Darkness Dissolves When the Door Opens

Ever After

1951

“You may kiss the bride!”

I immediately stood and clapped my hands. Everyone was cheering, shouting, clapping their hands in unison. Their faces looked so happy, everyone was so happy.

All around me, there was no more pain, no more sorrow among these men’s faces. Jules wore his blue suit with a new, gorgeous haircut. He kissed a beautiful woman with her amazingly tailored white dress. They were now husband and wife. They were connected, mentally and spiritually. They couldn’t be any happier, and us as audiences wished them the best of luck.

John was on my right, embarrassed to his friends as he was crying like a baby. Johanna, his new girlfriend stood next to him. Blake stood with his new, rich wife, Emma, while Mike and Asher stood by themselves with no companion of life, but happy regardless.

“Congratulations,” Cortland said after marrying them.

To be married in a place like this should be a dream. Sunset decorated the already stunning view with the freshest air you could think of. They stood in front of three houses, one was Cortland’s, one was the farmers’, and one Cortland built it and gave it to the new couple. Acres of cornfields surrounded them like barricades, shielding them from the chaos and madness of the world.

To live a happy life is to have everyone you love close to you. Jules didn’t have that when the war broke out. He lost his mother and sister during the attack in Pearl Harbor. He lost his best friends during the escape through the mined jungle. He lost some of his friends during their imprisonment in the Cathedral’s dungeons. He saw so many people he loved exited his life like the way he never imagined. But everything will come full circle at the end. And while everything might not be perfect even after they ended, everything could not be worse than what they already experienced. Living in the nature with Cortland and his family would be the best pleasure of all time.

It was such a pleasure because Blake’s wife forced his father to build them a nice, little home next to Jules’. John, with the money from his dead brother, also built a home beside Cortland’s. Asher and Mike crashed in almost every month until Jules built them their own rooms in their house.

One day, Himari was looking for Jules everywhere. No one knew where he was, not even John. She looked behind the house, near the cow pasture, next to the dog house, everywhere. 

Later, Jules found him sitting on a bench near the northern gazebo. 

“I was looking for you,” she said after sitting next to him.

“Sorry. I was just…”

In front of them lied three tomb stones. Three graves with three bodies inside them. 

The first stone had writing on it. It said, ‘Glenn Sephard, a friend’.

The second stone had writing on it. It said, ‘Rake Colin, a hero’.

The third stone had writing on it. It said, ‘Ava West, an angel’.

A hand-knitted doll lied on top of the third grave.

Himari touched Jules’ arm warmly. She whispered something to his left ear.

“Jules, you’re going to be a father.”

THE END.