Number 5

Epilogue

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After the night Grayson and I spent together, everything began to fall into place. Admittedly there were few simple moments. In fact everything was a struggle that Grayson and I spent the next 8 years dealing with.

The day after, Grayson left me after an arduous and gruelling argument to personally arrest Mangold with the other leaders. My plea was to join him and his was for me to stay in the dwelling. He made the case that in the event anything did happen, at least one leader would be able to take charge.

When they arrived to seize the snake, they found Mangold had fled with a small group of Exiles never to be heard of again. Everywhere was searched; the dwellings, the Exiles and even the outlands. It seemed they had simply vanished and soon the name 'President Mangold' became nothing more than 2 words spelling a name that people forgot.

That's how he must of wanted it to be because 2 years later, Mangold and his army of Exiles returned, trying to infiltrate the 5th dwelling. The frightening part is that they almost succeeded. If it weren't for the slip up of an overheard, whispered conversation, I am positive that Grayson and I would both have been killed. The thought of the sneaky snake having managed to have snuck into the dwelling still causes a chill to run up my spine to this day.

Mangold was not able to escape this time and due to the fragile condition his ageing body was in, his lasted little more than 2 months in the cells. I would have said I felt guilty but I cannot. The day Mangold died was the day Grayson and I were freed from the oppression and threat he had held over us.

The leaders of the 5 dwellings met again after the decease. It was agreed by a public vote to leave 5 dwellings as they were so they could be managed simply. The difference was that people were now able to travel and move from dwelling to dwelling as they pleased. The social barriers erected by our ancestors slowly began to break down. People began to understand more about people foreign from their dwellings. The stereotypes each dwelling had implanted into the minds of their people about the others were proved wrong. Rumours about the deranged demons of the 5th dwelling, the liars of the 4th dwelling, the cheaters of the 3rd dwelling, the thieves of the 2nd dwelling and the lethal angels of the 1st dwelling no longer circulated.

The Summonings and Sortings were also left in place; it seems the people matched couldn't have been happier. However, the rules were changed so that it was no longer compulsory. Over 90% of the Summoned 16 year olds each year attended. I was blinded and wrong when I was Summoned. I thought it meant the end of my freedom and the start of a dictated life. But it was the opposite. It opened the door to Grayson and the beginning of a new style of freedom.

"Elle its about to begin." I hear Grayson call me. I shake my head to snap myself out of my trance.

Today is Ana and Ollie's wedding which also falls on both Ana and I's 24th birthday. I am Ana's maid or matron (as she prefers to call it) of honour. Grayson wraps his arm around my waist and kisses my cheek.

"I take great pride in knowing that my wife is the most beautiful woman in the room." He comments, his grey eyes sparkling.