The Neighbor

Epilogue

"Where are you taking me?" I giggled.

"You'll see." He said, walking out the door of the apartments.

I held onto his hand tightly, following behind him the best that I could. "Can I at least have a hint?" I pestered him.

"No, you may not." He said, walking fast.

We argued the entire way about whether or not he should tell me what he's planning. I pleaded relentlessly for him to tell me because surprises make me sort of anxious, I get nervous when I don't know what to expect. Blade is a stubborn man, so I learned absolutely nothing about his intentions. It was sweet that surprising me was so important to him. The entire ride there we fought like an old married couple, which was surprisingly fun. I guess he won because by the time we got to the location, I had no idea what he had in store for me. When he finally stopped walking, I grew excited. We were in front of a  gorgeous rustic black train. 

"What are we doing here?' I asked, still staring at the train, the gold accents drawing my attention and keeping it. It looked identical to the tiny train we watched that day back in the hospital. He not only remembered that we watched a train, but he remembered the exact image of the train and so did I. We held that image with that because it was important. 

"We first bonded over a shared love of that toy train in the hospital waiting room." He opened the door. "I thought it'd be fun to go for a ride in a real one."

I hugged him so tight I think he lost his breath. "How'd you arrange this?"

He shrugged me off. "They'll let you do anything if the price is right."

"How much did you have to pay?" Renting a train had to be a hefty sum. I felt guilty that he spent so much of his hard earned cash on me. I didn't feel worthy. I couldn't lie and say I wasn't overcome with happiness though. 

"It doesn't matter, all you have to know is that we have it for the rest of the day." He winked and opened the door for me like the gentleman he was. "We can go wherever you want. That has a train track of course."

"Can we go to the beach?" I asked, excitedly. "I haven't been to the beach in so long."

"Absolutely" he said, giving me a hand up into the train. He lifted me up with ease, just more evidence of his incredible strength.

Inside was so beautiful. It was decorated with sunflowers, shinning candles and pearly white couches and round tables. "Did you do this?" I asked in amazement.

"It was nothing." He said heading to the front.

"Well, it's exquisite." I said, following him, looking around, trying to take it all in. "This is amazing."

He smiled back at me. "I'm glad you think so, it's all for you." 

I grabbed his arm, turning him to face me. "Thank you so much."

"I was more than happy to do it."

He started messing with the  buttons. "Do you even know how to drive it?" I teased him.

"I'd hope so, because if not that means they go around giving everyone a license to drive this heavy machinery." He smirked.

"When did you get your license?" This guy never ceased to shock me. Who does that? He is so creative. 

"About a week ago, when I planned this joyride." He turned back to the buttons, hitting each one carefully.

"You did all this just to take me for a ride?" I have got to be the luckiest person alive.

"You sound surprised." His eyebrows raised.

"This kind of stuff only happens in the movies." I had never seen anything like Blade in real life. The fact that he was mine was even more unreal. I must have done something very right to deserve him. 

"We have the kind of love that they make movies off of." He grabbed my hands, peering into my eyes.

The word love hung in the air. Usually the word freaked me out, made me anxious and afraid. It was different hearing it come out of his mouth, his soothing voice the one saying it. It made all the difference. "I love the way you speak." I said, wearing a huge smile.

"I love the way you make me feel." He pulled me closer. "Excited, and nervous, and not alone." Hearing him say he felt alone was hard to hear. I intended to make up for all the pain he'd felt in his past. 

"Glad to be of service." I hugged him. "It's good you like me a little bit because you're probably going to have to get used to me."

"I like you a lot a bit and I hope so." His white teeth shone brightly at me. "Are you ready to start our story?"

"I'm more ready than I've been for anything."

"Okay then let's start here." He held his hand out. I looked at it skeptically, then I gave him my hand. "Hi, I'm Zayden, it's nice to meet you Amaya."

I squealed, jumping up and down." Is that your real name?" He nodded. "I love it!" It sounded like silk coming out of his mouth. It fit him to a tea. I never knew a name could be so perfect, but his name was. 

"You do?" He tilted his head, confused. "I've always thought it was a little weird."

"No, it's perfect." I smiled,  not sure how he could even doubt that I loved his name. How could he believe his name was weird, it was anything but. "Can I call you Zade?" I said, already getting ahead of myself. 

"You can call me whatever you want." He winked at me, tempting me. 

I snapped out my dirty thoughts and focused back into the moment. "Okay, Mr. Zade let's go to the beach!" I said enthusiastically.

"Let's go to the beach." He echoed, kissing my forehead before releasing me.

       He messed with a few more notches and we were off. The ride was super pretty, we went past little towns, and big open fields filled with gorgeous flowers I've never seen before. Riding a train was just another one of my fantasies that has come true since meeting Blade, or I guess I should say Zadyn. After the long ride, the two of us stayed at the beach for hours, setting up a big white blanket and a wooden picnic basket so we could lay down together. We ran into the cold, clear water and splashed each other mercilessly. When I was afraid to go deeper into the ocean, he lifted me up into his arms and made me face my fear. It was exhilarating. We talked all about our lives. We discussed all the things we wanted to do before we die, the people we left behind, the people who left us behind. We talked about fate, how we ended up here. I realized how much Blade had to say that he never had the chance to talk about before. It made me sad, but I was glad that he finally got to talk about it now. I was honored to be the one he was able to talk to. We worked so well together.

         Two days after our romantic train date, Blade told me he had applied to go back to med school, and after he had some good recommendations, he was accepted. He had recreated his "twin" and brought him before a court. They had agreed that he shouldn't have been in the asylum in the first place. It was erased from his record. He rarely used his special ability, except for emergencies. Blade had decided to let Smasher say goodbye to his ex-girlfriend, or at least the version of her he could conjure up. Even though it wasn't exactly the same, this really helped Smasher. He was able to finally move on. I found out Smasher's real name is Justin. Which I definitely wasn't suspecting.

      After Landon was placed in the asylum, we all slept a little better. Especially Nikki, who had nightmares about him for quite some time. She and Smasher had finally made their relationship official with a party celebration. Guess they don't like crashing other people's parties as much as Blade and I. Landon had written Nikayla a note telling her he was sorry, that he was getting better. He mentioned a new girl he had a thing with named Linda. I had never been happier, I had the worlds hottest boyfriend, the most amazing best friends, and an internship that brought me one step closer to my dream job.

    I was never a believer that one person could change the course of my entire life. Not until Blade came into my life. Letting people in wasn't scary anymore. I realized everyone was good and bad in their own ways. If you keep that in mind, it's easy to give people a chance but be able to cut them out when it's necessary.