But there's a beginning in an end, you know? It's true that you can't reclaim what you had, but you can lock it up behind you. Start fresh.

The Darkest Minds, by Alexandra Bracken

One year later.

I put the pencil next to my notebook and stretched.

It was funny how you could be immortal, but still feel pain from sitting still for too long... Not that I was complaining.

I've never been much of a complainer.

It had been a year since I died and everything had happened, and I am happy to report that things are much better than I expected.

Much, much better.

I mean, I had started training with Tanya after school. When she said that I - innocently, I must add - imagined that she meant that she was going to explain more details about the life of an Initiate.

But no, she really meant training.

So that meant that every day - and that includes Saturday and Sunday, to my eternal terror - I had to accompany Tanya on a series of exercises that seemed to come out of the corners of my nightmares.

Tanya said I should get used to it.

"You want to beat Izak sometime, yes? Better to start working on your fitness... Then again, we are going to enroll in some self defense class, I was thinking about karate or krav maga, but we can see about that later."

I was really trying to avoid thinking about it.

On a more positive front, Dash and I started dating, much to Jace's chagrin. He really didn't like the idea of ​​seeing us together and I hated the idea of ​​seeing him upset...
But I was trying to accept his feelings and that I was not to blame for them and he was just trying to get over them.

Even with all that I have changed during this year, I think I would always like to please other people... and I have learned to accept that in myself. There was nothing wrong with wanting to make other people happy, as long as I didn't feel unhappy about doing so.

Obviously, understanding this does not make things easier. I still struggle when I need to say no to people, in particular to the people I love, but I was doing my best to stand up to them when I felt I needed to and they were amazing.

Or they tried to be.

Ingreth and I started to go out more. She had decided that since I had a second chance at life, I needed to live and reading books were apparently not enough for her.

I decided to please her on that, and just started reading more at night. I mean, it's not like I'm going to die due to little sleep, right? Not to mention that I liked seeing Ingreth so happy and that it was fun to try to learn to be confident like her. I mean, remember how I wanted to tell her story in the beginning? I think part of it was due to the fact that she was so brave and I... Well, I wasn't. I wanted to be like her when I grew up.

But now I had changed my mind. I wished I could tell my own story, be proud of it. Be proud of myself.

I didn't really like getting a roommate, but the fact that it was usually Natalia, Luc or Hugo made things a little better. Hugo in particular was my favorite, even on the day he hid my Math homework and it took me over an hour to find it.

At least he made me laugh... (even when I wanted to kill him).

Malach appears at least once a week, behaving like a mysterious guide, uttering words of wisdom and disappearing like smoke. It would have been funny if I wasn't a little upset about it... I thought he was acting a little off character...

"Are you ready for the theater?"

Dash interrupted my thoughts but, nonetheless, I found myself smiling and running towards him with arms wide open. It was becoming easier for me to show my affection towards him now that we were together for a while.

And if I was getting used to it, Dash seemed to absorb my affection as a dry plant absorbs water, his smiles becoming more and more frequent as time went by.

We waved goodbye to my parents and Jace - who, as always, preferred to pretend we weren't there, so he ignored us. As bad as that sounds, Jace has been working hard to accept us as a couple, and nowadays he even accepts to go out with us sometimes.

Maybe things will get even better when he gets a girlfriend...

As we walked hand in hand towards the cinema, I looked at the sky. The shades of purple, pink and orange tinted the sky, making it a fascinating mix of colors.
It was the evenfall, the end of a cycle, the beginning of another. I couldn't help but rest my head on Dash's shoulder, focusing on his warmth as I watched the colors dancing in the sky.
Dash kissed my head and I sighed. So much has changed...

Someone ran past us, pushing me so hard that if it weren't for Dash, I would have fallen on the street.

"Are you okay?" He asked, looking around worriedly, but whoever pushed me was surely already miles away with how fast they were going.

Smiling at him, I nodded and we continued walking to the theater, and then went to buy our tickets for the movie. It was only when Dash was buying our popcorn that I used the time to reach into my jeans pocket.

A small crumpled piece of paper was there.

With shaking hands, I straightened it out as best I could, to make sure I could read it.
Malach has been missing for six days, the Holy Army humbly asks for your help to find him.

Ops. I have a feeling that things are going to get very complicated again...

╭───────╯•╰───────╮

Hello everyone!

It's over :)

I have to say I'm honestly pleased to finish this book, there were so many times where I was tempted to give up. I'm proud of myself to finish this one, yes I am.

And I'm so thankful to all of you!

Your support, your comments, everything helped me to power through this book. I honestly believe this experience has made me a better writer. Thank you so much for your unwavering support.

You guys are AWESOME and I'm so thankful to wattpad for allowing us to 'meet ':D

Looking forward to listening your thoughts on this chapter as well :)

Originally published: September 25th, 2020

╰───────╮•╭───────╯