Wow. First of all, there won't be an epilogue as I first planned, but this is it. This is it. With this chapter, I finally end this Evelyn-era. Two years, almost exactly, it's been since I first wrote about the girl on the train station. She's developed a lot since, and I've loved and hated her deeply, I've cried and I've laughed at her, I've wanted to throw my computer in the wall because of her, I've wanted to kill various characters (none to be mentioned by name (I'm not talking about Laura, never...)) and it's just been a lot.

It's meant a lot to me, and it probably will for a long time. All of your comments have meant a lot to me as well. I just... It feels strange that's all.

Before I let you go to this last chapter, I have to thank people. I've gotten, as of the moment of writing this, 52 reviews. Which is more than I had ever hoped for. I'm on tons of favorit lists, favorite authors, author and story alerts. Many, many more than I'd dreamed of, even. You guys have really helped me get back my belief in my own writing.

First of all, I'd like to thank the always so lovely Zoftis and Koski-chan (who needs to finish that chapter, biatch!) for being my friends.Then, namedropping!

From the start it was Maid of the Mer, glennscm, Certh and talksome.jive

Then, around chapter 5, came Twilight L. Xari, who's been my loyal day brightener since, and I've known I've always had something to look forward to when publishing a new chapter.
Then IsilwenSilme, who also brightened my days a lot :)

Honorable mention to SecondRate, whose comment on chapter 6(7) made me laugh out loud.
Then came -zi-tok-, who also helped brighten my day.

I love you all. In a distorted, psychotic sort of way. Notice the extremely open ending. I am easily convinced.

Anyways, I've been dragging this out way too long. Have fun reading this.

I had fun writing at least.

I'm feeling a bit disappointed with this chapter, to be honest. But I don't know what's wrong, so I'm letting it go off like this or else I'll never be finished.
I also have a question. I have to stories in mind, after this one. One is linked to this, and is more about the mansion at the time Evelyn is locked up. Or rather, a young girl who happens to arrive at the mansion only months after Evelyn is locked up.
The other is a totally unrelated fanfiction, still X-men though, but I think it has a brilliant plotline, seeing as how I've been working on it in my mind for about four years by now. Five, even. Wow. I'm geeky.
Also, note the open ending. Hint hint nudge nudge. I am easily convinced, as I wrote earlier. Although the first one I described has a bit to do with what I'm hint, hint, nudge, nudging at.

I've been babbling for far too long.

Hugs and cookies to everyone!

P.S, if I don't answer reviews in a while, it's because bad stuff has happened. But I promise I'll try.

And of course, HUGE thanks to my beloved, beautiful boyfriend Charlie, who's supported me from the start with this shit. He's the one I forced to work on dialogue and scenarios together. Thank you!

"Out of my way, little one! I have something very, very, very important to do here!" The almost three-year-old Isabelle wobbled in front of Evelyn, who tried desperately to run around the little doll. But it was impossible to get away from the energetic bundle of joy when she wanted attention.

"Ev!" she said, clapping her hands. "Ev!" Evelyn smiled and crouched down, rubbing Isabelle's cheek. "You're incredibly sweet, Ish, but I really need to get past here."

"Ev!" the three-year old said stubbornly, pointing to the pillow fort she had built in the middle of the corridor. Probably with her father's pillows. "It's really pretty, Ish. I'll play with you in a while, ok?"

Isabelle stared at her with big, brown eyes. "Promise?"

Evelyn nodded. "Promise."

The child clapped her hands again and giggled, then walked over to her fort and crawled in under it. Evelyn giggled, then remembered what she had to do and sprinted to her own room.

"Remy!" she cried out, jumping up and down madly. "Remy, oh you won't believe it!"

Remy looked up from the book he was reading. "What be dat, cherie?"

She crawled up to where he was lying in the bed, and whispered it in his ear. "I'm pregnant."

The look on his face was pure shock, and Evelyn wasn't surprised. They had been trying for two years, and now it finally had happened.

"Cherie, it – you be sure?" She nodded vigorously, her curls flying everywhere. "Real sure?" then a smile crawled onto his lips, and he threw away the book and pulled her close. "We're gonna have a baby?"

"Mhm. We're gonna have a baby."

Winter turns to spring, spring to summer and summer to fall. As such is the life cycle of the year, as such is the cycle in which everything lives and dies.

A life; a life lives for more than the cycle of the year. Yet as a life passes, it passes through many winters, and many summers, and many summers in the middle of the winter. Everything moves, events unfold and whatever happens, happens and cannot be undone.

Once something happens, it is there, it is fact, and the consequences, unavoidable.

Life is fragile. It can be shattered in a few days, in a few hours, in a few moments. All you need is that one thing, one word, one sign, one accident, and everything is ruined. Even the one most full of life, can shatter and fall into the ruins of despair. Hopelessness, emptiness, loneliness, all these feelings are part of humanity.

And nothing hurts more, then losing everything.

"Evelyn?"

She tried using the darkness around her to suppress all sounds, but couldn't help but listening anyway.

"She hasn't come out of there yet?"

"No. It's been zree days."

Logan and Kurt. They were worried about her. Go worry about someone else, she wanted to scream, but couldn't find the strength. She didn't want their worry. She didn't want anything at all, because if she had nothing at all, she wouldn't exist.

Three days, three days since everything broke. She had always believed she could make it through anything, anything life would throw at her she had always taken with a smile and a wink. But now something, someone, decided to spit her in the face.

She had always believed life was beautiful, and always believed that everything would solve if you would only smile and feel the smile warm you up. But now she couldn't find the strength to move at all, let alone smile. Everything felt empty and cold. Everything had gone wrong.

It was her fault, and she knew it. That was the worst part, that she had ruined not only her own dreams, but someone else's, because of something she had always been so proud of.

She had killed her own child.

Three days ago, she had miscarried. Hank had whispered something to Remy when he thought she wasn't listening about the electrical currents that ran through her body. And she knew, she knew it was all her fault. It was her powers that had ruined everything.

For the first time in her life, she wished she was normal, like everyone else.

"I feel… weak."

"That's all right my dear. It's to be expected. You have been in here for a long time."

"A long time.. how long, Eva?"

"Longer than you would think my dear."

"How long, Eva?"

"What does it matter? It's not like you are getting out of here anyway. You will be trapped forever."

"That's not true, they're going to take me away sometime and finish all of this."

Evelyn though she heard Eva chuckle in the darkness.

"In one way or the other, you will be trapped, Evelyn."

"Cherie, please, come out of dere. Dis be hard enough as it is."

"Do it yourself. I don't want to."

"Dun be childish, cherie. It'll be only us, please."

Evelyn curled up tight. No, no, no and no. Her answer wasn't going to change just because he was persistent. If we pretend it never happened, then it never happened. Right?

"I don't want to."

"Cherie, you have to. It's not good for ya, t'be closin' in like dis. I- I be needin' you. Don't you understand what you be doin, to me, to all of us?"

Evelyn was quiet, but curled herself tighter under the covers. As long as he didn't say it, it didn't exist. As long as no one said it straight out, it had never happened.

"I can't do this alone, Evi. I can't do this alone. I need you." His voice was pleading, and her insides squirmed. She didn't want to do this at all. It was too much, too much.

She heard him sigh. "Cherie, for fuck's sake! This is our son we be talkin' bout here!"

Everything seemed to break all over again. "No," she whispered. "Don't talk like that."

"Evelyn! Listen to me!" He sat down next to her and pulled her out of the covers, holding her firmly. "It's been almost a month, I've been pushin' it off dis much. It has to be done! We have to do it. Don't make me do it alone. You'll regret it."

Evelyn closed her eyes, as she felt every shattered piece shatter again into millions of pieces. "We have to do it, cherie," Remy's voice was soft and thick, about to break. She wondered if he was breaking like she was. "Evi, we have to bury de ashes."

"Shut up," she whispered, but didn't move. "Shut up."

Remy sighed and got up. His shoulders were slouched, and he wasn't standing straight. He looked very old, and very tired.

"Well, come or dun come. Tomorrow mornin' I'm doin' it. You know where, and you know when."

Then he left, and the silence froze her back in place. She couldn't do this.

She got up, pulled on decent clothes, and left.

A small snowball can cause the avalanche.

What can one do to stop the avalanche, once it has been started?

What can one do to stop the ruin of life?

You can't do anything at all.

You can only run.

What happens inside someone when they snap? When something destroys someone so completely that there's nothing else?

The mind goes blank, like an empty canvas. Susceptible to most anything, blindly naïve.

Evelyn didn't know how long she had been driving. She didn't know where she was heading. She had watched Remy from a distance, as he carefully and lovingly had lowered the box of ashes into the ground. She hadn't found the power within her to go to him, to join him.

She had watched as the tears had fallen down his cheeks, in silence. Both of them in silence. How do you bury a life that never got to live?

She didn't know how long she had been driving, and she didn't know where she was going.

For a moment, she closed her eyes, and felt something urging her to pull over. She did. She stepped out of the car and walked into the forest next to the road. It was getting dark out, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered except for this, only she wasn't sure what this was.

She just kept on walking, further and further in.

Until she stopped. She stood still a while, closed her eyes, and then opened them again.

And there she was.

"Hello, my dear."

One, two three.

Always look before you leap.
And pray that everything will turn out okay in the end.

"C'mon. Don't waste more time."

Days had become months, months had become years. The girl had grown, changed into a woman. The dark room had changed her. The loneliness had changed her.

The straitjacket was the smallest they had, yet still too big. She was nothing but skin and bones anymore. The curly ringlets were not brushed, the ebony color of them making her skin look paler. The pale blue had left her cheeks and left was a near white color. Her lips were pale pink and her icy blue eyes stared down at the floor she was walking on.

She smiled. She smiled and began laughing. She laughed; laughed and kept on walking, laughed so much she had trouble breathing.

A poke in the back from a stick one of the guards calmed her down.

They walked into the room, placed her in the chair. She began laughing again. The tension in the room was nearly visible. She kept laughing as they strapped her arms and legs to the chair. They were still afraid of her, despite her hazard appearance, despite her weakness.

She fell silent when they put the helmet on her head. Now she needed to focus. She needed to concentrate.

All words spoken were lost in the roar of every breath inside the woman's head. Every breath that could be her last. Breathe, focus, breathe, not just yet.

Wakey, wakey, little Evelyn.

Not yet, I'm tired…

Perfect.

The woman smirked at all the people around her as the first charge came.

Everything went so quickly after that.

The first charge of electricity came, and she grasped on to that, feeding off of the energy. The straps burnt off, and she stood up, staring at everyone. They stared back at her, in awe, and she saw someone make for a phone. In an instant, that person was lying on the floor, dead.

The screams, oh the screams, they filled her heart with joy. She filled the air with heavy static, and the bodies fell one after the other. The lights flickered off, and the room was filled by the bitter smell of burning flesh. The cameras went next; she blew them up by overcharging.

Woman and girl were one now. Not for long, but there was one last thing she needed the girl for.

"Hello, Laura." Her voice was deep and womanly, soft and mature, yet so cold. Laura stared at her. What she saw was the girl.

"Evelyn?" she asked, her gun drawn. The woman laughed. She laughed and took out the assistant next to Laura with a strong bolt of electricity, and the others in the adjacent room as well. Then she turned to Laura.

"Oh, Laura. Sweet, innocent Laura. I'm not Evelyn. Haven't you figured it out? The tapes, the conversations? No, Laura. Evelyn is gone."

"You're -" But Laura's words were never able to come out. They were caught in her throat as the woman charged the whole room.

Seconds later, Laura lay dead on the floor.

The woman bent down and laughed, pushing the girl away again, for good. Her hair turned black, her skin pale, her lips pink and her eyes ice blue. Her features hardened, grew slightly older, mature, but still reminded of the soft ones of her previous owner.

"No, Laura, I'm not Evelyn." She whispered and stood up again. She had Laura's keys and money. She was sure the girl's items were locked up somewhere, and she'd find them.

"I'm not Evelyn." She whispered again. She walked out of the room, but turned around in the doorway to look at what they had done together.

"I'm not Evelyn, not anymore." She whispered with a smile.

She began walking away. She wasn't sure to where, but there were a lot of things she wanted to do.

Good night, sweet Evelyn. Sleep well, for you will sleep for long. Hope you're comfortable. You aren't in control anymore.

And indeed, Evelyn, the girl, wasn't in control anymore. Evelyn barely existed.

It was Evelyn no more.

Now,

It was Eva.