Crazed Minds | ✔️

epilogue

"And their hope grew with a hunger to live."
-The Curse, Agnes Obel
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~ about four weeks later ~

"You're zoning out again."

I roll my eyes and turn my attention from the view outside the window back to Alec, who is staring down at his homework on the bed in front of him. His legs are folded beneath him as he scribbles writing across the page while I sit across from him on my knees and watch him closely.

In the late morning sunlight, his dark hair has a few innocent golden streaks, and it almost makes him look vulnerable, but his brow is furrowed with concentration and his soft lips are puckered slightly which banish the thought completely. He's wearing dark jeans with a light grey sweater, the sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms.

"I'm daydreaming," I explain quietly, gazing at his perfect brown eyes flickering across the page.

"About what?"

I was thinking about the day Rosa and Jasper tied me up and tortured the voices out of my mind. Since then, the voices have disappeared and my mind feels clear, almost fresh. As for Rosa, she is no longer headmistress here. She left before we could tell the police about what she did. I guess Seth's threat actually worked. The police left a week ago since they couldn't find anything that would lead to the deaths, but at least we know. And Jasper? He's still here, but I heard he's leaving soon since it's nearly his eighteenth birthday. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Maybe a part of me will miss the old Jasper.

The breeze from the open window gently lifts my hair. Outside, I can hear the chirping of birds and the swishing of the trees when the leaves brush against one another, making a sound a lot like waves lapping against the shore.

"Everything," I murmur absently, gazing at the bruises around my wrists from the handcuffs. They are beginning to fade, but whenever I see them, a nasty feeling fills my gut when I remember what happened.

Alec looks up from his math homework and puts it aside. When he sees me staring at my wrists, he gently takes hold of my hand and presses his lips to my bruises, keeping his eyes trained on me. When he pulls away, Alec murmurs, "You know I won't let that happen to you again."

I smile a proper smile and shuffle forward on the bed so our knees are touching. I place my hand onto the hem of his sweater and lift it up to get a glimpse of the bandage wrapped around his abdomen. I glance up at him and ask, "Does it still hurt?"

He grips my hand and places it onto the place where Jasper stabbed him. "No."

I gaze up at him for a long time, pressing my lips together. I still feel guilty about it. If Alec hadn't come to save me, he wouldn't have been hurt.

I break his stare and pull my hand away, staring at my lap. His sweater falls down again as I sigh and change the subject. "I bet you're getting annoyed of me being around here so much."

He shakes his head slightly. "No, it's nice that you're the first thing I see in the morning. And ever since you started staying here the night terrors have stopped."

"Tell me about those," I say, straightening up a little.

He looks away and then back to me, a brief hesitation. "Flashbacks of my mother. Flashbacks of what I did to that teacher." Pause. "I used to get nightmares about seeing Elena fall from the roof." He doesn't say anything for a moment, but finally continues, "I don't get those ones anymore. Since I met you, I started having nightmares of you being stabbed, and when I looked down, it was me who was stabbing you. But since the incident in the basement, I haven't had any."