A Descent into Darkness

Epilogue

At four minutes after 1 pm, the day after her bother killed four people and got himself shot dead, Liza Rivers regained full consciousness in the hospital, to find only Bianca by her side. Her parents didn't want the first thing she saw when she woke up to be them in a state of complete shock and depression over what had happened to Nate. Nor did they know how to tell Liza what had happened when she was already drowning in stress over what had happened to her before.

It was two days before they could bring themselves to face her. Despite both their best efforts and that of Bianca, the depression did temporarily overwhelm Liza and she entered a mental institution following a nervous breakdown, though she was released a few months later. Due to the intense pressure from the media, both official and social, the Rivers family changed their names and moved away from Toronto during Canada's lull from COVID in the summer of 2020. Rumours have suggested they re-established themselves in either Calgary or Vancouver.

Dr. Edwin James shut down his practice out of intense guilt over his misjudgment of Nate's mental condition. While no action was taken against him as it was determined his belief that Nate was not a danger to others was reasonable based on the information he had, he felt he should have seen it. He has since joined the faculty at the University of Toronto, eager to prevent others from repeating his mistake.

Constable Marilyn Hearst was cleared of all wrongdoing in her shooting of Veronica Dunbar, but was charged with manslaughter in the shooting of Syed Hussein. She was found guilty and sentenced to ten years.

Detective Bilal Mohammed's suspicion of Erin and Eve never abated, but for the sake of her personal and professional life, she was forced to move onto other cases. About a year after Nate going mad, she transferred to the Toronto Police Service Special Victims Unit. She told people it was for the higher pay. Her old boss thinks she wanted to be able to keep a closer eye on Eve Sheppard.

Rachel Jasani confessed to the police her role in Liza's overdose, but not charges were filed as the higher ups were hoping to keep Rachel's image clean to present Hearst shooting her captors in a more positive light. She maintained her internship and went on to work as a biomedical researcher, focusing on formulas that could protect or regenerate crops.

Eve Sheppard was cleared in the shooting of Nate Rivers, for reasons of self defence. After recovering from her wound and a few months of leave, she returned to work at the Toronto Police. Four years after being stabbed, due to an impressive record on the street, and her public alignment with new chief Ernest Jeffcoat's reformist policies, she was promoted to Homicide, one of the youngest homicide detectives ever on the force.

Erin moved in with Eve after the latter recovered from her stabbing. Due to COVID, despite her father's widely revered status, his and her mom's funeral was attended by just her, Eve, a few other relatives and her old friend Ronnie. She continued her activities, though far less frequently, weary that her name was now known by the cops and her fingerprints. And she had to make sure Mohammed wasn't following her. It helped that she was now in a committed relationship that took up most of her time and that Eve would sometimes manipulate things to make her finding a victim much easier. She graduated U of T two years later, and went on to the university's law school, where she continues to work toward her JD.

During that time, she never heard from the hacker known as MonkeyLover again, and assumed he had lost interest in her or hung himself like a typical sad loner in a basement. The truth was far more sinister. And just like her plan with Nate, the consequences of not following up would eventually come back to haunt her in ways she could not imagine.

Erin and Eve will return in A Walk Through theDarkness.