Epilogue
I drop onto the bed beside Elias, both of us so exhausted the only thing I crave is a few hours of sleep. The last few hours have been nothing but smelling stomach acid, touching stomach acid, as our own stomachs churned in nausea.
We say nothing, and stare at the ceiling, knowing it'd do no good to fall asleep, as we will be needed in a few minutes time.
As though on cue, the bedroom door opens only slightly enough for a tiny body to slip through. Both our heads turn to the opening of the door, to see a black haired three-year-old, smiling sheepishly at the both of us.
Elias speaks first, "Aurora." He says, the exhaustion so evident in his tone, "Darling we told you to go to sleep."
"I drew up on bed, I will sleep here."
I sink deeper into the mattress. "It's your turn." I tell him.
Elias sits up, "This is the seventh time, what are you eating you foul child."
"I eat abble." She mimicked herself eating as she began to scoop the air into her mouth.
Elias's head shoots to me incredulously, "You fed her apple slices when you know she's sick?"
I throw my hands up, "She was begging me for it what was I supposed to do? Let her starve? It's been three days since she's ate something solid."
"The doctor told you-"
"She's taking medicine, and her fever is gone."
Aurora makes her way over to Elias's side of the bed and raised her tiny arms up for him to pick her up.
He did so, and she crawled over him and pulled the blankets up until she was comfortably under them, laying between me and my husband. Moments later, the door opened again and another, but slightly taller, figure slipped through the opening.
"Aramis." I stare at the pale boy standing before me, he doesn't bother to greet us as he hoists himself up onto the bed and snuggles in beside his sister. It is then that he actually turns to me.
"Aurora threw up all over her bed." He informs us.
"I know," I say, "and your father is going to go clean it." I shoot Elias a glare, and he only leans back, allowing Aurora to lay against him.
"You fed her the apple; I suggest it is only fair you clean the mess."
"Yes, but I also cleaned Aramis's mess last, so it is, as it is only fair, your turn."
"Ahh, but the children are so comfortable in my arms."
"Elias-"
"Avril-"
"Mom, Father," The door opens wide now, and the tallest of the bunch comes running in, "There is throw up all over Aurora's bed. It looks really gross."
"We know, Bosten." Elias and I say in unison.
Bosten, though only seven, was tall, and thin, and built just like Elias. He climbed into the bed beside Aramis and pulled the blanket roughly over him.
At this point, there was barely any room for Elias and I, but none of us bothered to get up.
I was laying on the very edge of the bed but wrapped my arm over Bosten. Elias's long arm was over both Aurora, and Aramis, and though there was a fresh mess of half-digested apple slices and stomach acid in just the other room, we push the thought out of our minds, and stayed with our children for a few moments, -at least, until someone decides to heave up more rancid body fluid.
"Aurora my sweet thing, you smell like you just basked in a dead body, Avril your daughter smells like death."
"I've already bathed her twice today."
"Actually, they all smell like death. What have you children been wading in?"
"Aramis threw up under the bed." Bosten said matter-of-factly.
"I did not."
"Yes, you did."
"You're a liar!"
"Then go check under the bed!"
"You guys." I spoke, "Enough."
"Is there really throw up under the bed?" Elias pipes.
Aurora giggles, "Yes." And at the same time, Aramis yells, "No!"
"Enough!" I shout this time, "Just stop. Whatever is under, or on top of the beds, we'll get it in the morning. I'm done. All of you go to sleep."
There was a peaceful quiet for nearly fifteen seconds. The best fifteen seconds of my life. "I'm hot." Boston kicks the blankets off of him, making them pull off of me too.
"Stop it Boston!" Aramis yanks the blankets back up, but Boston kicked them down yet again.
"It's hot!"
"No, it's not!"
"Avril," Elias speaks up, "I'm going to shoot myself. It may be the coward's way out, but at this moment it is the only thing that sounds pleasing."
"Will bury you." Aurora whispers to him, "Will frow flowers in your grave."
"Make sure they are roses, my love."
"Your father is not going to kill himself." I tell Aurora, and send him another glare, "He's only joking." It was evident that Aurora and Elias had a very special bond. She did everything with him, and he certainly did not object.
Though I worried about her, as she was a bit too fascinated in her father's work. I tried to keep the kids away from the funerals we held, but it was difficult when they lived here with us.
"Yes" Elias says with a sigh, as he leans down and kisses his daughter's forehead, "unfortunately, it seems I will live yet another day."
There was another small pocket of silence, where I somehow managed to drift into an uncomfortable but much needed sleep, until I was shaken awake by a small pair of cold hands, "Mom, mom."
"What?"
I look over and see Elias was asleep with Aurora and Aramis holding onto him, and only Boston was awake, staring down at me with wide eyes.
"What is it?" I ask again, and he hops out of bed, "My stomach hurts."
"Run to the bathroom." I speak immediately, and he does so. I dash and follow my son to the bathroom where he only barely makes it toilet before heaving up yellow acid.
I gently rub his back, all exhaustion escaping me as I recall my motherhood, and taking care of my children before I take care of myself.
When he was done, I help him to his feet, "Next time," I tell him, "If you feel sick, you run here."
He nods once, and we return to the bedroom, where he dives under the blankets. I glanced at the clock which read 5:17 in the morning, and frown.
Instead of joining my family in bed, I walk into Aramis and Aurora's room and began to take the blankets off her bed. It seemed I have become immune to the smell of sickness, as I throw the blankets into the basket of clothes and linen that all also had some sort of bodily fluid soaked onto them.
I pick up the basket, and almost head out of the room before I stop, a small voice telling me I needed to look under Aramis's bed and inevitably get annoyed with what I find.
Dropping the basket, I go to his bed, fall onto my knees, and check under the bed.
My frown becomes even deeper, if that is even possible.
Grabbing towels and soap, I move his bed slightly over and began to scrub the floor that was underneath it. How does one manage to throw up under a bed anyway?
And why?
A pair of footsteps wake me from my daze, as I assume it to be Boston, only to see Elias walking over to me, and getting on his knees beside me. He grabs a towel, an began to help scrub the acid off the floor.
"I thought you were asleep." I say to him, a familiar sense of joy erupting through me as it always does when I see him.
"And leave you to be the responsible parent? Not a chance."
For the first time in days, I find myself smiling, "You know Aurora is going to know you're gone, it's only a matter of time."
"How a creature can sleep so little is beyond me."
"She takes after you."
"Scarily so."
I stop cleaning for a moment and look at him. This has been the first time either of us have been alone together in nearly a week. Though we lived together, I missed him.
My body was aching, and my body was hardly functioning without much sleep. I may be in a state of I borderline insanity, but I spoke up anyway, "Elias?"
"Yes, Avril darling?"
With dried vomit encrusted underneath my fingernails, sweat on my forehead, and my hair looking worse than it probably ever has, I find myself grinning at him, my husband, the -albeit, strange- love of my life.
I knew it was now, or never. After what happened the first time, I was taking no chances. "Is this a bad time to inform you of something?"
He blinks at me, "What-
"Mom!" Boston runs into the room, "Aramis threw up all over me." He was crying, and yes, there was vomit soaking his shirt.
Elias is still staring at me, as I walk over to Boston, and take hold of his arm to bring him to the bathroom, before I leave the room, I turn back to Elias and say, "I believe you already know what I'm going to say."
And there it was, a small smile, he rushes over and grabs my arm before I could leave. Our faces inches apart, "A new life." He whispers, and my hear flutters from his touch.
"A new life." I repeat him, and reach up to kiss him with one, quick and simple kiss, before pulling our son out of the room.
The End
Wowwww this book is finally finished. I want you all to know -even though I probably shouldn't say anything, but it will bother me if I do not say it- that this book has been very difficult for me to write, which is why each update seems to take me a month or longer to upload. When I first began this story, I was 14, and a very amateur writer. It started when I had begun to see images in my head of a peculiar man who was a magician, and he lived in a cemetery. I knew immediately that I had to write about this man but decided to make him not a man who just lived in a cemetery, but a man who owns it. It was then that I threw away the magician part, and made him Elias Parity, heir of Parity Cemetery.
I have grown up a lot since I first started this novel. I'm 20 years old now, and I actually sort of know how to make a novel. As you all may have noticed, this story barely has a plot other than some random girl being blackmailed to work for a strange cemetery owner.
Not to mention there were many things in this book that I did not indulge in (like Elias literally stabbing a man in an alleyway what even was that, that's not elias but I wrote then when I was 15 so blame 15-year-old me)
Anyway, sorry if this is long, but what I'm trying to say is, this ending is not exactly the ending that I wanted for this book, (I had actually planned on making this story 60+ chapters) but to make the ending I wanted felt like a lost cause, since this is not a story I am proud of anymore, and now that I've been slowly writing this book for FIVE YEARS, I'm done. I'm older now, I'm an adult, and I want to pursue better stories (pls check those stories out they are so lonely)
Thank you for staying with me all these years. Elias Parity will always hold a very special place in my heart. He and Edgar Mason were my beginning, and I love them both to pieces.
All of my stories are connected in some way. All of my stories are set in the same world, so this is not the last you will be seeing of Elias! He, Avril, and Parity Cemetery make many appearances in my novels, and will continue doing so in the future. He and Edgar are the backbone to all my stories. They are always present; they are always there.
So, once more, thank you for the few of you that have been with me for years, and for those of you who have binge-read this story in one day, I feel as though many of you have grown up with me, and to that, I appreciate you all.
p.s. I totally did not throw up underneath my bed when I was seven years old, not at all.