[✓] 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡 || 𝐙𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐧 (𝐒𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐙𝐨𝐨𝐦)

epilogue

"dad! let me out!" a teenage girl pounded on her bedroom door. "you can't lock me in here forever!" her screams shook the house.

"don't let her out. she snuck out of the house to meet her boyfriend at a party where there was alcohol she needs to suffer the consequences." the mother spoke as she leaned against the kitchen counter.

"katelyn, to be fair, we did run away from our parents to go to europe and then got wasted at a bar," her husband said.

"yeah, but we were eighteen and nineteen. maddie is sixteen!"

the couple fell silent. "what are we going to do? the party was three days ago. at least let her out of her room. we can't keep her in there for the next week."

"try two," katelyn rolled her eyes.

suddenly the house got quiet. it was already late into the night and zach and katelyn had already pulled out multiple glasses of wine. all they had been listening to for the past few hours was their daughter's heavy metal music turned up on the loudest setting on her speaker. but all of the sudden, no electric guitars could be heard.

"zach," katelyn whispered, making sure her ears weren't playing tricks on her. both of them stood up straight and put down their empty wine glasses.

"we should probably go check on her," zach said, running upstairs and katelyn following him. when they reached maddie's bedroom, zach tapped on her door with the back of his knuckle. when they heard no response, katelyn took her bedroom key out of her pocket and slipped it in the keyhole. then they abruptly pushed open the door.

"what are you doing?" katelyn called out. maddie had a backpack full of clothes and her foot out her window— which katelyn was terrified of because her bedroom was on the second floor.

zach jumped across the room and grabbed his daughter from jumping out the window. "what the hell maddie?" he gasped. "you're gonna break a leg or something!"

"gonna break a leg? try getting in more trouble then you're already in! why are you sneaking out?" katelyn was furious. maddie didn't answer her which made her even angrier. then maddie's phone buzzed. she tried to hide the noise but her dad yanked the phone away before she could.

zach checked the text messages. the only one was from her boyfriend. zach had only met him once, katelyn never at all. he seemed sketchy to zach and dangerous, but zach and katelyn agreed to let her keep her love life private. until now.

"you're sneaking out to see corey?" zach raised his voice. "you are grounded, you know you are, and you're sneaking out to see your boyfriend? i knew i should have taken your phone away! i've been trying to be lenient with you and you crossed the line anyway!" zach was shouting at maddie which scared her and katelyn. zach was always so kind and such a loving father. he couldn't hurt a fly. only catch them in a glass jar with a napkin cover and then release them into the backyard. but after seeing his daughter almost get into real danger, he couldn't be the nice guy anymore.

zach heard katelyn sniffle from behind him. it was hard for her to see her daughter act just like she did when she was a teenager. she finally realized why her parents punished her the way they did. katelyn sat down on maddie's bed while maddie was still in zach's grasp.

"i'm sorry to do this to you," katelyn cried. "but you have to understand why we are keeping you in here. there are thing you don't know that happened to me because i rebelled from my parents just like you are doing now."

maddie was angry from being trapped all day, but she hated seeing her mother cry. zach already knew what was coming. the two of them agreed to not tell maddie about the year 2020 until it was necessary, just because it was such a dark time for them. but now felt pretty necessary.

"when i was eighteen, i ran away from my parents. i left to see your father who was my boyfriend at the time. we we ended up going to paris for a few days. when we came back, i got really sick."

maddie was interested in the story. she was always interested in the stories that her parents told her about their childhoods. her favorite was the one of her dad's world famous band. her second favorite was how her parents met online. and her third favorite was of her older cousin lavender who she loved so much. she didn't know if she would like this story, but she felt that it was an important one.

"COVID-19 was a dangerous virus if you were the right person. and i was." zach took maddie into his arms and sat her down in his lap on the floor.

"i watched as your mom coughed and stopped breathing on her front porch while i was hundreds of miles away," zach said softly. maddie felt her heart fall.

"i fell into a coma in the hospital and three days later, my respirator malfunctioned."

"i was in her hospital room when it happened. i thought she was going to die. i'm glad you didn't."

"the point is, i just wanted to leave my house too. my parents kept me locked in my room for two weeks, too. i just wanted to see zach. but it almost cost me my life. i know it's hard to hear, but if you had gotten drunk at that party, we could have lost you forever. and if we let you leave the house, i know you'll just go and see corey again. i'm just afraid you'll do something worse than get drunk, and i don't want to see that happen."

"we are only trying to protect you," zach hugged his daughter tightly.

maddie stood up and left her backpack on the floor. she sat down next to her mom. unexpectedly, the wrapped her arms around katelyn and squeezed her as tight as she could.

"i'm sorry."