Spoiler! :
“Where does it go to?”
Alexander tilted his head and gazed out across the rolling hills, which seemed to stretch out for forever. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips, “Freedom,” he said finally.
Raven shuffled her feet nervously and licked her cracked lips, “What about the others?”
Alexander shook his head and took Raven’s wrist, “They’ll meet us on the other side, child,” He replied calmly.
The young woman followed Alexander onto the dirt road and sad, “Don’t call me a child. And whadaya mean ‘the other side’?”
He nodded, “I mean the ‘other side’. We just have to get past that first hill. Do you think you can do it?”
“Hell yeah!” she said, taking off with a burst of speed.
The two raced down the road, kicking up sand and dirt as they went.
Raven made it to the top of the hill first and cried out triumphantly, “Ha! I win!” she looked over to the other side of the hill. All she could see was a glowing light. It pulsed with energy, luring her in. Raven glanced over her shoulder, “Hey, ‘Lexi, there’s something weird over here. Come check it out.”
“I can’t,” Alexander replied.
The smile faded from Raven’s face as she saw that he had stopped a few yards away, “Why not?” she wondered.
“It’s for you only,” Alexander said as if that explained everything.
Maybe it did.
Raven frowned, “But aren’t you coming? I don’t even know where it leads to!”
“Trust me, child, you’re finally going home,” Alexander said.
“Home?” Raven repeated in a murmur. She rubbed her hands together nervously, “We haven’t had a real home in years… We’ve always been on the run…”
“Then go, child,” Alexander smiled.
“Stop calling me that. Yeesh, I’m twenty-one, now, not sixteen!”
“Has it been that long?” Alexander raised an eyebrow
Raven nodded and looked over to the light again. She threw her shoulders back confidently and said, “Okay, I’m going in,”
Alexander stepped back and Raven hesitated, “Why can’t you come?”
“I have to go back and get Solomon. Fate knows he’s a stubborn one. I’ll be back, though,”
“I thought you said the others would be waiting,” Raven frowned.
“Everyone else is, don’t worry; just go, child,”
Raven licked her lips and nodded, “Okay,” She took a step down the hill and looked back one last time, “I’ll see you again, right, Alexander?" she asked.
“Yes,” he said, “You will, Raven. Now go!”
She swallowed and bit her tongue to keep from saying the dreaded goodbye. Instead, she stepped towards the light and as it surrounded her whole being, she suddenly realized that Alexander had finally called her by her actual name.
The light consumed her, but it was warm and welcoming, so she closed her tired eyes and let it take her.
Suddenly it stopped and Raven opened her eyes, feeling strangely refreshed. She stood at the bottom of a hill. Down the road, her old friends were walking toward her. They seemed to be glowing with a whitish light. She grinned and waved to them, running forward. It’d been so long since she had seen them –especially Talia, who had been the first in the group to die.
“Welcome home,” They told her as they took turns hugging.
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