Rosemary walked beside Kaz and Ellie as they picked their way down the mountain, moving slowly towards the cemetery that was Ben's final resting place.

Rather than going to inform Granny of their conclusions before leaving the village, Ellie insisted on going straight to the cemetery. Kaz seemed confused about that decision, but Ellie couldn't bring herself to look Granny in the eye at the moment. That was something they'd need to deal with later. Right now, she wanted to know what Ben wanted. It felt right to tell him first, in a way.

Charlie and Luna were already at the gates by the time they arrived. Either four legs were much faster than two, or Ellie was simply moving very, very slowly. The world still felt like it was spinning around her, like she couldn't quite believe anything she saw. Maybe it would settle eventually. Maybe it never would.

Ellie was almost surprised to see Ben's spirit already wandering when they entered the graveyard. It was almost like he was waiting, like he knew they'd be coming to contact him soon. Despite having no witch blood in his veins whatsoever, Ben always had an uncanny intuition like that in life, and Ellie wouldn't be surprised if he kept it in the afterlife.

He stood by his tombstone, looking a little lost and a little uncomfortable, but he smiled when he saw her and waved hello. She waved back, forcing herself to smile at him.

"Hey, Ellie belle," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets, but then he frowned as she came closer. "You... don't look so good, hon."

"I... have somethin' I really need to tell you," she said quietly. "And I don't know how you're gonna take it."

"O...kay?" Ben, to his credit, didn't seem even the slightest bit nervous.

She couldn't being herself to meet his eyes for a long moment. Ben waited patiently for her to pull herself together, to swallow the lump rising in her throat and calm her wildly beating heart. When she finally looked up, his kind eyes almost broke her down again.

"Ben, baby... you're... you've passed on," she said gently, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

"I know," he admitted.

"I..." Ellie said slowly. "Why are you still here, then? You've been confused about where you are and what's goin' on every time I saw you."

"I've known for a while. I knew last time ya saw me, if I'm honest. Just wasn't ready to admit it yet," he said, taking a seat on the ground and patting the spot beside him. Ellie sat cross legged next to his ghost, the same way she would have when he was alive. "Wanted to look out for ya a little longer. I remembered a lil' more every time we talked, but I wasn't ready to leave yet."

"You can rest. You don't have to stay for me," Ellie choked out. "You deserve your peace."

"So do you."

She didn't know how, but even as a ghost, Ben's gaze seemed to go right through all her defenses and see deep into the parts of her heart that she didn't want anyone to touch.

"She took you too soon," she whispered, fighting to keep her voice from breaking. "It's not fair."

Ben's eyes visibly widened.

"S—she? Do you know who did it?" he asked, taking a deep breath through his nose.

"Yeah. We think so." Ellie paused, took a slow breath, and nodded. "We know so."

"Good," Ben said, nodding firmly, but there was a long pause before he spoke again. Ellie fought not to squirm in place in front of him as he scratched at the back of his neck, adjusted the collar of his shirt that was somehow always off center, and scuffed at the cemetery ground with his incorporeal boot. For what seemed like an eternity, he wouldn't meet her eyes.

And then he looked up, a new kind of steely resolve in the set of his jaw and the straightening of his spine.

"Don't tell me who it was," he finally said. "I don't wanna know, an' I think it's better that way. But... I think you need to know. I think you need the closure."

He was right.

Something inside Ellie sighed with relief at that. Ben had always been soft and kind, and she was glad to see that death hadn't twisted that into something unrecognizable. He was still the same old Ben on some level, and she could rest easy knowing that.

But he also knew that Ellie wanted that closure— not just wanted, but needed it desperately. She'd craved it ever since the day her white dress was forever stained with his blood. However... she needed to do it in a way that they both could agree on. She wanted to do this for her and for Ben.

But...

"I don't think... I don't have the heart to kill 'em for killin' you," Ellie said quietly. "I know the witch laws say an eye for an eye... but I can't."

"Good. That means you're still just as soft as ya were before. You're not you if ya ain't soft," he said with a smile.

"... Are you gonna be mad if I still wanna kick some ass, though?" she mumbled, wincing.

To her surprise, Ben's spirit let out a rollicking laugh. "Go get 'em with my blessing," he said approvingly. "I trust you to know what's enough for justice. Just don't lose that soft side. It makes you more human than most people, even most humans."

Ellie nodded, a small smile creeping across her face. Ben understood how badly she wanted to go too far sometimes. She knew that he understood the magnitude of her grief and the subsequent recklessness of her actions. Having his blessing to do something, though, to get revenge or justice or just a little closure in even a small way... that was important.

"Can you do something for me, sweetie?" Ben asked.

"Anything." For him, she would do anything at all without a single second of hesitation.

"I need you to keep living," he said softly, a little half smile crossing his face. "The world doesn't stop turning because I'm not in it, and I know you're gonna be there a long time. You got too much life in ya to stop now."

"That's..." Ellie said softly, swallowing hard.

That's not fair, she wanted to say. That's not right, she wanted to say.

Ben was not the first ghost to say something similar, though. Life is for the living, they said over and over. Someone said. Maybe someone who'd never spoken to a ghost, but they were technically right all the same. Wherever Ben had gone, it was to a place she couldn't reach him now. He had his own peace to find and his own dreams to chase on the other side, in another plane, in another life, maybe.

Whatever it was, she just hoped it was beautiful for him.

"You take care of her," Ben said to Kaz, tipping his spectral hat. "She's got a hard head and a soft heart. Needs somebody."

"I'll do what she'll let me," Kaz said, returning the nod. "And... Well, I might do a few things she doesn't want me to do, too. For her own good."

Ellie scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"That's my Ellie belle," Ben said, chuckling. "I always worried what was gonna happen to ya once I was gone. Didn't expect to leave quite this quick, but that's okay. I know you'll make it. And... I'm glad you've got somebody."

"I'm sorry," Ellie rasped, determined to get it out. "I'm sorry you're dead 'cause of me."

Ben looked taken aback, jaw dropping open.

No, not just taken aback, he looked.... Moderately horrified, shaking his head fervently.

"You didn't kill me," Ben said, setting his shoulders in a way that, in life, indicated that he really meant business.

"But if it wasn't for meetin' me—"

"If it wasn't for you, I'd have lost out on a lotta things," Ben said gently. "I'm glad. I don't regret it. And you didn't cut me down yourself, so I deem this not your fault. Ever. Y'hear me?" Ben's eyes narrowed as he examined her closely, in all her guilt and shame, in all her love and grief.

She nodded slowly, biting her lip, unable to put into words how grateful she was for him, for everything, for just the chance to meet him. That was alright, though. Sometimes things like that didn't need to be said. Sometimes... you could say them with other words instead.

"Are you ready to go?" Luna asked, looking between Ben and Ellie.

Ellie took a slow breath, fighting back the lump in her throat. This was good. This was good for Ben.

"Go...?" Ben trailed off, blinking at Luna.

"Somewhere better, I think. Let's get you settled, shall we?" Luna flicked her tail, and it looked as though a streak of light cut through the air, expanding into... a door?

It wasn't clear what was on the other side of the door. It was at once too bright and too shadowy, too foggy and too reflective to see, but that was for the better. Wherever Ben was going, humans weren't supposed to go. Not yet. Not till they were finished on this plane. Ellie might have Spirit Sight, but even she was aware that some places are just for the dead.

"I'll walk with you," Luna said as she sidled up to Ben's spirit. A high-pitched whine came from Rosemary, and she jogged over to stand beside her mother. Luna just nodded at her as Rosemary's tail wagged. "We will, that is. We'll make sure you don't get lost."

"I love you," Ellie said. "I'm glad I met you."

"I love you, too," Ben echoed, blowing a kiss towards her. "You'll never lose me, not really."

She couldn't bring herself to watch as they disappeared through that door. It didn't fade once Ben's spirit and the hounds stepped through, but remained for one minute longer. Then two. Then three.

Ellie wasn't sure how time passed on the other side of that door. It seemed like an eternity that she waited there, hands clenched into fists and just staring at the strange light. Finally, though, Luna and Rosemary appeared in a flash of light from the other side.

The door closed behind them.

Ellie looked at Luna for a long moment. "Is... is he...?"

"At rest," Luna confirmed.

A sense of relief like she'd never known washed through Ellie. Her mother had her baptized as a baby, and she couldn't remember the moment at all, but she wondered for a brief second if this was what it was supposed to feel like. It was like a weight lifted off her very soul, leaving her entirely unshackled, too free to laugh or speak or do anything but breathe. Breathe, and allow herself to collapse onto her knees by Ben's tombstone.

For the first time in two years, some of the guilt truly eased away, and Ellie had hope it might not return. If it did, perhaps it would be a little less.

As she sat on the bare dirt and simply tried to breathe, Ellie felt something wiggle under her palm.

Odd. She didn't think she'd put her hand over a mouse or a bug... and she found neither of those things. Instead, growing under her palm, there was a green sprout of a plant with leaves and thorns.

And it was growing fast.

In a matter of seconds, Ellie watched the plant grow from a tiny sprout to full size, three feet tall and coughing. Other sprouts echoed its growth, springing to life around Ben's tombstone. The vines gently cradled the headstone without covering it, even showing pods and buds that opened into out-of-season blooms. Deep magenta mountain roses, native to North Carolina, unfurled in a beautiful tribute around Ben's grave.

"Is that... Where is that coming from?" Ellie asked, taking a step away from the tombstone. Where her feet once were, more plants sprung up, more deep magenta roses bloomed.

"You can't tell?" Charlie asked, padding closer. "It's from you."

She blinked at the roses, wondering if they were real. This was the kind of thing Granny talked about, the kind of magic that Granny said their family had. It was innate and in tune with the land, it came from the mountain and her emotions, and it worked with the life and death cycle of all things.

It was also a kind of magic that she had never, not once, been successful with before. Now she had, apparently, managed to perform it entirely unconsciously.

"This is new," Ellie murmured, reaching out to touch one of the roses. As though it was sentient, it bent its stem towards her hand, petals brushing across her fingertips. "I... didn't think I could do anything like this."

"Have you ever felt like this before?" Charlie asked as he walked over to her.

"N— no..." she stammered, feeling more tears prick at her eyes.

It was like a dam had broken inside her, like all the things she'd been trying to hold back feeling for the last thirty years were all coming out at once. It was grief for her mother and grief for Ben, anger for herself, fear and hope and love. Everything felt like it could settle now because she knew that Ben was at peace, even things from parts of her life long before she met him. She felt like, for the first time in a long time, she could take a step forward without the chains of her past dragging along behind her.

Ellie breathed deeply, wondering if this was how it felt to have a weight off your chrest.

"What do you want to do now?" Kaz asked, grabbing her hand.

"If we're taking her down, I'm taking her down in a way she will never, ever recover from. Not in this lifetime," Ellie said through gritted teeth, scrubbing away tears from her face with one hand.

"I'm with you. Let me know what you need," he said softly, giving her hand a squeeze that Ellie returned.

"Us too." Luna said. Rosemary yipped.

"We'll have to wait until exactly the right time to do this," Ellie said softly, rubbing a hand across her face. "If we fuck it up, we don't get a second chance."

"Let's head back, then," Charlie said, already turning to walk out of the cemetery. "We can figure things out from your home."

Harper and Ellie sat on a soft blanket under the stars. Ellie wore her coat, but the chill didn't seem to bother the blonde vampire at all as they both gazed up at the constellations.

Ellie had set up on an overlook well outside the village, just to keep out of sight of any prying eyes. Though Harper was technically there to meet Charlie and Luna, she insisted it was important to have some "girl time" on their own. Rosemary was, of course, allowed to join at the pup's own insistence, and the little dog snoozed between them as they chatted quietly.

Their group spent the afternoon planning, writing letters, contacting folks. She still hadn't had the heart to tell Granny, still hadn't figured out how to say it. They did have a little time, though. There was another week before the full moon, and thus another week before Jeannie was set to complete her ritual. They just needed to lay low until then.

"How do you feel?" Harper asked.

"Shitty," she whispered. "I don't think I'm gonna fully process this for a long time."

"You get that letter sent off to the Council?" Harper's eyes were fixed on the stars.

"Yeah. Hopefully word'll get back soon," Ellie said. "Stopped by the Sheriff's office in town, too, but we can't do too much without the Council. She's protected as a lead witch. They'd spring her from any jail run by a human in a heartbeat."

"It's gonna work," Harper whispered. "It will. It's a good plan."

"I don't know what I'm gonna do after this," Ellie sighed. "It feels like... I don't know. It's like I've been stuck under a snow bank this whole time, and now I can breathe and feel and think again. I... think it's thanks to Kaz that I can feel anything much at all."

Even if a lot of what she was feeling hurt. And it did hurt. It hurt like a punch in the gut that never got better, like a knife in her chest that no one removed, but the hurt was slowly turning into anger and grief, and she was grateful for that instead of the numbness. The numbness was worse.

"I... I know it's easy to numb out," Harper said softly. "I get it. I'm not much older than you, maybe a decade or two, but we've all seen our share of the same shit."

"I don't like feeling too much," Ellie whispered. "It's scary."

"Yeah, it is," she sighed through her fangs. "But if getting in touch with your emotions brought out your magic— if your closure brought it out, don't ya think it's worth it?"

"I think so, yeah."

A gentle breeze whistled through the trees as they spoke. Beside them, a leaf landed on Rosemary's nose. The tickling sensation made her sneeze herself awake, the leaf flying off into the breeze.

"You ready for bed, Rosemary?" Ellie asked as Rosemary yawned.

"She's real attached, huh?" Harper said, laughing.

"I'm attached." Ellie smiled and let Rosemary jump onto her lap. "Don't know what I'm gonna do when y'all leave town."

Harper paused, pursing her lips, suddenly very fascinated with the blanket they were sitting on. "... About that," she said softly.

"What? You leavin' tomorrow or something?" Ellie asked, taken aback.

Harper's eyes went wide as she shook her head. "No! No, no— it's just. Well, Kaz can tell ya later. We're workin' out details. Might be here for a good long while, though."

Ellie thought she might enjoy that.