AN: Last chapter. Its short. Enjoy.

The eight day of the eclipse always ended mid morning. The sun would rise again around nine am and life on Glara Ouzel would return to normal. Criminals would be heading home after a long week of vandalism, thievery and other petty crimes. It was time to go back to every day life. Some would go home to sleep, some would go home to get ready for work at the mines, while the rest of the community would breathe a sigh of relief that another eclipse had come and gone. The people that spent their time in a sleep pod, in cryosleep, would be awoken, aloud to eat, shower and go home to see if they were victims of the eclipse or not. By the next day most things would be back in order and everyone would continue on with day to day life of simply trying to live as normal a life as possible.

Aura woke to an empty, cold bed when her alarm went off. She had to return to the clinic today. Her shift started at eleven and ended at eleven. As she lay in bed, she listened for any sounds that would indicate where and what Riddick was up to this morning. When she didn't hear anything she got up and made her way downstairs.

In the kitchen she went straight to the coffee maker. She scooped two big spoonfuls of coffee grounds into the percolator and filled the tank with water. There weren't any signs that Riddick had been in the kitchen yet. She wondered if maybe he was still sleeping. She remembered waking in the middle of the night and feeling him beside her as she got up to use the restroom. Had he gotten up and gone back to the guest room while she slept?

She went to look for him. She checked the downstairs before she went up to the guest room. When she entered the pitch black room she paused. The house was silent except for her breathing and the coffee pot spurting hot coffee into the pot downstairs. She slowly moved her hand to the light switch by the door but couldn't make herself turn on the lights. If he was still there, it would hurt his eyes. If he wasn't it would hurt her.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she flipped the switch. But she didn't need to open her eyes to know he wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere in the house. He had left.

Without looking she turned the light back off, turned around, shut the door quietly behind her and went back downstairs.

As she pasted the TV in the living room she turned it on. That's what she always did before work. She listened to the news. Then she made her coffee, had a quick breakfast and got ready for her day.

Grabbing a cup from the cabinet, she heard the weather man talking about the temperature rise. He said the temperature would be back to normal by that afternoon and the snow would be mostly melted by the following morning like usual.

As she sat at the table with a small bowl of cereal, she heard the news women start talking about an unauthorized departure.

"It can't be confirmed at this time, but authorities believe the ship held the escaped convict, Richard B. Riddick," she said. "We have contacted the air field where the ship was stolen from but no statement was given. More on this story later as more details are revealed."

Aura shot up from her seat and ran through the living room and into the entry way. She stopped in front of the control panel of her security system and brought up the menu. She went into the history and saw that the system had been deactivated at the back door three hours ago. Only the back door shutter were opened and then set to automatically reactivate five minutes later.

She went back to the TV and turned it off. She couldn't listen anymore. She stood staring at it blankly. She felt something wet slide down her face and touched it with her fingers. She was crying. Of course she was. He left and hadn't said good bye, hadn't left a note or anything. And to be honest, she wasn't all that surprised.

Not seeing the point of simple staring into nothing and crying over a man, that apparently didn't care as much as she had thought he had, she made her way up to her room to shower and dress for work.

While she got ready she made a mental list of the things she needed to get done that day. She remembered she was going to make the Ziza's a cake for the cookies they had remembered she liked. She needed to call her sister and let her know everything was fine with her. She had to go to the store to get groceries and cake ingredients she knew she was out of.

By the time she was ready for work and collecting her work bag, she felt numb. If she was so inclined she could tell make herself think it was all a dream. She knew it wasn't but maybe that would make it easier to move on from. As she disengaged her security system she told herself she wouldn't do that. And she wouldn't dwell on it either. There was nothing she would change about it.

She stepped out her door and turned to shut and lock it. Then she turned around and watched as the sun began to rise over Glara Ouzel. Life as she knew it had changed. She wouldn't miss how it used to be but she knew she would miss him.

As Aura made her way down the street, a single tear fell from her eye and she promised that would be the last she'd cry for him. It was time for her to live her life to the fullest and that didn't include wallowing and pining for a man she couldn't have. She hadn't needed him before and she didn't need him now. She smiled to herself and knew she would be just fine. And so would he, wherever he was.

AN:

That's it. Short epilogue next. Reviews are appreciated.