As morning light slowly turns into midday he watches the young albino woman finally fall into deep sleep. A small smile etches itself in his aged features as he slowly gets up from the couch. He doesn't want to move but something keeps telling him he needs to go to the back. Without a second glance, Lazarus, walks through the old kitchen, down the narrow claustrophobic hall, into his old bedroom. He stands in the entryway looking around until a half degraded cardboard box catches his attention. He crosses the room and sits haphazardly on the corner of the bed. The top of the box has been partially eaten away by rodents revealing a series of partially open manilla envelopes. He shakes his head as he tries to remember if these had been there before he was changed but there's nothing. He reaches down to start lifting up the crumbling box and as soon as he does, the entire bottom falls out. Lazarus signs before reaching down to pick up yellowed papers strewn out underneath his feet. Then a piece of stiff yellowed parchment paper catches his eye; he recognizes it as what used to be someone's vital records. The only thing he doesn't understand is why his name is listen under paternal figure.
Celest appears at the steps of the same decrepit apartment building with her newest addition of dark souls in tow. She turns her head from left to right and scans for any sign of movement. They had been here recently because the human woman was bleeding. A sickly sweet smell of blood led Celest inside. Yet, she halted when she saw the destruction. It was hard to believe that the last time she had been here the place was lively and kept in order. The overpowering stench of rotting wood and death masked the sweet smell the albino woman had given off. Celest let out an irritated scream before storming back out into broad daylight.
At the sound of another piercing cry, Mae, finally awoke. Her body was drenched in a cold sweat and when she opened her eyes, she was completely alone. She remained on the worn out couch, bringing her knees up to her chest, as her tired eyes continued to glance around for a sign of the strange man ever being there. She found it when she heard his light footsteps coming through the old kitchen area and the faintest sigh of relief escaped upon seeing his face. His eyes had changed color once again, now they were pale blue. He tried to give what he'd assumed to be a comforting smile as she moved over to make room for him on the couch. He carefully handed her a large stake of yellowed pages before sitting himself down beside her. She looked confused at the papers since she couldn't read. Then he started speaking, nearly scaring her out of her skin, "She was my granddaughter. Your friend. What was her name again?"
Mae looked from the yellowed pages to the aging man beside her only to see he was staring teary eyed at the husk of her lifelong friend and superior. She took a shaky breath before responding, "Lillian. Her name was Lillian."
She watched him carefully fold his hands on top of each other, while his eyes never left the empty shell in the middle of the floor. He sighed, reaching over for her hand before continuing, "Celest is beginning to become reckless and I am finally dying. This means she's losing her grip on humans and that's what we wanted," the more he talked the more labored his breathing grew but that didn't appear to stop him, "Pretty soon I'm sure she will do something out of the ordinary. I know you heard the scream this morning, so did I. That was her. I'm not sure how she tracked us but I do know that if we want to get this over with we need to find that old crypt. The one I woke up in all those years ago. There's something there but I just can't remember what it is exactly," he nods toward the papers still laying in Mae's lap, "I'll teach you to read and write as quickly as I can, you'll look through these and a few others. If the file is still here then we won't have much trouble getting the information for the crypt."
The air seems to hum with the fear and tension between them after Lazarus finished speaking. She doesn't understand what's going on, but she doesn't have time to figure it out, as the sound of scraping nails echoes from the stairwell and through the hall. They've been found.