The Saviors

Epilogue: a Beginning and an Ending

       February 16

       Today was the funeral. I couldn't help but think that it was all my fault that my only brother was dead. If I had only been paying more attention, I would have noticed the clearing ahead and would never had been shot at. Then Henry would never have jumped in front of me. Then he never would have gotten shot.

       When I told my dad this, he hugged me and said that it wasn't my fault. That he chose to save me, and that if he or Daniel had been there, that they would have done the same. Deep down, I knew that was true, but I didn't want to be comforted. I just wanted a shoulder to cry on. That's how I ended up at Declan's house 10 minutes before the funeral wearing a simple black dress.

       When he opened the door and saw it was me, he immediately guessed why I was there and pulled me into a hug.

       "Why can't you talk to Daniel about it?" he asked when I told him my theory.

       "He wasn't there," I told him, my voice shaking. "You know exactly what happened."

       "Oh Isla," he said, sitting down next to me on his patched couch. "You know there was nothing you could do."

       "Did you know that he never called me Isla?" I asked, tears finally flowing. "He only ever called me Iz, or sis. He never called me by my name before he died."

        "Hey, save your tears for the funeral," he joked. "You wouldn't want to run out."

       After I stopped crying, we headed for the graveyard. Somebody had built a wooden coffin for Henry, and it sat on the ground beside a large hole. We had decided that the people closest to him would say something and then put a shovelful of dirt on the coffin. After we lowered the coffin into the hole, my dad headed to the grave.

       "My son Henry was the one of the people that I loved most in the world. It gives me some comfort to know that he's with his mother now, but still we mourn him. We mourn because of how long it will be until we see him again in the afterlife. He took after his mother in the fact that he was one of the most stubborn people in the world, but he was also kind and compassionate. So, Henry, we will miss you, but we will see you again some day, and I look forward to that."

       He shovelled some dirt onto the coffin. I was last, so I stood through the speeches of Esther, Tempest, Eleanor, Declan, and Daniel. Toben wasn't saying anything, because he was so young. Too quickly though, it was my turn. I stepped up.

       "Henry," I began. "You were the best brother I could have asked for. You were the most loyal and stupidly brave person I know. You never called me Isla, you stubbornly refused to call me anything but sis and Iz. In you I saw our mother and father, but also myself. I will never forget the way you looked at me in those last moments of your life in this world. When you asked me if you had done a good job of protecting me. I will never forget you. I believe that, even though there are no longer any official Deathless, you will remain Deathless. You will go down as the bravest little brother in the world, who died to save a big sister who doesn't even know if she was worth saving. There's an old poem in Latin that I read about, and there is one line I want to tell you know. 'Ave atque vale in perpetuum, frater.' It means 'Hail and farewell forever, my brother.' So ave atque vale, my brother. Hail and farewell, Henry Blume."

       By the end of my speech, tears flowed freely down my face, leaving tracks. I shovelled some dirt on the coffin and bent by the headstone. I pulled two tiger lilies from my pocket and placed them together on the ground, stems tied together. They represented me and my brother, forever intertwined. And so, my brother's story came to an end.

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       Now, I said that this epilogue would have a beginning and an ending, so here's the story of a beginning. As you may have guessed, the beginning is the story of General Kazemi. Of her new beginning in a new life. Now, much of this story is not min to tell, but I can tell some of it.

       If we go back to the thirteenth, me and Declan knew that we couldn't risk leaving her alone when The Saviours could come back at any time, so we carried her back before sending my dad and Daniel back to get Henry's body.

       We brought Kazemi to the hospital as soon as we got back, and they said that she was in a coma, but that it was extremely likely that she would wake up. Sure enough, a week later, she awoke to find me sitting in a chair next to her bed.

       "General!" I exclaimed, not sure what else to call her. She had always just been "General Kazemi" to me. "You're awake!"

       "Isla?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"

       "I was waiting for you to wake up," I told her. "They said that you would."

       After some explaining, she understood and explained to me what had happened more fully. We decided that it would be the most beneficial to her if she had some counselling to help move on to normal life, so she stayed with me and my family for awhile. Now, she has her own house and works at the Sato Kazemi Gymnasium as a coach. She is happy, and was extremely grateful for the rescue.

       The question is, do the beginning and ending cancel each other out? I think, dear reader, that you should decide. Does a rescue cancel out a death? I don't know. Do you?

       I hope you share this story of beginnings and endings, of bravery and loss, so that my brother can be at peace. Most of all, I hope you understand. Otherwise my brother's death may have been for nothing.

                                                                                     The End

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A/N

My dear readers,

The story is over! I almost can't believe it. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Sorry for all the sadness. The quotation is from a real poem. It's called Ave Atque Vale, by Gaius Valerius Catullus.

Thanks for reading,

Heather