A Devil's true Love

🐚36~ Eternal Sleep

A month after the fight against Melusine and her subordinates, the twins introduced her to their parents. In her opinion, their mother is a pretty cool lady. The twins' father has the same mood swings as his son. It was no surprise for Annabeth from whom Floyd got it. After the visit, the twins swam with her to a remote place. There stood a not-so-small rock with 'Leech' engraved in large letters. Under the family name were several first names of boys and girls engraved. Behind the names were the dates of birth and death. As soon as she looked closer, she guessed this was a family cemetery. Around the rock were several other graves, but this one stood out the most.

The twins blink as Annabeth suddenly cleans the place. "What are you doing?" Jade asks while watching her. "Cleaning the resting place of your siblings," she replies and continues. "You don't have to," Jade says. "Yeah, why would ya care if ya never knew them?" Floyd asks her then. The twins don't understand why she cares. "Because it will soon be my family, too. I think it's the right thing to do so.", is her response and she starts to hum a familiar melody, which the twins once heard as young children. Floyd then helped her clean the grave, and Jade got underwater flowers for the huge grave.

The twins' parents were surprised to see their sons take care of their siblings' grave. She and her husband rarely visit the grave, because the pain is unbearable for them, and even more for a mother who gave life to them. Floyd and Jade decided not to tell their parents who killed their siblings. They knew how much they liked Melusine and that her family was an important business partner.

It was no surprise to them that their parents liked Annabeth and her personality. "No wonder those two suddenly behaved differently, by such a dangerous woman," their father says, and his wife hits him. "Be quiet!" Mrs. Leech didn't want Annabeth to feel creeped out around them, but Anna says that she's used to such behavior from Floyd.

***

In the following months, Annabeth and the twins are busy with wedding preparations and school. Mrs. Leech went wedding dress shopping with Annabeth and wished her mother was there as well. None of her blood relatives will ever see her getting married, and the pain of Eloise's death returns. She feels guilty about not being able to save that girl. She sometimes asks herself if she really does deserve this and she tells herself that she does because she suffered enough her whole life.

Then finally the day came when she becomes Floyd's and Jade's wife. Her mother-in-law, Lilia, and even Vil make sure that everything is perfect. Vil did take care that Annabeth's grooms were not peaking. They wanted it to be a surprise, and she hopes the twins will like how she looks. "Are you ready?" Lilia asks her, and she nods her head before covering her face with a veil. Then she hooks onto Lilia's arm and he leads her down the aisle.

The twins are nervously waiting for their bride to walk down the aisle. Then it finally starts. Everyone invited stands up from their seats while the bride walks down the aisle. While she walks to her beloveds, she remembers the words Sebastian told her before he disappeared. She smiles softly. Then she arrives, and the three say their vows, exchange the rings, and the two men are now allowed to kiss their bride.

At the end of the ceremony, pictures were taken and everyone congratulated them on getting married. Some of the others stayed until the wedding party. Annabeth was happy that the wedding was going smoothly.

***

"And so they lived happily ever after. The end." A book gets closed while a group of children clings to an old lady. "But grandma, what did that devil tell her?" A girl with teal hair and heterochromia ask her red-haired grandmother, who starts to chuckle. "Yes, what did he tell her? I wanna know." one of the boys says and the old lady smirks amused. "Who knows what he meant? Anyway, it's time for you six to go to bed or your mother will haunt me.", she says, and as she says a young woman with hip-long teal hair and a long black strand framing the left side of her face was getting into the room. Her left eye is golden, while her right eye is crimson red. "My darlings, it's time to sleep. "Speaking of the devil, there she is.", the old lady laughed amused, and watched her daughter as she put her three daughters and three sons into bed. Then she left the kids' room with her daughter.

"Mother? It's also time for you to go to sleep.", her daughter tells her, and she laughs it off. "I may be old, but that doesn't mean you have to treat me like a child.", the lady says. Her red hair already has white strands. "If your two fathers were still alive, you wouldn't even dare speak up.", she reminds her daughter, who sighs and gives up. "Mother, the others said they might not make it.", she explains and the woman doesn't really care. "What a pity that my sixteen children see their own mother as a hindrance.", is all she has left to say before walking into her room. Lapis is hurt by her own mother's words, but she also knows that she doesn't mean them in a bad way.

Since the day when Jade and Floyd died in an accident, she has lost all hope and happiness. She sure tried to be strong for her own children, but it wasn't easy at all. She was glad that the others and even the twins' parents were there for her, but she also wanted to be able to feed her sixteen children on her own. Furthermore, she did her best to raise them to be proper beings, and there were so many ups and downs. There were days she wanted to be with her beloved ones, but she couldn't because of her responsibilities. It has been over twenty years since those two have left this world.

Annabeth closes her tired eyes one last time before she falls into an endless slumber of never ever waking up again. Meanwhile, her children all wanted to surprise her and make it like they couldn't make it, but their mother had already passed away in her slumber. Her children cried after they realized that she died. But it gave them some comfort when they saw her die with a smile.

***

In a different world, a red-haired girl is walking down a street while passing by two tall teal-haired boys around her age. Their eyes met for a moment, and they start to smile. "We will meet again!"

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Thank you for reading this story and to be part of this journey. I was pretty emotional while writing the last chapters. I'm thinking of rewriting the story one day and to change some things. At first, I wanted to give her a happy ending, but somehow something told me not to do so. That life is not easy or fair.