Loading Game

Epilogue - [1/5]

A/N Alright alright, turns out this epilogue's gonna be a fucking looong one, because I'm already at 2600 words when I didn't mean to. Gonna be cutting into chunks with minor titles before the stories. (Excuse any mistakes, edits will be made later.)

This one is going to be interesting.

~~~
Epilogue - [1/5]
Dexter's Ending Meets
Stephanie's Closure
~~~

Meredith Tanner (Age: 25)

"Meredith Tanner! Can we ask you a quick question?"

"Excuse me— we want to interview you!"

"We won't take much of your time!"

Blinking at the cameras and microphones shoved into my face, I took a step back, trying not to suffocate. Mom came up from behind me, and a stern glare crossed her eyes as she said aloud, "Meredith is preoccupied right now! If you could kindly leave without any problem, that would be great!" She stepped in front of me, whispering, "Go on. I'll stall them."

"Thanks, Mom," I told her with a smile, disappearing through the door of the police station.

I sighed heavily, relieved that I didn't have to answer questions.

Thank god Mom came with me.

After graduating college, receiving attention from my whole vigilante career was leaving me irritated and exhausted beyond anything I've ever felt. It was like I was cursed to live such a popular and attention-feeding future, which— by all means— I didn't deserve nor ask for. My parents helped me by pushing away the paparazzi, but sometimes they weren't enough to fend them off. A small giggle escaped my mouth at the thought of Papa raging over the hoards of men coming after me.

In the eight years since my life changed for the best, I became the world's first titled vigilante. It was a lot of work because it wasn't easy to save people and manage a life of my own at the same time. With the additional casualties from natural disasters reoccurring way more than we needed or wanted, I, and others who decided to become vigilantes as well, promised to be there as fast as we could.

However, right now wasn't one of those situation.

I was here at the police station to wish Dexter off as today was the day he was being released from his finished sentence. The police force working here asked me to, and I accepted for the sole reason of wanting to see him go off with his parents. I heard that he was determined to go home to them and make up for the lost time they could've had together, and I couldn't not come to see him off.

As I walked up to the front desk, my eyes widened when I saw Stephanie standing there, talking to the chief. "Steph?"

The raven turned to look up at me, just as surprised. "Meredith?" As she took a step towards me, she asked, "What're you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that," I joked, giving her a small smile. "I'm here to see Dexter leave for Canada with his family. His sentence was finished just earlier."

Stephanie surprisingly didn't flinch at the mention of his name, and she hid her face in her scarf, looking off to the side with an unsure expression. "O-Oh. I know that."

"Yeah." It was silent for a while as I thought of what to say. How did she know? I wasn't aware she was kept up to date on this. Gesturing to her, I put a hand on my hip. "What about you? Why're you here?"

"Car accident issue," she responded, smiling nervously. "A guy swerved into my car after someone turned the road to ice. We're working it out right now."