It was hours- hours- before she got home. Quentin, being the brotherly figure he was, insisted on driving her home, opting to take the late night bus back to his place. She spent all day with him, crying occasionally, laughing more frequently and enjoying the comfortable silences that took up the majority of the day. Her back was stiff from lying absolutely still on the chair while he etched away at her. She hadn't even known what he was going to do, but had blindly let him do it.

Quentin was the one man Cherish would allow that kind of trust. Not even her father was that trusted; then again her father would probably rather choke to death while eating his own hand than pick out and ink a tattoo for his daughter.

Every single one of her tattoos had been inked by Quentin, half of them his idea, but they all fit her excellently. This one would be no different. By the end of the day, she had been too tired to argue with him, and so curled up in the passenger seat, resting her head on his shoulder. Worn out and incredibly sore, she crawled into her bed upon arriving home, neglecting to remove her shoes, much less her clothes.

"I am a creature of the night!!!! Woahohohohohoooo......" (1)

The stereo blared loudly, the table it was on vibrating along with the bass. Cherish leaned back on the couch, letting her head fall over the edge of the arm, "How's it going, Len?"

"Mmhmmm." Upside-down-Len had a bunch of pins in her mouth and was furiously pinning the fabric she held. Within seconds, she stepped on the pedal of the machine and zoomed through another seam. Pulling the pins from her mouth, she glanced at Cherish, "How 'bout you?"

Cherish rolled over, her head throbbing from being upside down, "Okay, I think I've just about figured this all out."

"So?"

Folding her legs under her, she glance at her notebook, "So, even with all the orders we've been doing..."

Len groaned loudly, in protest, but Cherish continued as if she hadn't been interrupted, "Well, we had to buy supplies, right? Then paying Jeb for all the photography stuff, and my mom for half the electricity bill, minus the models' freebies and the website fees... we have..."

"Yeah?"

"Well, we have enough for our trip to Europe!"

Len paused what she was doing and then gasped when the words sunk in, "Seriously? All of us??"

"All of us!"

A loud squeal cut through the basement and then Len screamed, "YES!!"

They had been planning for a long time now, 'since before Jeb and Len became and item' long. This year, they had all booked the time off whatever they had to be doing at the time, and even booked tentative tickets, but it had remained a dream. Now, finally, it would be happening. The four of them, Len, Jeb, Cash and Cherish would be embarking on a cross Europe summer concert tour. Sure they would miss all the concerts at home, and all the parties and everything else, but the prospect of traveling across the world to see all their favourite bands play in exciting new places was far more thrilling.

"Jeb? We're going!"

Cherish laughed, grabbing her own phone from between the cushions on the couch and dialing Cash's number. "Quinn? Put Cash on! Cash? Pack your bags, Babe!"

When she hung up the phone, she picked up a few pieces of fabric that would soon be a sweater, "We are so awesome!"

"Yeah, we are!" Len shouted, "I am so excited! I can't believe this! We are actually going to go away! A whole summer away- with Jeb and Cash no less!"

"And Cash?" Cherish scrunched her nose, "Excuse me, Hellene? Isn't one guy enough for you?"

"I mean for you, Cherry!"

"Cash- for me?"

"Well you guys always get along so well- no use in denying it, Cherry. One day you two will be married with little Cherry Cashes running around."

"Uh, Len, seriously, you scare me when you're happy. Just because you and Jeb have the perfect amazing relationship you have, does not mean Cash and I are suddenly going to hook up."

"But you want to!" Len singsonged.

"No, really- I don't. Cash and I are more of..."  She paused to think about it, "Well, we're the kind of friends who are inappropriately close, but will never be anything more than that. Besides, he's like my brother. And besides that- he's dating Jacqueline."

"Yeah, but after two months of being around you, with no Jacqueline to cloud his vision, you know that's gonna change."

"He bought her a ring you know."

Pin drop silence followed Cherish's deadpanned comment.

"HE WHAT?"

Cherish cringed, "A promise ring- he loves her."

"He didn't tell me that."

"That's because every time he talks to you about her you lecture him on being blind about me!"

"Yeah, maybe that's why," she mused with a laugh.  "Well now what are you two gonna do on this trip while Jeb and I..." she drifted off, grinning stupidly.

"We're gonna listen to music- you and Jeb can do whatever you two like! As long as I don't have to witness any of it"

"Well, no matter. We can find you a nice European guy! Or tons of them!"

"That's more like it!" Cherish joked, rolling her eyes because they both knew it would never happen.

"You know, even if we didn't go this summer, life is great! If I died right now I'd be so happy!"

The dreams flooded her, sending her into a spiral of silent tears and soft smiles. She missed her friend. She wanted nothing more than to put her arms around her and squeeze; she woke up clutching her pillow close to her chest. Her fingers stroked the back of the pillow as if it were actually a person and after some time of brushing the pillow's pain away, she pressed her mouth to it in the form of a kiss.

In her half conscious confusion she gazed at the pillow as if wondering where it came from and where her friend had gone. Realising it had been nothing but a dream, she smiled softly to herself, nodding plainly as she felt a tear break away from her eye. Slowly but surely the events of the night before crawled back into her mind, carefully pushing the happy dreams aside for a later time.

Within seconds she was jumping out of her bed excitedly. She tore into her bathroom, ripping her shirt and the bandage off on the way. She stood in front of the mirror her eyes squeezed shut, and opened them slowly to see the ink Quentin had graced her with. He had forbidden her to see it until she got home, and being much too exhausted, she hadn't even peeked. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw it. There across her chest was a beautiful and well suited homage to Len's memory.

Two glorious little swallows held up a banner between them. It draped across her chest, the ends hanging in beautiful folds from the beaks of the birds. The banner was inked in black, and would stay that way without any colour, but the birds would be colourful, she knew. There were two lines of writing on the banner; the first said, "Hellene Pierrot. Requiescat In Pace. 1998-2016." Below that, the second line was a joke, one that Len would have loved, "Non Timetus Messor."

She laughed when her eyes read the words; she never thought that she would laugh at something that so blatantly reminded her of Len's passing. But those words, "Non Timetus Messor," were the Latin version of Len's favorite saying. She had scribbled those words on countless things; she had even had them tattooed in a bracelet around her wrist, "Never fear the reaper."

If Quentin were there, she would have jumped on him- it was absolutely perfect! Then again Quentin's choice of art for her body was always perfect. She thought back to the very first time Quentin had tattooed her and remembered how fitting it had been at that time of her life. With a deep shaky breath, she closed her eyes on the memory of a time long gone, and forced herself to focus on the beauty of her new tattoo.

She combed out her hair, taking the time to pull it up into a neat ponytail, pushing the crown forward so it puffed out. As she washed her face off, she decided she would tell Ari the real reason behind her moving here. Peeling off her remaining clothes, which now reeked due to being slept in, she thought of maybe even tackling the task of telling Harper and Delia. Replacing the bandage over the newly tattooed flesh, she washed her body, with a quick spray of the shower. Wrapped in a towel, she emerged into her room, softly humming a song from her dreams. She stopped short when she pulled open her closet door- her clothes were missing.

What hung instead in the closet were a bunch of Ari's ideas of what she should be wearing. Small t-shirts, short skirts, typically mainstream pants, all in a variety of colours that screamed, "I've been hanging out in baby stores too long!" Either that or- well she wasn't quite sure, but at least her sister had thought to include one pair of black sweat pants. She yanked them on grudgingly; she had never before worn sweatpants. It was simply not her thing.

She examined the clothes, trying to find a shirt she might be able to bring herself to wear. When she didn't find one the first time, she resisted the urge to scream and looked again. There in the back of the closet, she found a red tank top. Yes, it did say, "Yield to the princess" on it, but she pulled a small red sweater over it. She felt like she looked ready to run a marathon, she also felt sloppy, and like her legs looked three times bigger than they should be. Sighing she opened her door, storming past Ari's room, "Dad?"

He didn't answer right away, but she heard Ari giggling downstairs. As she descended, the giggling got louder and she realised too late that Ari had guests. Pausing in the doorway, she stared at the group.

"Rish! Oh my gosh, you look so cute! See?  Look what a little change to your wardrobe can do!"

Cherish didn't let them see her anger as she crossed the room, grabbing a box of cereal from the cabinet behind her sister. "Where's Dad?"

"Oh. He's in the den. He's all spacey, working on something I guess. You know how he gets."

Cherish nodded, ignoring the looks she was getting from Ari's friends; eyes popping at what she wore and at her voluntarily neat hair. Ari paused suddenly and cocked her head to one side, examining Cherish, "Oh. My... You put your hair up, Rish! Looks good!"

"Where's my stuff?"

"What stuff?"

Cherish set a bowl down on the counter and turned the box over it, filling it to the brim with the chocolaty puffs. "The stuff you stole from my room, Ari, or am I to expect the tooth fairy took it?"

"Uh. Yeah. Well. That stuff... I... well, I threw it all away."

Cherish looked at her sister for some time, trying to gauge if she were serious or not, then with an eerily blank look on her face, she left.

"DAD!!!!!"

Shannon McKinley popped his head out the door on hearing his daughter scream. He had been very worried about her and dropped his work immediately when he heard her voice. "What is it, Cherish?"

She didn't look too bad as she entered his study, so he breathed a sigh of relief, settling himself down beside her on the arm of the recliner.

"How are you doing, Honey?"

"Okay."

She gazed up at him suddenly, "I noticed you cleaned up the glass. I'm sorry about that, Dad."

"It's okay, Bug, I'm just glad you're waking up."

"Yeah, I've been kind zombie-ish haven't I?"

He looked at her sadly, "Well, you had reason to be."

"No. Not really," she said quietly, munching thoughtfully on her cereal.  "I've been killing all of you. I could have handled it better, I think."

Her father smiled and chuckled lightly, "You know, Cherish, I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I'd rather have you back the way you were before."

"Really?" she examined him skeptically, before pursing her lips, "Dad- you hated it!"

"But it was you, Bug, it was you to a tee! This... the way you are now- is so... It's awful seeing you like this, you know?"

There was no answer for a long time; she chewed contemplatively and he watched her in silence.

"I know," she finally said.  "It hurts me to see me like this, too. She wouldn't have liked it."

He nodded, unsure of what to say and so placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry I took off yesterday. I had some things to deal with."

Her father's reactions to those words surprised her greatly, "As long as you've worked it out. I was worried on Friday night, but I was glad you went out yesterday."

Gaping like a goldfish, she tried to come up with something to say, but was much too shocked; was he learning from her mother? He chuckled again, that deep comforting chuckle of a loving father, "Anyways, I was thinking we could go out for dinner tonight, just the three of us. What do you say?"

She nodded as she got up; his words had signified the end of the conversation and she didn't want to keep him from his work.

"Cherish?"

"Yeah, Dad?" she stopped just outside the door.

"You were yelling when you came in here. Any reason?"

"Oh! Uh, yeah. Ari got rid of all my clothes and replaced them with a bunch of her old ones."

He laughed, "So that's why she was sick on Friday, huh?"

"Guess so."

He shook his head and reached for the large cabinet along the side of the den, "Well, Honey, I suppose this would be a good time for you to start wearing your old clothes again."

"Yeah, only they're in Montreal and I refuse to wear her clothes."

He opened the cabinet and pulled box after box out, till he had placed eight on the floor in front of her. "Your mother brought all your things over last weekend for your birthday. But, Cherish? You don't have to go through them until you want to. I'll make Ari return your stuff."

She smiled, running her fingers over the tops of the boxes, "No. She threw them all away. I think I'll go through them today anyways. I need to do this."

She swore she could see tears in her father eyes, but he bent quickly to pick up two boxes, "Come on, Bug, I'll give you a hand bringing these up to your room. Let's see if we can keep this a secret from Beetle, shall we?"

-.-

Breathing a sigh of relief she glanced around her room. It was no longer the white, insane asylum room. It was Cherry. The reading chair in the corner of her room was now flanked by some of her favorite music posters. There was the face of Elvis, looking out into her room in that brooding heartthrob way. Beside it was an angry faced Johnny Cash giving her the finger. There were countless bands with guys and girls who had big pompadours, glued perfectly in place or hair that was greasily slicked back. Mostly all of them were sneering, leering and gesturing crudely out of their pictures.

Her bed was fitted with new sheets- deep purple with black bat shaped marks. They had been an expensive and hard to find gift from Jeb, Len and Cash. On the bedside table was the macabre lamp that Harper had given her for her birthday. Over the windows, hung black curtains dotted with cherries and stars. In her closet, neatly lined up and organized, were all of her clothes. Her clothes.

With a deep breath, she delved into the final box. The one her mother had thoughtfully labelled "LEN." She knew she would find in this box everything that would cause her to break down again.

"Len." she said the name aloud, "Here I go, Babe, wish me luck."

The box was full of Len. The first thing she pulled out was a picture frame, psycho bitches, it said in huge blocky letters along the bottom. Len and her had made matching ones as part of a 10th grade art project, their own version of the sparkly best friends forever ones that had been popular when they were much younger. Inside the frame, her own face beside Len's stared up at her. Their faces were contorted into growls and sneers, tongues sticking out trying to make themselves look as psycho as the frame proclaimed them to be.

Cherish hugged the frame to her chest, holding it with the agonizing need to feel like she was holding Len. Len had the innate ability to make everything better. Without her there, Cherish felt as if she was falling apart. Len had always been the one to hold Cherish together, without fail. With a deep sigh, Cherish set the frame down beside her laptop where she knew she would see it everyday.

The next thing that her hand fell upon was a box, stuffed full of pictures and two photo albums. She set the albums down on her bed, beside her pillow so she could go through them before she went to bed. As she settled back down on the floor at the foot of her bed, she shoved aside the LEN box. As she carefully took the lid off the box of pictures, her breath caught in her throat knowing where she was pushing herself. Closing her eyes she scattered the contents of the picture box onto the floor. Her throat constricted, a painful lump of feeling blocking the air from going down.

Len was everywhere! She was laughing, crying, dancing, screaming, sleeping- just everywhere! She was kissing Jeb, kissing Cherish, sitting on Cash, hugging Quentin, hiding under a blanket with Jeb. She was even angrily smashing things on her back deck. Cherish found herself unable to cry, though the giant ball of welled up pain in her throat desperately wanted her to. She felt the small, occasional tear running out of her cried out eyes and onto her face, but they were not accompanied by giant convulsing sobs.

There was pain, yes, SO much pain! But the rage and anger and unbearable helplessness had spent themselves shamelessly the previous days. Instead, what she found herself doing was smiling, giggling- laughing even. The pictures, the hundreds of them, were a monument to their friendship and their escapades, and she did not want to lose one of them. She did not want Len to become a half hazy memory she would think she imagined; Len didn't deserve that.

When Cherish finally surfaced from the depths of her room hours later, her face was tear stained and splotchy red from crying, but she felt... happy.

*Title song by Reverend Horton Heat

The song on the radio: (1) Creature of the Night- The Creepshow