Chapter 14 – The End

Gale's POV

The moment I was able to break down the locked door to my own home, I was greeted with silence. It was quiet. Strangely, too quiet. I took a step inside to see if anyone was inside. Knowing the Witch, she should be lounging on the sofa with some sort of dessert in hand while reading a magazine. But she wasn't there. I closed the door behind me and surveyed the room. There were a pile of books scattered everywhere on the floor, but other than that, there was nothing out of place. It actually even looked cleaner. I looked around the room to find the Witch, but she was nowhere to be seen and there wasn't any sign that she was even here. The window was open though and the wind from outside was making the pile of research papers on my desk scattering around on the floor. I walked over and closed the window. She must be outside somewhere. I'll just wait here for her to come back.

I took a seat on the sofa, sighing and massaging my temples. I was a little tired after what happened today with Molly.

"Wizard! There you are! I was wondering when you're going to show up!"

"…"

"Wizard? What's wrong?"

"I…I'm sorry, Molly. I don't think I can see you anymore."

"…W-What?"

"T…There's someone…that I love…"

"I don't understand. I thought you liked me."

"…I'm sorry. I truly am, Molly."

She said that she understood and left after that, the smile that I used to be fond of disappearing. I had really hoped that she would have at least slapped me or screamed at me for what I have done. I led her to think that I liked her. I led myself to think that I really did like her…when actually I was still in love with Vivi.

I am still in love with Vivi.

For years, I have been distancing myself from society and lived only in her company or in silence. Is it because her company is the only one I needed in my life?

I didn't need to rethink it over, knowing the answer will always be 'yes' when it comes to her.

I love her. So much. Even despite all of her annoying and childish habits. I can deal with them. It's being left by her again that I cannot deal with.

I decided to wait for her to come home so I could confess my feelings to her. I went to wait at my working desk, taking out a mushroom from the drawer and started to crush a small amount of it to analyze.

The room was quiet. Too quiet. I opened the window again just so the wind would come in. I could hear the breeze coming inside my house from the open window, the cocoa nuts repeatedly bumping into each other, and the papers on my desk rustling. In the past, I would've relished and enjoyed in the silence, but today, I felt awkward. Out of place. There was no mini explosion nearby or outside my house from Vivi's experiments. There was no sound of her bustling around in the kitchen to make herself something sweet to eat. Her loud music wasn't turned on. And all in all, she just wasn't here to fill in the silence.

I've grown accustomed to her voice.

She almost makes the day begin. I've grown accustomed to the tune that she whistles night and noon. Her smiles and frowns. Her ups and downs.

Hearing them is like a second nature to me now, like breathing out and breathing in. I was serenely independent and content with how I lived before. And yet, I've grown accustomed to her being here.

"Why isn't she home yet…" I mumbled under my breath, glancing back at the door. If she had kicked the door down and announced her return, dragging a dead corpse or stolen goods along with her, I wouldn't even give a damn. I would freely disregard the fact that she's a thief or a murderer, get down on my knee and propose to her to stay by my side for hundreds of years more.

It was getting harder and harder to work as the minutes passed by. I kept on looking back at the door every second, hoping for her to walk through it, but nothing. I finally got up and went to the kitchen to find something to eat. Maybe she made something. There was nothing in the fridge…although I noticed some of my ingredients are gone, including my poisonous cocoa bean that I have been storing in the fridge for an experiment. I opened the freezer instead and found a cup of coffee ice cream. I don't remember having any.

I took it out and frowned. There were purple blotches on it. Blotches that could only come from a specific type of cocoa bean.

"Vivi…" I muttered. She used my rare poisonous cocoa bean to make inedible ice cream? It was bad enough that she used it, but for her to use all of it for a small cup of ice cream!

But then it occurred to me…Vivi doesn't like coffee. Her favorite kinds of ice cream are only berry flavors. Could she have made it for me?

I smiled down at the ice cream one last time before throwing it away into the bin and watch the plastic melt from the ice-cream.

That could've been my throat that's melting right now if I had ate it. But it's the thought that counts.

I ended up with just a cup of tea in my hands when I walked back to wait for her at the sofa.

"…"

The wind kept on blowing inside from the open window, knocking my paper work off the desk, but I couldn't be bothered to keep them for once. It was already late and she's still not home. I tried to distract myself by watching the pieces of paper fly around the air. It was sort of calming.

When the wind died down, I watched them fall to the ground. One flew and landed nearby the fallen books that were lying around on the ground still.

"Why are they on the ground…oh." I suddenly remembered that that was where I hid my blue feather, the blue feather that I have just caught and hid behind the books on the shelf. I immediately got up and strode to the bookshelf to see whether or not my feather was still there.

"Merde…"

It wasn't there. The blue feather was gone from where I left it. I bent down to look underneath the shelf, but it wasn't there too. I searched among the book piles and same thing. Looking around the house, I noticed that some of her things are gone. Such as her broom and the witch hat she wears when she goes outside. Then I looked at the bookshelf and window. How couldn't I have noticed this before? It wasn't hard to understand when I put the pieces together.

She must've found my blue feather and taken it when she thought I was going to give it to Molly to pull a trick on me!

If she only knew that I was keeping it for her.

I went to my crystal ball and searched for Vivi.

I have known since the beginning actually that Vivi has been using my crystal ball to get information about Molly. She left fingerprints on the crystal.

It didn't take long before a pink and black dot appears on the map, pointing that Vivi is in France.

She's with grandma. Obviously. She didn't know anyone else other and there isn't anywhere else she can go to. As much as she likes to flaunt about her social life, I know that she's just as anti-social as me.

I went to the window and took off my cape. Since I was able to transform into an owl, there was no need for me to use a…ugh…broom. For me, I've always seen brooms as juvenile and immature. I shook my body a little, preparing myself for the painful transition.

It started from the top of my head, my hair started to attach to each other, changing into soft, gray feathers while my face altered and deformed into an owl's head. The bones in my jaw sharpened and started to jut out, becoming a bird's beak in a mere few seconds. My arms started to bend by itself into the shape of a bird's wing, gray and white feathers protruding out of my very skin. My whole body started to shrink down while the rest of the transformation continues on. It was painful for about a minute or two, but when I was fully transformed, I felt nothing. But the small pang of hunger for worms was slightly disturbing.

Wriggling out from under the pile of clothes that were piling on top of me, I spread my wings and flew out of the house, soaring freely in the air as I made my way to France. It took me about a day to get there, and took me less than an hour to locate grandma's house. I could sense her power pouring out from a tiny hut 50 miles away. It slammed into me like a force field, almost making me lose my balance. I haven't seen her for a long time, but I swear she feels a lot stronger than before.

I dove down immediately, transforming back into a man when my claws touched the ground. I didn't waste a second before I clothed myself again. Even before I reached the house, I could see granny at the window, staring out at me with knowing eyes. She was already expecting me it seems.

I knocked at the door and waited for her to open it.

"Go open it!" I heard them bickering inside in hushed whispers.

"He came for you, you go open it you stupid child!"

"I don't wanna see him!"

I knocked again. They stayed quiet and finally, granny opened the door with an annoyed scowl on her face.

"Take her back. Please." She begged me, or ordered me would sound more like it, while glancing back behind her shoulder.

"…Nice to see you again, grandma."

She looked at me, surveying me from top to bottom and nodded in approval, "Well well well, Gale. The years have done you well haven't they? You were such a gangly boy back then. Are those muscles?" She reached out and touched my new muscles.

I stared at her back. She looked a lot younger than before. A lot younger. She looked like she was about 20 years old now. Her crispy gray hair has turned into wavy blonde locks that curved her face. Her ageless face. There were no wrinkles anywhere. Her faded blue eyes that I remember were brighter. And it seems that she has donned on some sort of goth attire from a Witches R Us fashion catalogue. It was strange to see granny look younger than me.

"Well…you may look young granny, but inside, you're still the same 900 something year old that I remember you to be."

She narrowed her eyes, "Hey, remember that I'm the one in between the two of you right now. As irritating as she is, I'll lock her here just so you can't have her back." She lifted her head in a gesture of challenging me, "You sure you wanna keep talking like that, boy?"

"I'm sorry…" I muttered, "Now where is she? Is she okay?"

"She's fine. She's inside, annoying me to death with her whining and consistent complaints. I haven't had a headache this big since she moved out years ago! And I don't miss the feeling, so the faster you two sort this out, the faster you can take her away from me. Now tell me what happened."

So I told her my side of the story. How on the last night that I was with them, I ran away in the morning. She was everything that I wasn't. Fun, carefree, social, and beautiful. I had scars on my face and on my body from all the fights I got into to stay alive. I was the opposite of everything she represented. How could someone like her really love someone like me? Without thinking it over, I packed my stuff and ran away from the house. I didn't want to wait for her to wake up and tell me that the best night of my life was a drunken mistake. Over the years of solitude, I couldn't stop thinking about her, and the feelings that I had for her kept on bottling up inside of me. I wanted to see her so bad. And one day, she appeared in front of my doorstep, more beautiful than the last time I saw her is possible. But she forgot that night. I had tried to remind her, to see if she had any feelings left for me, but she never showed ant signs of remembering. I finally gave up and told myself that I should let go and move on. Then when she accidentally burned the last village we were in and we moved to Castanet, I met Molly. I had thought of her as someone that was fun, carefree, social, and beautiful. Someone who was almost like Vivi. Just a lot safer and kinder. I led myself to believe that I was in love with Molly when really, I was still in love with Vivi. The more time we spent together, her helping me with Molly, and me helping her with her curse, I realized that I would never be able to completely let her go. I broke up with Molly and was planning on giving Vivi the blue feather when she found it and disappeared.

"…So here I am now." I concluded, waiting for granny's response. She looked annoyed more than ever. The first thing she did was slap me hard on the head.

"Damn! You two love birds are as stupid as ever! One tried to run away when she is in front of you while the other tried to forget when instead you two should have talked!"

"Tried to forget?" I asked, but she continued talking. Or shouting is more like it.

"I'm almost a 1000 years old. I have no time for this! Just go inside, she's playing with my voodoo dolls in there." She opened the door wider so I can go through her and started to walk away towards the entrance gate. I stared after her.

"Where are you going…?"

"I'm going to visit my boyfriend! He's a farmer you know? Toodles!" She replied back, skipping down the bricked road with giddiness.

"…" I wasn't sure if I should tell the human that she's about 980 years older than her.

I turned back and braced myself for hell when I walked through the door. My first step inside and already a teddy bear was flung straight at me. I allowed it to hit my chest.

A champagne bottle came flying next. Naturally, I ducked. I wasn't going to let that hit me. Even my chest.

"Why are you here? Get out!" Vivi screamed at me, her face flushed red with anger and her lips pulled back in an angry snarl. Honestly, she resembled a red hulk.

"Come home…" I tried to tell her, but it was hard to form a complete sentence while still ducking from the objects thrown at me. Plus, she was still yelling so it was hard to get her to hear me.

"Why should I go back? Huh? To see the two of you together? To be a third wheel?" She screamed, throwing a tea cup at my direction. She was running out of soft things and was moving to breakable things now. It was getting hard to get closer to her…which I think was what she was aiming for. No pun intended.

"I broke-" (up with Molly.)

"You jerk! You may not know it because you're a heartless robot, but I have feelings okay! I have been having them for so long, and they were for you!" She started to cry, but that didn't falter with her strength and aim.

"I'm not-" (heartless. I have feelings…feelings for you.)

"Why should I go back to a place that will remind me of the two of you together? To remind me of my stupid mistakes? Of what I lost?"

"I love you!" I said, trying to be louder than her, but she wouldn't listen to me. She threw a book my way, which I deflected away with a shield spell. She was crying harder as she tried to find something else to throw. While she was searching, I advanced towards her. She found an ash tray and was about to throw it when I stopped her. I grabbed her wrists hard until she dropped the ash tray and pushed her into the wall to cage her in.

"I love you!" I yelled out loud. No pauses. No mumbling. 3 words, 8 letters.

"Then why did you leave me that night?" She yelled right back, her tears still streaking down her face.

I know which night she was referring to of course. I couldn't help but feel happy to know that she never forgot it, but also guilt for leaving her many years ago. I dropped my head to lean into the wall, resting my head beside hers. I could hear her breathing quickening.

"I didn't think I was good enough for you back then…I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being the coward that I was back then. I'm sorry for being a coward now when I had all these chances to tell you…"

"Yeah, you should be-" She started to interrupt her as usual, but this time, I'm going to finish what I have to say first.

"Shut up Vivi!"

"…" She stopped.

"I love you, alright? I'm not going to run from you just because I think it's easier to love someone else. Although, I do think that if I were ever to marry someone else other than you, my life would be pretty easier-"

"Hey!"

"But I don't want a quiet life…not unless you're in it."

"…"

"I can't believe I just said that…" I glanced over to look at Vivi's reaction and wanted to laugh out loud. Her eyes were wide as saucers. I should be a little freaked out, seeing how big her eyes can get, but seeing her shocked this much was a little funny. Or a lot funny. I couldn't help myself chuckling.

"No. I don't want to go back with you." She said softly, pushing me away with her tiny hands so she would be able to slide out of the space between me and the wall. "I don't want to have to go through anything like that again."

"Vivi…" I tried to grab her back, but she evaded my touch as she walked towards the door. I can't lose her now. Not now, not ever. I only have one chance to do this and I better do this right…

I pulled out the blue feather out of my coat pocket, got down on one knee and shouted after her, "Marry me!"

That caused her to stop in her footsteps. She spun around and stared at me with confusion.

"What did you say?"

"Marry me, Vivi." I repeated, "I'm giving you my life, everything I ever owned, and anything I will ever own. I'm giving it all to you if you'd take me."

"Wizard-"

"Call me by my name. Please."

"…Gale." She said slowly, and I could tell that after years of not saying it, it felt foreign to her. It felt foreign to me to hear it again from her, but I would be lying if I say that I didn't love it. "You do know that if we get married, if we get bonded, it's for eternity."

It was true. The marriage ceremony we performed is true to the saying 'Until death do you part'. We are bonded, both of our lives will be bonded, which means if one of us dies, the other would die too. But hell with it, I am willing to give my life to her.

"I am." I said, getting up to walk closer to her. She didn't move back even when I stood right in front of her. "And I will still ask you, even if I have to for the next hundred years, will you marry me, Vivi?" I placed the blue feather in her hand and held it there.

"W-what happened to Molly? I thought you were keeping that for her?"

"Well if you had waited for me to come inside when you ran away, I would've told you that I broke up with her, and that I was keeping the blue feather for you."

She seemed horrified and ashamed at this news. I could see herself mentally slapping herself through her eyes and I couldn't help but love her a little more for that.

"I love you!" She blurted out all of the sudden, gasping when she realized what she had just said. I laughed and her face burned bright red with embarrassment. "What's so funny? Didn't you said you love me too? Mmph!"

I didn't answer her right away because I couldn't help but bend down to kiss her. I pushed her until she was up against the wall, my hands pushing against the door to balance myself while her arms came up to wrap around my neck. The last time I kissed her was hundreds of years ago, and now I'm regretting not kissing her for the hundreds of years that I missed.

We eventually parted to catch both our breaths when I finally answered, "I did say that, I will say it again for the rest of my eternity if you want me to."

"Okay. Can we kiss again?" She eagerly asked, not wasting any time before she started rising on her tip toes to get closer to me. We would've kissed if the door didn't open right at that very moment. When the door opened, we both lost our balance and tumbled down and out of the house. I landed on top of her with my face buried right beside her face in the grass.

"Hi granny…" Vivi greeted the intruder, even waving at her.

Damn…she's back.

"Thank the gods that you're finally together. But if you're gonna play any kinky sex games, then get the hell out of my house."

…Obviously, we left right after that comment. Not to play any 'kinky sex games' as she phrased it so delicately…just to get away out of embarrassment.

But before we left, Vivi did whisper to me that there were some things that she has been fantasizing about doing with me for a long time. Thus, I begged for granny to teach me how to teleport so I didn't have to wait a day to fulfill any of Vivi's fantasies.

When we finally got back and were laying beside each other in my bed, or our bed to be precise, a sense of fulfillment that I have never felt before washed over me. This is precisely how my story should've ended a hundred years ago since that night, and now, this is hopefully how it will be every night for the rest of my eternity.

"I love you…" I whispered.

I hope she's prepared for me, because from now until the end of time if I can have it my way, we'll be stuck together forever and ever.

Its the end. Its THE end. Its the END.

So this is how accomplishment feels like...sadness. The story is overrrrrr, damn. I feel like i didnt do the ending any justice at all!

So...i'm gonna write an EPILOGUE! And hope to God that it'll be better than the ending of this chapter.