Escaping Death [Watty Awards]

Epilogue

Epilogue

Four months later…

Walking the familiar cemetery path, I felt the deep agonizing pain that always began in my chest.  My heart constricted inside of me, making it hard to take air into my lungs, cutting my ability to breathe by a fragment.  Every day I came to visit her was hard and every time I walked towards her grave I became weak and tormented.  I wasn’t strong, not as strong as I used to be.  Something had shattered that day; the day where she left, leaving many people heartbroken and sick with regret.

When the news broke out, I thought that Mrs. Hampton would blame me.  I was ready to take the fault and abrasive words thrown at me but she did the opposite.  Instead she collapsed into my arms and wept.  It caught me off guard and it would have been better if she screamed and cursed at me.  I wished that she would have.  Anything else would have been better than to have her mother hold on to me for dear life and me to take the full blow of grief that consumed us both.

Mr. Hampton took Gwen’s death differently.  He rushed to the coroner’s office only to return with bloodshot eyes and taking his wife into his arms.  I left soon after not having enough strength to watch the tears that fell from their faces because surely I’d break down again.

Her friends all took her death differently as well.  Molly and Triston found a sort of comfort towards each other; their fighting diffused and their love towards one another ignited once again.  I think they realized that life is too short to be spent fighting about trivial and misconstrued affairs.  Kyle was angry and when he saw me a week after the news, he punched me in the jaw, causing a sliver of blood to appear on the corner of my mouth. Tammy was with him and she stopped him from further beating me to a bloody pulp.  I couldn’t hit him back even if I wanted too.  I deserved every hit of his anger.  But I think that he was angrier at the situation because Tammy completely shut down.  She put up a wall, blocking every single person in her life that was close to her, including Kyle.  I never saw her shed a tear until the funeral the weekend after Gwen’s death.  She broke down and Kyle was there to hold her in his arms, to offer safety and comfort.

Something that I couldn’t offer Gwen the last time that I saw her.        

“Gabriel.”  I looked up to meet Mrs. Hampton’s soft light brown eyes that were rimmed red around the edges.  I slightly nodded and gave Mrs. Hampton a small smile in greeting.  There was a bouquet of lilacs in her hands and she balanced it on the crook of her arm to give me a one arm hug.  “You all ready to go?”

“Yes.  As ready as I’ll ever be.”  I was leaving today, right after I left the cemetery.  Calder was waiting for me outside the gates to accompany me back home to Italy.  I was given the opportunity to stay longer after the initial three months that I had.  I never understood why.  Maybe it was pity or sympathy; whatever it was I was grateful for the chance to stay for a few extra months but now it was time to leave.  There was nothing left for me here.  The longer I stayed here caused a longing in my heart for her to return.  But that wasn’t going to happen.  I had to accept that this is how things would be for all of my existence.

Mrs. Hampton put a hand on my shoulder.  “If you ever need anything don’t hesitate to call.  You are like a son to me, Gabe.  Gwen would be extremely proud of you for studying abroad.”  Guilt washed over me as I saw the sadness in Mrs. Hampton’s eyes.  It was a lie that I told her.  I was going to Italy but not to study like she thought.  She couldn’t know the truth as it was forbidden to tell a mortal.  She was sad that I was leaving but it was time to go.  I needed to go back and defend the dark forces that endangered the essence of time.

She sniffled into her tissue and said, “She loved you very much.  I saw the love that you two shared and it was the kind of love that people look for their entire lives.  I’m happy that my daughter got to experience it with a young man like you.  You were good to her.”