First of all, let me just express how absolutely, positively in love I am with each and every one of you all for being so amazing these past three years. I went through so much crap in my life, but knew that I could struggle through it all because you guys were there pushing me along. Believe it or not, I almost quit on writing altogether. But you all inspired me over the years to keep trying my best.

Thank you for all you have done. My best wishes to all of you.

I hope to see you in the SEQUEL(;

MPOV

It was raining outside. I suppose I should probably use more description for it, but that was I all I registered. The rain that dripped from the sky in a raging torrent was merely a simple fact that my eyes soaked in and carried to my mind. I blinked, an acceptance; a simple acknowledgement of this basic matter. It was raining outside.

Iggy perched at my feet with a heavy sigh, looking at me with fine bags weighing down those beautiful crystal blue eyes. Even though I turned my gaze from the window to peer at his face, I made no other movements in my placement on the window seat. For a long time, we just looked at each other. There was no silver lining link between us anymore, as there used to be with all the Archangels. It felt strange, as if some part of me was missing, but I didn't take time to dawdle with the feeling. It was my fault we were like this, after all.

After that day in the forest, precisely one week ago, I came home with a numbness no force in the universe could break. I was unresponsive, mute, and closed off to everyone. There was a wall inside me that only one person would ever be able to break, and he was currently in the fiery pits of hell, being tortured to death. It was all I could think about, that pain Fang must have been experiencing, so I just shut off my mind altogether. What use was there in thinking if it was only going to hurt me?

Because of the distance I put between me and the rest of the Archangels, a thick tension had rose up in the house. Everyone started getting into fights with each other that only worsened the longer I didn't step between them as I usually would have. Nudge and Gazzy left six days after the battle; we're not sure where to. We just woke up one day and found them gone. When I seemed to have no reaction to their sudden disappearance, Angel screamed at me for nearly an hour straight before escaping herself with tears streaming down her face. Ella and Iggy were the only two left in the house besides myself, and the two currently weren't speaking to each other due to a minor spat they had with each other the night before. I overheard them through the walls as I hunkered down deeper in Fang's sheets. His scent was fading now, but I still clung to them as if my life depended on it.

Yes, we had all changed. Nothing was the same anymore. The thought didn't faze me. It was a fact. A mere part of this new life.

"Ella and I are leaving tomorrow morning," Iggy said at last.

I blinked a couple times and brought my tea up to my lips for a sip before responding. "Why?" It was the first time I had spoken in a week; my voice was hoarse, raspy, and unattractive. Fang would have disapproved.

Iggy tugged roughly at his strawberry locks, looking older than I had ever seen him before. It seemed as though he could collapse at any second. "This isn't a life we're living here anymore, Max. Seeing you like this…it's killing her. It's killing both of us. We have to leave."

My head seemed to turn of its own accord to stare out the window again. The rain had gotten heavier. Another fact.

"But where will you stay?"

"Don't know yet," he said, shrugging. "We're thinking we'll just drive to the city and try to pick up a cheap apartment, figure things out there."

I never really responded to Iggy. I think maybe my face flickered several different mixed, undecipherable emotions across it, but after that I froze up again. Every part of my body was licked over with three different degrees of chilling ice and I all I could do was stare out the window and read the rain. He waited a long time, too. Sat there all hunched over his tightly clasped hands for nearly one thousand lazy drops of rain tapping against the glass. Then he stood abruptly and swept across the living room towards the stairs. I heard him ascend them, but I did not hear a single step descend for the rest of the night.

At three in the morning, I finally moved again. I wasn't even aware of the fact that that much time had passed. There might have been several moments when I drifted off to sleep and woke up to find my forehead pressed against the frigid pane of glass that made me shiver violently, but I would do nothing but stare outside still. It was as if by staring out there I was accomplishing some great, secret goal inside me that even I didn't know existed.

What I did know, however, was that watching the rain as it continued to downpour was doing absolutely nothing but killing me from the inside out. My stomach had begun to shrivel in on itself from starvation, and my lips were aching for the half cup of ice cold tea resting in my grip. I just didn't have the energy to do basic human habits anymore. I was broken and tired yet all at the same time so, so very awake.

When I swung my legs down to the floor and padded to the kitchen, I finally had a purpose running through my mind. I chanted four words through my mind like some sort of hymn, a mystic praise that only I knew. My terse fingers unlocked from around the cup after a good twelve hours of holding it, setting it quietly in the sink. Iggy, I was sure, would get it in the morning.

My footsteps were completely silent as I made my way up the stairs and into Fang's room where the Archangel chest was waiting patiently for me, as if it knew what I was going to do since the day I was born. Unlatching it, I rummaged inside until I dug out the sleek leather armor suit that had my name sewn into the neckline with pure gold thread. I stripped down and stepped into the armor with as much leisure as someone three times my age. All while chanting those four words.

My Archangel blade, now crusted over with blood I never cleaned off, was lying cast aside among the threads of Fang's plush carpet. I picked up steadily and sheathed it inside my suit. All while chanting those four words.

Walking back downstairs, I allowed for my hand to caress the smooth wooden banister as I carefully stepped my way down them. If I shut my eyes, I could almost picture Fang standing there beside me, leaning suggestively into me as we forgot for a moment that our brothers and sisters were currently blooming upstairs and ended up losing ourselves in each other's minds. Dares and fights and arguments; they're part of loving someone because they're part of making you the best person you can be. I remembered distinctly thinking that to myself, and again chanted those four words.

Back in the kitchen, I found an old grocery receipt and a discarded pen and scribbled a message on the back of the receipt. Iggy, I was sure, would discover it in the morning. Then I made my way to the front door, paused once slip my feet inside a pair of combat boots, and slipped out the door.

The rain was still in a whirlwind, beating down heavily upon me as I walked calmly out towards the first copse of trees. They welcomed me with open arms, though they hardly gave me much protection from the rain. I didn't mind, though. The rain that slid across my bare skin was merely a fact. It was all just a simple fact that I found so laughable. In fact, I did laugh. Why not? It was awkward and lurchy and weird, but it filled some of the spaces in my deadened heart.

When I got to the clearing, I tipped my head back and parted my lips, welcoming the rain to caress sweet, divine kisses across them. My tongue flicked out and caught a few droplets, and I shut my eyes to savor the almost metallic taste of them. And again I chanted the words over and over in my head, the sound of them all strung together beating like a drum inside my heart because I knew. I knew that they were true and that I would not fail.

I will save Fang.

My dearest sister and brother,

My deepest atonements for my behavior this past week. Despite the loss I had suffered, it was an inexcusable thing to have acted the way I did. It tore our family apart, and for that I will never forgive myself. Surely, I knew better than to act like such a child, but it was in this week of complete and utter withdraw that I finally realized what I had to do.

I am leaving this house in your care. I have visited the city before, and it is in shambles. Please do not go there to begin your new lives. After Metatron's mother left, it was implied that the house was to be mine, but I do not find this to be fit. Live here and attempt to create the happily ever after none of us ever got to have. All that I ask is that you find the others and make sure that they are okay.

As for me, do not come looking for me. You will not find me. I am going somewhere no one else can go, and that includes the two of you. I do not wish to frighten you, but it is a complete possibility that I may never return. Should that be the case, know that I love you both more than words can describe. I will meet you both in Heaven, hopefully many, many years after I arrive at its gates.

Love,

Gabrielle