Pre-Chapter Note: Welp, all good things must come to a close eventually, and here we are. The final part of The Impossible Odds.
I'd like to personally... wait, I'll save that for the end.
Still feel the need to include a language & spoiler warning.
Anyway, here we go!
So, as with fate having other ideas overnight, somehow the tempered glass solution was slowly breaking apart last night, and was due to start a massive catastrophic event. However, this was unbeknownst to anyone yet.
9:45 AM the following morning
Ugh, I just remembered after I woke up that I was going to have to lie to Max about me still having those lucid thoughts about Ember when in true reality, we were on the verge of getting back together. Well, I just knew this was going to be pure torture. But then I had a major brainwave... "What if I just told him the good news that text message had anyway?"
I was weighing these options back & forth for at least half an hour. I was excited that Ember is basically giving me a second chance, as we loved each other deeply by this point, I mean, the fact we mixed & didn't harm each other could've said it all! But in the end, I decided I'd tell Max the news.
"Morning Sam." Max said when he saw me first, with what looked like a delicious looking breakfast. I was a little more myself then upon taking the breakfast. "Morning to you bro!" I said
But was I ready to tell him the news? Yes, I was just waiting on a good time to tell him.
"Well Sam... I know last night was a rough one, but..." Max started, before I calmly announced to him "Nope! She took me back."
Max was extremely flabbergasted to hear this.
"I don't understand? One minute you're broken up, the next she wants you back!? Nah bro, I need to see evidence of this!" He responded crazily. And show the evidence to him I did!
Coincidence this happened shortly after a break-up? I think not! Well, for me anyway.
Max was originally going to have me do a bit of meditation today and was also going to have a whole day for some retreat that he did when he lost Estelle. However, Lucas (Max's brother) was in frantic mode and quickly interrupted our morning after my breakfast was done.
"Uh... Max!? You may want to turn on the news!" Lucas said. So, we did. And when we did, we were in extreme shock
Firetown was in the midst of a MASSIVE flood!
"Oh no! The glass must've broke!" Was my first thought to this all. This was proven true when they panned to the canal doors being 1000% broken, no... it came clean off the canal entry. "God damn..." Max said quietly. We were watching to see if anything else was set to be destroyed near us next as a flash flood was a nightmare for ANY citizen in Element City.
5 minutes later...
I was holding my breath to make sure nobody I loved dearly was going to be affected by this. My family, thankfully, wouldn't be affected by the flood. But I heard after the time passed that one of the next places it was very well set to destroy... was The Fireplace.
"Ember!" I said back to myself. Yeah... I was just about to put my life at risk to save her life. A sacrifice, if you will.
"Sam... this is NOT a wise idea! Do you have ANY idea on how dangerous this is? Even for you!?" Max responded, clearly adamant of me not doing this on my own. He had the bright idea of helping me save Ember from immediate danger, but something snapped in me... something in which I also notably felt the day my parents called the divorce.
"No!" I responded back, not putting up with Max's BS.
"What did you just say!?" Max responded, raising his voice.
"Did I stutter? I said... NO!" I yelled back at him. "Max, all YOU ever do is live dangerously! Why can't you let ME live dangerously for once WITHOUT YOU NAGGING ME!? I HAVE to save her, like it or not!" I finished.
Then he tried once more to regain control of me. "Uh... Sam? We can talk about this!" Max said, in a worried state, he also said "You know that if something goes horribly wrong, listen to me... IT IS GAME OVER FOR YOU! And I'm NOT about to lose my closest friend!"
I just ignored his wishes at this point, I wasn't listening. "Max, I don't give two shits! You've done enough... I need to do something massively important. And you're not a part of this. Sorry Max... but if I don't come back from this... it's been nice knowing you."
Max was panicking at this point. "SAM!" he tried once more to get me to change my mind.
"Ciao!" I responded before jumping into the waves below in the open canal. Max was BEYOND worried, so much so that he went over to my place and grabbed Reid from there.
One door knock later...
"Max! To what do I owe the pleasure!?" Reid responded to Max's appearance. "Reid, we gotta go, NOW! Sam is in immediate danger! Did you not hear about this!?" Max responded.
"Uh... no? I heard about the flood, but what's happening?" Reid responded all confused-like.
"Well, among one of the code-red places for imminent destruction is The Fireplace... AND HE'S HEADED THERE RIGHT NOW!" Max responded, getting more into hysterics as he's warning his second closest friend about this thing.
"Well, maybe he had a reason to. But again, they called it off, so I don't see this going well." Reid answered back, he was still waking up at this point.
"Uh...about that... I'll explain later, BUT WE HAVE TO GO, NOW! WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME!" Max said back, before Reid finally caught on.
"Right... where are we going?" Reid asked.
Meanwhile...
I could see the front entrance for The Fireplace! I was almost there. The amount of damage I saw was WAY too indescribable. However, I still cared about my main objective. Get Ember out of danger as soon as possible. So, without being seen by her parents, I swam up to the front entrance, where Ember was doing everything she could to stop more water from coming in, all while trying to protect the blue fame in making sure it wouldn't be put out. The blue flame was difficult to re-ignite. I was basically hard to understand by any normal means, all you could hear was muffles. However, several knocks later, and me yelling (muffled) "KEYHOLE!", I was let in.
"Yeah... that's not my first choice on how to enter a building but, you know." I sarcastically said. Ember on the other hand... was way too happy to see me again.
"HOLY FLAME! I didn't think you'd come back for me at all!" Ember responded, but we had zero time to reunite. We knew the place was falling apart with no warning whatsoever.
"Hold the door!" I was told to do, so that, I did. Meanwhile, Ember took several sandbags, circled them around the blue flame, and made a glass wall. However, I realized this probably wasn't going anywhere.
5 minutes later...
"Uh... Ember!? This doesn't look good over here!" I responded, she was for real about to lose this business. Ember was extremely adamant about not letting the blue flame die out. However, the rushing waters would be saying otherwise
"Just give it up already! The shop, along with the flame, is literally done for! That's why I just came back, to get you out of danger!" I said when she didn't budge from the flame area. "No! I can't lose this! This place is my father's whole life!" Ember responded to this.
"Yeah, I know! But you may have to accept the facts here!" I said back, sort of snapping. That was before the waters came in. So FORCEFUL these waves were, that Ember eventually gave up trying to protect the flame and jumped in the hearst with so little time to spare. Now, given I was a water person, I again blended in with the water, and made my way to where Ember was. Yeah... the blue flame was put out. Ember was fearing the worst had happened until I came out from below. "Looking for something?" I asked, this was her lantern she must've been looking for. However, Ember was way too busy trying to seal off the cracks where water would come pouring in, which'd disintegrate her.
Having said that, Ember wouldn't respond to anything I was saying. So, I began to formulate an escape plan.
Around this time was when Max & Reid showed up at The Fireplace, to get us out of danger. How Max was allowed in when he KNEW he couldn't go in... well, actually, let's just say that him & Bernie called a truce before he & Reid entered the building, he was unbanned in that very moment.
"Right! You check around the shop area, I'll go check the basement area!" was Max's first way of looking for us both, him & Reid were looking for people that weren't in these two areas.
Back in the hearst, something else was happening to me that I was half expecting to happen. I was beginning to bubble up like crazy, with what seemed like no way out of it.
"It's incredibly too hot in here..." I said, rather calmly. I didn't want to make this anymore stressful than it already was. However, Ember found an escape route. "There! I know how we can get out of here!" Ember was quick to say, not wanting to lose me again. So with that, we started to head up the chimney. While tough, this was doable... until I hear a loud bang outside. A bit later, I start to notice some debris coming down, I was the first to panic at this, "ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!" I said, after which, we had to go back down, right back to where we were. Unfortunately, this meant we were trapped with what seems like no escape. I was doomed.
"Well GREAT! Now I have no way out of here!" I responded to this. At least, so I thought. I was half expecting Reid & Max to pull back the bricks and get us out, but let's face it, I didn't think they had any way of doing so. However, they too heard the loud bangs. "Oi Max! I think I've an idea of where they're at!" Reid responded. However, for both of them, moving every single brick and ounce of debris was easier said than done. They feared they wouldn't be able to pull any of these away in time. "Well, I suppose we better get a move on..." Max said, looking worried. So with that, and the help of another fire citizen, they all went to work figuring out how the heck they were going to remove each thing.
But unfortunately for me, this appeared to be the end. The boiling sensation was mad out of control, with absolutely no reversable effect to it either. "Ember... I'm afraid this may be the end..." I said, with my voice breaking. She had to turn around and look at my boiling and partially evaporating state to prove neither one of us were going crazy. Ember panicked internally the second she saw this.
"Sam... no! I can't lose you again!" Ember then said, clearly beginning to freak out. This'd be her first big loss since the contamination disease where 1/3rd of her relatives all disintegrated due to some idiots that didn't follow the mandates put into place. "Ember, trust me, it'll be okay." I said, starting to make the best of the situation. "NO! NOTHING about this will be okay about this at all! I don't know what to do here!" Ember responded, looking like she was going to have an emotional breakdown. For which was true. In that moment, I began to have my life flash before my eyes. I knew I had to get one more heartfelt thing out of me before I went and joined my grandparents in heaven. So... I just let it happen
"Ember... from the moment I was conceived, from everything that's ever happened to me growing up, no matter how good or bad it may have been... from all the losses I've dealt with... from everyone I've ever met, trusted, and supported... even to our relationship with one another... even though it did get off to a rocky start, I just want you to know that one thing stands clear with everything here... and that's the fact I don't regret anything... I may have had my chance to embrace the light... but now I think it's time I pass that down to my friends, in which if you want them... they're all yours at this point. Ember... truly, it has been really great knowing you, and if I had the chance to meet another fire citizen almost exactly like you again... well, damn it I'd take the chance and go for it." I said. Couple of things happened, for one, I didn't break at all, I knew my time was coming, and I wasn't afraid to die at this point, at least I'd be doing it with my girlfriend near me. But Ember seriously could not accept these facts. "But... you don't understand! I can't exist in a world without you! And I'm sorry I didn't say it before... I love you Sam!" Ember said back, rather tearfully. By this point, things went from worse to a goddamn massacre. Not even I would imagine something like this happening. I was already at the point of no return. So.. gave my final words right then, of which for one's sake, I'll leave out.
The light that reflected off of her was purely something I needed before I went into the great beyond... with one final hug from one another... that was it. Shortly after, I evaporated, and was gone... forever.
Or was I!?
No, instead, what'd happened is that I ended up in their ceiling closest to the chimney. "AW COME ON! This shit again!?" I was beyond mad to see this, but at the same time, not surprised. "Wait one good moment... where's my body!? I can't feel anything!" I was saying. I didn't think anyone could hear me below... and they couldn't. Well, hey, at least I was alive and well, just not in an ideal spot for me to be.
But as for everyone else below the ceiling... I couldn't say the same for...
Ember looked the most hurt of anyone. She just lost her boyfriend... again. The thing was, Reid & Max would not know this yet, as they were still pulling all the debris out of the way. The damage was done, and no more waves would be coming by, making it just as easy to pull apart.
"ALRIGHT SAM, HERE WE-" Reid started, but quickly had his high hopes dissipate when he saw a grief-stricken Ember only appear in the hearst. Reid began to feel heavy seeing this, and fell to his knees. It took him about about a good minute to regain his composure, and looked back to Max and quietly said/gestured "This doesn't look good..."
Of course, Reid had to ask Ember for confirmation in the form of "What just happened?"
After a short delay, Ember then said "Sam is gone..." with her voice being extremely broken. Even her parents felt bad, including... her ashfa. "No... YOU'RE LYING! Please tell me that's a cruel & sick joke!" Reid went crazy over this, Ember had to look back at Reid only to tell him "No, it's not... he's truly gone. He saved me from all of the danger that was imminent here."
Reid then had a moment of silence, and said, "Rest easy, brother... you made one of the best sacrifices of all time". Ember was silently crying during all of this.
Max, on the other hand, freaked out even more when Reid dropped the news to him. Remember when Max said he'd hopefully never had to witness another death as painful as Estelle's? Well, this promise was immediately broken.
He let out a scream that lasted 15 seconds.
"MAX, I'M NOT DEAD!" I instantly thought. It's funny how I could hear them, but none of them could hear me. I started to formulate an escape plan, again. Maybe I could go to the roof, reform myself, then walk in like nothing ever happened. That was easier said than done in the state I was in now, however.
Ember's parents showed a massive amount of condolences to Max, but Reid was even more worried about him in that moment. "Max... what's going on!? Why're you freaking out like a maniac!?" Reid asked him
"I said when Estelle died that I would NEVER have to witness another death like this again! LO AND BEHOLD, HERE WE ARE!" Max responded.
"sigh... A broken promise is NOT the end of the world! I don't know why you're treating it as such! PLEASE calm down!" Reid was essentially a father hen at this point, to one of his own friends. Heartwarming, indeed.
"But Reid, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! THIS IS DIFFERENT! I just lost the closest person I've EVER HAD! DON'T YOU DARE-" Max started. All before Reid hushed him.
"Max... there's something I should've told you a while back... I too was affected by her death, yes, but if there's one thing I was told about it, it's that... you shouldn't be upset that it's over, just be happy that you met someone that was absolutely worth it." Reid said. A take on what Ember said to me a while back. "Don't feel upset that it's over, just feel happy that you met someone you truly cared about.", if not... it was the same thing, just told in a differed way.
"But I can't..." Max said. Reid wasn't putting up with this, and still made a jab to put an end to his hysterics "I swear to god, your brain is telling you this!"
After this, a rather ominous voice was heard. "HEY! He's right you know!"
Ember was too broken to even think this was me, but Max was adamant about that. He sounded loosely like me.
"Wait, who's that!?" Reid was curious, so went to go check.
It was one of my old friends... Quinn! Remember that person I described that was a daredevil but not by choice? That's him.
"QUINN!?" Reid was surprised to see him. He & Reid haven't seen each other since that invite-only party he crashed. "Yup, I know, huge surprise, right? I came as soon as I heard." Quinn responded
"Oh NOW Quinn shows up!?" I said in the ceiling, I called him whilst on my way to get us out of the hearst if we got stuck, as he usually knew how to deal with fire people without harming himself and was extremely strong. I guess him getting buff over the past few years did pay off. Quinn was also someone that also knew how to avoid Bernie in the shop, and knew The Fireplace inside & out, so would've been of great use to us. Quinn was unaware of Ember's existence until I told him about it sometime in-between the attempted breakup and the grand re-opening.
"Well, Quinn... I'm afraid you're a little too late... he's gone... as is evident by Ember being 1000% upset about it, not that it's a competition about it. But... yeah, that's where we stand on this whole thing, any thoughts?" Reid said, Quinn showed empathetic feelings for everyone involved. "Damn Reid... that must suck for all involved... even if I barely know about Ember, I'm sure this has to suck for her even more, since as I last recalled, didn't she love him to death or something?" Quinn responded, the whole time he was empathetic and mildly confused.
Reid's POV
Quinn wasn't up to par with how he responded about my own brother's death, but I could expect this, provided he and Sam had a thing in common, neither one of them were big criers. I now just wanted him to calm Max down, nothing more, nothing less. "Do me a slight favor, okay? I need Max calmed down... he thinks this is his fault, like... a broken promise or something." I said to Quinn. Quinn was an excellent mentor figure to most, so I wasn't surprised to see him oblige to my request. The Lumen parents then attempted to calm me down, even thanking me for my attempts to get them out of the rubble. "Hey... don't sweat it, alright? We did everything we could. More or less I should take full blame for it all..." I responded to them, before Bernie assured me that none of the damage or anything for that matter was my fault, not even Max's, or Sam's! Right then, he made the ultimate decision to unban Sam from this place, removing both of their banned photos off the wall. "Well Sam... ever want to come back to life... I got news for ya!" I thought instantly. This was huge, given that he normally be extremely harsh towards us water guys. But somehow, he grew a soft spot for the 3 of us right then. Quinn somewhat included, given he came in on the regular back then.
A few minutes passed, and I believe I could feel something snap in me. I knew Ember couldn't just sit there forever. I had to do something about it! "You guys continue to do your thing and whatnot... I'm going to help Ember out over here." I said. Quinn knew the effects on what a fire person had on water if mixed, but was also unaware that Ember mixed with Sam, and no one was harmed! I believed the same could happen with me. I opted to make this sacrifice for myself because Max was clearly not up for this whatsoever.
"Reid, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!? You know PERFECTLY GOOD & WELL YOU CANNOT MIX WITH FIRE!" Quinn responded in such a demanding voice for me to change my mind. "Quinn! Please! She can't be there forever! Plus, if my brother was able to mix with her with no problem... I don't see any reason why we can't!" I responded, I was very dead set on this. "Okay, but that's different! There's NO WAY you're-" Quinn started.
"SHUT UP! You never know ANYTHING unless you try! And clearly... you never tried doing it EVEN ONCE! What do you know about the effects between us!? Maybe it won't be a disaster! You'll see! It's MY turn to embrace the light! TishÅk!" I angrily responded to Quinn. While he claimed to know the effects of fire & water, he for real never mixed with one fire citizen whatsoever, so... goddamn assumptions over something you never once tried doing? Yeah, no, just... don't! "There's good in all people... there's good in all people..." Quinn was quietly telling himself, but was also in shock that I knew a word or two in Firish, another bold claim he made was knowing the entire Firish language.
After my vent to Quinn was over, I walked over toward her, and held out my hand for her. "Ember?" I tried to get her attention. She was still grieving at this point. It took around 30 seconds to get her attention at last.
Ember knew what I was doing, and immediately rejected it. "Hey... I know, okay. I know it hurts, but you can't just sit here forever." I said to her. She still didn't want to accept my gesture of helping her up. "Oh... it's that, huh? Well... if you both were able to touch without harming each other, I don't see why we can't." I replied back to her. And a short while later, after Ember reminisced the time her & Sam mixed... she took my hand, to my surprise, the exact same effect as when Sam mixed happened to me! I was all like "See, told you I'm not crazy!" to Quinn. He had one good one while Ember was helping herself up thanks to me, and quietly said "I will be goddamned!"
Max noticed this too and himself said "Holy shit..."
Turns out Ember grew several people she could mix with and not harm one another. Notably Sam, but also Max & I. As for Max, he was incredibly unbeknownst to this information. Later, the whole family could do the same thing.
Ember's POV
That was actually helpful of him. Even after a while of having a breakdown, I knew that I couldn't just keep crying about it. However, this felt different than that of me losing a third of my family 3 years ago. And also... how is it I now could come in contact with not only Sam, but Reid now, and not cause damage to myself!?
"Reid, thank you." was all I could get out. I wanted to repay him somehow, but now was a very bad time. "Hey, don't mention it, okay? Also... were you looking for something?" Reid responded, pulling the very same lantern I had lost in the rubble out of the debris. I took the lantern from him, before he added in "Oh also... a little birdie told me there's something you wanted to tell your ashfa?"
Hearing a British descent talking in Firish did make me giggle a slight bit.
But yes, I still never told them I didn't want to run the shop at all. Even though I was going to last night, but never did. Now was my ultimatum, I had to tell them...
Back to Sam's POV, 5 minutes later...
Hearing everything down there made me tear up. So... I get the great idea to start crying. To my surprise, THEY COULD HEAR THAT! As everyone down below stared over at the hearst. There was a water pot below, where my droplets would come out to.
Reid, Max, & Ember all knew what to do in this moment after they heard me sobbing and some water dropping from above. "So far so good!" I thought. My thoughts were the opposite feeling of what I was actually feeling. In my mind, I was happy to know I was going back to safety.
"So... he's not dead!?" Max was thinking as well. All of them were ecstatic that I could finally prove my point. Especially Ember.
Ember slowly walked up to where I was, then slowly proceeded with "Butterfly... butterfly... windshield wipers... half a butterfly!"
That released more water droplets from me. "Wait... are those... OH YEAH, KEEP IT GOING!" I excitedly thought. They were improvising the crying game at that point, I recognized this.
"A couple layed together on their death bed..." Ember started, she remembered everything I said that night "...both knew they had a hard life on one another, every indifference they overcame, amongst other things... was something they knew they could get over. One day, they promised... that day never came." she finished, making it sound more happy than before, though it wasn't meant to be this way.
Reid was next.
"Sam, if nothing else mattered in the world right now, except for the two of us, I personally want to let you know that you have been the best thing I could call my own, and no one else! You are the best brother, mentor, and friend I've ever had in my life!"
It looked like it was raining at this point.
"YES YES YES!" I was frantically thinking in my head.
Max was next.
"Pretty much the same words as Reid, but YOU, and you alone Sam, have made my life more superior, and even better than what it once was! I'd do anything just to throw that all away and meet you again for the first time if I could!"
This made the "rainfall" go much harder. And even moreso when Ember's parents joined in on this. Nothing too special, just commenting on how perfect we were, and whatnot. And Bernie spilled the news about me finally being unbanned.
"Fucking finally!" I was excited to hear I was unbanned from The Fireplace. And of course, Ember finished it off.
"I want to explore the world with you Samuel Ripple! I want to have you in my life, with me... forever!"
A short time later, the final waterdrop came down. Ember & Max stared excitedly over the pot full of water which I was contained in. I slowly but surely regained my consciousness as I just braced for impact when I came out of the ceiling. And then I slowly rise up back to the surface. I was officially revived in their terms. I rushed to get my clothing back on, as when I evaporated, my clothing went with it.
"Try all you want, but none of you would even WANT to know what it was like up there... I mean..." I started, before Ember rushed up to me, then jumped onto me for a hug. Which reflected a light off of Ember, the others, including her parents, Max, Reid, & Quinn were all surprised to see this. "Oh wow..." Quinn was still flabbergasted that I could mix with her.
A moment later, I whispered to Ember, "Shall we, my little fireball?"
My voice gave off someone that more or less missed someone for a long time. After a nod from Ember, we shared a kiss.
All were in awe. I couldn't even begin to believe this was happening. Sharing a kiss with a fire person, more or less, someone that showed massive affection for me, and made either one of us have feelings that we didn't have before. After this, Cinder made a snarky remark about how she knew it this whole time. All of us had a good laugh
Mon... oh, sorry, I meant 5 minutes later, we ain't doing that just yet...
All 5 of us were outside The Fireplace, Ember had just been accepted a brand new start from her parents. Bernie would be finding someone else to run his business for when he retired, and personally invited us to come to his retirement celebration when it happened, yes, the one similar to the one I ruined.
Now Ember could live her life like I'd been, like my friends have been, amongst other people.
"Max... Reid... thank you both" I said to them. I was extremely thankful of their quick thinking to get me out of that mess. "If it weren't for any of you-" I started, before Reid cut me off
"Hey... you know... it's what we do!" Reid responded. Basically that was his way of saying "Don't mention it" to people. Yeah. This was well before I saw Quinn again, I hadn't seen him in over 10 months, and was more than happy to reunite with him. Giving him a tight hug upon me seeing him again said it all. "Oh also, sorry I was late. I had a bit of business to catch up on." Quinn responded, trying to make it look like he never heard the news from Reid.
"Quinn! Quinn! Stop, you came anyway, and that's all I care about, alright?" I said back to him before he parted ways with us to get ready to record a song for his next album. Oh yeah, Quinn was one of the biggest names here in Element City, he turned into an R&B sensation shortly after he started his brand new life.
20 minutes later
It was just Max, Ember & I at this point, Reid went to the Alkali Theater with several of his friends to see the recent most release which was something on the lines of Across the Spider-Verse. Max had the pure intention of bringing Ember to his family so that she can meet them. When Karen opened the door for him, she was in full ecstatic mode. She was just happy her first-born son was alive & well.
When they tore each other away, I was the first to talk after this. "Karen... there's someone I want you to meet, and I'm 99.9% sure Max has been talking about this specific somebody when I told him about it..." I said, then revealed her to Karen, Lucas, and Cleo (Max's sister, his father was still on a business trip at this time). "Tsunami's... this is Ember." I said. And to the Tsunami's surprise, she too could touch them without harm. So, it was only the Ripple's & the Tsunami's that she could make contact with without harming herself. All of which were happy to meet her. It was sort of hard to tell them about today, given what'd happen to me. That rest of the day where Ember, the Tsunami family, and myself had the whole day to just relax and do whatever was fucking awesome. Including that game of charades we had. Man, I want more days like this.
10:45 PM
I of course had to end my day at The Fireplace, which of course was still in partial ruin, but they were able to clean as much as they could, and coming back, the place look half re-constructed. But what made me come here... I finally got to cross something off my bucket list, crashing the night with my true love. I never got to do this in the past, as my previous 2 girlfriends weren't adamant about any of this, but Ember on the other hand... really wanted it to happen, so, as we took the train back to The Fireplace, much to the surprise of most onlookers when Ember had her head on my shoulder (I was fine with this), she expressed the idea, and I immediately accepted it. Oh yeah, we had mad romantic moments for some of the night, including immediately sharing a kiss upon entering her bedroom. More of which, as much as I want to, I won't be going into.
2 weeks later
Today was the day! Today was when I started my new job with Max's firm. I was more than excited to start this job, this was something I should've done about 2 and a half years ago if it hadn't been for my grandparent's sudden death. "Samuel Ripple reporting for duty!" I jokingly said to Max outside the building. I always wanted to say something like this. Max was excited to finally get me into their system, which took less than 10 minutes to do. Otherwise, wasn't special at all. But being a supervisor meant I had rights to discipline people to how the company saw fit, amongst other things, it's like a low level manager position in the firm, that being said, you're still responsible for showing up to meetings when asked, which was an easy task.
12:05 PM that same day
While in the middle of setting up my personal office that I instantly got alongside the deal that Max gave months ago, I get a phone call. "Ripple speaking, how may I help you?" I answered.
It was Ember. Remember that internship that was discussed? Well, shortly after that night 2 weeks ago, she went and applied for the internship.
"Well don't keep me in suspense! Did you get it or not!?" I said rather excitedly. Long story short... Ember got accepted! She had her virtual interview with them yesterday, let's just say that all of her glass masterpieces she made the night before her interview impressed them so much, they had her hired on the spot. In fact, it was WAY past internship level at this point, it was a full time job she got accepted for. My heart sank in joy hearing this.
"EMBER! CONGRATS ON THAT! So proud to hear that! When do you start!?" I responded. She'd start in 3 months from now, the only reason being is that they still need time to actually get her in to their system, and she'd need to get a place for us to live in Celestial City, which is where the jobs were. Essentially, we'd move out of Element City. Of course, with this, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with not only me, but Max & Reid as well, she somehow knew about his firm, and found someplace in the same city, and was closeby to a house she was eyeing to get for the 4 of us to live together. "Ember, we need to let my family know tonight about this! They'd love to hear this!" I said, and a short while later, hung up.
I immediately went to give Max the news, in which he too was excited to hear as well.
That night...
I again met Ember outside the entrance for my penthouse, as it was a few blocks from my new job. After she pulled in on her moped, we went in, again, and I finally got the guts to get her on the elevator, it was just the 2 of us this time. This took a WAY shorter amount of time, meaning we were at the front door within a matter of 2 minutes, on her way up, I was told by Ember that her parents were just as excited as I was when they learned she'd been hired for that glass designing company.
I knocked on the door, and someone I heavily wasn't expecting showed up to greet us.
It was Paul, my dad.
"DAD!?" I was ecstatic to see him, even Ember was shocked to finally be meeting my ashfa... sorry, I meant father, for her first time. "Sam... is that really you!?" Paul asked in such an emotional state, I was his favorite son if it wasn't obvious enough. We shared a hug with each other, which is something I haven't done since he just up and left the family. Shortly after, he noticed Ember, who was tearing up herself just from seeing him, which was rather easy to calm herself from that. "Who's this little fireball here?" he asked with such an enthusiastic response, this'd be the first girlfriend he saw be brought over to our penthouse, ever.
After a slight giggle from Ember, she introduced herself to my dad. This wasn't too special. But upon her announcement of the fact of her being accepted for that job she applied for, EVERYONE was overjoyed to hear this. But shortly after, we got more news that I didn't think I'd hear after 10 years, it was from Paul.
"Well, we decided that, 10 years ago, we made the most dumbest decision of all time, and that was leaving each other, during these 10 years, we found it hard to let ourselves go... so, as of today, Olivia & I have just gave ourselves a second chance!" Paul said, and everyone was more than excited to hear this, even Ember! Oh man, I can't believe that history was finally folding itself into nothingness, now if only my grandparents could be revived...
And if anyone was wondering... yes Ember stayed the night that night. Her on a water like mattress was a little convoluted, but ended being "very comfortable" as said by her.
Sometime that night, Bernie called to let us know he was due to retire in 1 month, and man, that month came & gone like crazy! That night of the celebration of the retirement was a blast! Even Ember, who formerly was going to take this chance, got to say a few words on her behalf. That I could consider the best night I've ever had in my life!
Okay, NOW we can jump ahead, 2 months later...
Today was the day... the day we all left and started a new life. Families notified, boat tickets purchased, house payment made between the 4 of us, everything. Max, Reid & I were all due to start at the exact same firm that the company owned. Reid & I would be supervisors, and Max would be one of several managers there. Oh boy... getting everyone that day was a hassle, especially after I left my penthouse that morning... it was hard to give a parting message to my family. But some time later, we all approached The Fireplace. Now to say we'd never be coming back here again... are you crazy? No, we'd be coming back to visit every now & then.
I entered The Fireplace to grab Ember. "Ember... it's time" I said.
30 minutes later
So we were on the outskirts of Element City, way beyond the check in place for entry to the city, due to take the next boat that left. Giving her parent's our goodbyes was easier said than done at this point, all of us kept losing our cool during this time. And when we were set to get in the boat, Ember stayed back a minute to give her parents something that was a common occurrence to fire people. it was The Big Bow. The highest form of respect to anyone, not just fire citizens. I was more teared up to see this. I saw that her father returned this favor to her and gave her the bow back.
A short while later, we all boarded the boat... starting our lives anew. No questions asked. None of us looked back beyond that point as the boat left Element City. The 4 of us were all excited about this. One by one we made our way to the private section, and just let our lives go on from this point on.
"Here's to a new life" I said, as we took our seats. "Yeah... to a new life" Ember said, Max & Reid said "A new life that hopefully is everything that we'd ever hoped for"
"If you had one moment to seize everything you ever cared about to start a new life, would you take it? Or let the moment slip by?" was the question circling my mind the whole time.
We didn't know what to expect, so... anything goes from this point on. What, you may ask? We'll just let you find out.
And just like that, this marks the end of The Impossible Odds!
I'd personally love to thank everyone for the support I got during this wild ride through the entirety of the project. Y'all are awesome!
And as I said before, I do have a future regarding this. I plan to make one-shot type stories, in-betweener's (like, what could've happened in between two parts)., and so on & so forth.
If you enjoyed, definitely let me know, I had a lot of fun making this thing happen, and I hope you guys feel the same way I did after reading this in its pure entirety.
This is movieman0215, signing off! Have a great day/night!