Chapter 294

To the New Heavens

Atmosphere was festive, with loud music blaring out into the L.A.’s night sky. Flashing lights alerted the living and the sleeping world to stay away, if the music itself did not. Many would think that there were hundreds of souls enjoying the night but, in reality, there were roughly fifty-sixty spread about a roof of a skyscraper, enjoying the slowly-cleared L.A.’s sky.

Cain sat on the side, looking at the hanging banner that read ‘Goodbye Cain, you’ve been such a pain!’, his lips pursed. It felt less like a warm, loving send off and more like the ‘good riddance, you punk’ sort. Shaking his head, he took a sip of beer and moved his gaze forward, looking at the familiar faces. Everyone had gathered here, leaving the Tower and joining the party.

A warm feeling surged within him, comparing the two incomparables. His past life, he was always alone. Ignoring the sendoff, he’d have been hard-pressed to find two people to attend his funeral. And yet, now, there were so many, so many people who cared. Granted, a few faces he didn’t recognize, but most he did.

“Quite a party, eh?” Senna sat by his side, grinning.

“You drink?” Cain asked, his eyes widened.

“Oh, come on,” she rolled her eyes at him. “What? You think I’m still sixteen? Besides, weren’t you the one to give me my first beer?”

“...”

“That’s what I thought,” she chuckled. “How are you feeling?”

“Warm and fuzzy.”

“Oh, I’ll bet.”

“What? I can feel warm and fuzzy,” he retorted. “Beneath this badass, frigid interior is a delicate soul.”

“... I’m gonna miss you,” she said suddenly, lowering her eyes. “I... I don’t think I’ve even had a chance to process it, how quickly it went.”

“... yeah,” Cain said, his expression mellowing out. “It’s like ripping off a bandaid.”

“But it’s not,” she replied, looking at him. “You’re bigger than a band-aid, dad. Not being able to see you for years... what if I have a question? What if I don’t understand something?”

“I know,” he said, reaching out and pulling her head into his chest. “But I have a really hard time believing you won’t understand something.”

“Hey, I’m being serious!”

“Ha ha, so am I,” Cain said, feeling a gaze on his back. “Oh? Is my little angel jealous? Get over ‘ere!” Lana sighed with a helpless smile, joining the group hug. “I have a feeling even the gods envy me right now. Two unparalleled beauties, one in each arm... ah, the heavens!”

“Oh, shut it,” Lana wrangled herself out of his arms and stared at him deathly while Senna pushed away gently, though still smiling.

“No, no, I’m serious,” Cain pushed. “Honestly, I might not even get to do anything while I’m there. I’ll probably just brag about how I’ve got the coolest two daughters in the universe and how I love them beyond love.”

“... were you always this embarrassing?!” Lana asked, her cheeks turning red.

“Yup,” Senna answered quickly. “This is even tame, if I’m being honest.”

“... I’m gonna miss you both,” he said, his lips trembling. “So much, in fact, words haven’t been invented to describe it.”

“Oh--”

“Don’t roll your eyes,” he added. “I’m serious. You two... you make life a beautiful thing. Your mom and you mean a world to me.”

“...”

“...” Senna and Lana quieted, lowering their heads.

“Even if I spend a thousand lifetimes thinking,” Cain added, caressing their heads gently. “I will never understand how this leery geezer got so lucky to be blessed with not one, and not two, but three angels in his life. I must have saved a God’s life or something in another timeline and this is my reward.”

“Then you--”

“You might have,” Senna interrupted Lana suddenly, giving her a peculiar stare whose meaning was lost on Cain. “Though, I doubt it. As they say, luck favors the scoundrels. And boy, if you ain’t one, then nobody is.”

“True, that’s true too,” Cain chuckled. “And hey, I’ll come back with presents. In the meantime, you can try that independence thing I’ve heard people talk about. If your mom lets you, anyway. Speaking of which, I can feel her eyes calling me. Catch you later, fireflies!” ruffling their hair once more, Cain stood up and walked over toward the roof’s railing where Emma was standing, looking at him.

“... why’d you stop me?” Lana looked at Senna and asked. “He wouldn’t have stayed.”

“Of course he would have,” Senna rolled her eyes. “Stop lying to yourself.”

“It’s not fair,” Lana mumbled, nestling her head into her knees. “It’s not fair.”

“... yeah,” Senna said, pulling the girl over and hugging her. “I know. Hey, remember how you used to brag about him when we first met?”

“H-huh?! What... what are you talking about?! I never did that!”

“Sure you did,” Senna snickered. “I remember distinctly-- ‘my dad is amazing!’ and ‘my dad is the strongest’ and ‘my dad is the coolest’. Truth is, I was kinda thankful. You were like my venting station--whatever I wanted to say about him but thought was too embarrassing, you went ahead and said it anyway. And you know, he is all of those things, and more.”

“... what? We shouldn’t hoard him because of that?”

“Oh, no, we definitely should. And we will,” Senna said. “But, you gotta let him out every once in a while. Even by handicapping himself for years by never going into the Tower, he’s somehow still the strongest. Doesn’t that speak to the insanity? Just imagine. His strength from six years ago... still outpaces all of us today. If he wanted, he could have shot past all of us long ago..”

“But he didn’t.”

“’cause he didn’t want to,” she added. “For the first time, I think, I saw him wanting to do something. Every other time he went into the Tower, it felt like he simply needed to be there, that if he wasn’t there, then he was wasting time. Honestly, it hurt me, it hurt us, seeing him like that. One time, he told me that utterly abandoning the Tower would be as easy as breathing for him. So, to see him want something, yearn for something... yeah, it hurts like a bitch that he won’t be with us, but we’ll have him for lifetimes to come. Let him have a few years. And, perhaps, by the time he returns, you’ll step out of that ‘I’m too cool to say my dad is great!’ phase. To be fair, it took me until I was twenty. So, you still have some room.”

“...” Lana rolled her eyes but didn’t pull away, her eyes inadvertendly finding him, even among dozens of other souls. They all blurred and vanished, with the whole rest of the world seemingly disappearing beneath the weight of those two figures leaning against the wall. The older she grew, the more she understood who her parents were. As a young girl, she would indeed always claim her dad to be a hero. Little did she know, however, that she was underselling him still.

“What did the girls want?” Emma asked Cain as he joined her. She dressed specially for the occasion, putting on a cocktail dress that she hadn’t worn in over fifteen years. She was beyond shocked that it fit still.

“Just a chat with their favorite daddy,” Cain replied with a smile.

“God, you can make even the most innocent things sound so dirty,” Emma sighed.

“... we shouldn’t have had this party or whatever the hell it is,” he sighed.

“Why? Having second thoughts?”

“Second, third, fourth,” Cain replied honestly. “Honestly, the only reason I want to leave is because it’d be too embarrassing to stay after being thrown a farewell party.”

“Pfft, ha ha ha, wow, that’s the most ‘you’ thing I’ve heard you say in a while.”

“Yeah, yea, laugh it up. You won’t be laughing when it’s three in the morning and you’ve got that tingle.”

“...” Emma looked at him oddly for a moment before her lips broke out into a smile. “I’ll be thinking of you.”

“Yea, that ought to kill the tingle, I imagine.”

“Hey,” she smacked him gently. “I know you love coping, but it’s too early in the night for copium, no? Did you say goodbye to the others? Taima’s been asking about you.”

“... no,” Cain replied. “In fact, I’m about to leave.”

“H-huh?”

“Look around,” he said, smiling lightly. “Everyone’s laughing, drinking, having fun. Stopping it all just for some sod-ridden speech so I can douse them in cold water... is it even worth it? By the end, it’d feel like a funeral more so than a sendoff. This is perfect.”

“You just don’t want to deal with saying goodbyes, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“You never were good at them,” she said, fixing her hair.

“To be fair, it’s not a goodbye. Just a ‘see ya’ later hater’.” Cain said, taking another sip. “This one night... was just to etch your faces.”

“... Cain.”

“Hm?” he turned around, facing her, surprised at her serious tone and her using his full name, something she rarely did.

“You’re not allowed to die,” she stated factually.

“...”

“I’ll be waiting,” she added. “A year. Two. Three. Ten. I’ll wait until I’m old and gray and decrepit and pissing and shitting myself on the hourly.”

“Wow, thanks for the image.”

“I’m serious.”

“...”

“You’re not allowed to die,” she repeated again.

“... neither are you,” he said after a brief moment of silence, landing his fingers against her chin and lifting her face up slightly. “Love you, Em’.”

“Love you too.” Emma closed her eyes and leaned in, expectant. However, the soft sensation of his lips pressing against hers... never came. Slowly, she opened her eyes and found him gone, like the wind. Looking around, he was nowhere to be found, with none being the wiser. The singing and the drinking and the celebrating continued, faces alight in joy. But he was gone. He was gone.