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It had been two hundred years since the barriers of Oakhurst had been broken and the inhabitants who had been trapped for months inside of them had been freed. Of course, Cleo had barely left Oakhurst's walls in that time, instead choosing to settle down with Pearl and focus towards making Oakhurst become what it used to be: a bustling, lively town. But many of the previous prisoners of the cursed town had been in and out to inform Cleo and Pearl of their adventures, stop by to pay respects to the ones they had lost and to check up on the town. Humans slowly began to forget the horrors of Oakhurst's history and settle down within and outside of the walls, expanding the population to more than it ever had been. Nobody questioned that Cleo had been the mayor for so long, not when they did such a good job at running the town. They were satisfied with that.
Little by little, as the years went by, the cursed grounds of Oakhurst and the people who had been affected by it had begun to heal.
Except for one person.
Minutes after the beacon had turned smoky-black, Scott Goldsmith had not stuck with the remains of his coven as he had promised. Instead, in the flurry of activity and departures, he slipped back into his castle and shut himself inside of it. Nobody had noticed until it was too late.
Scott had not stepped out of the castle since.
At first, everyone had thought the answer was simple. He hadn't locked himself in there magically, so it would be easy to just convince him to get out.
God, poor Shelby had tried.
She had been the first one to volunteer to do so, the first one that had been upset enough to try. Cleo remembered them walking in and then walking out a few hours later with tears on their face. Apparently, Scott was in some sort of depressive period and was completely unwilling to listen to reason. The same routine went on for nearly a year after the barriers fell with Shelby and Drift coming back every so often to try and convince him to come out. Eventually, however, the two had gotten used to their lives in New York City and had to accept that even if they got him out of his…state, there would be no place for him. They couldn't keep planning their future around a man who was practically a ghost to them. So, they gave up and Cleo was secretly glad for it. They deserved far better.
Next had been Abolish. Not that Cleo had been informed of his incoming arrival. One day he wasn't in town and the next day he had suddenly appeared. He had explained it as a matter of work interest, a quick inspection to see what Scott's status in his agency would be classified as.
("So basically, whether or not you're going to come here every so often and bother us about him." Cleo had raised an eyebrow. Abolish had simply shrugged, half-white hair contrasting against the constant dimness of Oakhurst.
"If that's how you want to put it.")
It had only taken a week for Abolish to determine that Scott was an unmovable object and could not be convinced to leave his castle. When he had tried to use force, he had come back to the town with a large claw mark on his face that slowly healed over the course of a day or two. Eventually, Abolish had asked Cleo to update him if anything changed and disappeared into the night, leaving as suddenly as he had appeared.
The last and most recent person to try was (surprisingly) Apo. Apo had tried to sneak into the town undetected, but that sort of thing never worked when a vamp-werewolf and a ex-thralled vampire ruled the territory. "I'm going to die soon," She had explained. "I want to try and kill that stupid noble one last time." Cleo hadn't been upset enough to stop them. At the very least, if she was successful, then they could finally allow their people to travel and live closer to the castle area without fear of Scott one day getting hungry enough to go after them. She knew he couldn't have been getting enough blood in that castle of his and wasn't willing to chase after him to confirm her suspicions.
Cleo had watched Apo leave town to go inside the castle. A full day had passed before she returned with a disturbed look on her face. They didn't say anything as they waved goodbye to Pearl and took off as a bat back home.
It had nearly been a hundred years since then. Cleo hadn't seen Apo since.
For all three of them, Cleo hadn't bothered to ask what exactly caused them to be so upset. For the most part, she didn't care what he did inside the castle.
However, it had been two hundred years of Scott staying in his castle. Two hundred years. It was starting to get ridiculous to the point where Cleo found herself getting angry. How dare he wallow in his castle when he had gotten everything he had wanted? Friends, freedom, fledglings, blood, power; he had gotten all of it at the sacrifice of many others.
If Cleo had to point fingers for who had the most blame in the Oakhurst Tragedy, they'd have no hesitation pointing at Scott with a deadly claw. It was mainly his fault and he had succeeded in getting away with it, so how dare he get to sit down and let the world forget about him?
It was the day of the two hundred year anniversary when Cleo walked back into the castle that had both fascinated and haunted her. Pearl had promised to keep an eye on the town while she was gone, leaving her with plenty of time to set Scott right. If anything, making Scott leave Oakhurst entirely to go wallow somewhere else would be an accomplishment.
"Scott!" Cleo shouted into the hollowness of the castle. They did not dare to go further than the main room or risk incurring Scott's wrath. After all, vampires were known to be protective over their territory, and they did not feel like starting a fight immediately. "You in here?"
"Cleo? Is that you?" Scott's voice echoed from somewhere indiscernible. It sounded similar to how he had been all those years ago, but slightly flatter. More lifeless. Has to be the lack of blood. Cleo reasoned and felt a little bit smug at their suspicions being right. "How lovely! It's been so long since someone has come over!"
Cleo blinked twice and suddenly Scott was in front of them, a strangely warm smile on his face. His hair was no longer striking white like they had expected it to be. Instead, it was the same cyan color it had been when they had first arrived to Oakhurst. A see-through black veil dangled over his face and he wore an elegant dress shirt and long pants that matched in color. He reached forward and wrapped a cold hand around Cleo's wrist. "Come, let's go up to the library. I have something to show you."
"Don't touch me," Cleo snapped and Scott instantly pulled his hands away. "And what library?"
"I've had plenty of time to build and had lots of resources stockpiled away." Scott waved with a dismissive hand. "Now, please, follow me. I think you're going to like this." Cleo bit their tongue. Ideally, she would've liked to not move any further than the main room to talk, but there was a sincereness in Scott's voice that he rarely had. Besides, it wasn't like he was going anywhere.
She sighed and gestured forward. "Right. Lead the way."
ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ
As they slowly went up the stairs one by one, Cleo felt no need to start up conversation. However, Scott clearly felt otherwise. "So how has life been for you?" He asked dryly. "I notice you're still a vampire. Having fun with that?"
"More or less." Cleo muttered, not liking the feeling that was crawling up their spine. It was a feeling she had come to associate with Scott's games, an acute feeling that Scott was in on a joke that she hadn't been privy to. "You know I'm not going to give you more than that. If you're truly curious, you can just fly outside and look."
"Mm. Such a shame that I don't really care." Scott shrugged as he dragged a fair hand over the deepslate walls that surrounded the staircase, letting every groove of the material run against his fingers. "But can you blame me for trying to converse? We haven't seen each other in, what, a hundred years?"
"Two hundred."
"Two hundred…" Scott mumbled and then brightened. "Oh! Of course! How could've I forgotten? Today's the anniversary, right?" He let out a titter of laughter. "What a coincidence that you're also here today." Cleo started to wish Scott would climb up the stairs faster.
"It's just a coincidence. Don't go thinking I'm doing this on purpose."
"I would never," Scott purred as the two ascended the top of the staircase. The stairs led up to a long hallway at the top of the castle, doors lining the walls all the way down. Cleo had recalled one of them being designated as their own room before everything had gotten worse-and even then, it turned out most of the coven slept in the crypts anyway. "Now, stop glaring at me and take a look." He gestured towards something at the end of the hallway.
Cleo froze and let out a small, strangled gasp. They slapped a hand to their face in an attempt to hide their reaction, but they knew Scott had already latched onto it. "What?" Scott tilted his head as he walked over to the carved stone statue. It was around the same height as him and he didn't have to look far up to wrap his hand around its jaw. Every feature was startlingly accurate to the man when he had been alive.
Doctor Legundo.
The statue was a perfect likeness of Doctor Legundo. And as Cleo continued to watch, it moved its head to look directly at Scott. The only flaw it had was that its expression never changed.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Cleo managed to say, unable to tear their eyes away from the statue. It was horribly accurate. If they looked at it too long, they could see him smiling again. They could see him moving through the forests of Oakhurst with a determined look on his face. They could practically see the memories play out in front of them as they remembered when he had asked them ahead of time to do what was right, to honor his wish and lay him to rest if he himself was unable to.
They remembered walking into the clearing as Legundo had been turned by Scott, the pulse in their heart beating out that a new vampire had been created. They remembered Legundo holding a hand to his throat as fresh blood dripped down it as he stood in the clearing, eyes never leaving Scott.
He hadn't seen it coming before it had been too late. And Scott reveled in it. He claimed to want to help the doctor, but they knew he meant anything but.
Of course, it hadn't been long after that when Cleo had come together with Scott to finally ensure their escape out of Oakhurst. At the time, he had been almost gleeful to put Legundo through the ringer once more.
Then Legundo was gone.
It was starting to make sense. It was all starting to make sense and it was making Cleo sick.
"You see, there's a lot of books in my castle that had been left behind-discarded, even-by their previous owners. One of them taught me how to make statues come to life." Scott punctuated his statement by making the statue move into a bow with just a glance. "He's beautiful, isn't he?"
"Get rid of it," Cleo spat out. "Get rid of it right now or so help me Scott, you're getting a stake through your heart."
"I thought you out of all people would like him." Scott pouted, his playful maliciousness still on display-except there was something a little too real to it. He slowly walked up to the statue and leaned on its shoulder as he talked. "He's practically just like the real thing. The only thing he doesn't do is emote and speak. Well, I attempted to make him speak-" A dark cloud passed over his face. "-but it was never right. It never sounded like him. In fact, they often turned out so horribly wrong that I eventually abandoned the idea. Unfortunate."
"I think you should abandon the idea of living statues entirely."
"Why?" Scott frowned. "It's not like I'm using him for any true gain or power."
"He would hate this," Cleo snapped, trying not to let her voice break. They stomped over to the statue and slammed a fist into its chest, causing fissures to crack out all over it. Scott let out a small growl and snapped his fingers, causing the pieces to disappear into thin air.
"What a shame. That one was one of my favorites." Before Cleo could question him on what that meant, he had already opened a door and disappeared inside of it. Quickly, they followed after him. Two steps in, they stopped dead in their tracks. "Welcome to the library!" Scott shouted as spun around the center of the room, black veil going every which-way as he did. Cleo paid no attention to him.
The entire room was filled with statues of Doctor Legundo. They were reading books, climbing on ladders, and some were simply still, silent and dotted around the area. One of them shuddered to life before tromping over to Scott and pulling him into a stone-cold embrace.
Cleo ran out of the room and started to open every door she could.
Statues. There were statues of the doctor everywhere. They were in the old rooms, in Scott's room, in the closets and in the storage. When Cleo ran down the stairs, they found more of them in the kitchen, in the main halls, in the garden, in the crypts.
He was everywhere.
Cleo finally stopped at the end of the crypts, to where a sign had been tacked on the coffin to mark it as Scott Goldsmith's. Several statues were bowed down around the coffin, almost like they were mourning. "I don't go further than this point," Scott remarked from above. Cleo looked up to see him sitting on the edge of the platform that oversaw his previous resting place. "Honestly, if I do go outside the castle, it's rare." Cleo didn't answer. Instead, they stepped forward to try and touch another one of the statues. In an instant, Scott was practically on top of them, yanking their wrist backwards and away from the statue. "Sorry, dear, but after what happened to the first statue you saw, I don't exactly feel inclined to share." His voice was dangerously sharp, a vampire's warning.
Mine. Mine. Mine. Don't touch.
Clearly, Scott's mental state had deteriorated significantly, to the point where she was starting to feel a little bad for him. Not that she'd be caught dead having sympathy for Scott, but somehow losing Legundo had kicked him over into a state of denial. He treated the statues like they were actually him and was far too possessive of them for him to not view them as people.
The first step would be to break the illusion he had created for himself.
"Come with me to Oakhurst. Just for a few days. You can bring a statue with you-" They held up a finger just as Scott opened his mouth. "Just one. Only one. They'll be fine on their own for a bit. In return, I won't touch the statues. I won't break the statues." Scott bristled.
"And what, exactly, do you get out of this?" If this works, I get you out of my hair and off to be someone else's problem. Cleo thought to themselves but was wise to keep their mouth shut.
"I'd sleep well at night knowing my people are in less danger than before if the visit to Oakhurst proves to me you're capable of not killing anyone. You must understand that I came here to evaluate your personality and risk to my people."
Scott was silent as he considered his options. "And if I don't…?"
"I'm going to start breaking every single one."
ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ
Luckily, with the frequent visits from the former trapped members of Oakhurst, Cleo and Pearl always had at least one guest room ready in their home. Cleo had originally planned to live in the castle, but Scott had near-instantly taken away that choice. It was at least one more benefit they'd get if they did finally manage to drive away Scott for good.
Unluckily, it meant that the statue was in the guest room as well. It was one with pointy ears and a demure expression, clearly carved to be the ideal fledgling. Scott had spent most of the past few hours in their home not paying any attention to the two who had generously housed him but instead to the statue. It was mostly about mindless events-had he been talking to the statues like this for years? Surely he would have run out of topics to speak about by now?-and occasionally words of affection. Another downside was the volume of the one-sided conversation. Scott had already been famously bad at volume control, but it had gotten worse when he had spent far too much time alone.
Pearl stared at Cleo with a small twitch in her eye as Scott's voice echoed from the room in the hall behind them. "Was this seriously your best option?"
"It's not for long." Cleo sighed. "It's just enough to give him a change of pace. Once he realized how ridiculous he's being, I'm sure he'll be able to go back to…whatever his normal is." Loud, boisterous laughter interrupted their conversation, causing both of them to turn towards the guest room.
"I didn't know he could get more unnerving," Pearl mumbled. "It's almost impressive."
"The good thing is he seems to be handling being in a human-dominated area well. I wasn't sure if he was just going to attack everyone the moment he stepped into Oakhurst."
"Do you have-" Cleo pulled three wooden stakes out of their robes. Pearl's shoulders slumped in relief.
"If needed." They leaned forward and rubbed Pearl's shoulder. "Don't worry about me, my love. I can handle him." Then they strode towards the guest room.
When she opened the door, Scott was perched on the guest bed with his hands in his lap. He gazed forward at the statue like it was the only thing in the room and laid a hand on its neck softly. Cleo coughed to alert her presence, causing Scott to let go of the statue. It was only then she noticed the two bite and claw marks that had been carved into the statue's neck and shoulder.
Purposely, she looked away from the likeness and focused solely on Scott. "Right, if you're going to be here, I have to lay out some rules."
"Like what?" Scott put a hand to his chin and looked at them with big eyes. The doll effect was slightly lost with the scarlet color of them and the veil that covered his face.
"One, no human blood. It seems you've sustained yourself just fine at stage two, so I see no need for you to be getting any more than that."
"Quite a lot of creatures try to sneak into the castle at night. I make a game out of catching them. It passes the time."
Of course you do. Cleo thought bitterly. "Second, shut up at least a little bit. I know that's hard for you, but you're not alone in the castle right now. You're in our house and I'd rather you not disturb us with your rambling."
"But Legs makes such a good conversation partner," He sighed and closed his eyes. "You can't blame me for being so loud, can you?" Cleo stiffened.
"Since when was he 'Legs' to you?"
"Since a long while." Scott stood up and draped himself across the statue's body. "It's what everyone calls him. Why can't I do the same?"
"It's what his friends called him." Cleo managed to keep their voice calm. "I fail to see how in any way he was your friend."
"I mean, he's been my company for such a long time. That's basically a friend, hm? I think I can call him that. You're just jealous that you haven't talked to him in so long."
Cleo closed their eyes and chose not to rise to that challenge. "And third, I am the mayor of this town. Currently, I hold the power here. My word is law. I don't want you attempting to gain that power for yourself or discarding my word entirely. Understood?"
"I understand." Scott twirled a lock of his own hair dismissively. It was slightly matted and Cleo briefly wondered if he remembered how to use a hairbrush.
"I asked if you understood." Scott flicked a glare towards her.
"I get it, I understand, I comprehend. There you go. Now can you leave us be?"
"I can grant you that." Cleo nodded and slipped out of the room. When they had made it back to their living room, they resisted the urge to claw up the furniture in frustration. Pearl let out a low whistle.
"That bad, huh?"
"Let's just hope he sees sense sooner rather than later."
ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ
Cleo's first idea was to bring Scott to the site of the doctor's house. Of course, she wasn't going to let him walk around the town looking like a mourning widow, so she had to convince him to drape one of her older robes around himself. They had also managed to pry him off the statue and ensure that it stayed at home instead of Scott making it walk around outside with them. Unfortunately, they couldn't convince him to take off the veil and he hissed at them when they tried to take it off themselves, but small victories were still victories.
"This is what was once the doctor's house." Cleo started as they circled the building. "I'm sure you remember it. However, we've changed it to be the local doctor's office and it's open to the public." Cleo grabbed Scott's shoulder and led him inside.
"Well, why would you do that? Can't you just make a new building?"
"It's what he would've wanted." Cleo dared not to say his name, afraid it would somehow drag Scott into darker depths. They took him through the doctor's office, showing him where Legundo had once lived and what it had been turned into now. Scott, however, seemed rather uninterested and barely said a word throughout the tour. Strange looks were cast at them as people waited to be seen by the local doctors and Cleo did her best to wave them off.
"I want to leave." Scott eventually announced and walked straight out the door. Cleo groaned and chased after him, finding herself unable to drag him back into the building.
Cleo's second idea was to bring him to the place Scott had turned Legundo. It was a clearing in the forest that had no real significance, so they should've known to not be so surprised when Scott did a full circle and looked at her with a strange expression. "Why are we here? It's just a clearing."
"It's where he got turned." Cleo slowly walked through the area, smelling the memories of that night in the air. An odd look passed over Scott's face as he glanced around before he laughed.
"Really? It looks like nothing ever happened here. You'd think there would be his blood still stained on the ground or something with how you're acting."
"Would you like that? I bet you miss his blood," Cleo shot back, fury curling in their throat.
"And if I do?" Scott smirked. "Do you want to know what it tasted like? The look on his face before you got here at the end of the mess? Really, I can go over every detail, because it's wonde-"
Cleo slapped a hand over his mouth before they dragged him out of the clearing. "Mouth. Shut." They hissed.
They only had one more idea left.
ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ
His resting area was undisturbed. Cleo had ensured it would be so, checking up on the site near daily to ward off any creatures that would dig up the ground. They kneeled silently at the tombstone that only had two words etched onto it:
The Doctor.
No death date nor birthday. No identifying information at all. It was a simple resting spot.
Cleo closed her eyes and listened to the birds chirp in the trees and the winds that ruffled their feathers. It was always a good spot to just sit and think. To act like he was still there, listening to their words and giving advice back. As time marched on, they found themselves doing it less and less as they accepted his passing. Still, it made her feel better whenever she had a bad day.
"What are you doing?" Scott's voice broke the peace and quiet. "What is-" He peered closer to look at the grave and Cleo took the chance to grab his arm and sit him down next to them.
"This is Legs' burial site," Cleo explained, running a hand through the flowers that grew by the tombstone. There had once been nothing but dirt until they had planted seeds donated by the townspeople as they learned the tale of the anonymous doctor. They had never learned his name and never would, but their kindness sprouted in the form of daffodils, lilacs and poppies. Cleo could only imagine the self-deprecating smile Legundo would've given her at the sight of them.
The two sat in silence as they stared at the tombstone. When Cleo glanced over at Scott, she could see a haunted look in his blood-red eyes. Between the dark veil, eyebags and startlingly pale skin, it was a near-terrifying sight. "Why?" He asked hoarsely. "I don't understand. I don't understand any of this."
"What do you mean?"
"It's like he wants to be erased." Cleo let out a barking laugh at that.
"You saw some of his memories after drinking his blood. Surely you'd understand from those why he out of all people wouldn't wish for a legacy."
"He got a medal. He killed people and did a good job at it." Scott spoke slowly, like he was dragging his brain through sand. "And then he was so dead-set on helping people. He sacrificed himself. Surely, at some point, he'd want a sort of legacy from those things." He narrowed his eyes. "It was a mistake to let him die."
"It was what he wanted, even before you went and turned him."
"I turned him so he would live longer. When he clearly didn't appreciate it, I was fine with him agreeing to sacrifice himself for our plan for freedom. Or at least, I thought I was until the connection snapped." His hands dug into his knees, straining the threads of Cleo's old robe. "You don't understand. When Pyro died, the fledgling connection felt more like letting something go. But when he died-" Scott started to shake, causing uncertainty to rise in Cleo's chest. "-it was like he had been ripped away from me. Like the connection hadn't just been let go, but wrangled from me until the thread grew thin. No fledgling death has ever felt like that before and I still don't know why."
"Scott." The elder vampire stood up and began to pace back and forth.
"It doesn't matter why it happened. But you need to understand, Cleo, somehow he stabbed an empty hole into my soul before he went. One last act of revenge. I can't live like this." He stopped and stared daggers at the grave. Cleo tensed. "I need him back."
As soon as the words left his lips, Scott dived for the dirt in front of the grave and started to tear it up with his claws. "Scott! Scott, stop!" Cleo ordered as he shoveled his way through the ground. Quickly, she jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around his waist, dragging him away from the grave. Scott pinwheeled his arms like they were trying to still dig, even when Cleo had fully lifted him up in the air and onto their back.
"Let go of me right now." Scott snarled. "I can get him back. I don't know how, but surely there's a way-"
"Are you dense?" Cleo hissed as they set Scott hard on the ground again. They punctuated their words with a jab to his chest. "He. Doesn't. Want. To. Come. Back. Especially not to you out of all people."
"What? You're the expert now? You can speak for a dead man?" Scott crossed his arms. "I probably know him better than you. Remember, the connection-"
"-Can exchange memories and emotions, I know. At this point, I think I'm more of a vampire than you are. I've taken care of my fledglings more than you ever have."
"Oh, here we go!" Scott's face twisted into pure anger. "You just know everything now. It's your town, so it's your rules. Why not just do what you want? See, maybe we could've bonded over our shared griefs, but I see that you're the only one allowed to do that."
Hypocrite. Sniveling, cowardly, disgusting hypocrite. Cleo was practically shaking with their fury. "You never cared about him or any-"
"I did! Not much, but I cared a little bit about him, and of course I cared for Shelby and Pyro-"
"Then why are you here?" Cleo rolled their eyes. "Why are you here? If you really cared, you'd be sitting by Pyro's grave instead of this one. If you really cared, you'd be in a city apartment with Shelby and Drift right now. But no, instead you stuck yourself in a castle for two centuries and let yourself go insane." Cleo stepped back, enjoying the look of disdain on Scott's expression. "You want to know what I think?" Scott huffed.
"Not really-"
"I think that you're still thinking of the promise you made to the doctor all those years ago. I think you aren't mourning him. You're just drowning in the guilt that you've ignored for your entire life." Cleo ran a hand through her hair, ignoring the tears bubbling in her eyes. "This is just your guilt finally talking. He died because of us, because of our plan to escape. Because you turned him. That's why you're attached. Get over it. Get over him."
"I have complicated emotions. Is it so hard to believe his death affected me so much?"
"What about Avid? What about Apo? What about me? Not that I want a pathetic excuse of a grand-sire like you anyways, but you've barely thought of any of your fledglings nor the ones you gained through Pyro, dead or alive. I don't see statues of them flooding your castle."
"I mean, he's a far better fledgling than you."
"He was far better than both of us."
The two stared at in each other in silence. The boiling, repressed anger they had for each other threatened to turn deadly. What had once been a slight amount of respect in Oakhurst had turned into nothing but an exhausted hatred.
"Would you believe me more if I told you I think I loved him?" Scott quietly spoke up.
"You didn't love him. You don't love him. You're obsessed with him. No-you're obsessed with the concept of him. That's the only love someone like you can manage."
"Then I believe we're done here. Don't take me out of the castle again or else I might finally break that promise I made to the doctor."
With a single jump, he turned into bats and was gone. Cleo fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands. "Sorry, Legs. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that none of us can let you rest."
ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ
Scott walked through the halls of his castle, gently touching the head of every Legundo he came across. Whenever he touched them, they seemed to brighten up and stand up straighter. It was a stance that the doctor had never expressed back when he was alive.
No. He was alive. His spirit lived on within the statues. He had managed to summon the statue he had left at Cleo and Pearl's house back to him, only mourning the loss of the first statue Cleo had seen. But it was only one loss. He would survive.
As he slowly lowered himself into his chair at the dining table (the other chairs were reserved for the Legundos that would stop by, even though they could not eat) he watched as Legundo approached him. He imagined him talking and giving him words of encouragement with the occasional snappy retort.
"We don't need those people outside, do we?" Scott murmured as he traced the outline of Legundo's face. He wished he could've successfully dug up the grave to see what he looked like now. It would've been a wonderful addition to his collection. "We only need the two of us. Nobody else. They don't understand the world like we do."
Scott ignored the silence that answered back and instead took it upon himself to shrug off Cleo's robe. Gently, he placed it around Legundo, the real fabric contrasting against his stone carved surgeon outfit. "There. Since you and Cleo are so close, you might as well wear it instead of me." The statue brushed his hands against the clothing before briefly shuddering. Scott took it as a sign of gratitude. "As long as you're happy, I'm happy. Happy two hundred year anniversary, dear doctor."
He couldn't believe he wanted to be free from Oakhurst once before. It had been a mistake and had cost Legundo's life. He would stay here. He would be happy.
Scott ignored the void in his heart and started to eat his dinner.