red sun || lee felix

epilogue

one month later

Forks Prairie, Washington State, America. Very different from Newcastle. It was farmland, mostly, forests snaking around the territory, rainy and mystic. Haseong had a 'friend' named Dmitri who'd set us up with a house in the woods, secluded from humans.

I wasn't expecting much — maybe a cabin or a hut — but, as we came through the trees, our few belongings in our arms, what I saw was beautiful. Two storeys plus an attic and a couple turrets — one of which Changbin claimed posthaste — and a chimney that would make for a great dramatic entrance. The inside was empty, such a wide open space, walls peeling. I wondered if I could hollow them out, walk around inside like a phantom or a mouse.

"No, you can't," Jisung said, walking past me with a box full of records.

You're such— "Er, a bluenose." I still hadn't gotten the hang of speaking to him through my mind. "They're probably already hollow."

Hyunjin knocked on the wall. "Sounds pretty solid to me."

"You just hit a stud."

Hyunjin shrugged and followed Jisung upstairs. I wandered into the kitchen, leaned on the counter, looked out the window. Beyond the grassy backyard, the forest was dark and unknowable.

Suddenly I didn't feel so safe anymore.

That night in Chopwell Park was only a month ago but it felt like forever. Sometimes I still smelled the smoke. Sometimes I still felt breathless.

After Aro had murdered Fei, he'd dusted himself off and watched as his guard killed the newborns. Arthur, Elizabeth, Elizabeth's daughter. Only Lucile had been spared — she was remorseful, she was their whistleblower. I hadn't seen her since she'd run into the forest, crying as hard as I had been.

They'd killed Fei's lackeys, too. Sam and Taya had fought like dogs, Seojun had welcomed it. I'd still been bawling in Changbin's arms then — the sound of them dying had only made me cry harder. Every last piece of her was being ripped to shreds, her body and her minions and her life's work. Ripped apart by the man she hated most.

"Felix," he had said, standing over me. "I do hope you understand why I had to kill your creator. The law has no exception. But you are a very promising young man. You have a place in the Volturi, if you'd so choose."

I hadn't answered, I'd been choking on my own tears. A chorus of low growls had sounded from around me — surprisingly Jisung's had been the loudest.

"Fuck off," he'd hissed. "Leave him alone."

Aro had just simpered. "Pity pity." He'd observed me crying for a while longer, and then — once all the bodies were burned, just ashes in the dirt — he and his coven had disappeared the way they'd come, silently through the forest.

I flinched as Chan put his arm around my shoulders, staring out the window like I was.

"Fei once told me that she felt as though she were unlovable. She thought Aro had taken that, too. But you loved her. I did as well, at one point. She died knowing that. She died feeling your love, and loving you back."

I was fighting the breathless feeling, hands restless and squeezing at nothing. "I never told her. That I loved her. Not even once."

"But she knew."

"I wish I could tell her."

"Then tell her now."

"I... love you."

───

After Chan left, I continued exploring the house. The staircase was grand, all curves and old wood. I climbed to the top and slid down the banister a few times. And then a couple more times. And backward once for good measure.