Epilogue:

He's standing tall over her petite little body that seems even shorter without any shoes on. She struggles to look up at him from all the way down here so she tilts her head back until it hits the wall. "Ow!" She mutters, rubbing the spot on the back of her head.

The corners of his lips curve up a little until she notices and glares at him. "Are you laughing at me?" She demands, crossing her arms (with difficulty might she add because he's so damn close).

The curve in his mouth fails to disappear but the words come out serious. "No, never." His large hand hovers beside her head on the wall and he moves it so he's cupping the back of it, right on the spot where she hit it, gently rubbing soothing patterns into her scalp.

She's still glaring when he asks "better?" And he doesn't get much more of a reply than that.

He bends his knees a ducks a little to meet her height and move his face closer to hers. "I'm curious..." he starts, removing his hand from the back of her head to lean it back on the wall for support. "...you once said, and I quote, 'I've done it with plenty of guys thank you very much. Not that it's any of your business anyway, pervert.'"

She wants to laugh at the surprisingly good American accent he comes out with but it's just a little too valley girl and she ends up blushing instead. She blushes bright red but doesn't back down from the long glare she's still shooting at him. Her lip does twitch ever so slightly though and he catches it. "Yeah, so?"

He leans in closer, their noses almost touch. "So...I don't believe you. I bet you've never even kissed a guy." He shrugs a little saying it like it's a known fact.

She scoffs. "Of course I have!"

"Sure, love."

Her eyes widen in disbelief because how dare he insult her like that. She's already at a disadvantage being in such close proximity with him, this just adds fuel to fire.

"Prove it." He whispers, flicking his gaze down to her lips for the shortest second before flicking them back up to her eyes, eyebrows raised in a challenge.

She's immobilised and unsure of how to play this game. She could always push him away for insulting her like that, but she could also give in and finally get what she's been craving for so long. He sees her debate this in her head and his lips grow into a deeper smirk.

"It's okay if you haven't love. You're not to blame. I mean you're young and probably shy around mos-" he starts to say but he's cut off by the peck she leaves on his lips, so quick that he questions whether it even happened or not.

His eyebrows shoot up and he's straight up smiling now. "You call that a kiss?"

She scoffs, crossing her arms over her chest again. And again, with much, much difficulty. "Yes."

He starts to chuckle and she feels it against the skin of her bare arm as it rumble through to her own chest.

Oh she's definitely angry now. "As if I have to prove anything to you anyway. Just because I don't go around kissing everyone I meet doesn't mean I haven't kissed anyo-" and now it's her turn to be cut off because before she knows it, his lips are on hers like darkness looking for light, coldness looking for warmth or thirst looking for water.

And its absolutely, breathtakingly, wonderfully brilliant.

Not the way her holds her face with both his hands that seem so soft now despite his calloused fingertips. Not the way he's pushed up against her body or the way her arms flail around at first before securing around his wrists that sit by her face. Not even the way his fingertips caress her hair out of her face before moving them to feel her neck and her jaw and then finally her cheek.

But the way their lips meet in perfect synchronisation without the need to rush. Without the clashing of teeth, without the battle of tongues. It's just slow, steady lips that are so completely full of infatuation and admiration and heart and soul.

Until suddenly, it's not.

Lips stop moving and whispered breaths stop sounding, taken over by fear and screams.

He flinched before backing away as if he'd been burnt.

It's all a bit disorientated really but soon after his hand leave her face, the screams morph into a whole other person altogether.

She's familiar. Almost the same as the one he'd been kissing. This new girl had the same distinct features but instead of laughs and giggles, she was screaming. Burning.

She burns before his eyes before morphing into the next girl, and the girl after that, and the girl after that, and the girl after that.

Until finally they stop burning and crying and screaming.

There's another woman now. She's looks exactly like an older version of...of someone. Someone he knows. It's the same eyes but older. The same pale skin, just rougher. The same hair, but a strand of grey atop her head instead of brown all over.

This woman sits with a man. They're close in relationship, is all he can tell. He stares in confusion as they stare at each other, smiling widely. They both turn to look at him and they start screaming like the others.

But before he can see them burn too, Caleb jolts awake - dripping with sweat as the name "Alexa" falls from his lips in a panicked whisper.

The familiar surroundings seep into his brain and the beige walls of his room at the sanatorium forces him to calm himself down.

It happened again. He wonders briefly when the incoherent nightmares will stop before realising he deserved them anyway and laid back down on the bad, the cuff at his right ankle pulling slightly as he moved to adjust his position. It stung but he didn't care.

He deserved it.

He deserved it all.

• • • • •

End.

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A/N: Im not sobbing, you are.

Okay maybe you're not but this is the end. I mean, not THE END, the end. But also kind of the end.

BUT CALM DOWN.

THERE IS GOING TO BE A SECOND BOOK. Okay so clearly not all the answers have been answered in the book and I'm 100% aware of the messy and uncoordinated storyline/plot. But i just have to continue because ALEXA AND CALEB HAVEN'T EVEN KISSED YET!! And I need at least a sex scene to be anywhere near satisfied with their story.

Maybe ask me some questions in the comment section for any plot holes I may have missed or just anything you don't understand about the story (because frankly, I haven't Re-read the book since last year and I'm going off memory at this point.) and I'll either answer the question in the next book or in the comment section.

So back to the point, there will be a sequel. A second book! I'm so excited. I have the whole summer basically doing nothing so I'll actually have time to update it and you'll soon find out the whole backstory to Caleb and Marcus and even Lexi!

Give me a couple of weeks to write out the first few chapters of the book and then they should be posted!

That's it for now! Thank you again! Oh & have I mentioned I LOVE YOU? Because I do. Really. Like more than cheese.

Sara x

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