APHELION | ✓

postlude | in the light of day

idk what you guys were expecting after that last chapter but here's the epilogue ft. the most predictable plot twist ever but I'm happy about it xD

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DARKNESS WAS MARIELLA'S ONLY FRIEND.

It was only in the blissful darkness of sleep that she could get rid of all the burdens weighing her weary shoulders down. It was in those few stolen moments spent all alone in the dark that she could be free from the judging eyes of the world around her. It was in the warm blanket of night wrapped around her that she could finally take off her steely armour and allow a few tears to leak through her eyes.

Nighttime, Mariella had recently come to realise, was a thing of unparalleled beauty. It hid from sight the true horrors of the world. It presented one with the perfect opportunity to pretend things which didn't exist were reality and things which were real didn't exit. It was the time to get lost in fantasies which could only be broken by the arrival of dawn when the cursed sun shattered all dreams by shining light upon the cruelest truths of life.

That was why she had grown to hate daytime. It was hard to pretend everything was okay when you could clearly see the world for what it was — a cold, miserable place where true happiness was about as likely as sunshine at nighttime.

Darkness hid truths from sight whereas light exposed them.

Take this morning for example, when she had opened the front door of her cottage only to find a familiar wrinkled old man standing at her doorstep. His presence alone wouldn't have disturbed her; he was, after all, one of the few people who hadn't turned his back on her family after her husband's arrest.

What made her catch her breath was the sight of the unconscious girl in his arms which were trembling under her weight.

Calista had gone missing the previous afternoon and Mariella had been distraught with worry for her eldest child. She had spent hours roaming the town streets, calling her name but to no avail. She found no trace of her daughter but what she did find left her feeling sick to the stomach.

Calista's boyfriend — the guy Calista said was her one true love, the one person who would never break her heart — had been lying dying in his kitchen. And as he desperately devoured his last breaths of air, in a tortured voice, he had told her:

"It was Calista."

These words had echoed around Mariella's numb mind like the beat of a thousand dreaded war drums, signalling doom and disaster.

It was Calista. It was Calista. It was Calista.

Mariella had desperately hoped and prayed that it wasn't true. How could it possibly be true?

She recalled the way Calista had smiled at her before leaving to see her boyfriend. She had been wearing the lovely white dress which she had stitched herself. Although she had big hands, they were graceful and gentle and she had stitched the dress with tender care.

In hopes to impress her boyfriend, Calista had even worn makeup — something she hesitated to do on most days in spite of her love for it. She thought it didn't look good on her and Mariella found that absurd. Calista may not be a beauty according to worldly standards but in Mariella's eyes, her daughter was truly the most beautiful of all women. Her name suited her so perfectly as if it had been specially created just for her.