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🌠🌠🌠 ANYTHING For RACHEL 🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠 _________________ 📕 🌹 📕_______________________
✏ [ 📝 S•V ~ Painter] ✔
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📢 #FINAL_Episode 💥
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The ringing in my ears. The smoke in the room. The blood. Something isn’t right.
I rolled off of my back and felt the sticky blood on the ground around me. This didn’t make any s-en-se. I’d seen the grenade. I’d known the only way to save Rose and everyone else would be for me to take the b!ow of the grenade myself. I ran for it, as fast as I could. I was going to l@yon t©p of it, take death in exchange for everyone else to live.
Everything around me seemed to be slow motion, the ear killing ringing in my ears ma-king it ha-rd to concentrate on anything as I tried to push up from the floor onto my hands and knees but my head was feeling loopy. All the mirrors around me were shattered, some of the small wooden panels behind them b!own out too.
My head hurt as I wh!pped it to the right to look where the toy was and I sighed when I saw that the wooden panel there was still intact, just smeared in blood.
Blood.
I couldn’t make s-en-se of anything. I should be dead right now. It should be my blood smeared all over the room, but it isn’t. I brou-ght a hand up to my face just to be sure that I was in fact intact and not just a ghost seeing the aftermath of my sacrifice. It was there, and so was the rest of me.
If I’m still here, then who isn’t?
I pushed up, standing slowly and I strained my eyes to see, the lights in the room all b!own out. I could see Cromley, and Pedro. They were both on the ground, probably struggling to gain control back on their s-en-ses like me. Renard was standing up in the distance, training his eyes in my direction and he seemed to sigh in relief when he saw me standing there.
I looked to the other side and I could see Octavia by the door, sitting up on her hands and knees, her b©dy shaking like she was either breathing heavily from shock or crying…possibly both.
Oh, god.
I couldn’t find Calvin.
I turned around, my mind fixing to explode when I was sma-cked ha-rd by something, taking me back down to the ground. “Rachel, you are insane!” He yelled at me as he hvgged me on the ground. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“Calvin.” I sighed his name and he buried his head in my hair that had been knocked down from the hair tie.
“Oh, baby.” He cried into me. “I thought you were gone.” He said again. “I-I-I don’t know what I could have done without you.”
It made s-en-se now.
The only other person I couldn’t find, and the only other person out of us that could have beaten me to that grenade.
Lexton had done it. Lexton sacrificed herself to save my daughter.
I wished so much that she could know how thankful I was. The girl that everyone distrusted. The girl who only ever just tried to live. The girl who was only guilty of falling in love with a man who couldn’t love her back. She’d given everything up to save him that heartache and to fix the wrongs she thought she was the cause of. Lexton was never a bad person. Her circu-mtances, much like mine had f0rç£d her to do things she might not have any other time. As much as people praise me for having a big heart, I think it was always Lexton whose heart was the biggest, and it was hers that was hurt the most.
I cried into Calvin’s che-st too, but for so many more reasons.
“Lexton.” I whimpered.
Calvin nodded. “She did it.” He muttered. “She pushed you out of the way, and she took the b!ow. She saved all of us.”
“Not just us, Calvin.” I told him, pushing him back so that I could get up and I dragged him by the hand over to the corner of the room, opening the panel.
My whole b©dy felt warm and whole as I pu-ll-ed it open and sitting in the middle of a closet sized space surrounded with little toys was my beautiful daughter.
“Momma!” She screamed, scrambling forward.
I gr@bb£d her, crushing her against my che-st and dropping to the floor as she wra-pped her little arms around my n£¢k and her legs around my w@!st. I cried as I rocked her back and forth in my arms. “Oh, Rose, Momma missed you so much.” I told her, gr-abbing her by the sides of her face and examining her to be sure she hadn’t been harmed. Her brown curls were shiny and clean, her smoky blue eyes happy and clear, and her little dimples were digging into her cheeks. She was ok.
“Momma!” She cheered again. “I missed you too, but do you know where my puppy is?” She asked and I had to shake my head laughing. Children are so resilient. Even after all of the moving around and god knows what else she’s been throu-gh, she was worried about her dog.
“He’s back at the h0tel.” I told her and she cl@pped her little hands.
“Good.” She grinned, then she looked down me and back up to my eyes. “Momma, you’re all dirty.” She said wi-de eyed. “You’re messing up my pretty dress.” She frowned when she looked at the pink frills on her Sk-irt.
I k!$$£d her little cheeks a thousand times and she giggled. “Are you re-ady to go?” I asked her and she nodded.
I looked up at Calvin and his big eyes were full of tears and his smile was stretching slowly across his face, his dimples digging into his cheeks just like Rose’s. “She’s beautiful.” He murmured, looking like he was seeing the sun for the first time.
Rose tilted her head back to look at him and she narrowed her eyes for a moment, then she tilted her head the other way and smiled. “Are you Calvin?” She asked and he dropped down to his knees beside us.
“I am.” He nodded, smiling from ear to ear as he extended his hand to her. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
She took his hand and shook it. “You’re Momma and Papa Pedro’s friend.” She grinned.
“I am.” He nodded.
“Will you be my friend too?”
Calvin tried his best to hold his composure while I on the other hand started blubbering crying like a fool. Rose looked back at me for a moment giving me a look like I was losing it, which I was a little from how full my heart was, then she turned back to Calvin.
“I certainly hope to be your friend.” Calvin told her, tears building in his eyes again.
“Ok.” She smiled, letting go of his hand. “You kind of look like me.” She said suddenly and Calvin and I shared a quic-k glance before he shrugged his shoulders.
“Oh, really?” He asked. “Well that is quite the compliment since you are the most beautiful little girl I’ve ever met.”
Rose giggled, pretending to be bashful, but I knew she liked to be called pretty. “Thank you.” She smiled. “Are we leaving?” She asked turning back to me, her little eyebrows high. “I want to see Prince, and its dirty here.”
“Let’s go, ladies.” Calvin smiled, holding out his hand for me, but Rose took it instead, standing beside him. Calvin’s look of utter happiness was ha-rd to ignore. Even in the dark it was like he was glowing. He held out his other hand for me and helped me up from the ground and we walked out, Rose holding one of his hands, and me on the other.
When we’d gotten back to the h0tel it was a toss up to tell if Rose was more excited to see Logan or Prince, but everyone was just happy to see her alive and ok. She ate up all the attention she was getting, moving around the room to get her hair br@ided by Octavia, or pla-ying a card game with Pedro that he’d taught her. Calvin showed her how to beat Pedro and explained to her that Pedro always cheats at card games anyway. I never thought she’d tire out, but after hours and hours of being praised for her adorableness or her smartness, she finally did start to slow down. Her big yawns ma-king it obvious that she was re-ady for be-d. I climbe-d into be-d beside her, tucking her in un-der the blankets while I la-id on t©p of them. Logan wasn’t even halfway throu-gh with telling her her favorite story when she began to breathe heavily with sleep and Prince curled up at her feet and drifted off too
Calvin knelt by the side of the be-d and gazed at the both of us. “She’s incredible, Rachel.” He sighed happily. “You’ve done such a good job with her,” He told me, then he turned his head to look over at Logan. “You both have.” He said seriously and Logan smiled. Calvin stood and walked across the room to hold his hand out to Logan. “I never thanked you, and I should have.” He said earnestly. “You took care of the both of them, and it is clear she loves you and you love her, so plea-se, accept my greatest gratitude for all that you’ve done.”
I was so t©uçhed by the scene of both of the most important men in Rose’s life coming together to finally accept each other. “It’s no problem, Calvin.” Logan told him. “Loving Rose is easy to do.”
“That it certainly is.” He nodded, turning back to look at slee-ping Rose beside me, then he walked to my side again, bending down to k!ssmy cheek. “Missing her will be ha-rd though.” He sighed and I turned to look at her slee-ping little face, her eyelids fluttering every now and then as she dreamed.
“What’s the plan now?” Logan asked.
I looked over at him and frowned. “Well, I’m hoping that now that I’ve been turned, the people will re-lease me, and I will be able to join you and Rose soon.”
Logan furrowed his brows. “You’re going back?” He asked, looking at Calvin.
Calvin ran his hand throu-gh his hair. “I have to.” He said sadly.
“I have a responsibility to my people to lead them, and we would never be able to just run away.” He explained. “As we speak I am sure there are head hunters out looking for us. We’ll have a lot of work ahead of us to convince the people that we aren’t deserters.”
I had a ha-rd time imagining leaving my little girl’s side again, but I knew it wouldn’t be safe otherwise. Like Calvin said, if we just deserted we’d always have to be looking over our shoulders for when they’d finally track us down and kill us.
Pedro cleared his throat from where he was sitting at the table with Cromley and Renard. “You know I’d never want to overstep my boundaries, but can I make a suggestion?” He asked nervously.
“Of course.” Calvin nodded. “Speak freely.”
Pedro folded his hands on the table and looked over at us. “I was just thinking…” He said. “What if the people…What if they believed that you had deserted, and that you were alre-ady killed by head hunters?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He looked over at Renard and Cromley, then back to Calvin. “As hand of the king, in a time of trial where the king is involved, who would I s£nd out to head the missions in tracking you down?” He asked him and Calvin furrowed his brows.
“I would s£nd my best men.” He shrugged. “Renard and Cromley.”
“Exactly.” Pedro nodded. “Again, I don’t want to overstep, but if you were to have been captured and killed, I would then be in charge.”
Calvin wi-de-ned his eyes. “You’d…you’d want to do that?” He asked. “It would be difficult.”
“Do what?” Octavia asked.
My eyes sh0t back and forth between them, thinking I knew where he was going with this.
“Cromley and Renard could attest to your death, and I was thinking we could also take one out Patrick’s pla-ybook and video the mirrored room, show the people all of the carnage, even find a b©dy that looks like it could be Calvin’s. I could tell the people that Calvin and Rachel made a run for it, and that they took guards with them and that Renard and Cromley had tracked them down to that room and killed everyone.” He explained carefully. “After doing so, I would then be sworn in as the King.” He said. “No one would be looking for any of you.”
I looked over to Calvin, unsure how he’d respond to the offer, but he surprised me by shooting across the room and hvgging Pedro. “There is no other person that I’d trust more to rule over my people.” He told him. “I don’t even know how to thank you.”
He said pu-lling back. “You’re sure about this?”
Pedro pursed hisl-ips, then turned to look at me, smiling at Rose and me before he turned back to Calvin. “You deserve to be with your family.” He said with we-t eyes.
I carefully got out of the be-d, ma-king sure not to disturb Rose.
I walked quic-kly across the room to Pedro and flung my arms around his n£¢k, k!ss!nghim on the cheek and he tapped me on the nose as I pu-ll-ed away. I turned around, coming face to face with Calvin, tears forming in both of our eyes. He looked down at me and smiled.
He reached out, holding my face in both of his hands. “So what do you say?” He asked.
“I say yes.” I cried. “I say yes a thousand time over.”
I wra-pped my hands around his w@!st and he leaned in to k!ssme, then whispered against myl-ips. “Eternal life with you.”
“Is this really happening?” I asked, still dazed. I’d never even really considered a life outside of Castrum where Calvin and I were together.
He k!$$£d me again, then he put his hands un-der my arms and lifted me off of my feet, spinning me around. I giggled as my feet met the floor again and I threw my arms around his n£¢k.
“It’s really happening.” He smiled, his dimples on full displa-y, and his smoky blue eyes peering into mine. “Just Calvin and just Rachel for the rest of eternity.”
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✏Epilogue_up_Next 📣