US (Formerly The After Effect - Book 2)

54 - Infinity and B E Y O N D

I close the distance between me and the front door, halting when I'm halfway across the yard. I'm scared of how I will react. Will I break into a fit of rage about how all of this didn't need to happen? Will I crumple up and sink to the littered floor and cry until my eyes dry up?

Worst of all, will I be at peace?

I don't want to come to grips with this new reality. Time doesn't really heal us. We heal ourselves. But I don't want to make this okay. I don't want to accept this way of life. Time will help, though. If what Travis and my mother have been saying is true, maybe we will reclaim this land and be able to live somewhat normal lives again. It's people like me who are stuck in the past that will prevent future progress. I have to find a way to deal with the hardships that will come with this overwhelming shift in society. In order to ever try to rebuild what once was, I need to forgive myself. Forgive Brink. Forgive everyone involved in The Scarlet Effect who had no voice in preventing what happened. Truly forgive. It's the only way I can be free.

I meander around the side of my old yellow house and step up into the first wooden stair and sigh. This is it.

The door wide open, I peer in and take a deep breath in, puffing my chest up high. The porch creaks beneath my feet as I always remembered it, and I go in, avoiding the pictures and papers on the floor. It appears to be as I last left it. No new intruders. No living...

I take a turn into my room and clench my teeth to contain myself. Silently, I say goodbye to my old life, my material things that never mattered—although rummaging through my clothes might be a good idea to act on before I head back to DC. I approach my mirror above my dresser and stare at a completely new girl, with no freckles, no green eyes, but right red ones. I tip my chin up and smirk. I'm stronger now than I have ever been. More independent, more experienced. I've learned to love with every fiber of my being and understand what it means to be loved. I don't care where I was born, how I was born, or where I came from. I am who I am and no one can ever change that. I would have done everything in my power to change what happened if I had known it was coming, but I can't keep blaming myself for it. I do forgive myself. And I will learn to accept whatever life brings me next. I'm ready for it. I'm superhuman, and I'm proud to be.

With that, I turn on my heels, peeking over my shoulder at myself one last time and wink at the mirror.

I reenter the hallway and catch a glimpse of the kitchen, and right next to it, the kitchen table, where a boy with a thick blue stripe in his hair and piercing turquoise eyes perches on a chair, legs crossed like he was raised by royalty. He holds the world's sneakiest gaze as he watches me stand still as cement before him, not knowing what to do. Am I dreaming this?

"Not in the slightest."

I gasp.

"Brink," I breathe. "You're...you're here. Alive."

He rises slowly and makes his way over to me with gradual steps, moving at half-speed. "Well of course I'm alive, Aurora. We're awfully hard to kill."

"Brink!" I cry, and throw my arms around him, digging my fingertips into his back and pulling him as close to me as humanly possible. I burrow my face into his chest and hold him in my grasp for a solid minute, both of us as quiet as stars.

"I knew you would show up eventually," Brink says.

I kiss his cheek and pull back. "How long have you been here?"

"Not long. About a day and a half."

I shake my head. "I thought I'd never see you again, Brink."