Lucid

EPILOGUE

This might not have been the ending you wanted. Heck, even I wish it had ended where it did, with Ethan and Ayden finally meeting, living out the rest of their days together, forever. That would have been the ending everyone hoped for, wouldn't it?

But let's face it—this isn't that kind of story. And I'm sorry for that.

Just when you think Ethan's life has been suffocated by heartbreak, pain, and suffering, you find out about Clay Winters—a boy with a past darker than anything I've dared to tell you. His story, though... that one is a tragedy. The worst kind. But you'll have to wait for that one.

There's also Oscar. His dark desires are only growing stronger, the horrors rising from them threatening to rip everything apart. And Isabel, oh Isabel... Her plans for world domination? They've only just begun.

Don't worry. It'll all come. In time. The truth always does. After all, you trust me, don't you? I'm doing what needs to be done, even if it isn't the most comforting path. That should count for something, right? After all, we can't judge people by their past actions. Or by what's been done to them. We can't define them by the things they can't control.

It makes sense, doesn't it? Please, tell me it does.

I'm doing all of this for the greater good. That's what I tell myself every day. Everything I've done, everything I'm doing now... it has a purpose. It has meaning. It's necessary. And I can't doubt it—not now. Not anymore. It's too late for that. What's been done can't be undone. It's irreversible.

I know how this story ends, and I know what it means for me. I've always known. My demise is inevitable. I wasn't made for anything beyond this duty. Beyond this mission.

So forgive me.

For what I've done.

And for what I'm about to do.