Five years later

I shot up out of my bed screaming, and throwing of my blankets, jumping out of the bed and sobbing on the floor.

I saw her again. She was covered in blood and staring at me empty-eyed. She kept saying it was my fault. My fault. My fault.

And she was right.

Strong arms wrapped around my torso and I heard soft comforting words being whispered in my ear. I tried to calm my breathing down but I just ended up wheezing in turn. I reached up on my bedside desk blindly to find my inhaler, but I couldn't.

"I've got it." Alex said softly as I clutched my chest and tried to find some source of air.

He handed me my inhaler and I shook it up before taking a puff and leaning back onto his chest, clutching onto the material of his tee-shirt as if my life depended on it.

Alex turned on the lamp before running his fingers through my hair comfortingly.

"Bad dream?"

I nodded.

"About Dorian or Evie?"

I nodded again.

"Wanna talk about it?"

I shook my head.

"Okay."

He hugged me tighter and I buried my face into his chest.

Five years.

It's been five years and I still suffer from PTSD. No amount of sleeping pills or inhalers was going to fix that.

It never would.

Alex leaned down and looked at me in the eyes.

"Better?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said softly. "W-What time is it?"

Alex leaned up to look at the clock.

"It's six in the morning. Why?"

I sighed and stood up, pulling at the hem of Alex's shirt that I was wearing at the moment. "I have that speech at the park at eight. I should get ready."

He nodded and stood up as well. "Okay. I'll make you breakfast. Then I'll get ready while you eat. Sound good?"

"Alex, you don't have to. I can just grab like, some McDonald's or something on the way"

"But I want, to Circe." He said, holding my hands in his. Besides, he held up his hand and wiggled his fingers, showing off his engagement ring. "It's practice."

I chuckled as he walked away. That boy was something else.

I made my way to the bathroom and looked in the mirror my grey eyes had bags underneath them and my hair was a matted and tangled mess.

I'd decided to go back to my chestnut brown locks back in my Eros days to remain inconspicuous. Once Dorian exposed Alex and I, the only way for us to live in peace was to change our physical appearance and our names. To the public, I wasn't Circe Lewis. I was Lea Carter and Alex was Hayden Adams, my fiancé.

It was hard, living a lie. Sometimes, people called me Lea and I completely forgot to respond. But I made due.

I'd also decided that I liked short hair a lot more than I liked long hair. So I'd made sure to keep my hair at collar-bone length.

Alex said he liked it like that. So did I.

I quickly got dressed in my pantsuit and put on my makeup before going into the kitchen.

Alex gestured towards the bowl of cereal on the table. "Ta-da!" He exclaimed happily.

I laughed. "Thanks babe."

"You're welcome. "Look! And it's Fruity Pebbles! Your favorite!"

"I'm very proud of you, Alex. It's a breakfast fit for a queen." I said sitting down.

"That you are." Alex said, nuzzling my neck with his nose. I giggled in response.

"Well, I'm going to go freshen up. Suit and tie attire today?"

"Nah." I shook my head. "Dress however. You're not going to be talking today. It's just me."

"Got it." And with that, Alex disappeared into the room.

Suddenly my phone rang. Once I saw the caller ID, I quickly picked up. "Vic, how are things looking?"

"Um, I don't know. I'm on my way to your house right now. I'm not at the park."

"I thought I told you to go to the park to see how packed out it was!" I hissed at Victor through a mouthful of Fruity Pebbles.

"Yeah, but I wanted to see Grace so I'm coming to you instead. I'm almost there, actually." I could practically hear Victor's smirk through the phone.

"Yeah, well, Grace is fine, so please, turn around and-"

"Is that Uncle Victor?" I heard a voice ask."

Grace stood in the doorway, her hair down and almost covering her left eye. Her see-and-eye dog, Cookie was on his leash, guiding her towards me. Alex and I had decided to adopt Grace as soon as we came of age. She loved living with us, and Victor's frequent visits made her love it here even more.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm going to kill you." I muttered to Victor before giving the phone to Grace.

"Hey Uncle V." Grace grinned.

"Hey there, Spark Plug! How've you been?" I heard Victor ask.

"Great. I navigated through the entire house yesterday without Cookie!"

"Really? That's amazing! You're getting so good! Soon, you'll be driving and everything!"

"Uncle V, I'm only twelve."

"Hey, its double digits!"

I scoffed and shook my head before finishing my cereal and washing the bowl out. Alex came from around the corner dressed in a simple black tee-shirt and jeans. His arms were bare and I could see the Japanese tattoo that read 'strength' on his left arm.

He'd gotten it a year ago in a drunken splendor with Victor. Not that I approved of the method, but the tattoo itself was a great idea. It was a reminder to him. A reminder that we both needed.

"Ready to go?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Not yet. We're having company."

"Company?"

Suddenly three rhythmic knocks resounded at the door. I rolled my eyes playfully. "Company."

I opened the door to reveal Victor, who's smiling eyes instantly brightened up the room. "Circe!" He exclaimed, giving me a tight hug, a gesture which I returned.

"Hey, Victor." I chuckled hugging him back.

He pulled away and the first thing my eyes landed on was Evanora's necklace around his neck. He never took it off. He said it was how he kept her with him.

"Hey man." Alex said, giving Victor a weird bro-hug.

Victor suddenly gasped. "There's trouble!" He grinned sweeping Grace off of her feet and spinning her around. Grace laughed as he put her down and gave him a big hug. "Guess who's going to be your baby sitter today, kiddo?" He asked, ruffling Grace's hair.

"I don't need a baby sitter." She huffed in response.

"Yeah. Okay. Whatever you say. Come on, Cookie." Victor said playfully, gesturing towards the dog, who lead Grace behind Victor.

"Guess she's riding with him to the speech." I said as they left the doorway. "He didn't even ask for our permission, but whatever I guess."

"I mean, look at it this way. That just gives me more time to annoy you!" Alex said with a small smirk.

I scoffed and playfully shoved past him and made my way towards my car with a smile. "Oh joy."

_ _ _ _

The car ride wasn't quiet in the least bit. Alex always found a way to make conversation and keep my mind off of the speech. It worked too. In all honesty, I had completely forgotten I was even supposed to be delivering a speech until we pulled up into the park parking lot and saw how crowded it truly was. I gulped nervously. It was always like this. I was used to it. Being a big name person in the city of New York was a nerve wrecking thing.

Alex opened the door for me and before we could even take two steps away from our car, we were instantly greeted by the event organizer. She was a perky little woman who just radiated OCD.

"Oh! Good! You're early!" She piped.

Victor hopped out of his car that was parked beside ours and helped Grace out as well.

"And you brought guests..." The woman looked down at the clipboard in her hand. "We can make due, I suppose. Come along. We can start a few minutes before our scheduled time, if you're comfortable with that. I'm sure you have many places to be, anyway."

"That would be great." I smiled.

The woman nodded. "Alright then, follow me."

She led us backstage of the makeshift stage that had been set up for this event.

"Okay, she began turning around. I'm going to introduce you, you can give your speech, and we'll dismiss. Simple as that. Ready?"

I nodded and the woman disappeared behind the curtain, a hearty "Good morning New York" booming over the microphone shortly after.

"You good?" Victor asked.

"Yeah. You're seeming kind of...pale." Alex added.

"Yeah." I assured them. "I'm fine. I've done this plenty of times before. This is just standard stage fright. As soon as I start talking, it'll disappear."

"Now, please join me and welcome to the stage, Lea Carter!"

"Wish me luck." I said.

"You already have all of mine." Alex grinned, kissing me on the cheek.

"Gross. Get a room." I heard Grace gag as I walked onto the stage.

"Hello New York City!" I exclaimed, waving out to the crowd. "How are you doing tonight?" I received cheers and whistles in response.

"Good! That's good. Well, most of you already know me. But, for those of you who don't, my name is Lea Carter and I'm one of the founders of the Evanora Project. I'm also an advocate for Elementalist's rights"

Murmurs rose up in the crowd, some even going so far as to boo. I simply rolled my eyes. This was something I was used to by now.

"This is Evanora." I began pressing a button on the remote that had been placed on the podium for me. A picture appeared behind me of a smiling African American girl with golden brown eyes and freckled cheeks. "She was sixteen and a half years old when she lost her life." I continued.

"She liked to cook and sing and dance and babysit. She never caused trouble. She never liked to fight or engage in negative confrontations in general. But she was still murdered. Why? Because she was different. It wasn't because she was a problem causer. It wasn't because she had any previous histories that gave her killer the right to take her away from the world. It was because she was special. She was an Elementalist, one who could control gravity, which is a harmless power."

My eyes scanned the crowd before they landed on a redheaded woman. "You." I said pointing. "What's your name?"

"Maggie." She said softly. "Well Maggie, how do you think your family would feel if some random soldiers stormed into your house and killed you dead before their very eyes, all because you had red hair?"

Maggie was silent. "Devastated." She muttered.

"Now, what if I said that you had deserved to die, all because a few red headed people committed some crimes that you had nothing to do with? Does that sound fair?"

Maggie shook her head.

"Well," I said looking back up at the crowd in general. "That's what's happening to Elementalist all across the globe. They are being forced into oppression and slaughtered mercilessly. This is a modern day Holocaust and no one is doing anything about it."

I turned around and looked up at the picture of Evanora. "Well, I decided long ago that I wasn't going to let this happen anymore. I'm going to do everything in my power to stop this cruel injustice. But I can't do it alone. I'm here today to ask you all to stand up. Don't be mindless pawns in the government's twisted, fear-induced scheme. Stand up with me. Keep other Evanoras in the world from dying before their time."

I brushed a strand of hair from my face. "Together, Normals and Elementalist alike can live in peace and harmony. Together, we can rise."