The near ruins of Nicholls' manse held far less threat in the morning light. Birds had made their nests among the nooks and crannies of the blood red foyer and they flitted and swooped as they came and went, singing and chirping. Matt leaned against the wall by the open front door and sighed. It had been six weeks since they had fought for their lives in the darkness and flickering candlelight of the house. Six weeks since their lives had been changed so dramatically. He put his hand against his abdomen, imagining he could feel the wound where the bullet had cut through him. If it hadn't been for Wallace maybe...
"If it hadn't been for me what?" she grinned, skipping in from the kitchen. Matt met her smile with his, as she slipped her arms around his waist and brought her lips briefly to his.
"Just thinking again how you saved my life".
"Mm-hmm," she nodded, kissing him again. "You're indebted to me now, Desmarais".
"I believe you owe your present freedom to me, Miss Lynn," he murmured against her lips.
Wallace laughed, winding her arms around his neck, pulling her head back so she could meet his gaze. "And by the way Freddie and Rhian think I'm charming".
"I doubt those words actually came from their own mouths," he laughed.
"Well I might have taken a peek," she whispered, as Matt spied his brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law coming into view. Wallace tensed slightly as she felt their presence, her tawny-brown skin flushing with a sudden awkwardness. She pressed her lips together, stepping from Matt to a more respectable distance, but she kept her hand on his waist for good measure.
"So?" Matt asked, raising an eyebrow at his brother. Freddie had grown stronger since he had left them, gaining weight and muscle until it was hard to tell he had ever been so ill. Rhian's auburn hair was wound into a loose braid, her freckled face wrought with concern.
"I don't know how you ever thought it was a good idea to come back here," Rhian breathed, shuddering as she gazed around the room.
"It was Ethan's idea," he sighed. He had explained this to them enough times. "It's been hard on everyone since..." he trailed off. "It's supposed to give us closure or something". He shrugged, careful not to point out that they wouldn't have allowed him to come back to the house unaccompanied. They had become far more overprotective since they had been reunited following the battle.
"Where are the others anyway?" Freddie asked, gazing around the hallway that nature seemed to be claiming back as its own.
"They're upstairs," Wallace breathed, slipping her hand into Matt's and squeezing it. "We should probably go up. They'll be waiting on us".
Matt sighed and nodded. With Wallace's hand in his, they climbed the staircase to where the most damage had occurred during the fight against The Mimic. Freddie and Rhian followed in their wake, like tourists on a guided tour. They passed through the doors to the circular room, the carved wood barely clinging to its hinges.
"Glad you could make it," Ethan smiled, though his eyes remained tense. "I don't think I ever had the chance to really thank you for what you did for us". Wallace released Matt's hand and beckoned Freddie and Rhian over to introduce them to the others.
"It was nothing... just common sense in the last moments, I guess," he shrugged.
"Common sense, yet you were the only one smart enough to see its advantages". Ethan held out a hand to Matt and Matt clasped it tightly, a small swell of pride pushing away some of his unease at returning.
"It could have easily disproved the point I was trying to make, but luckily Charlotte..." Matt let his words trail off. A silence enveloped them. "Well her little speech showed the world who the real villains were". Matt had never really considered the importance of what he was doing when he had set the video up to stream the encounter against The Mimic that night in the hall. He had even forgotten what had happened, but it had turned viral and the world had seen what they had been faced with. It had proved their innocence and the guilt of the person the world had trusted the most in the face of Kingston's creations. Even though he was wearing the guise of James at the time, his face had been in shadow and when they had found the body of Ramsey, the villain had been revealed and they had been exonerated. It had led the outside world right to them, offering them the support they had so desperately needed by the end.
"Well... thank you," Ethan breathed. "We are all indebted to you". Ethan left him and approached Cary who appeared uneasy, standing by the open window. Wallace smiled encouragingly at Matt, already knowing what he was thinking. Matt sighed and nodded wordlessly to her before walking towards James Alexander.
He glanced at Matt a little uneasily, before holding out his hand to him. A peace accord. Matt took his hand in his and shook it.
"I'm sorry..." he managed to say.
"It's so stupid..." James mumbled. "I keep looking towards the doors, thinking she will just walk through them..."
"I know," Matt said in what he hoped was a comforting tone.
An uncomfortable silence descended on them. "And listen... Matt... I'm sorry for punching you. That was incredibly out of line. I just... you know my head wasn't on straight then and..."
"Don't worry about it," Matt laughed. "I mean Wallace is probably the person who took it most to heart, but... let's not pretend it hadn't been on your mind before this whole mess too. It was probably coming for a long time. I think I might have even deserved it".
"Probably," James chuckled. His gaze flickered to the door again, a glint of disappointment crossing his face. Matt glanced at the ground, a certain awkwardness passing over him. James seemed to sense it and shrugged.
"Maybe it would have been easier if Kiya hadn't recovered our memories from Ramsey," he whispered. "Maybe if I couldn't remember... I wouldn't feel like this..."
Matt stared at the ground, heat rising in his cheeks. "I don't think it would have been much easier. Maybe if you had gone through with having your mind wiped again... but even how you were, you know you were already... sort of under her spell. She does that you know".
James nodded slowly and sighed. "I just..."
"I know," Matt said as James' words failed.
"I think this is everyone," Ethan called, breaking the strange and awkward moment between James and Matt. They had been enemies... or rivals at least, but now... it seemed insignificant.
Matt moved back to Wallace entwining his arm around her waist and placing a kiss on the top of her head. Ian stood with Annakiya her head resting against his chest. Ian met Matt's eyes and nodded without a glint of a smile before turning his attention back to Ethan.
Cary stood next to Freddie and Rhian who seemed lost and out of place among the group. Harris, his hair tied back waited stoically next to them, his satchel, as always, slung over his shoulder. James hovered just beyond the circle, his mouth drawn and his hair dishevelled. Matt pulled Wallace closer, the obvious gaping hole in the group widening as they all noted her absence.
"I know... it might seem strange to come back here, especially when we are all trying to get used to our new lives, with our birth families and the attention following the battle, but I think we needed to come together, to be the team we were before all of this". His words ended awkwardly as if he knew they were a lie. They weren't altogether.
"This place has come to represent some dark times for us and darker of late, but in the light of day we can see it's nothing more than a shell, a shell we defeated. This is our true family. A family willing to lay down our lives for each other. You can't get much closer than that and we need to take strength from it".
Silence followed his words, but in them Matt could feel something healing. The villains were gone; they had left only ruins behind them. They had reinstated their innocence. They gazed at each other and smiled, everyone but James. Matt wondered if he would ever find the healing he needed.
"We're all so much calmer when we're not being hunted," Ian sighed with a wry smile. Wallace turned into Matt chuckling against his neck almost secretively and placed a kiss on his jaw. Matt frowned glancing down at her. Her hazel-green eyes twinkled as she nodded towards the door, a childish look of glee on her face.
Matt followed her gaze, a smile cracking over his own expression.
"Speak for yourself O'Connell – I mean whose idea was it to make this our meeting place?"
Charlotte stood in the doorway, her cheeks ablaze with a crimson blush, her blue eyes sparkling.
Thanks for reading part one of our epilogue of sorts! I hope you enjoyed this! I am a little scared now that it is so close to the very end! Yet I must give you an ending! Tomorrow I hope you will have it all! Please vote and comment, before you go! Thank you all so much as always, Sorcha x
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Feared
Science Fiction'Play the game, she thought, remembering the only three words that had helped her to survive at Kingston. Only back then she had known the game, she had known what they wanted her to be, what they had wanted her to do - this man was different. She d...
