Epilogue
By X-treme X-taggano (crazyxtagen@hotmail.com)

A cold winter's breeze stung my face as I stood in the open field. Snow fell front the dark sky. It had been night for hours. This was a place I hadn't been in years. The headstone in front of me hadn't seemed to deteriorate one bit sense last I had seen it. I couldn't stop reading it for some reason, even though I had read it a thousand times before. But the words were so meaningful, I couldn't help but re-read them, hoping I would get something even more meaningful out of them.

"So that's where you've been," I heard a small voice call from behind me.

I turned around and saw Cybil there, wrapped in her heavy winter coat. I smiled at her as she walked up and kissed me. She then examined what I had been staring at. She read the words of the stone and then looked back at me.

"How long ago did you build this?" she asked.

I shrugged. "A little bit before we got married," I explained. "I just couldn't bare to forget it."

Cybil nodded. "So that's why you wanted to visit this town again?"

I shrugged again. "I'm not sure why. I just felt drawn here again," I said, my breath visible in the air. "Fortunately, I wasn't brought to hell this time."

Cybil smiled and laughed. "Same with me," she explained.

I looked at the ground for a minute. "It's just . . . sometimes I feel like I did everything wrong," I confessed. "It felt like all that time, I was just fighting for myself."

Cybil put her finger to my lips. "Hush," she said. "You did nothing wrong. You could have just gone and saved your daughter . . . but you saved me too. Saying all that you did was for yourself is bullshit, Harry."

I smiled. "Yeah, I guess your right," I said, putting my hands in my pockets.

Cybil put her head on my shoulder. "You remember what you told me you had learned?" she asked.

I nodded. "That life is a true gift," I sighed.

Cybil nodded. "Don't ever forget that. She taught you something, and that's that no matter what happens, there's always a reason to live."

I nodded. She patted me on the shoulder and started to walk back to the house we had rented for the weekend. She then looked back me. "Coming?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah," I said. I turned from the stone and started to walk away. I'll never forget what I carved on it said.

Here lies
Alessa Galespie
Age 14
"Life is a gift."