The aftermath was a blur as well. Vaguely, I can recall explaining some details to my parents, excluding the details of my shooting someone. The people, murderers or not I'll never know, faded away. They all seemed to disappear after Jasmin died. They either never believed any of her garbage or they too had awoken from a terrifying dream and wanted to runaway and forget as soon as possible. I couldn't believe that I had shot her. I don't fully believe that it was me. Someone or something else was definitely in control that night.

Graham had gone back the following day and disposed of her body. No one at school had noticed her absence and Graham wasn't about to file a missing person's report. A few months have passed and we're still doing well. Everyone is still happy. Graham and I don't talk about what happened with Jasmin. I don't know if he misses her, but I hope he does. After all, she was his only sister. After that night, he burned all of the old rituals, research, artifacts and scrolls, anything that would've tempted or reminded him. Graham had said he only kept one paper from his entire history and that everything else was just too painful to keep around.

"Guess what, Claire?" He called from behind me as I watched the sun smile at me from my front porch.

"What it is, baby?"

He slid a piece of paper in front of my face and said, "Today's my birthday. I'm nineteen."

A smile pulled at my lips. It was official, my boyfriend was aging again. "I'm so happy for you, but are you sure this is what you want to do?" I turned around and stared up into his eyes, filled with happiness and hope. "You didn't need to give up your eternity for me."

"Claire, I've been around for over a lifetime. I used to think that forever couldn't come soon enough and I was waiting for eternity to jump out and reveal all the secrets of the world, but time offers wisdom. I've wanted out so many times – I just never had any reason. I've seen more than enough of this world. Now I want to see our world and learn something new." He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. "Eternity's not worth it, if I don't have you." I found perfection and I held it's fragile core in my little hands.