Revive Me

Chapter Thirty

A week has passed.
With the sound of heartbreak and pain, we finally covered Castled body and put it into a coffin. With Delalieu dead, that leaves us to do our own dirty work.
Kenji, Kent, Winston, Brendan and myself carry his coffin outside to the back of our building.
There is no danger anymore.
Almost every other sector has sent their own peace treaties to us after they heard what we fought through. The few that did not send treaties had them sent to them by us, and they accepted.
We all live in peace and harmony now.
No constant fear of rebellion or violence or war. We are all one.
Castles body gets lowered into the earth, sinking deeper away from us all, showing us a final reminder that he isn't coming back.
Kenji is crying so hard. Juliette takes him into her arms and comforts him. He cries into her, his tears wetting the front of her shirt, but she doesn't mind.
One by one, we cover Castle's body. The dirt reaches up to ground level, and we place our well-planned tomb stone over his resting body.
Here lies Castle. Our hero and saviour.
With tears and comforting words, everyone makes their way back to the building.
Everyone but me.
I wait for the crowd to leave and sneak into another area of the burial ground behind the building.
Delalieu's coffin rests on the ground.
With a lot of struggling, I manage to lower it into the ground, and I begin to cover it with heaps of dirt.
I hear footsteps behind me.
I turn around to see Juliette running towards me.
I pull her into a hug.
"Love, you should go get some rest. It's been a long week for you," I say to her.
She nods and pulls out of the hug. She raises her hand to wipe a bead of sweat from my forehead.
I turn to face Delalieu, and Juliette helps me cover his body until it reaches ground level.
A tombstone with nothing more than his name is placed over his body.
"He was a good man once," I say to Juliette.
"I believe he was," she replies.
I slip my hand into hers and together we walk back to the building, leaving the painful memory of our loved ones and our loathed ones behind.

***

As we walk back into the building, I see everyone sitting in the cafeteria area, but nobody's eating. The silence is uncomfortable. Nobody's talking, nobody's whispering. Everyone's just staring at the blank space in front of them, staring past everything and letting their mind consume them.
My gaze shifts automatically to Kenji, who sits in the corner of the room with his hands intertwined and his elbows on the table. His head rests on his hands and his head is tilted just enough to show that he's in a daze.
Juliette gives me a reassuring look and walks towards Kenji. I go and sit beside Kent and James. Kent is trying so hard to be happy for James. Despite them trying to talk to me, I keep my gaze fixed on Kenji and Juliette.
Juliette sits beside Kenji and wraps her arm around him.
I expect Kenji to drown into the embrace, but he doesn't.
He flinches away from Juliette and gets to his feet, trying to flip the table over but failing.
"This," he hisses at her. "All of this is your fault! All of this! Everything that's happened! Everyone that's died!"
I get to my feet and bolt towards them.
"Knock it off Kenji!" I scream at him.
"NO!" he screams back. "If you hadn't gone and gotten yourself possessed, none of this would have happened!"
"KENJI!" screams Kent from the other side of the room.
The whole room is dead silent now, and everyone's looking at Kenji.
"Just because you're happy about your life now doesn't mean we all are! Because of you I lost everything that ever meant something to me!" he fires.
"KENJI! SHUT UP!" I scream.
"NO!" he yells back.
"YES!" I scream. "CASTLE SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR ALL OF US! NOT JUST HER!"
Juliette flinches beside me and I grab her hand, but I don't stop staring at Kenji with a deadly look in my eyes.
"I know," whispers Kenji. He drops into his chair. "I know I just don't know what to do. I'm sorry."
And he begins to cry again.
And he cries and cries.
And Juliette sits beside him and hugs him as if he hadn't said anything to her.
And they sit like that for almost an hour until Kenji is ready to go to his room himself.

***

I walk up to the room where Castle had been shot. I spent a fair time cleaning it up, but it's better if I just destroy the room itself. I scheduled an incineration of the room for a couple days.
I started preparing a new room for Juliette and myself in another area of the building. It's smaller, but still has room for everything.
I plop down onto the bed in the new room.
Juliette walks in and sits beside me.
"How's Kenji?" I ask her.
"He's better. It'll take him a while to recover," she replies.
I place my hand on top of hers.
"Look love, I know you might think this is your fault. But I assure you, it's not," I say to her.
"Aaron," she whispers. "I know. It's just, sometimes I can't help but think that it is. That everything that's happened is all because I'm a weak and vulnerable person."
"No love," I reply. "It's not."
She smiles at me.
My heart is racing so fast that it indicates to me that it's time.
It's time.
"Juliette?" I look at her.
"Yes, Aaron?" she replies and looks at me.
"The past month has been the worst for me. You were so close to dying. It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I don't think I can feel like that ever again. I don't think I can feel like I'm going to lose you ever again."
"Aaron?" she whispers. Tears start to fall down her cheeks. "Are you..."
I get down on one knee and take her hand into my own.
"I almost lost you, and I can't ever afford to lose you again. You revived me; helped me feel like a man again. Juliette Ferrars, will you marry me?" I say to her between the pounding of my heart.
I look up at her and she's crying and breathing so hard and smiling.
"Yes," she replies.
I pull her into a hug.
Together, we are unstoppable.
Together, we can run this world.
Together, we are so much more.