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EPILOGUE ALL IS GOOD
There's a soft rain that pours down as they're wrapped in blankets and checked over by the paramedics. Isla's head rests on Abby's shoulder as they stare at the commotion around them. Sirens blare and voices shout as smoke rises from the mall. Despite the victory that they had reveled in, there was still so much death, so much blood, so much hurt. The people who had been molded into the Mind Flayer's puppets never emerged, Billy's bloody and broken body had been lifted out of the ruins sometime before. Alex and Steve now sport matching black eyes along with an assortment of other bruises and bloodied lips inflicted by Billy, Max too, has a bruise forming just under her eye from the hands of Billy.
There isn't much to be said in the silence that sits between Abby and Isla. Too much has happened, this is the closest thing to peace that they've gotten in a long while. They're both still consumed in their own plaguing thoughts. They don't know if their families are safe, for all either of them know, their families had been a part of the melted mass of a monster.
Isla lets out a sudden gasp and lifts her head off of Abby's shoulder. Abby frowns slightly, instantly noticing the absence of her friend's comfort before her eyes land on Isla's parents flanked by her father. They tear across the parking lot with wild eyes before they land on the girls on the back of the ambulance. Abby lets out a small relieved laugh because there stands James Foster, unscathed and alive. She sheds the blanket around her shoulders and charges for her dad, meeting him halfway and throwing her arms around him, sinking into his embrace.
"Dad, thank god," she whispers into his shoulder.
They stay like that for a few moments, rocking back forth. Tears of relief spill from Abby's eyes as she breathes in the familiar scent of their laundry detergent that still clings to her father's shirt. She can feel him grasp the fabric of her own shirt as if he were making sure that she was really there. It doesn't occur to her yet that there was still one person missing from their clan, not until she finally pulls away from her father.
"Dad ..." she whispers with a tremble in her voice. "Wh—where's mom? Is she—" Abby's voice catches, she can't finish the sentence because something about that would make the situation all more real.
James shakes his head. "Your mom's fine. She just needs rest, that's all."
"Why? What's wrong with her?" Abby asks, heart still pounding. She wonders if it was possible to be flayed and not join the rest of the body, what if the Mind Flayer still had an unsevered connection and her mother was that connection?
