AN: This is it! The end to my first venture on this site, a story that has stuck with me for over a year. Writing this story has made me so happy and connected me with hundreds of fans who never want this fandom to dissipate. I thank you all for taking the time to read this, to share the adventures with these characters. I'm planning on a sequel that stars the next generation of Sibuna - Gwen Miller, her best friend Lucy Rutter, and her cousin Miles Porter. I hope you've enjoyed this story as much as I have! Thank you so much.
EDDIE'S POV
Standing at the threshold of the entrance to my graduation party, I gaze into the room, my mind taken aback about how much has grown this year. I see my old friends - Jerome and Joy, Alfie and Willow, Fabian and KT - all happy with whom they've decided to be with, their relationships maturing and blossoming. I see the new friends I've made - Esmay, Beck, Callan - all dancing with my old friends like they've known each other since childhood. I see Liam dancing with the sister I never knew I had, who showed up and changed my entire life. I see a group of people whose lives will never be the same. I see my beautiful girlfriend - a word that seems to weak to even begin to describe us - sitting at a table waiting for me.
It's amazing what life does to you. One minute you're battling ancient Egyptian gods, and the next, you're forging friendships and relationships you never deemed possible. The people in this room right now may have very little in common, but they'll all be eternally bonded by the experiences they're encountered this year. Our friendships can never be severed.
"Hey there," Patricia says with a smile, taking my hand. "Care to dance?" She plants a soft kiss on my lips.
"There's something I have to do first." I drop her hand and rush out of the house. To be honest, I don't know where I'm going. I'm following wherever my mind leads me.
After a trail of intricate pathways, I find myself in the heart of the woods, where I first battled Set on Christmas. I don't know what led me to here, or why I felt the need to come. Something inside me told me I had to be here.
I bask in the serenity of this evening and am reminded of the last time I was here. I remember a blackened, starless sky, flames blazing over the tattered ground. A golden coffin from my visions had appeared, threatening the life of one of my friends. Billowing, poisonous smoke enclosed us, trapping us in the battle. We couldn't escape.
Now, I look at this place, and I see calmness. I see green grass thriving, tall maple trees extending a hundred feet in the air, their leaves rustling in the cool June breeze. I imagine this place years from now, when future students attend the school and sneak into the woods to get away. They'll never know the truth about what happened here. They'll never see an empty, fiery sky, overcome with the threat of failure. To them, it'll be nothing. Just a hangout, a getaway.
But I will always be here, in spirit. My history, my memories, it will all linger here for eternity.
I don't think I'll ever be able to revisit this place without having these feelings. I'll be angry, knowing that future children will never know the truth. I'll be sad, remembering what I left behind.
I finally understand what brought me here. I needed closure; I needed one last glimpse of this place, one final memory, the one that I will retain forever. I needed a happy memory, one that reminds me of the good times I shared here - meeting Patricia, Jerome and Alfie's wacky schemes, the crazy activities and parties, finding my sister, and surviving and thriving through it all.
I gaze at the sky and breath slowly, soaking in everything around me, basking in the beauty I want to become eternal.
And this time, the sky was full of stars.
