He covered her mouth with his and she cried happily into their kiss and she got her answer. I turned to my wife and she looked at me like I was an alien. That thought stung after everything we'd just been through. She whispered the words like a prayer, "You stayed with me?"
"Of course I did. I told you I always would."
"But….I just thought you said that because the day would never come. You actually…chose me, over everything you've waited your whole life for."
"You are my life," I told her sternly in a growl against her forehead. "You are my life, baby. I'm here to stay."
Her sobs may have been the loudest of the whole bunch. It was almost funny how we all sat around and cried like a heap of babies for the ones lost, for the ones gone home, and for the ones who stayed who gave up one paradise for another kind.
I pulled her face up once more and kissed her eyes, tasting the tears that were sh
ed for me and no one else. God…
thank you for this gift, for this girl, for this opportunity at having my everything, for letting me feel the difference between content and happy, for letting me have this family that loved me to my core and vice versa.
Thank you for making me
just to end up in the arms of the girl I watched when I wasn't supposed to. The girl who stole my heart and saved it all in the same moment. The girl who I'd grow old with and die with, happily, blissfully,
contently.
The end was looking pretty good. Brown eyes met mine and I was looking at my future. My brown eyed everything that saved us.
My Sherry.
The Beautiful End
Sherry
His skin was warm, but not as warm as it had been. It really was true. He was here to stay, he'd chosen us.
He'd chosen me.
I felt…torn again. I wanted him to stay, but he'd given up so much. I looked up into his green eyes and tried to tell him everything with my stare. My mouth would never utter the words, but I wanted him to know. The tears wouldn't stop either. He kissed my eyes. Such a sweet gesture and gave me a look that told
me
everything.
That I was an idiot if I thought he'd ever leave
me
.
We were on our knees in the sand and it bit into my skin, but I was focused on other things. I wrapped my arms around his neck a
nd breathed him in. He squeezed me to his chest and said into my ear, "I can't believe this."
"I know," I agreed and leaned back a fraction. I gazed at his face with nothing but love. "It's over, finally."
"No," he said and chuckled. It sent goose bumps all over me. "No. I can't believe…I got everything I ever wanted."
"Stop," I told him and sniffed. "You're going to make me cry again."
He smiled. "I'll be here to wipe them away. Forever."
I melted in more ways than one. He kissed my forehead. His smile was pure happiness, but when we heard a scream behind us, we both turned.
Chesser was still kneeling in the sand in a stupor, but apparently had woken up. He was screaming at the sky. I felt my heart lurch thinking of all of the horrible possibilities. Was he still the Taker? Was he something else? But then he started to laugh. A deep, hysterical laugh and he bent down and kissed the dirt. He held his hands up and let two fistful
s
of sand go and they blew over us in the wind.
He looked over at us.
Us
being all of us who had stopped what we were doing to watch the maniac.
"We did it!" he yelled and laughed again. "And you!" he pointed at Lily and got up, running to her. Her swung her around and hugged her to him. "You brought me back, you darling little thing!"
She smiled at him and tilted her head. "Did you like Mrs. Trudy?"
"Was that her name?" He smiled, too. "She sure was bossy." I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I covered my mouth to keep it to myself as he continued. "She said it was over." He looked around at all the bodies littering the ground. "I guess she was right."
"What are we going to do now?" Rylee spoke up. She was dirty and her arm was bleeding. "What about the town?"
"Let's go inside," Miguel said. "We'll clean up and see what the next step is." He took Rylee's hand. "Come on, ginger."
"I love it when you call me ginger," she crooned. He grinned smugly, but then she socked him in the arm. "Not. Stop calling me that, Aussie, or we're gonna throw down again."
He laughed and threw his arm over her shoulder. "You got it, sheila. You got it."
"Well," Danny sighed, "I wonder what Mom and Dad would say about all this." Celeste sat stoic in his lap. She understood that Kay needed to go, but after just recently losing her mother, naturally she was upset. He stroked her arm and let her snuggle in for comfort. I was proud of him.
I rubbed the bandage on Merrick's foot that I had applied,
making sure it was still stuck and watched Frank and Calvin chase Bones around the crates, playing fetch with my wooden spoon.
"I don't know," I confessed. "I'm actually afraid of what they'd say."
I leaned back into Merrick as we sat on the floor, leaning on the crates. He kissed the side of my neck and I sighed. "What do you think they'd say, Merrick?"
He pressed his mouth to my bare shoulder, right over my Marker's scratch and his words were muffled. "Don't get me started on those two."
"
Things are so different now," Celeste said. "I can feel it. Things are going to be so…normal. It's weird."
"Normal," Merrick mused and smiled. He leaned down to whisper into my ear. "No more Keeper talk, no more being oblivious to the cold, no more speed. You sure you still want me when I'm not so fantastic?" he joked.
I laughed. "I do wish you'd gotten to speak to me just one more time in my mind." I looked up at him over my shoulder. "Your real Keeper voice was so sexy."
"Like how? Deep?" He lowered his voice a notch. "Like this?"
I giggled. "Lower."
Lower, he said, "Like this, baby?"
I laughed harder, along with Danny and Celeste, who were listening apparently. "That's it. Keep that up and we'll be fine."
"No problem." He nipped my earlobe. "Anything you want."
"I've got everything I want."
I felt him sigh and knew he knew that I was telling the truth. I couldn’t lie.
Later a shaken
Cain, which was a sight to see
let me tell ya, told us what h
ad happened to him and Daniel. After he hugged me long and hard, h
e told us about how Daniel had went to the store only to find it ransacked. He guessed that was when they took Piper.
He told us about going to the vet doctor because Daniel took him there by mistake. He told us about finding the line maps for the broadcast stations and he told us about what Daniel had done to save him. Lillian must've heard the story already because she sat silently in Cain's lap on the floor and clung to his neck.
She looked unsettled….but settled. It was weird
and I felt for her
. Marissa spoke up and told us about the vision she'd seen. She debated on whether to tell Daniel or not, but to not let someone do the task that was set out for them was never a good thing. Daniel had been meant to switch sides and save us. In the end, he saved all his brothers as well and they all went home, never to return.
Daniel. The Lighter who saved us all.
"I've got a little surprise," Chesser told everyone when we'd all cleaned up as much as we could and sat in the big room together. "I need to check something out first, but if it pans out, you're going to love me."
"What is it?" Jeff asked, his usual Keeper self. Though he wasn't a Keeper anymore.
"I'll explain later. Mind if I take the van?"
"Sure
, mate
,
" Miguel spouted and turned on the TV. "Before you head into town let's…"
The town was a mess.
Stores had been destroyed, some things were on fire and still burning. The streets were littered with debris and the wind whipped som
e of it around into the air. The anchorwoman
stood in front of the sign that I had defaced.
Our Town
now blazed behind her as she said
what was happening. The sound of
yelling could be heard from behind the camera.
As she
, who was no longer compelled, walked through town and showed the destruction, she also showed the people gathering in the streets.
They were…celebrating.
I gripped my husband to me and we all watched enraptured. We'd been fighting here and they'd been fighting
there.