Headsets For Fear

PRESENT 23 : EPILOGUE : KAITLIN

Six Months After

We are finally moving out today. None of us wanted this to happen, really. We really were getting used to staying with each other, and really liking it. But we couldn't continue this way, now that everything was over. This was Octo's house.

Benjamin and I had rented an apartment in which we could live together. It wasn't anything extravagant, but it was a spacious and cosy place. The rent fit perfectly in our budget, and we both loved it.

Now that there wasn't any game to kill people, Benji's website lost its crazy popularity. But we opened a website for counselling people and spreading positivity. Of course, Benji worked for a firm as well, so I did most of the work.

Benji was surprised that in the end, he actually started a job like that. He had grown less and less sulky with every passing month. The dark shadow had passed from his life.

It was a little difficult in my case.

It was four months since Amara was killed, and Anthine's Web had been destroyed. But its effects were still lingering in our house. I could still hear Nora crying in her room, sometimes calling out Callan's name, sometimes Alex's, and sometimes Corinne's. It had grown a lot less frequent now, but I couldn't entirely shake my worry off.

She was very good at hiding it from us. But we had grown to notice the little things.

Rick had informed that day, that Nora was going to arrest Amara. Naturally, we were worried. Even Benji, who tried to shrug it off, saying nothing bad was going to happen, had a pale face for the entire day.

We had not got any news till late at night. And the news came in the form of a bloody, ragged Nora, who seemed to have just returned from a storm.

It took her a long time, almost two hours, to get rid of her soiled clothes, have a hot bath, put ointment on her wounds, and finally sit with some food in the living room. She wouldn't tell us anything that happened initially. She just kept slurping on her cup noodles. Once she had finished it up, she burst into tears.

All of us stayed up that night, listening to her spine-curdling story. How they had found Amara, how she found that Callan had betrayed her, how her colleagues were killed - and how she got to know the truth.

I surprised myself when I realised that Corinne siding with Amara did not bother me at all. Perhaps it was because I knew her dark side from childhood. I had seen her scorn the weak behind her back, and complain aggressively about how no one recognised her talent and how everyone else was stupid. I wasn't shocked that she was capable of this. Even though I understood why Nora was heartbroken, I could not relate  with it.

The poor girl had faced terrible things in a single night. She was shaken, confused and tired. Both physically and mentally.

Since Alex was dead now, Nora couldn't return there. After the rescue team from the FBI arrived, they sent all of the surviving agents, which were only five in number, either to their homes or to the hospital, depending on how injures they were. Nora and her colleague Jeremy were the only ones in the first category.

Nora was returning to her normal self, but we could see that she had grown more serious. One wouldn't notice it if they didn't know her well. But there was this underlying tension that had developed within her. After the first night, she never cried in front of us.

One day, we were talking about where we would be five years from now, and Benji had playfully put an arm around my shoulder and said, "Married to her."

I had seen Nora's face grow pale, jsu before she smiled. Just for a split second. Though I didn't understand why back then, I do now. She had once told me that her relationship with Callan might result in marriage. She had hoped.

After the trial, almost all the people involved in the case were given life imprisonment, including Elijah. I had thought Rick would react to that in some way. But he didn't. He had moved on. In our own ways, we all had moved on from the past.

Earlier today, Rick had told me that he was going to buy an apartment near Nora's house. Just to keep an eye on her, to see that she was okay. Since Nora would never approve if he moved into her apartment. The guy worried himself about her too much, in my opinion. Like the obsessive brother who thought his sister needed to be protected. Nora had proven, more than enough times, that she was capable of taking care of herself.

I hauled out my suitcase slowly, and Nora helped me put them in the car. I looked back at the house where we had shared so many memories, both painful and happy. I took a deep breath and mentally thanked Octo for allowing us to live here for six months.

Sometimes, when you looked back at the painful memories and realised how much you had grown for them, you felt grateful for all those moments when you had decided to stay strong.

That was what I was doing now.
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