The Return - A Michael Vey Fanfic

Epilogue

The bright orange fire crackles in front of me, burning ferociously. The orange flames lick the air above it, as if begging to be fed more air. I don't know why but the fires distress reminds me of Raymond. Of him in his final moments, fighting to hang onto the life that was slipping away from him. One year. It's been one year and that memory is still burned into my memory.

Loud laughing from inside the house momentarily snaps me out of my daze. Everyone else was inside, enjoying themselves with pizza. After all, it is a big night. It was the homecoming football game. The big game played the day before homecoming. A homecoming that seemed like I was the only one who didn't have a date to. Axel had a date with a girl from his math class, Ethan and Mackenzie were going together, they've been dating for six months now, and Jacob was going with Ryann. The two of them weren't yet officially dating but everyone could tell there was something going on between them.

Even though I was alone, I had tried to enjoy myself in there, with my friends, but I just couldn't do it. I had been thinking of Raymond a lot recently and tonight is no different. It's felt like forever since he died, yet there's still something inside of me that just can't let go. I know that it's hurting me more than it was helping, but I don't know how to let go. We had given Raymond a proper burial, along with Ostin, McKenna, and even Quentin and Tara, and that in itself seemed like it was a good enough resolution for everyone else, but not for me. Of course, the nightmares of Raymond and Tara weren't helping either.

I finger the pages of a brown, leather-bound book in my hands as I go back to watching the fire. If I stare at it long enough, I'mhoping it might just swallow me into a dream.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" A voice behind me asks. I recognize it as either Ethan or Jacob. I take a random guess, hoping it was Ethan.

"I had to get a breath of air," I respond as casually as I can.

The figure walks around me, sitting in the chair. I look up to see I had guessed their identity correctly.

"Seems like you've been doing that a lot lately," Ethan points out.

I shrug. "Is that a bad thing?" I ask. I start bouncing the book in my hand nervously.

"Well, no. I guess not. Unless you have something else going on under there."

I shake my head sharply. Perhaps too sharply. "What? No. There's nothing- there's nothing else."

"Do you mind if I see that book then?" Ethan nods to the book. I immediately stop bouncing it.

"I already told you that it was nothing," I respond defensively.

"Then why can't I look at it if it's nothing?"

"Because it's personal!"

"Then it's not 'nothing.'"

I growl lowly. "I don't want you looking at it, okay? Can't you just stay out of my life?" I mutter.

"I've tried, Emily. Believe me, I've tried. But Nichelle agrees with me in that every day we don't do something, you just seem to be getting worse."

I didn't know how to answer to that, so I didn't.

The silence between Ethan and I fell, so that I could once again only hear the cracking and popping of the fire.