Project Jamboree

Epilogue

Five years later...

"Morning, sunshine," Cole said as I walked past.

I was too sleepy to take any notice, more focused on the prospect of coffee. The kids knew better than to talk to me before my daily dose of caffeine.

We'd stayed in the League safe house, even though the League itself had dispersed directly after my speech to the interim government.

We knew better than to cause trouble here. We stayed hidden, and we kept the kids safe. Our home had become a home to all the Psi that had been kicked out of their homes, or who didn't want to go home and take the cure.

Kids like us.

I sat next to the window, watching the birds.

To make him finally happy, Ruby had erased Clancy's memories of East River and Camp Thurmond. Lillian covered it up by saying it was a case in oranges, where the cure could potentially cause memory loss due to their unique ability.

My mother and I had a deal. She didn't come after me, and I left her and Clancy in peace with their new identities.

And my father? He up and left the day the interim government was established. Rumor had it he'd caught a plane to hide out in another country. He didn't tell anyone, not even his own family. Likely because he knew Lillian would turn him in, or Clancy and I would kill him.

The new interim government was getting ready for an election. Vida worked with a government task force looking for Ruby and I, since we were the most dangerous and wanted Psi fugitives on the planet. But she was actually just trying to keep them off our scent. She knew exactly where we were.

Chubs worked in a division of the government on a Psi Council, ensuring that whatever new laws the government passed worked in our favor. None of them did, but he did manage to tip us off about most things that were going to go wrong.

The group's little friend Suzume came to visit once, bringing white lilies. She reminded me so much of Jude that it made my chest hurt whenever I looked at her. But we had her picture in the house, just for memories. She was also part of the government, giving inspirational speeches and announcements at schools and events across the country, helping to keep peace between adults and Psi.

Ruby herself had indeed made a safe house for Psi, calling it Haven. There were those of us across the country, scattered after the League broke apart, who'd decided to hide. And there were others who'd made their own safe houses, looking to Ruby and Liam or Cole and I for help.

Oh, and us?

We lived in the safe house Vida left us in, as I already mentioned, and we took in kids. We prioritized finding and bringing in any reds and oranges, teaching them control. Of course, staying was optional, but most stayed. We had a few yellows, too, but a group of them left a few days ago to see if they could make it to Haven. And an excess of nerdy greens and blues.

The safe house actually had a name. I called it Camp Afterlight, in an attempt to redeem the word 'camp' from the infamous Psi camps like Thurmond, Sawtooth, Black Rock, and Caledonia. Afterlight for our vision of the future.

We had pictures of everyone in the house, even Jude. Especially Jude. This was his dream, after all. The future. Ruby had found his compass. She gave it to me. I wore it around my neck every day.

Me?

I stayed in the safe house. Nothing major changed. Other than my hair, and that was about it. Just a plain, frizzy red, as usual, but with a few streaks. Orange for Ruby. Yellow for Jude. Blue for Vida. Green for Chubs. And one small highlight of black.

Clancy used to say that black is the color that is no color at all. I guess that's true.

Black is the color of memory, the color of the darkness and monsters we spend every second of our lives fighting. It's the color that breaks when the sun starts rising. It is the color of empty picture frames and dark camps. It is the color of ghosts, of empty hearts and hollow souls.

It is our color, the color of the Psi, the color they'll use to tell our story.

I stopped checking for monsters under my bed the day I realized they were inside of me. They hurt me every second of every day, they made me bleed. But some times we have to bleed to know that we are alive.

And the bullet wounds- well, they healed, but they'll leave some pretty remarkable scars. I've got a few stories to tell the kids.

I guess I expected the world to remember me as President Gray's daughter. Just another rich kid in the White House.

But the recording of my speech, of me getting shot, spread like wildfire. I'm known as the red Psi who stood up to the interim government, who initiated the change.

Granted most of the world thought I was dead, since I got shot and all that. And the part of the government that knew I was alive was trying to hunt me down.

We all knew what would happen when they found me. They'd cure me.

So we were careful.

I took a deep sip of the coffee and smiled as I looked out the window. Cole took the kids outside to play.

There was a knock on the door. I walked over and opened it.

What I saw shocked me.

A girl with hot pink chalked hair reaching her shoulder blades stood in the doorway. I'd have thought it was Vida if they didn't have dark eyes. Her clothes were splattered in blood.

She looked desperate.

Behind her were two other kids, a Russian boy aiming a gun at me, and a girl stood next to him, leaning on the wall of the porch.

Fire sparked in my hand as I signed, Gun down before you're a pile of ashes.

The boy understood, but looked to the girl stood in the doorway, who I only now recognized.

Suzume? I asked.

The girl trembled a little, "Hey, Nat. I need your help."

A/N: Yep, that's the end because I'm so cruel. Anyone who doesn't know, that would lead in to The Darkest Legacy, a book from Suzume's PoV set five years after In the Afterlight.

Basically, I just didn't want the story to end. Sorry not sorry.

I hope you enjoyed the book. The beginning was set in Never Fade, and it carried over through In the Afterlight, both books by Alexandra Bracken, so she owns the characters and plot line. I only own Natasha Gray.

Goodbye, and Carpe Diem!