Contained by Love

Epilogue

 Five Years Later

The sunlight streamed through the window, traveling from the wooden window pane to the hard floors and all the way to our bed. I open my eyes sleepily, and automatically, my hand reaches to the pillow next to me, and meets his cool chest. He sighs in his sleep and I smile to myself. I lift myself off the bed slowly, taking care as not to wake him.

I look around our bedroom and a soft chuckle escapes my somewhat swollen lips. To say in the least, it was a complete mess. Half our pillows were scattered across the floor, and the bed sheets were ripped. The rose petals that had been so neatly placed from the door leading to the queen sized bed were now lying in a heap in the corner. All the candles had completely melted, and the trickle of dried wax was smeared all over the candleholders.

I brush a hand through my tangled hair. All the hairspray from last night remained, and it was a sticky jumble. I turn to our floor length mirror, and stare at the woman staring back at me. Her plump lips were still a rosy pink, matching the contours of her cheeks. Her smoky green eyes were half covered in makeup. She looked nothing like the frightened girl of so many years ago.

It never failed to amaze me how much everything had changed since then. My mind quickly starts calculating the date and I stir once I remember.

Five years. That’s how long it’s been since I escaped from Madame’s Institute for Discipline and Order, with Eli by my side. I sit to the floor, staring lazily at the specks of dust circling in the air, reminiscing about how I’ve spent the past five years.

Once we had escaped, we had decided to go to Missouri, after Tim and Bruce kindly lent us the money for plane tickets. It was their final way of apologizing, and we took it gratefully. We had said our goodbyes and left soon after. At first, I had made an agreement with Gwen to keep in touch and we had exchanged emails, but after talking it through we realized it wouldn’t be safe to keep in touch, since we would be watched afterwards.

We hugged. We cried. And she ended up leaving to Canada with John. I was happy for her. And I was also glad that John had somewhere to go. When I saw them leave hand in hand, all I felt was joy. From the last I heard of them, she had become a big time lawyer and had ensured their security from the DIO.

As for Aimee, there wasn’t much I could have done for her even if I wanted to. She seriously lost it after Madame died, and the only solution we could come up with was for the Fishermen to take her back to the DIO, and make up a story of how she went crazy, let everyone out and killed her own mother. I didn’t want to send her back at first, but Giorgio reassured me that it was for the best.

The Fishermen had given us all as much money as we needed. Turns out there was a vault in the basement with millions of dollars that Madame kept for emergencies, so we were all covered.

As for the rest of my classmates, they all left as well. After talking it through, they decided to try to spread out across the United States as far as possible. And it turned out that two people wanted to go to the same place, they teamed up and left together.

I was the last one to leave. I had to make sure everyone had a destination, and that everyone would be safe. It didn’t take long for everyone to clear out, and by the end of the next day, me and Eli were the only ones left.

From what Tim told me, everyone elected to let me and Eli keep the rest of the money left. I protested at first, but he said they owed me their lives, and I gradually accepted.

On that last day, Eli helped me pack a light backpack for the trip. We stowed away the remaining money and grabbed our files from Madame’s office, which had our passports and medical and dental reports. We took a plane to Missouri and hired a lawyer to cut us off from our parents, legally and financially. We also took some precautions and ensured our safety by paying a little extra, and bending the law a little. Let’s just say that after a quick visit to a bad town, we had people watching us. Kind of like bodyguards.