Phoenix

Chapter Nineteen - Reconciliation

PART THREE - GARRETH

Garreth's Narrative

Stella was clutching the book I gave her on her birthday with the title embossed in silver: The Cry of the Phoenix. She couldn't believe it but our love survived despite the loss her mind had suffered. I made love to her after she told me everything the Dark Knights Organization has done to transform her into a professional assassin and a thief. I cupped her body with mine over the bed sheet we had messed up together last night; my thirst for her body hiding for long underneath my skin gave in to the passion which the woman beside me has revealed to me. She was different than the wife I had known but every remaining bits of her past captivated me and captured the sleeping desire inside me. I can never stop loving my wife and it's crazy to think about. When I touched her hand, she told me about the killings she had made to carry out her duty but it was the same skin I held long time ago. I realized Stella has controlled in many ways: her blonde hair, her teeth, her fingers, and her poems, and I am still. She looked the most beautiful while he clutched that book and I still wanted to make love to her but I guess I needed to wait while I listened. She told me her pseudonym "Phoenix" was picked by her because it was the simplest yet closest thing she could hold on to what remained to us. She amazingly thought she was attached to the word —and to the image it brings itself —and to the book bearing the same word and to the Phoenix Statue where we had our first date. She was amazed when she looked at our photographs and re-imagined how we travelled, dined and slept together like how a married couple should. She was surprised and still couldn't believe that she's married! How different this woman is!

Stella wouldn't be as surprised as she has just been; Garreth thought she would simply remain quiet and then she would try to be the best wife again. Phoebe smiled at me yet it was not the same smile, though, and it was almost like a smirk but this new woman, I think I'll get fond of her, too. After all, except her hair, her features were all his wife's. The mystery of how the word "Phoenix" has survived her condition also seemed "magical" to me. It showed me how deep her love is to me that it was able to cross that boundary.

"Do you know why I entered the Brotherhood of the Hunters?" I asked her when she's done with her stories.

She brushed her hands against my chest. She remained silent.

"Because I missed you. Aside from the fact that I believed the Brotherhood, knowing that they were fighting against the Dark Knights, would be able to help me know the truth behind the tragedy which killed you and your parents, —and I'm so sorry —I just realized that I really missed you that I was able to focus on my training. Imagine how tough it was to me, my love, knowing you're gone. I couldn't live without you so I tried to live the rest of my life with something that has to do with you."

"I will never leave you again. And, I'm sorry for the pain." Stella said to me.

"I have never talked to my parents again nor any of my relatives after I joined the Brotherhood. The Organization was my family."

"Will they kill me if they find out that I was one of the Dark Knights?"

"I won't let them. If they ever find out, I will make them believe and I will tell what they did to you. After all, I could certify that you're my wife." Then, I kissed her again and she kissed me back.

"Thank you for not stopping and for not giving up on whatever it is that happened to me."

"What do you expect me to do? You gave meaning to my life."

"Then help me bring justice to my parents. Help me find the truth."

I was puzzled anyway about the toughness of her personality. What could have the Dark Knights done to my wife to change her that much? Though the Hunters tell me that all hypergenes were an abomination to humanity, I could never let myself hate my own life. I've never known Stella has the strength gene in her and nobody in her family neither did tell me nor Stella. How could this be possible?