Unedited, will start editing them once it's finished.
I wake up from the hard knocking sound on the door of my house. Opening one eyes, I see Esme's body rolled in the duvet next to me and get up. As the knocking starts again, much harder this time, I yell out, "I'm coming!"
Unlocking the door, I open it and find a very furious Ed standing in front of me. Immediately, I remember when Aaliyah and Lauren both told me that they will go back to the village. Fuck, he must have known.
"Did you know?" He asks angrily, eyes red with tears and anger.
I blink and gulp. "What?"
He steps inside and I take a step back. "Did you know that Aaliyah is alive?" He asks, clenching his jaw.
"I..." I trail off, not knowing what to do or say. "Yes, I... I knew."
"Since when?" He breathes heavily as he asks.
"Just recently," I reply before sighing and taking a step closer to him. "I was just as angry as you are. I couldn't believe it, and we had a fight, but it's not my place to tell you. She didn't want anyone to know, and I wasn't going to take that away from her."
He stares at me for a while, his red hair wild and skin dirty with the mud and sweat. His eyes grow redder before a tear rolls down his cheek, and without a second of hesitation, I wrap my arms around his body and hug him, making sure that he feels how sorry I am.
"I'm so angry, Tallulah," He cries quietly. "So angry and hurt."
"I know you are," I whisper soothingly, rubbing my hands up and down his back. "You have every right to be."
He tightens his arm around me and whispers, "I still love her."
I feel my own eyes burning with tears as I sniffle and say, "Of course you do, silly boy."
He takes in a deep breath before pulling away, wiping the tears from his eyes before he says, "I don't know what to do."
Smiling a little, I softly ask, "What do you want to do?"
"I want to keep her by my side," He asks in a heartbeat, then his eyebrows furrows and he adds, "But I also don't want to forgive her or talk to her, not now."
I bite down on my lip before I sigh and smile widely. "I think you just need some time."
"A lot of it." He adds, with a hint of a smile on his face.
"Go get cleaned up, we have a long day ahead." I tell him, making him nod with a deep breath.
"By the way, Conall's father is locked up." He informs me and I nod.
"We'll keep him that way," I say. "Which reminds me, where's my father?"
"He's out there helping us, haven't said a word at all," Ed tells me, with a slight frown. "Ragnar is recovering, too."
I feel my heart giving a heavy thud as I ask, "Is it bad that I have the urge to kill him?"
He shrugs. "It's bad when you have it and don't do it, but shit happens."
"You're not helping."
"I know, sorry," He chuckles lightly. "It's all for Wren's sake."
"I'll go get Esme, and then we'll catch you guys." I say, to which he nods before giving me a wink and leaving.
I go and wake Esme up, we both have a little eleven in the morning breakfast before I put on clothes and we head out. The village looks different now, not just because it looks completely disastrous, but because the people look different. Everyone is cleaning, looking happy and brighter than ever.
This is what freedom looks like.
Me and Esme start helping, too. Aiding the injured and cleaning the places, until we all finish and go to bury those who didn't make it; both allies and enemies. As me, Donella and some middle-aged man bury the last body, I see from afar Harry and Sir Aiden carrying the body of our chieftain.
Esme is placing a flower over every body we buried, but when she glances up at Harry and Sir Aiden, who are walking towards Esme's house, me and Sir Boyd rush to her side, watching as she stops putting flowers.
Fuck, I feel so guilty for not remembering.
"Is that..." She chokes as she gets up, stumbling but I catch her. "Is that dad?"
"Baby..." Sir Boyd speaks gently, holding her shoulders. "I'm so sorry."
"What? No, you... you promised he'll be fine. Boyd, he can't be dead, you promised me he'll be fine," Her voice gets louder with every word she speaks, laced with anger, pain and heartbreak. "You don't understand, I need him to be alive."
As my eyes get watery, I step to hold her, but Sir Boyd shakes his head at me, mouthing, "She needs to let it out and see him." As Esme cries in his neck.
Swallowing, I step aside and watch as he helps her to her house, rubbing her back and soothing her.
"Tallulah!" I'm snapped out of my thoughts when I hear Fredrick, one of Zayn's friends, calling. I look over at him and he points down, to Conall's body on the ground.
Composing myself, I clear my throat and say, "You do whatever you want, I'm not the one who'll bury him."
With that being said, I head off again to my house, wanting to take a shower from the all of the sweat and the dirt covering my skin. When I get inside, I'm engulfed with the silence and the loneliness, and believe me, there's no feeling worse than this.
I stand under the head shower, my body still stinging and hurting a bit from the bruises and all, but it's relaxing nonetheless. I wash and scrub my body before I head out, wrapping the towel around my body and heading out. I jump in surprise and let out a yelp when I see my father sitting on my bed.
"I didn't know you were here," I let out a breathy laugh. "You scared me."
He gives me a tight smile. "I apologise, darling."
I grip the towel tighter around my body and sit down next to him. Silence settles down between us for a few minutes, but he fortunately breaks it.
He holds my hand in his. "I'm so proud of you."
I smile and squeeze his hand, saying, "I didn't do anything."
"You stood by what you believe in," He says. "You went against us all, because you believed in something else."
"I got help, I wasn't alone." I can't take the full credit, really, if I was alone in this, I wouldn't have made it out alive. Everyone had a role, everyone helped, we wouldn't have done it without one another.
"Aye, but you started it," He smiles lovingly as he looks at me. "You made us realise what being free really felt like."
Instead of replying, since I don't really know what to say, I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him tightly to me. He wraps his arms around my torso, too, and for the first time in the past hours, I feel relieved, content and safe.
"So, what are you planning to do?" Father asks as soon as we pull away.
I sigh. "I honestly don't know, but I want to move out of here, father. This will still be my home, but I want to get my own place in the city, experience this side of life."
"I think Peter can help you with that." He says and I nod slowly.
"Are you going to stay here?" I question, biting down on my lip.
"It all depends on your mother, wherever she goes, I go." He shrugs and my inner child explodes.
I tilt my head to have a better look at him, with the widest grin on my face. "Aren't you just cute?"
He attempts to cringe, which makes me laugh. "Get ready, we need to go to the city soon."
"Why?" I ask.
"Well, we got a flat to find, a life to live, and a lover to return." Before I can fully process his words, he is out of the room. My eyes widen when I realise what he meant, and I pout. I'm not ready for this.
After ten minutes of whinning and bitching about it, I get up and put on some dark blue jeans, a long sleeved grey t-shirt, with a black sweater over it. Quickly, I dry my hair and let it fall loose the way it is before I step into my black converse. I need a new pair.
I shove my phone into my jeans' pocket and head out of the room. My father is sitting on the couch, watching TV as he eats cereal.
"Why are you eating cereal?" I ask as I walk to the kitchen and open the fridge.
"Your mother ate all of the pasta." He says loudly with a mouthful.
My eyebrows furrow. "Mother?"
"Yeah," He nods. "She eats when she's scared."
I scrunch my nose up in confusion as I close the fridge with nothing in hand. "That doesn't make any sense but okay. When are we going to leave?"
"Any time you want." He says as he takes the last spoon of his cereal and places it on the table.
I shrug. "I'm ready now."
"Let's go then, Peter is waiting for us." He stands up, puts on his jacket and we both head out of the house. There are kids playing around when we walk, and I suddenly miss Cronan so much. I haven't spent so much time with lately, and it makes me feel guilty.
My father and I keep cracking jokes all the way, laughing and grinning from ear to ear. I truly love this man, he's not biologically mine, but I got my personality from him, I swear. He reads my mind and I read his, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
"So, what are you going to do about Louis?" He questions as we near the edge of the forest.
"Ugh," I groan. "I don't know, I just feel like what's done is done, you know? I can't take back what happened."
"You know that's not true," He raises his eyebrow at me. "Your mom can easily give him back his memory of you, you just don't want to."
"That's the confusing part, I really don't know if I should give it back to him or not. I mean, I know I shouldn't have done that from the beginning, but what if things are better this way?" I ramble.
"What way, darling? Are you telling me that even if you didn't get back with him, you won't fall in love again?"
"I don't know." I mumble.
"You won't, believe me," He shakes his head at me. "You might move on, but it'll be incredibly hard for you to explain who you are to someone else, to tell them your story from the beginning. Doesn't it sound exhausting? That person won't ever fully understand you and who you truly are, and forgive me, but you will never have a strong connection like the one you have with Louis. He has lived every minute with you, he knows what you suffered from. Will you be able to explain all of these things to a new person?"
My eyes begin to sting with tears as I whisper, "No."
"I understand that at some point you can actually find someone else, but just because Louis' your first and only love, doesn't mean he can't be the last, you know?" He smiles gently at me.
"I want him to be the last." I admit quietly, sniffling.
"Then you know what you have got to do." He says and I let out a laugh.
"This is supposed to be the part where I run off, find him and kiss him, but really, I have no idea what to do."
"I don't recall having a stupid daughter." He says before breaking in laughter, making me join him.
"You're mean." I pout and he wraps his arm around my shoulder.
"I'm sorry," He laughs lightly. "But you should get Louis back, for real."
I decide not to reply back, since we are already out of the forest and heading to Peter, who is standing next to his car. He wraps his arms around me and hugs me as soon as he sees me, kissing my forehead as he says, "Thank God you're safe."
We head to Peter's place, and surprisingly, both of my fathers get on pretty well, talking all the way to Peter's place, they even laugh here and there. We soon reach Peter's place, and the moment I lay my eyes on my mother and brother, I run and hug them in my arms.
"Oh, baby," My mother kisses every part of my face, making me giggle a little. "I'm so glad you're okay."
"Me, too," I smile as I give her a cheek kiss and turn to Cronan. "Buddy, I have missed you, we need to spend some time together, aye?"
"Only if you bring me Cheetos." He grins and I laugh before pulling him into my arms again. Kiara greets me with the warmest hug, and honestly, I have missed her so much. Jeremy and Joelle give me their hugs, Jeremy still a little bit shy, and for the first time, I see the older sister, Jane.
"So, you're my older step-sister, huh?" Jane questions, her arms crossed over her chest.
I nod. "That's right."
"Well, it's nice to meet you." She smiles lovingly and I smile back.
"It's nice to meet you, too." I grin.
For the next two hours, we all gather in the backyard, talking, laughing, playing and having fun. Cronan hits it off with Jeremy and Joelle, playing with one another and having fun, while Jane tells me about her school and what she wants to study, and I tell her about Louis.
During all of this, I realise how blessed I am. I don't only have one family, I have got two; two loving, caring families. Two families that I wouldn't trade for the world. I'm blessed, really.
"I'm going to get some water, anyone wants anything?" I ask and they all shake their heads, while Jane gets up and comes with me.
"So, aren't you going to put an end to it?" Jane asks as I take a glass out.
"To what?"
"Your love story." She answers casually as I fill the glass with water.
I swallow. "There's already an end for it."
"Yeah, but that end sucks, and that's not how love stories are supposed to end." She raises her eyebrow at me, and before I can reply back, we hear Peter calling for Jane. "I'm coming!"
As she leaves the kitchen, I drink all of the water and stand staring at the floor, overthinking everything about Louis, but before I get too deep into it, the doorbell rings.
I tuck some hair behind my ear and open the door, losing all of my mind and heart when I see Louis standing in front of me, his shoulder wrapped as he looks at me with so much intensity.
"I remember you."
(A bit of a filler chapter, excuse moi, but I updated!!! Don't forget to vote and comment because I'm sure y'all are aching for the next chapter!!!ALSO, WHO'S READY FOR THE NEXT SURPRISE?)