The Risen | ✅

Epilogue

Five years later

I shot up out of my bed screaming, and throwing of my blankets, jumping out of the bed and sobbing on the floor.

I saw her again. She was covered in blood and staring at me empty-eyed. She kept saying it was my fault. My fault. My fault.

And she was right.

Strong arms wrapped around my torso and I heard soft comforting words being whispered in my ear. I tried to calm my breathing down but I just ended up wheezing in turn. I reached up on my bedside desk blindly to find my inhaler, but I couldn't.

"I've got it." Alex said softly as I clutched my chest and tried to find some source of air.

He handed me my inhaler and I shook it up before taking a puff and leaning back onto his chest, clutching onto the material of his tee-shirt as if my life depended on it.

Alex turned on the lamp before running his fingers through my hair comfortingly.

"Bad dream?"

I nodded.

"About Dorian or Evie?"

I nodded again.

"Wanna talk about it?"

I shook my head.

"Okay."

He hugged me tighter and I buried my face into his chest.

Five years.

It's been five years and I still suffer from PTSD. No amount of sleeping pills or inhalers was going to fix that.

It never would.

Alex leaned down and looked at me in the eyes.

"Better?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said softly. "W-What time is it?"

Alex leaned up to look at the clock.

"It's six in the morning. Why?"

I sighed and stood up, pulling at the hem of Alex's shirt that I was wearing at the moment. "I have that speech at the park at eight. I should get ready."

He nodded and stood up as well. "Okay. I'll make you breakfast. Then I'll get ready while you eat. Sound good?"

"Alex, you don't have to. I can just grab like, some McDonald's or something on the way"

"But I want, to Circe." He said, holding my hands in his. Besides, he held up his hand and wiggled his fingers, showing off his engagement ring. "It's practice."

I chuckled as he walked away. That boy was something else.

I made my way to the bathroom and looked in the mirror my grey eyes had bags underneath them and my hair was a matted and tangled mess.

I'd decided to go back to my chestnut brown locks back in my Eros days to remain inconspicuous. Once Dorian exposed Alex and I, the only way for us to live in peace was to change our physical appearance and our names. To the public, I wasn't Circe Lewis. I was Lea Carter and Alex was Hayden Adams, my fiancé.

It was hard, living a lie. Sometimes, people called me Lea and I completely forgot to respond. But I made due.

I'd also decided that I liked short hair a lot more than I liked long hair. So I'd made sure to keep my hair at collar-bone length.

Alex said he liked it like that. So did I.

I quickly got dressed in my pantsuit and put on my makeup before going into the kitchen.