Obviously, I chose the life I chose. I’ve been around for quite some time. Celemus has since ascended. He ascended in the 1400s,” Kraven went on. “Geez, that’s like 400 years before I was even born,” I replied. “Yeah, it was a long time ago,” he laughed. “I’m just saying I’m glad to have a friend, too. I’m glad that you pulled through. Anyway, enough of this. Let’s go. I have something to show you.” At that, Kraven held out his hand a dropped a stone-like item into my hand. Before I really knew what was going on I was being pulled through the astral realms. It was the strangest feeling. It’s like I was standing still, but moving the fastest I had ever moved in my entire existence. I saw entire universes flash by me in an instant as I traveled. I didn’t know that this type of astral travel was possible until that precise moment. It gave me a rush to say the least. When I finally stopped I was standing atop a rock. The rock was bare. There was no light so I could see out into the universe. It was the most beautiful thing that I had ever set my eyes upon. Kraven wasn’t there with me, but I could feel his presence. I could hear his voice telling me to go on. I began walking. I walked for a long time until finally, I came to an opening. I entered the cave, so I went inside. Now, usually, this is where I end my story. I tell people that everything that I needed to put my mind at ease was within the cave. This is true, but it leaves out a vast understanding of where all of my power has come from. The cave that I had entered is called the Cave of Life. It is a place where people who are enlightened enough to find it can go to receive the answers that they want to receive. As I walked through the mouth of the cave, it began to look really familiar. I recognized it right away as the very cave that the native spirit worker had taken me to in order to instill new life within me. The same markings that were on that cave were also engraved into this one. They shone like stars, as the rest of the cave was nearly pitch black. As I watched, the light from the markings on the cave began to swirl and make images. At first, these images were very rudimentary, but they progressed into full-scale images as time passed. Then, these images began to play like a movie. The first thing I was shown was my mother. She had died not knowing what had happened to her son, it’s true. However, she had made peace with God, knowing that whatever plan God had for her son was bigger than her understanding. She died a happy woman with her two daughters, Marguerite, and her grandson Charlie by her side. Time moved on and was able to see Margo. Our time together on Earth was shown to me, up until the point I met Charlie. Charlie had told me that she would never have fallen in love with another man. This wasn’t true. She went on to find somebody who made her very happy. He fathered three more of her children and took Charlie under his wing, treating him like his own son. Charlie didn’t end up marrying that girl from South Carolina. It was his turn to be shown to me next. Instead, Charlie had moved to New York City. Margo had sold the property they lived in when she remarried. Charlie invested his portion of the proceeds in an oil company owned by John Rockefeller. He made a ton of money doing that. He eventually bought some real estate in Manhattan and made even more money. He found love with a woman named Alice. They had three children together. His descendants live a very comfortable life in New York City to this day. As for both of my sisters, Charlie sent them enough money to make sure they and their families were taken care of. It was at this point that I was shown Kraven. At first, I wasn’t sure why he would have been shown to me. Nonetheless there I was watching Kraven being born. As he said, his family was killed at a young age. The old vampire named Celemus took him and cared for him until he was a man. Kraven had told me this already. He also told me that Celemus had ascended. What he hadn’t told me was how. Here’s how it went. Celemus was also an ancient vampire. He was ancient beyond years. He was very powerful and often walked among the universe, including the Akashic Hall of Records. He became an omnipotent being after thousands of years being on Earth. After bringing Kraven into the world of the immortal he had to sacrifice his own being to do so. When Celemus ascended, he actually became part of Kraven’s existence. This is why Kraven had told me that Celemus lived on within him. Here’s where it gets a lot weirder. Kraven had traveled to the United States around the turn of the 16th Century when Europe first began its expeditions in the new world. He met the Native Americans, fell in love with who they were as a people. He defected from the original group of settlers that he had traveled with and went to live among the Cusabo Indians in what would eventually become South Carolina. It was here that he met an Indian woman that he loved. He lived among these Native Americans generation after generation. To make a long story short, the natives he lived among were eventually driven out by the newcomer European settlers. There were brief periods of violence. During a struggle between his tribe and a group of settlers, a young Indian brave was killed. Kraven gave the same sacrifice to that young man that Celemus had given to him. That brave received a second chance at life just like Kraven before him. The brave remained in South Carolina. He was a loner. Unlike the other two, he preferred to be alone. He preferred to work with nature. He preferred not to have a conflict with other people and so he lived in the woods away from everyone. There he was able to perfect his magic and his shamanic ability. Kraven lived within him and Celemus within Kraven, so the magic came easy. The Shaman lived in the woods, among the wilderness until the time of the Civil War. One day he was out collecting materials for a spell he was going to cast. He treaded quietly because there was a war going on and he didn’t want to bring attention to himself. Then, as if fate was bound to repeat itself, he spotted a young soldier in the woods. He was hiding, not wanting to be shot. That soldier ended up getting shot anyway. If you haven’t come to the right conclusion, allow me to tell you. That young soldier was me. That Indian was the one that gave me life, who apparently still lives within me. I know this might seem confusing, but the truth is that Kraven was a manifestation of part of myself that I received because the Native gave up his immortality to ascend into my body. For the same reason, Kraven lived within him. Celemus was a little bit of a different situation, but he lived inside Kraven. For some reason, these parts of who I am were not revealed to me until I had entered the Cave of Life. It was then that I realized I had already been there before. It was also then that I realized Kraven showed up when I was in a bad way because he is part of who I am. He is my direct lineage. So is Celemus. So, is the Native. So are others that were revealed to me prior to, my sexual experiences. However, stepping into the Cave of Life allowed all of the different forms of existence to come full circle. I experienced the ultimate awakening of power. I was given the ability to walk among the Akashic Hall of Records as Celemus once did. Any knowledge I wanted was mine. Any magic I wanted was mine. It opened up a world of unlimited power. The fact that all the people I had loved or cared about had lived good lives put my heart and my soul at ease. Well, all except for one, but she proved a difficult project to tackle. When I returned to my physical form, I was once again in San Francisco. I decided that I had spent enough time there. With my new awakening of power, I was able to manifest and materialize some wealth. I bought myself a car and drove to Montana. Once I was there I found a sparsely populated area. I found some woods within that area. I built myself a shelter and remained there for a length of time. I think all in all I was there for five years. During those five years, I did some soul searching. I was able to talk to Kraven when I needed advice, but for some reason I was never able to directly manifest Celemus or the Native. I guess I resonated with Kraven the most? I don’t know. I sure was able to manifest Celemus’ power, though. I also was able to manifest the magic of the Native. I traveled back and forth to the cave of life, where I was able to tie together more ancient mysteries of who my being was and where I had been. I was also able to spend a lot more time among the Akashic Hall of Records, from where I was able to acquire a myriad of magical powers and abilities, more than I had the first time. You wonder how that’s possible. Well, the universe is constantly expanding. Magic and knowledge are constantly growing. There is an endless supply of magic and knowledge to be acquired. You simply have to know where to go to acquire them. In my case, it was the Akashic Hall. All was going fine until one night when I was relaxing by a small fire that I had built myself. Out of nowhere, the fire began to speak to me. “Finn. Finn. I need you to hear me. Finn, are you there?” I just looked at the fire in a kind of puzzled manner I didn’t know what to do exactly. Then, my body froze as I suddenly recognized the voice. It was Stevie’s. I must have really been confused because Kraven had appeared without me even calling for him. “Hey, uh, Finn? You’re being summoned. I think it’s your ex?” he suggested. “So, what do I do now?” It was obviously the first time that I had been summoned. Gathering information into this had never really crossed my mind. “Stand back,” Kraven advised. He pulled some kind of sachet out of his pocket and threw a powder into the fire. “Is there anything you don’t have in your pockets?” I asked. “Uh, bandaids?” he replied. At that,Francisco but I also erupted consuming both Kraven and myself. When I could see again, I realized that the fire had not hurt me, Kraven was gone and I was standing in a room in front of a lit candle and a noticeably older Stevie. “Hi.” I blurted out. “Hi.” She replied. "You're looking, uh… older. “I’ve never been summoned before, so that was a first,” I said. "Yeah it's this thing I learned to do with my body. I can change my look, you know, to blend in." “Yeah, it was the first time I tried it, too. I’m glad it worked,” she replied. "So, yeah, uhh…" I began. I'd be lying to myself if I said she didn't look just as good as when we first met. The sexual tension in the air was thick, even after all these years. “Right. Listen, Finn. I didn’t want to bug you, but there’s something that you have to know.” “Another multi-platinum record? Congrats, Stevie,” I responded dryly. “I guess when you died and stopped growing your maturity stopped, too?” she quipped. "Don't you have a power that can fix that, too?" “You called me. I didn’t call you. I should have just ignored you. This was a mistake…” I muttered. “No, Finn. I’m sorry,” she replied. “You’re right. I didn’t summon you here to argue with you.” “Then what is it, Stevie?” I questioned. “Finn, it’s Sara. She’s still alive.” Stevie beamed. “Well good for her. Tell her I’m happy,” I retorted. Then it began to dawn on me. An echo of something she once said to me rang out in my head– “If I ever had a daughter, I’d name her Sara.” I had been pacing, trying to understand what she was telling me. “Wait. Are you suggesting that… our child… She’s still alive?” “Yes, Finn. She’s alive and I know where she’s at. I’ve been developing myself. Remember when you told me that you saw who I truly was and that I am a witch? Well, I used those powers and a spirit board to see if I could communicate with the baby’s soul.” I could hear Kraven’s voice inside of my head going “Whoa. Plot twist.” “So where is she at right now?” Where are we at?” I asked. “We are in Arizona. She is in San Franciscoo. Not only was I able to see that was she was still alive, I did a locator spell. I was able to find her, too. I know where she is.” Stevie responded. “So, what do we do now?” I inquired. “I don’t know. Do you want to go there? And find her?” Once again Kraven’s voice chimed in, “I don’t know, man. That seems a little sketchy if you ask me.” “Shut up, Kraven!” I shouted. “Okay, fine,” his voice replied. “Who’s Krav

en?” Steve asked, confused. “Nevermind,” I replied. It’s a long story. “Okay…” she responded. “Are we going or not?” “Yeah. Yeah, I’m coming. Looks like we’re going home.”