You're Not in This Alone

Lance carried Miranda’s body to Faith, trying not to look too hopeful. Without saying a word, Faith laid one hand over Miranda’s heart and the other on her forehead. She closed her eyes.

No one else could feel it, but I know Ebony could. Faith used part of her energy – part of her life – to call Miranda’s spirit back to her body. When Faith opened her eyes, she looked less alive. When Miranda opened her eyes, her expression held greater knowledge. Wherever she’d been, she’d known what was going on.

“Thank you,” she told Faith before Lance pulled her away to kiss her.

“It’s not easy,” Faith explained while everyone stared at her in wonder. She knew what Jason, Shelby, and Nadia were thinking: they wanted their loved ones back.

“Like I said, it’s the exact opposite of what Tristan does,” Faith continued. “I have to be touching them. It doesn’t thrill me; it hurts unbearably. It doesn’t give me energy; it takes it away from me. And the longer they’ve been dead, the harder it is.”

When no one answered her, she turned to Ebony. “You know all the answers, Ebony. Do I have enough energy in me to bring all the rest back?”

Ebony looked grim. “You do,” she answered wisely, “but not without a price.”

Ebony’s meaning was vague, but Faith seemed to know what she meant. “I thought it would be like that,” she replied.

“You don’t have to do this,” Ebony cautioned. “You always have a choice.”

Faith shook her head. “All of us have choices, but God knows what they will be before we make them. This is what I was meant to do all along. It’s why I was put here.”

Ebony shrugged and declared, “Then proceed.”

“Teleport me Leo’s body,” Faith ordered Nadia. Shelby stepped forward when Leo appeared. Faith put her hands on him and brought him back to life, but after he thanked her, she just nodded wearily.

“Ethan has been dead for a while,” she reminded us. “His body won’t be the same until after I bring him back to life. You may want to look away until I’m done.”

Everyone, even Nadia, turned away in obedience to Faith’s request.

This time it took Faith several suspenseful minutes. When Ethan finally whispered, “Thank you, Faith,” we turned around.

Faith looked pale and thin, as if most of her life had been given away, but she suggested we turn away again while she healed Grace.

This time we waited even longer. Faith was struggling to breathe like she’s run a marathon. Eventually she gasped one last time, and then stopped breathing.

I turned around in time to see a sorrowful Grace closing Faith’s dead eyelids for her. “We’ll bury her next to Tristan,” she decided for us before she stood and rushed to the comfort of Jason’s arms.

“Heaven is a beautiful place,” Grace declared, “But none of us are truly ready to be there yet. This was all meant to happen. We are a new race. Not human; we’re meant to be better. This was only a test to prove that we want to choose good over evil.”

Ebony grabbed my hand and squeezed it. She glanced at all of them before meeting my gaze.

For the first time in a long time, she was happy. We’d found the people we were meant to be with. We’d succeeded in protecting them, and they were now our family. I smiled back at her, feeling just as calm and content as she was.

*******

We held Tristan and Faith’s funeral the next afternoon, knowing it would be the last funeral in a while. Although we buried them next to each other, Faith had a white tombstone that faced the east, the sunrise. Tristan’s black stone faced the sunset.

Leo married Ebony and I a month later, and we moved into our own home. Sarah and Skyler lived with Jason and Grace, and Nadia and Ethan lived with Lance and Miranda.

A year after this Shelby gave birth to a baby girl they named Liliana. She inherited the traits and abilities of both of her parents.

And so began a new generation, one of happiness, family, love, and most importantly, peace.