i. even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise
I'm so sorry, Ian, Natalie thought. She faintly heard the sound of sobbing and, with her last breath, she thought, I'm sorry for everything.
For awhile, everything was black and there was no sound to be heard.
Suddenly, a blinding white light filled Natalie's vision and she stumbled back, right into another dead fellow.
"Oh, easy there girl. Don't fret, the light is something you'll be used to in a matter for minutes," a voice said. She turned around and found Alistair smiling softly at her.
"Alistair? Is that really you?" Natalie gasped. She turned around to find more kind faces smiling at her, such as Grace Cahill that boy from Jamaica - was his name Lester? - and, to her surprise, Irina Spasky.
"I'm… dead, Ian's alive," Natalie said. She closed her eyes and tried to remember the reason why she died. Grace placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "You got electrocuted, to say the least, my dear."
A new face appeared and said, "That was really brave of you, Natalie."
"You must be Evan Tolliver," she said. "Shame that we only get to meet in the afterlife. I heard quite a lot about your bravery to help us when my brother and I had a chance to see each other," she took a deep breath and continued, "Thank you. Thank you so much, Evan."
Evan smiled at her and whispered, "Must be hard to process this 'dead' thing, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, also, I'm really sorry about your brother," Grace said. Irina nodded pitifully. Natalie was surprised with Irina's reaction - maybe death changes people after all.
"I'm sorry as well," a new voice said. They all turned, and much to their shock, found Isabel Kabra walking towards them. "For everything, Natalie. I'm sorry for not being a better mother and not realizing my mistakes sooner."
Natalie froze in her place. She had no idea on how to respond to that, so Alistair whispered, "Go, girl. Give your mother a hug. There's nothing to be afraid of; we have betrayed darkness here."
Natalie willed herself to run towards her mother, but instead, she took small, hesitant steps. Isabel smiled sadly, even if she completely understood why Natalie acted like that. Natalie's pace quickened and, before she knew it, she was in her mother's arms. "I missed you, mum. I missed you so much," she said. They both knew that you referred to Isabel's old self; the Isabel that vanished a long time ago, the Isabel that was proud of Natalie when she could walk the distance between her father and her mother without much assistance. Everyone smiled at the scene of the mother and daughter.
"The dark days are through, my child," Grace said softly.
Hello! It's been some time since my last story. Sorry about that - I had a bad case of writer's block. To clear things up in this chapter (or in this story, rather), we remember that time in Day of Doom where Amy has a brief visit to what we could consider as heaven. We see almost no change in Grace, Evan and Alistair's kind hearts, but we see a change in Natalie and in Isabel. I'm basing the drabbles on that, assuming that Amy really did visit heaven (or purgatory). So, yes, Isabel, Natalie and Irina are out of character. I've put lots of thought into this; otherwise, I wouldn't be writing this fic!