It was a hot day. Well, maybe not hot, but for October in eastern Michigan, it was downright balmy. It was a perfect day for a picnic, and that was what Chay and I were going to do. We were taking advantage of the time we had before the winter semester started and we’d both be in college.

“Are you going back to the university in Ann Arbor?” Chay looked at me. He was stretched out on his side across the blanket. His elbow was bent and his head rested in his hand. He looked so comfortable, so at ease, while I had butterflies threatening to stage a mutiny and take over my stomach permanently. Things were twisted out of place, my breathing was way too quick and shallow, and my heart was racing. I was far from comfortable or at ease. I might have had a minor stroke or heart attack… something. Because my body was all over the crazy train.

“That depends,” I answered.

“On?”

“Where you’re planning to go.”

“Does that mean you want to go where I am or you are going to run in the opposite direction?” he asked with a laugh.

I grabbed a handful of colorful leaves and threw them at him. “You know I want to go where you are. We had a plan if you remember.”

“I remember,” he murmured. “I was wondering if you did and if it was still the plan.”

“Of course it is.” I picked up his hand and laced his fingers with mine. Bringing his hand to my lips, I brushed them over the top before laying my cheek against it. “I only went away to school because I thought a change of scenery would help me forget and move on.”

“Did it?”

I sighed and let go of his hand. “Nope. Just made me homesick.”

Purple. Quilts. Hot, so hot.

“Milayna? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just had a flash of images, but they didn’t make any sense. But they may soon so we should enjoy our time together now. We may be on a vision quest later.” I smiled.

“A vision quest?” He laughed.

“Okay, um, a vision mission?”

Chay laughed and shook his head.

“A vision…”

His lips covered mine. Thoughts of naming our visions flew out of my brain and focused only on him, what his lips were doing to mine, and what his tongue… oh, my, what his tongue was doing. Oh, yeah.

***

Chay and I sat together in a theater, waiting for the movie to start.

“It’s freezing in here.” I snuggled closer to Chay. “It’s October in Michigan, and it feels like they have the air conditioning on. It’s crazy.”

Chay pulled me closer to him and chuckled. “It’s not all bad.”

I sat snuggled close to Chay while the previews played. I felt sweat building under my hair and trickling down my back. It beaded across my forehead. I tried to sit up, but Chay tightened his grip on me.

I pushed against him. “Let go.”

He looked at me, the corners of his mouth turning down. “What’s wrong?” I tore the sweater I was wearing over my head. Chay grabbed the hem of the T-shirt I wore beneath and held it so it didn’t get pulled off with the sweater. “Are you okay?”

“I’m so hot.” I fanned myself with my hands.

“A few seconds ago, you were complaining that you were cold.”

“Well, now I’m saying it’s too hot!” I snapped.

Purple. Hot. Wheelchair. Quilts.

“Okay.” Chay held his hands up in surrender. “I always knew you were hot, just sayin’.” He winked at me.

I smiled. “Sorry I snapped.” I gulped down some of my iced Coke.

He shrugged his shoulder. “No problem. You know, you’re going to float outta here, guzzling your pop like that.” He gave me a lazy grin, leaned back in his chair, and watched me.

I rolled the cold cup across my forehead and then my chest. “Stop watching me like that. Perv.”

Chay laughed, and the guy behind us shushed him.

I lifted my hair and fanned my neck beneath it. “It’s so hot in here. Aren’t you hot?”

“No, I’m fine.” He felt my face and frowned. “You’re burning up. Vision?”

“I don’t know. I keep have flashes of the same images. Something is happening, but there isn’t enough.”

“Give it time. They always give you the information you need when you need it,” Chay said.

“Not always. They didn’t give me enough information about the lady at the Waterway,” I said quietly.

The Waterway was a big tourist attraction in our small town on one of the Great Lakes. Chay and I were there exploring for the day. When the day was over and everyone was leaving, I had a vision of a woman in a green shirt and a tour bus. I didn’t know what exactly was going to happen, but I knew I needed to find the woman. After a frantic search through the never-ending crowd of tourists, I finally found her. Just as I approached her, she was hit by a tour bus, flung over the railing of the bridge we were standing on, hitting the water below. She died. Everyone told me there was nothing I could have done—that I’d done everything right. But I still blamed myself. If I’d been faster, if I’d yelled out to her instead of walking to her, if I’d… well, there were a lot of ifs.

“You did—”

“Everything I could, I know,” I said.

“Azazel was trying to scare you with his strength, but he’s not stronger than you anymore. You’re eighteen; your powers have matured. Your visions are stronger than his influence,” Chay reminded me.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Huh?”

“You’re right.”

“Wait—what did you say?”

I laughed. “You. Are. Right. But apparently you’re deaf.”

He tickled my side and I laughed harder, pushing his hands away. “Stop it,” I said through giggles. “The movie is starting.”

“Thank you,” the man behind us grumbled.

I looked at Chay and smiled. He grinned back at me, and my heart did a little cartwheel right before it skipped a few dozen beats.

He chuckled and gave me a quick kiss. We settled in to watch the movie… and the vision started full force.

The color purple flew at me, and I jumped. The theater grew hotter than it already was. The air was so heated that I had trouble breathing. It was as though the heat sucked the oxygen out of the room.

Wheelchairs and quilts flew past my eyes against the purple backdrop. But it wasn’t until the purple folded, twisted, and scrunched into a couch that I knew what the vision was telling me.

I shot out of my seat. “Grams!”

Chay was on his feet instantly. With his hand on the small of my back, he guided me out of the theater. Chay drove the short distance to my grandmother’s senior citizens’ apartment complex. As soon as I opened the building’s heavy glass door, I knew something was wrong. Something terrible lurked in the overheated air. Something unnatural.

Something evil.

I could feel it as soon as I stepped over the threshold. It crawled over me like a million fire ants biting and stinging my flesh. It burrowed like worms under my skin and flowed through my veins, swept along with my blood. It coagulated in my heart, making the beats painful.

“It’s too hot in here.” I walked into the towering great room with the floor-to-ceiling fireplace and overstuffed chairs where families could visit with their loved ones. “Oh, no. Chay, call an ambulance.” I turned to my left and then my right. “Call a lot of them.”

The residents lay unconscious on the furniture and floor. Some were slumped over in their wheelchairs.

I ran down the hall leading to the residents’ apartments.

“Milayna, wait,” Chay called after me.

“No. I need to check on Grams.”

He caught up to me and grabbed my hand. “Let me do it.”

“Why?” And then it hit me. “Some of them are dead, aren’t they? No.” I shook my head, taking a step away from him. “No, I don’t feel that. I don’t feel them dead.” He didn’t say anything, just looked at me. I jerked from his grasp and ran as fast as I could, trying to ignore the people I saw laying in the hallway, telling myself they weren’t really dead, just passed out from the heat. I already felt the effects of it. I was lightheaded, my mouth dry and my limbs heavy.

I was out of breath when I reached her apartment. Stupidly, I knocked on the door. I knew she wouldn’t answer. None of the residents we’d seen so far had been conscious. She wouldn’t be either.

I tried the doorknob. “Shit! It’s hot.” I looked at Chay. “Heat. Brann,” I whispered. “If it’s like the night with Mae, he’ll be in there.”

“We can’t wait, Milayna,” Chay said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “It’s getting hotter.”

I bent down, took the dagger out of the holder at my ankle, and pushed it under my sleeve. “Okay.” I nodded.

Chay rammed the door, and it gave way. He stumbled into the room. It was twice as hot inside Grams’ apartment as it was in the hallway, and my heart plummeted. If people were dead in the cooler areas of the building, it didn’t look good for my grams and that pissed me off.

If Brann thought it would break me, he had made a horrible miscalculation. If something, anything, happened to my grams, he was going to pay.

We walked into Grams’ apartment. There was a small hallway when you first walked in, just wide enough to fit her wheelchair. Two closets were off the hallway, a small coat closet and a larger storage closet.

At the end of the hall, the walls fell away to a big, airy great room. The living, dining, and kitchen were all combined. To the right was a door that led to the bedroom and bath. I looked in the bedroom. My grandmother lay on her old, wrought-iron bed.

In the middle of the living area sat my favorite thing in Grams’ apartment. Her vintage, velvet, purple couch. That night, my favorite couch held a surprise. He looked a lot like his brother. The same greasy film covered his peculiar red skin. He stared at me with eerie, yellow eyes that seemed to glow like neon. White hair was slicked back with so much goo that large sections clumped together. The same stench of sulfur and rot clung to his clothing. Definitely related.

“Well, if it isn’t the little demon slayer herself. I see you brought your trusty sidekick with you.”

“Hello, Brann.”

“Hmm, been studying I see. I like a smart woman. Unfortunately for you and poor Grams in there, I didn’t like it when they killed my brother,” Brann screeched.

“Oh, my. Who killed your brother?” I asked.

He cocked his greasy, white head and looked at me. “Surely you don’t expect me to believe you’re that stupid, Milayna. Or maybe you’re so cocky you think you’re just that smart. Either way, we both know who killed my brother.”

“I didn’t know there were five of you. I’ve heard you called the Four Brothers. I assumed there were only four of you,” I said, trying to look confused. I must have been convincing.

“What are you talking about? Of course there are only four of us, you little twit. Hence the name,” Brann yelled.

“Then what does me killing Abaddon have to do with you?”

“Nothing!”

“Wait, then I’m confused.” I put one hand on my hip and bit my lower lip.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Brann accused quietly. Somehow, that was more threatening than when he yelled—kind of like when my mom stopped yelling when she was mad and started whispering. We all knew hell was about to break loose. I was afraid the same was about to happen with Brann. He stood and walked slowly to stand in front of me. Chay circled around behind him. “You killed Vann.”

“Yeah, and he screamed like a little girl, too.” I smiled.

Chay grabbed Brann’s arms and yanked them behind him, pushing his chest out. I let the dagger drop from beneath my sleeve and raised it above him.

“Give your brother my regards,” I said. Thrusting the dagger down, I plunged it into his chest. Brann screamed a mouthful of obscenities. A black, oily substance oozed around the knife.

“I think you missed,” Chay said calmly.

“Looks like.” I yanked the knife out and buried it deep in Brann’s chest again. Still, he didn’t turn into black ash like he was supposed to. “Damn it, are you really a demon?”

“Maybe he has a birth defect or something,” Chay said, grunting from holding the struggling demon in place. I rolled my eyes.

“Demons are made, not born. Like angels,” I said.

“Then how can they be brothers?” He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Hold still and stop breathing on me. You stink,” Chay muttered to Brann just before he jammed his elbow into the side of his head.

“Boy, you are so going to regret this and so is your pretty little girlfriend…”

“Oh, shut up.” Chay bent Brann forward and slammed his head against the dining room table.

“They’re brothers the same way my dad and Uncle Rory are. Stop moving him around. I can’t get a good stab in.” I was stabbing the demon over and over and still hadn’t found its flippin’ heart.

“Then why do the Four Brothers look so much alike?”

“Huh. Good question. We’ll try the other side. Maybe it’s like that mirror-twin syndrome we studied in biology. Oh, never mind, you weren’t here then.” I stabbed the demon on the opposite side and with one last, very colorful remark, he turned to a plume of black ash.

I shoved the dagger in the holder at my ankle, with two more brothers and Azazel out to kill me, I wasn’t letting that thing out of my sight for a second, and ran into the bedroom where my grams lay on the bed.

“Chay, bring a cold cloth. Please.”

I heard the water running and him rummaging through the drawers in the kitchen for a dishcloth to use. Then I heard a string of violent curses, followed by the opening and slamming of the refrigerator and freezer doors.

“What’s wrong?”

“The water has been heated from Brann, and the refrigerator and freezer has overheated so there’s nothing cold in them either,” he said, running his hand through his hair.

“Alright. It’s gotta be at least triple digits in here. Much hotter than it is outside. Let’s open all the windows we can and let some cool air in.”

Chay moved from window to window, opening them. It seemed to take forever, but I started to feel a cool breeze blow through the apartment. “How is she?” he asked.

“Her heart is beating really fast. I’m not sure what that means. She isn’t sweating, which isn’t a good sign. And she isn’t responding when I talk to her.”

“I’m going to go see if I can flag down an EMT worker so we can get her to the hospital. You’ll be okay?”

“Yes. Just hurry. Please.”

Chay wasn’t gone ten minutes before he came back with two EMTs pushing a gurney. They tried to revive Grams by speaking to her and shaking her. Even poking her arm with the IV needle didn’t get a response.

“We’ll be taking her to St. Mary’s if you want to follow in your car,” one of the EMTs told us.

“Thanks.” Chay wrapped his arm around me and pulled me tight against his body.

“Did you call my mom and dad?”

“Yes,” Chay answered, rubbing his hand up and down my arm. “I’ll call them when we get to the hospital and let them know where we are. Okay?”

I nodded. “I wish they’d take her to St. Joseph’s.”

“Why? St. Mary’s is closer.”

“That’s where Mae was,” I said quietly, my lower lip quivering. I was trying really hard to keep it together. Really hard. But I felt like everything was falling apart around me.

“Milayna, your grandma isn’t anything like Mae. It’s different circumstances. Mae was weak from not having the proper living arrangements and enough food; your grandma is strong and loved. She has everything to fight for. She’s not going out without a fight.”

Smiling, I nodded. I wanted to believe what he said was true. And maybe it was to a certain extent. Maybe he even believed it. But I didn’t.

My grams is old and frail. Her mind is sharp and strong, but her body started giving out a long time ago. Her apartment is hot. So hot it bothered me just the few minutes I was in it before we opened the windows. I don’t know how long Grams lay in that bed waiting for someone to come help her. Did she wonder why I didn’t come? Did she wonder why my visions didn’t bring someone to help her? Did she know that we love her? Did I tell her that the last time I saw her? Did I kiss her cheek, hug her neck, and make her feel loved? While she lay there possibly dying, did she know her family would grieve for her?

Did she know I’d made him pay for what he did to her?

My family and I stayed at the hospital all night and waited for word about my grandmother. Chay stayed with me. Grams was in ICU. But that was all we really knew for most of the night. It was three o’clock in the morning when we got our first update.

A nurse took us to a small room located off the main waiting room. We were the only family there. I figured that wasn’t a good sign. My dad sat at the end of the cheap Formica table. Uncle Rory sat across from him. My mother and aunt sat next to them. Muriel sat next to my aunt and Ben sat next to my mom. I sat next to Ben with Chay on my other side. They both held my hands. One giving comfort, one accepting it.

Ben looked up at me with his big, green eyes full of questions and worry. “Whatever happens, Grams loved you, frog freckle.” I bit the corner of my lip and tried to smile at him.

He nodded and looked at our hands circled together. “She loved you, too.”

A doctor walked into the room and drew my attention. He took the seat at the end of the table closest to my dad. I thought he introduced himself to us. I couldn’t be sure. I only heard the part when he said, “Um, I wish I had better news to give you.”

That was when I tried to brace myself. I tried to dial down my emotions like a dimmer switch on a light. I tried to turn them from bright to dim—from the level where I could be hurt to a level where I’d be numb. Stupid, Milayna. It just didn’t work that way.

The doctor’s words pulled me back to the present. “Her blood pressure is dropping to a dangerous level, and it’s not stabilizing. She’s on the most aggressive medication we have available, and she’s responding very little. Ah, also, she’s stopped breathing on her own so we had to put her on a ventilator.” He looked at the table and took a deep breath. “I…” He stopped and cleared his throat. “I like to be as honest with the families of my patients as I’m able. I’m not God. I can’t give you certainties. I can only give you my best appraisal of your loved one’s condition based on my training and past experience.”

“We understand,” my dad said.

I bowed my head and squeezed Chay’s hand. He wrapped his free arm around my shoulders, kissing the top of my head before he laid his cheek there.

“I don’t believe there will be any improvement. I think her condition will steadily deteriorate throughout the night. Her organs are beginning to systematically shut down. Once this starts, there’s very little we can do. My best advice is to take this time to say your goodbyes. I’m sorry I don’t have better news. Of course, we will do everything in our power with regard to treatment until you tell us otherwise. And I will personally make sure she is kept as comfortable as possible.”

The doctor placed two business cards on the table. “If you have any questions or want to speak with me about anything, please call.” He stood and pushed his chair under the table. “A nurse liaison will work with you from this point forward to help you navigate the decisions you’ll need to make and understand what is going on as it is happening. She’ll be here shortly. You all have my sincerest apologies.” And with that, he was gone.

I sat on the chair and stared straight ahead. It was the kind of chair found in cheap cafeterias. I thought they probably had the same kind in the hospital cafeteria. It was kind of blue. I said kind of because it really didn’t know what color it wanted to be. It was too light to be a royal or even eggshell blue, but too dark to be white. It just had a blue hue to it.

What a stupid thing to think of. Grams is dying and you’re contemplating the color of the damn plastic chairs.

“Milayna?”

I turned my head and looked at Chay. “Hmm?”

“They’re here to take you back to see Grams. Are you ready?” Chay’s thumb moved over the top of my hand in a soft caress.

“Yes.” I pulled him with me.

“I’m sorry, miss, but only blood family can visit,” the young nurse said. She couldn’t have been too much older than I was.

Blood family. That’s funny. She doesn’t have any blood family. We’re her family, and none of us are related by blood.

“He’s coming. If you don’t like it, you can go—”

“He’s family,” my dad interrupted before some very colorful words came out of my mouth.

The nurse pointedly looked at mine and Chay’s hands intertwined and back at my dad. He shrugged and said, “Who defines what constitutes a family these days, huh? Grams would want him there. Either he goes or we’ll talk with your supervisor. But I warn you now; you are wasting valuable time that we should be spending with our family member. If, for some reason, we weren’t able to say our goodbyes because we had to wait on you to find your supervisor because you weren’t able to do your job, then we would hold you personally responsible for our loss. You.”

Geez, Dad. Can you say ‘you’ one more time? I think she gets it. Although, that deer-in-the-headlights look might be a sign that she’s a little slow, who knows? Maybe Ben should draw her a picture in crayon explaining it.

“Okay, follow me,” the nurse said.

We walked down the sterile hallway. Machines beeped and trilled from the rooms lining the hallway, which smelled like puke and shit.

The nurse stopped at a room, and I could see Grams lying in bed inside. She looked peaceful. If it wasn’t for the breathing tube and the other various wires and tubes sticking out of her at weird angles, it would almost look like she were asleep.

Everyone filed into the room and gathered around her bed. They stood there, staring at her like she was an exhibit at the zoo. I couldn’t bring myself to step inside the room, so I just watched from the doorway.

After some minutes had passed, the group moved to the corner of the room and one by one, each of them walked to the bed and said their personal goodbye to Grams. They cried. Held her hand, talked to her, begged her to squeeze their hand, blink her eyes, wake up, do anything to show us she was still there and could hear us. There was nothing.

Finally, it was my turn. Letting go of Chay’s hand, I took a step into the room. I was barely past the door. The room swirled. The colors mixed and ran together like a kaleidoscope. Looking at everything through my tears gave it an odd, watery look. Like I was looking through one of those glass water walls.

Taking another step, I stumbled. I caught myself on the nurse’s workstation that ran along the wall. My legs shook so hard that I couldn’t walk any further. My heart beat hard against my ribs. I could feel each one. They stole what little breath my tears hadn’t.

“Goodbye, Grams. I’m so sorry,” I whispered and turned to walk out of the room.

Chay and I walked hand in hand down the hall leading out of the ICU. We’d just stepped through the door when I turned and yelled at Chay.

“Don’t let the door close!”

He reached out his arm and caught the door before it could latch. I pushed through and ran down the hallway to Grams’ room. I didn’t stop running until I was standing next to her bed.

“Grams, it’s Milayna.” Carefully, I moved the cords and tubes out of the way and climbed next to her in bed, laying my head on her shoulder. “I’m supposed to say goodbye. I guess I’m supposed to tell you it’s okay for you to go and all that crap, but the truth is, I don’t want you to go. I want you to stick around a little while longer. Just another ten or fifteen years or so, not too long.

“But if this is the last time I’m going to get to talk to you, there are a couple of things I want to say. First, I love you. You should know that already, but just in case I missed a chance to tell you, I’m telling you now. I love you. Second, I’ve never told anyone that your secret butterscotch brownies were from a box. I’ll keep the tradition going and make them for every holiday just like you did, and I’ll never give away our secret recipe. That’ll just be ours. Third, thanks for always letting me camp out on your purple couch. Some of my best memories are there, Grams, and they all include you.” I took a deep breath and tried to swallow past the growing lump in my throat.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t get there sooner. But we made the bastard pay, Grams. Chay and I made him pay for what he did to you. But I’m so, so sorry I wasn’t there sooner. This is all my fault.” I started crying then. Sobs, really. My body shook so hard from the force that the whole bed moved.

That was why I didn’t realize she’d done it at first.

But when her soft hand cupped my cheek, I stopped and looked at her. Her eyes were still closed. The breathing machine was still doing her breathing for her and the monitors were all reading the same low heart rate, oxygen levels, and blood pressure, but there was no mistake. She moved her hand and touched my face.

I laid my hand over hers and I swear, I swear on all that’s good in the world, I saw a ghost of a smile on her lips just before the beeps on the monitors died, showing only a flat line.

My grams was dead.