The heat from the burning church kept the GTO pretty warm, and Jithinia fell asleep waiting for her lovers to return. She awoke disoriented, staring at the ceiling of the GTO. The storm had stopped, and the first pink and orange of a new day had just appeared.

She sat up and opened the door. The church had burned to its foundation, and several spots still glowed with hot coals. Not a creature stirred. The wind had stilled, and the world was silent. Her ruined Gremlin still sat in the road, now covered with snow.

Her goat boys were no were to be found, and she started to panic. “Nathaniel! Eldridge!” she called out as she walked barefoot through the graveyard. Soon, her feet were numb.

Finally, she found them. They looked as a glass statue of two fairies in an embrace. Nathaniel and Eldridge were in their Geist Kinder forms, and they were covered in ice. The freezing rain had trickled down their stumps, commingled with the blood that seeped from them, and then froze, layer upon layer, giving them each crimson wings. Their eyes were wide open, staring through the ice coating that enclosed them.

They could see Jithinia’s face distorted through the ice, but they were weak and bewildered.

Jithinia touched Nathaniel on his cheek. He blinked his eyes, and the ice cracked. “Poor babies!” she cried as she broke off the ice with her hands.

“Jithinia? Is that you?” Nathaniel whispered.

“Yes, baby, it’s me. Come on now, let’s get you two back to the car and get you warmed up.”

She helped them stand. They leaned against her, one on either side, and stumbled and swayed as she helped them walk to the car. She opened the passenger door, and they climbed inside to the backseat, where they shared the blanket.

Eldridge, I’m so disoriented. Are we still as Geist Kinder? Nathaniel hummed.

Yes, we are.

But Jithinia did not say a word. It’s as if she didn’t even notice.

She knows, Nathaniel.

What?

She knows. I told her.

Why did you do that?

She was on to us. Best to come clean.

Eldridge leaned across the seat to the front of the car and retrieved a pack of smokes and a book of matches. He took one for himself and offered one to Nathaniel.

She opened the driver’s side door and climbed inside. She put the key in the ignition and started the car. She looked at them in the rearview.

“You’re going to leave us now, aren’t you?” Nathaniel said.

She turned around and looked at them. “I promised to love you forever. I won’t leave you,” she said, “but I get to keep Danielle.”