The school was returned to normal as soon as the portal closed up. The dark sphere that had encased the entirety of the building faded out of existence like it had never been there. News crews of all Maine variants stormed their way into the building and found each of the remaining children—as well as Ashley and Derek. Lilly’s body wasn’t found, and no official record has her location kept anywhere. The people of Nasseu never forgot the events of September the 22nd.

How could they? There was no explanation, no killer present, and three dead bodies on campus. None of the students were given blame for the situation—nothing linked any of them to the crime. It just didn’t make sense to the police.

Of course, the police were ignoring the stories they were told by the rescued children. What poppycock, they thought. Everything happens for a reason, and that reason had to be something logical at play, that was how things had to be or all cases gave way to the crazy. That’s what the whole situation was like—crazy.

Officially, the cases of the Nasseu Murders were left open and unsolved. Unofficially, though, the children of Nasseu kept the memory imprinted within them, and would most certainly keep for the rest of their lives.

Aoi initially found it hard to recover from the events that happened, but anytime that he gave in to sadness or fear of the unknown he thought back to that one moment as he stared at Lilly. I won’t ever be like that. I’m going to be better than that. He kept it as a personal mantra that he said every hour. Eventually he would lighten it to every single day, and then every other day. There were days where he didn’t even need to think about it at all. Those were good days.

He returned to swimming shortly after school was brought back in session a few weeks after the terrible events and found great pride in the metaphorical weight off of his chest as he began to improve. Swimming became his method to return to normalcy.

~…~

Rosie survived the incident. An ambulance was called immediately when she was found in Mrs. Fowler’s class room and she was carried off to Nasseu Medical. Aoi had begged his parents to help cover the Higgins’s medical bills. Rosie was going to need a very expensive separation surgery. Unfortunately, she did not survive the surgery and passed away on the operating table. The time it took for her to get into the operating room from when Josie died was the largest component to her death. The doctors at Nasseu Medical tried everything they could, but they’d never seen anything like it.

Mr. and Mrs. Higgins couldn’t bear the thought of staying in Nasseu anytime longer after the passing of both their daughters. The day after her passing they weren’t seen in town again. Rumor has it that they moved to Oregon to live a quiet life by themselves—taking nothing but what they carried on their backs.

~…~

Adam recovered from most of the trauma faster than he believed. Tyson and Carlos were at his side like they had been before and he easily saw how toxic his relationship with Ashley really had been.

“It wasn’t even a relationship, dude. You were a total puppet.” Tyson said.

Tyson still wasn’t liked by the east-end folk who believed the initial reports of his murder of Carleigh Heights, but they were never going to change their minds anyway. They were snobby old people who were stuck up in their ways and could have been shown a live feed of exactly what was going on in Nasseu Middle School the day of the incident and still believe what they heard on the telly.

Carlos calmed down a bit after the incident. His shenanigans and rabble-rousing were doused after that final confrontation. The whole experience had sobered him, and made him evaluate how lucky he was to be alive. The three of them grew closer as friends.

~…~

Sidney Jameson spent a lot of time indoors and locked in her room following the incident. She had spent a significant portion of her life dedicated to completely and wholly ruining Ashley’s life in revenge of how she herself had grown up, and in one day—one single day—all of that was up in smoke. Finally when she had gotten just what she needed to stick it to that fucking bitch it turns out she’s dead—and not even by her doing. Lillian fucking Jones of all people ends her. Lillian fucking Jones, who she can’t even get revenge on because she’s fucking gone! The last chance she had was Ashley’s father and his bullshit grasp on their damn town, but it turns out he’s dead too! Heart attack in the street on the same day Ashley bit the bullet. What a fucking joke.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

What a fucking joke.

~…~

Ally didn’t speak to anyone after the incident. As soon as the veil lift off the school anyone who said anything to her was met sternly with a blank face and a curious look. George and Jaclyn arrived on the scene full of tears and hugs that grew into concern as their foster daughter wouldn’t speak to anybody.

“Nerves…uh, shock! That’s it, shock! Therapist! She needs a therapist!” George scrambled out the words in his mind for the solution to the muteness.

In the days following Ally was signed up with the local therapy hall—specifically with Dr. Coburgh, a professionally trained therapist. What followed after a usual therapy session looked like as follows:

Dr. Coburgh: “How are you doing today, Allison?”

Allison: …

Dr. Coburgh: “Anything particularly prevalent on your mind today? How was your school day today? Have any pesky homework?”

Allison: …

Dr. Coburgh: “Do you still think about what happened on the 22nd? Do you feel responsible for it in anyway?”

Allison: …

Dr. Coburgh: “If you knew who was behind it you’d let me know, right? I don’t have to tell anyone because of our patient confidentiality.”

Allison: ...

It was safe to say that therapy wasn’t going well to how the Fae’s intended. The doctor was especially annoying. He kept trying to pick at my mind, and how could he even begin to understand what was going on up there if I didn’t?

Ally kept lingering on the events of the incident…but not on the parts that everyone else may have been. She kept thinking on why some of the memories that Issachar had shown had been unrelated to the whole case—two of them in particular with the draft of her English paper…and then the really troubling one.

The first she’d known all about—she remembered it of course. She wasn’t keen on everyone else seeing just how bad of a fuck up Allison Fae really felt like. There wasn’t a way to explain that off to any of them, and thankfully, nobody had asked her. Part of her…hoped…that one of them might have asked her. But it was only a small part, and only for a short time.

The part that bugged her most was the sight of her as an infant being dropped off to Harold and Miranda. That she was brought there by a lizard-man named Ormus that was the same kind of…spirit? God? Angel? She didn’t know, but he was the same as Issachar was.

Ormus mentioned three names: Sakonna, Issachar, and a Father. There was more than just Issachar, and they had a leader—a father. There were things she didn’t understand about the memory…there was talk about a book…at least she thought he said book. The Eye? She had no clue on that front, or what Arctic Systems was. There was a lot that she didn’t know, but she wanted to find out.

We cannot fit into human bodies for long, however. We don’t have nearly enough energy to sustain them. That is why we have come to this planet…we need more energy.

Did this mean that soon Issachar would need a new body? What would he do with Lilly’s body then? What was he doing with it now?

Questions pooled one after another as more—unimportant questions were lobbed at her by Dr. Coburgh. She cared not to answer a single one of them until she got the answers to the ones constantly floating in her head. I have to find the answers…