The Kings of Hearts.

Epilogue: Part 2.

It had been 23 years since I had seen the trees leading up to the castle. It had been 23 years since I've set foot in the house that I once called my home. It had been 23 years since I've seen the tree where Luther and I used to play during fights. It had been 23 years since I saw the swing where I would push Caroline whenever the fighting would become too intense and Christian had one of his mood swings. It had been 23 years since I saw the balcony where I braided Isla's hair, and Freya helped me with my homework. It had been 23 years since I saw the window where Rose tried to throw something at me, before it smashed the window when we were teenagers. It had been 23 long years, with so many changes. But now, I was back home.

Yesterday I had gotten a call from my brother, Luther, telling me that it was time to say goodbye to mum. I did not understand why I had to say goodbye, but then Luther told me that mum had gotten sick in the past months, she was wary.

About half a year ago they started to notice changes in mums behaviour. It was on the 24th death day of Papa, and the fourth of fathers death day. Father had died four years ago in his sleep, on the exact night that papa had died, and mum had found him. She had become the shell of the woman she had once been for the past four years, but she was thriving with all the grandchildren that my sisters and brothers had given her. She had a purpose. She barely left her house though, only to go to the castle to see her grandchildren. But half a year ago they went to visit mum on the 24th and fourth death day and mum was acting strange. She looked at Christian with a weird look and she was confused when Luther wouldn't come closer to her. She reacted a bit snarky and she seemed to be a tad scared. In the two months after that, whenever one of my brothers or sisters would visit, or any of her grandchildren, she showed behaviour that was terrifying for them. She kept asking for our fathers and she seemed scared. It was as if she had forgotten they had died. She felt lost.

Four months ago Christian and Caroline apparently visited her once in the morning and heard screaming coming from the bedroom. She kept screaming papa's name and it had become to clear to us then that she was suffering from immense trauma once again. She kept enduring the immense trauma she endured during the war of hearts. It was like her mind was there again. She kept asking for our fathers, not knowing they were dead. It was horrible. So four months ago, my brothers decided to move her back to the castle. She got a bit better, because she lived in the house she spend decades in. But, her memory didn't improve. She kept asking for our fathers, she would be heartbroken whenever one of my brothers had to tell her that they were gone. They apparently once caught her out in the rain in her pyjama's sobbing and asking father to come get her, that she needed him, and that she was sorry.

They had a meeting with all the brothers and sisters yesterday, along with some of our aunts that were still alive, and they decided to let mum go to Seglusa's realm, to be with our fathers. Luther told me that when they went to tell mum the news, she seemed to have some calmness over her body and her mind. She seemed to be a bit more clear, although she never failed to call Christian 'Trevvie', Isla 'Will' and my nephew Michael 'Hugo'. They were fine with that though, and they understood why.

Luther and the whole family had also decided to allow me to say goodbye to mum. Apparently, in the past hours she kept saying my name. They first thought they were talking about her mother, but it wasn't until she whimpered 'those sad brown eyes', they realised she was talking about me.

When Luther asked me to come, I told him I would have to call him back after an hour, I had to process all this information.

The day that the world found out that father died, I had gone back to my traumatic state for a bit as well. I had relived all the memories, good and bad, that he had caused on me. But I got through it because of my children. But now, they wanted me to relive my trauma because of mum?