Chapter 5
The Grave
Meredith was unsure when she’d fallen asleep…or if she’d even fallen asleep at all. She knew that Matthew had stayed with her the whole night in the silent restaurant. Although, upon waking up the next morning, she reasoned that the entire town had grown silent. Even the usual kind of construction from her parents’ garage was down to muted levels, if there had been anything to work on. The falls sounded possibly closer, a stark reminder to Meredith that the edge of the world was encroaching.
She felt no better from having sleep.
The smell of bacon came to her, seated on that same chair in the restaurant, and she sprang up. For a wild second, she believed it to be Eddie, back alive and cooking up breakfast, but cold reality doused her before she even looked through the doors to see Matthew making an adequate breakfast.
“I know I’m not as good as him, but it’s important to eat,” her teacher said, pushing the plate of eggs and bacon to her. She hesitated, but the gurgling of her stomach reminded Meredith that in spite of whatever she was feeling, her body still required food. She dug in. “I’ve never been to Lumarina before. It’s a shame it’s emptied out.”
“Yeah. It’s a beautiful and lively place, otherwise, full of the best kind of people,” Meredith said. She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was, or to what extent she’d held off on nourishing herself. To the defiance of her expectations, it made that gnawing pit grow just a little smaller. “Lots of vendors, and fishers, and everything you’d expect to find in a beautiful coastal town. We’d get a few tourists, too. Kept mom and dad’s business booming.”
“A place worth protecting, is it?”
Matthew’s grin caught her off-guard, and Meredith lowered her fork. It was a fact she’d forgotten in the haze of despair. The saliva in her mouth grew sticky, clamping her mouth shut while she nodded. She wasn’t hungry anymore.
She also didn’t want to be reminded, and most certainly not by the knock at the door.
“So, you’re both here.” Meredith swiveled on her stool to face Emil. The dirty-blond had his scarf wrapped around himself, joining the pair at the counter and seating himself next to her. “Mera, we need to talk.”
“What if I don’t want to talk?”
“Then listen,” he insisted. She really didn’t, huffing out and facing as away from him as she possibly could. Emil wasn’t having that, simply changing seats so as to be in her sights. Matthew was exasperated by the dance of denial. “Mera, we can’t just keep ignoring things. You can’t. I know it hasn’t been easy-”
“Hasn’t been easy?” she uttered. Her incredulous tones caused Emil to jump. “No, Emil, dealing with your legs being broken and then healing in a month isn’t sunshine and rainbows. Dealing with Eddie’s death and you and Vivian abandoning me on top of it…forgive me for not wanting to talk about it.”
“We didn’t want to leave you, Mera, but we didn’t have a choice.” She scoffed, somehow not believing that. “Okay, maybe I had a choice, but I chose to look for a way to fix things. I couldn’t tell you what Viv was up to, but just because life was put on hold for you doesn’t mean it was for everyone else.”
“Might as well have been…” she muttered. Meredith faced away again, not wanting to look into the boy’s hazel eyes, probing her for…something. She didn’t care, whatever it was. Still, she supposed she owed him some time. “Did you even find anything anyway?”
“I did.”
His two words hurt. Not because they offered some long shot or impossibility. It was because they offered hope. In front of her, Matthew held his soft smile, his gaze holding knowledge of whatever Emil had found. She was afraid to ask. Afraid to look in their souls and see what they were feeling about this development. Emil had no problem answering the silent question.
“Souls can be removed.”
“Great job, genius, you learned something we already knew.”
“No reason to sound like Viv to express it,” Emil said. His words were followed by a sigh as he messed up his hair, putting together the best way to say things. “Of course, we knew souls could be removed from their container, usually the body, because otherwise the Legendary Weapons wouldn’t exist, right? I’m talking about removing them after that.”
“And what good is that going to do us, Emil?” He pursed his lips, having no answer. Or maybe it was an answer that sounded like some far-off pipe dream. “Are you saying we can remove Eddie’s soul? What good would it do? There’s no body to put him inside, or would you curse him to an existence like Terrill’s: inside an object with barely any will of his own?”
“It’s just theory, Mera.”
“Well, I don’t like theory. I don’t want hope!” Meredith shouted. She had stood, her fist banging on the counter and causing the wood to buckle a little. “Hope just hurts. Hope is just pretending reality doesn’t exist…but the reality is that we can’t do anything for Eddie. So, stop trying…”
She kicked away from her stool, preparing to get out of that restaurant of memories. Her hand had barely pushed the door when Emil called back to her.
“And since when did you become so spineless?” Emil had stood, too, his boots beating their way over to her. She had stopped, allowing him to grab her by the front of her shirt, face close. “Since when did you start ignoring everyone but yourself? The world is about more than you, Mera! I’d have thought the person who told Rico to save himself, who saved me, would have known that!”
“I didn’t save you…or anyone…that was…”
“And who the hell saved Eddie?! Who still can?!” Emil shook her, and their eyes met. His were so sharp, a far cry from the confused boy that had lost himself, not knowing who to follow or what to believe in. He’d found…purpose. Yet Meredith was floundering. She didn’t know what to tell him, her mouth flapping uselessly. Emil relaxed his grip, closing his eyes. “Maybe he can’t have a body…but you know he’s still there…you know his soul…can’t we do that for him?”
She wanted to answer. Her soul screamed with the pain of answering, but she couldn’t. Meredith was too afraid to go down that road. Too afraid to add to her pile of regrets and reminders of her failures. Her mouth tried to open again.
This time, it was cut off by something familiar: a skyship.
“Ah, would seem the ones we’ve been waiting for have returned,” Matthew said, wiping his hands down. He swept towards the exit, grabbing both teens like they had a place in where he was going. Moments later, they were back on the streets of Lumarina and looking high to the sky, a shadow blotting out the sun in a shape all too familiar.
The wide skyship came to a hover above her family’s garage, its roof clanking back to open and allow the older vehicle to lower in. It scraped the sides, jostling on its way down, the capacity of the garage too little for it. Meredith watched it from her place on the street, its whining engines pulling those members of the Corps in Lumarina outside. It didn’t look like anything she was used to, as if someone had attached cannons to the base of a civilian aircraft. It was crudely done, the cannons that were welded having been damaged from recoil, and Meredith figured it was a rush job, in need of quite a bit more handicraft. Other marks on the skyship made it look like the hull had been burned, before it sunk into the garage and the engines stalled out, leaving Lumarina silent as the grave.
Matthew pushed her along. She would have thought it was against her will, but her feet moved of their own accord to join the Lacardians as they gathered with Emily outside the garage. Meredith didn’t know what to say while she waited, or what to think, but she watched as the first of the people the skyship contained came stumbling into the sunlight. It was Max.
“Ah, Miss Emily, a good sight to see. It’s been since the Games, yes? Might you know where to put our band of humble servants. We also have some wounded,” the usually fretting man responded, rubbing his hands together. Instead of the lieutenant in Tempest Squad answering, Captain Clive was the first to come forth.
“We have plenty of room in our barracks for the moment. If you’ll all follow me. Lieutenant, can I trust you to-?” The single glare from Emily told the captain all he needed to know as he led the stream of servants inside the Corps’ building. Meredith watched them go, her hands shoved in her pockets, already anticipating who was going to come out of the garage next.
“Em, we need your healing expertise here!” Jay called out, and his exit was joined by the familiar face of Brynn, clasping at her arm.
“I’m fine. Was just a minor injury…” the girl said. She looked up, grunting with the pain, and Meredith saw a tourniquet on her arm, a small trail of blood dribbling down it. Brynn caught Meredith’s gaze, wanting to say something, but was pushed into Emily’s arms by Jay, looking disgruntled. “There’s someone else who needs the attention more than I do.”
“You’re an actual combatant, Taylor, and while you’re not a Guardian, I trust in you to handle the things we can’t.” There was no doubt to Meredith that it was Amelia, walking out with a flick of her hair. She looked a cross between displeased and hopeful, which made Meredith’s stomach sink. There was no way to know what was going on, but it hardly mattered. “Victor is far less of an issue.”
“I take it the mission…didn’t go well?” Emily asked, her hands casting a warming light upon Brynn’s arm.
“About as well as we could have hoped. Lacroix laid the bait with the Bow, but Marcus is…something else. They took it, and I’ve no doubt they survived the destruction of Lacroix Manor,” Amelia explained. That wasn’t good news, causing Meredith to turn away. She didn’t want to hear anything else about their failure. They’d spent a month for nothing. “Still, silver linings. We got some key information to act on, once we’re all patched up.”
“Don’t waste your time, Chavez,” grunted a more masculine voice, that of Victor Lacroix. “If you want to stop that piece of trash, you take out his base. Wipe him out and leave nothing left.”
“And just how do you suspect we do that, Victor? Knock down every door and bomb every island until nothing but ash remains?”
“For starters.”
“Shut up and sit down, father.” Meredith halted her steps upon hearing Vivian. The girl had returned to Lumarina, and in a flash, Meredith realized how silly she’d been. Just for a second, at least. Her friend was here, and she hadn’t left for some ridiculous reason, unless one considered it a failure in hindsight. Still, she walked on.
“How dare you, Viv!” Victor bellowed, his voice echoing over the sea. It didn’t put a stop to Meredith’s steps away from the gathering of the few remaining Corps members. “You enact a plan without my permission, destroy my house, let go of my weapon and now you dare to command me.”
“You’re not a Guardian, so you have no place in this discussion. This Corps has no need for the likes of you.”
“And just what do you plan to do, you stupid girl?”
“You want to call me stupid?” A slap echoed next, with Meredith jumping in her walk at the sound. “It’s partially your fault our plan failed. We had to carry your moldy, useless ass out of the manor. I told you not to rile him up, but no, daddy dearest just couldn’t let his own pointless ego go insulted. Grow up! You’re not making decisions here.”
“And you think you are?” Victor’s scoff put the edge on everybody. “You couldn’t even stop them from taking the Bow. I gave you that weapon. I taught you how to use it and your magic. What are you going to do without them?”
“Okay, I think that’s enough!” Amelia interjected, tired of the family bickering. The breeze that rose in Lumarina was not of the sea variety, silencing the pair. “Victor, you’re wounded. Get patched up. In the meantime, you’re a guest, not a Guardian, so no contacting the outside, including your wife. I’m sure she’ll understand. And remember, you did botch a whole month’s work. That’s why your daughter never told you the plan. Vivian, you rest up. Get some fresh air and don’t stew in the failure. You did good.”
“Commander,” Matthew could be heard saying right after Amelia’s orders. Meredith stopped listening. They were most certainly going to talk about their research, and she had little interest in that, kicking at the pebbles on the ground.
She left them behind in their reunions and discussions. There was no part to be had in that, and she walked her way out of town, back up the hill to the grave. The commotion that had come with the skyship’s arrival had now become silence, giving Meredith the reprieve to drop to her knees in front of the grave. Her fingers found the grass, picking at it, but her eyes found her hometown.
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Meredith couldn’t see inside the garage, but there was little doubt her parents were there, discussing the repair work with Kenny and Sal. Bruce and Trent were walking down the road with some of the servants from Lacroix Manor, as if to set up a pub in one of the buildings. Amelia and Matthew had vanished inside the Corps building, and Meredith didn’t want to look at much else, in spite of her eyes traveling over her home.
“What am I supposed to do…?” she breathed. Her head hung, tapping against Eddie’s grave, hoping it would give her some kind of advice. “Why does it hurt so much? How do I get rid of it? How do I cut that pain out of me, Eddie? How do I…fix this?”
Another round of questions, another round of no answers. Meredith knew it anyway. There was no fixing what had gone wrong. It wasn’t as easy as piecing together a broken skyship or some other mechanical device. It was complicated and snarled up in emotions that refused to let themselves get untangled. In spite of all this, however…
“I want to fix it. I want to remember when everything was okay with the world.” Her conflicting emotions wouldn’t let themselves get sorted out, and it caused further pain. Said pain didn’t subside at the steps up the hill, and her head lifted towards Vivian, with a hurried Emil behind her. Meredith stood.
The two girls faced each other, neither saying a word, or unsure of what to say from what had passed between them. A month’s worth of silence filled the air, the atmosphere begging for one to make a move over the other.
Vivian stepped first. “Are you…standing again, Mera?”
Hesitation. Worry. Doubt. None of them were things she ever thought she’d hear in Vivian Lacroix’s voice, but so laden with meaning were they, that Meredith considered her words carefully. She turned, keeping the grave in her periphery.
“Not sure.”
“Not sure?” Vivian asked, her arms folding across her chest. Her lips were twitching, and Meredith could see her suppressing the urge to run forward and grab her, perhaps strike her. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me.”
“Emil tells me differently.”
“What, are you two best chums now or something like that?” Meredith asked. She refused to look at Vivian, facing out toward the ocean while its waves broke against the cliffside. “But I’m not lying. Nothing’s wrong with me. My legs are fine.”
“I’m talking about your head, dumbass,” Vivian snapped. Meredith heard her tromping steps over the grass. Wishing to avoid a further confrontation, she stepped away. “You look like you’re standing, but not moving forward.”
“Nothing to move forward to.”
“See? I told you. She’s in a bad way.”
“Gee, I wonder why, Emil,” Meredith shouted. Her body had rounded on her friends before she could stop it. “Maybe it’s because you both left without a word. Maybe it’s because Eddie’s dead. Or because the Corps is gone, and the man I looked up to is a murderer. Or my brother. No, those can’t possibly be the reasons.”
“Well, at least she’s letting it out…” Emil said, his nervousness leading to him tugging on his scarf. Vivian groaned.
“Oh, please, she’s just being some sort of drama queen.”
“Well, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you,” Meredith snapped to the blonde. Vivian’s eye pulsed at the insult. Meredith backed off. “Leave me alone.”
“Pretty sure I’ve left you alone long enough, Mera. Which, I didn’t mean to, but I had to.”
“For a mission to stop them? Yeah, doubt that worked out.”
“Maybe you’d know if you stopped moping around, Mera!” Vivian’s screech didn’t compel Meredith to look back at her. “World didn’t stop just because you did. Didn’t stop just because he…”
The breath was stolen from all of them at that elephant in the room. Meredith shook her head, inching forward on the grass. She couldn’t let his name be spoken, or what had happened to him be talked about. They didn’t know. They didn’t understand. They could just move on as if nothing happened.
“What happened to you…?” Vivian asked softly. Meredith provided no response. “You always used to push on. No matter if it was Rico, or the Reaper, or your brother, or whatever challenge you were outclassed by, you always kept fighting as hard as you could for as long as you could. Never giving up. Standing and moving forward. Or have you forgotten about all that to wallow in your self-pity?”
“I just…don’t care anymore. Why should I care when…when everything’s gone?”
“Gone? Mera, do you seriously believe that? Or are you hiding from what you know to be true: that you failed, and instead of picking yourself up, you kept piling regret upon regret. Well, we haven’t given up.”
“Go away.” Meredith’s hands felt like they could no longer feel anything, so constricted in their balled blood flow. She was walking away, done with Vivian. Hearing those words were knives to her…because she was absolutely right, and Meredith hated that.
Pain suddenly blossomed on her right cheek, causing Meredith to hold and reach up to it, where blood was. She looked at the droplets on her fingers and turned back around, to Vivian.
“Viv, what’re you-?”
“Stay out of this, Emil,” Vivian ordered. Her voice was wavering, tremulous with her intention of picking a fight. Her fingers were glowing red with enchantment, and a burn stood out in contrast to the pale skin on her forearm. “This is between me and the pile of trash pretending to be Meredith Childs.”
“What?” Meredith asked. Vivian glared at her, the snarl evident. Her fingers shook with uncertainty, but she slashed them down. The ribbon of light flew at Meredith, giving her no time to stop it before it hit her chest and drove her backwards, dirt and grass torn up by her movement. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Proving where you stand,” Vivian said. She slashed again. Her aim was off from her wobbling fingers, and this slash of enchanted air cut at the ground next to Meredith. She crossed her arms, pretending it would stop the dirt from hitting her face. “You know where that is? On the ground!”
Meredith loosened her defense, and Vivian struck again. A ribbon of light sliced the space between them before cutting into her arms and tossing Meredith back. She rolled on the grass, springing up to prevent herself from going over the cliffside. Vivian’s other hand was glowing yellow now, and Meredith knew what that meant. “You can hurt me all you want, Vivian…it won’t change-”
“I don’t want to hurt you!” Both of Vivian’s hands flew out, a mix of red and yellow swirling between them, large circles indicating her spells, shining with light. “I want you to stand up! I want you to move forward! I want you to lead us again! I want you to live!”
She pushed both palms forward, the circles of light joining together. A flutter of bird-shaped lights sprouted from within the light, each glowing red as they aimed for Meredith. So close to the cliff’s edge, she started running, not wanting to get hit as each divebombed into the grass, breaking it apart. Live. Promise me you’ll live.
Meredith shook her head, the empty promise she’d made to Terrill rattling around inside of it. She tripped over a rock, faceplanting in the grass as the final bird came upon her. She rolled downwards, the attack missing, but finding herself at Vivian’s feet. The blonde picked her up, tears in her eyes, and then punched her across the face. Meredith didn’t fight back. She felt like her brain was being ripped apart, unsure of what direction to take. Fight? Live on? Give in? Forget everything and hide?
Vivian hit her again, undeterred by Emil’s pained shouts.
“Wake up, Mera!” Vivian shouted. She was hoarse, every syllable a pain to speak. Meredith didn’t understand, her head flopping limply upon her shoulders. Why was Vivian crying? Why was she trying so hard to pull her back? Did she care so little? “This isn’t just about you or your pain. That makes you no better than that pathetic piece of trash, Rico. It makes you no better than Marcus, himself. You have the opportunity to stand up and do something. To live. So why are you laying down like there’s no fight left.”
“Eddie…”
“Who cares about Eddie?!” Vivian screamed. Her throat was being ripped raw, that much was obvious, but Meredith flashed with anger. Who cared about him? Did he really come to mean nothing to her despite all her bluster? Is that why she just up and left? “There are other people, Mer-”
Meredith had reached up, and with what strength she had, punched Vivian across the face. They disengaged from each other, both falling to the grassy cliffside. Emil called for them, but neither girl heard him. Vivian sat up, grasping her cheek, and Meredith dove on to her. “Are you telling me we should forget about what happened to him? He was my best friend!”
“And I loved him, too, Mera! He called for me! He told me I could be more than my father’s puppet, dancing on his strings!” Vivian gripped her by the shoulders as she yelled, rolling them over to punch. Her fist was red, and Meredith dodged it, the blow cratering part of the ground. “But there are so many others out there, or have you forgotten what it means to be a Guardian? What do you want from this life, Mera?”
“Viv, that’s enough!”
“Stay out of this, Emil! I want to hear it from her!”
“If you wanted to hear it from me, then why did you leave without a word?” Meredith shouted. She charged, her head driving into Vivian’s stomach and tossing the girl off of her. “Why did you…why was I left alone…? With nothing…?”
“I didn’t leave you with nothing. I left you to pull yourself together and get something done, but you just decided to give up. So, get a grip, Mera. Save yourself!”
Vivian’s words had an immediate effect upon Meredith. The words she’d shared with Rico, that she had screamed and believed in wholeheartedly, came back to her. Her leg kicked out in reaction, nailing Vivian’s side to drive her back. The blonde grinned, hands back out and glowing. This time, Meredith didn’t dare move. Her reaction had been instinctive, yet now she was frozen, replaying that moment in her head. Of defeating Rico. Of promising to take pain.
She’d made so many promises, and was failing at all of them.
Some Guardian…
“Looks like…you have some fight left in you, after all, Mera.” Meredith looked up to where Vivian was preparing her next attack, larger than the last. The conflicts in her mind prevented her from moving, and Emil ran to try and get in the way. “You got a nice hit in, but it’s the last one you’ll get, trash.”
This…I’ve missed this…Why did you leave?
“Viv, stop! Do you plan to kill her?”
I wanted to be pushed. To be pulled up. But he wasn’t there to do it like he always was. Why did you leave? Why did he mean so little to you?
“If this is all it takes to kill her,” Vivian expressed, her eyes spitting fire at Meredith, “then she never deserved to be a Guardian in the first place.”
Meredith’s eyes widened. Something clicked in her head. A memory of defiance.
Emil dove out of the way while Vivian fired her max-level enchantment. The girl’s limbs were yet shaking, unused to using her magic this way, but she held fast, firing it as a cannon. Meredith tried to move her foot forward, but the beam of light bowled her over.
It felt like a million cuts and searing wounds opened up along her body, pushing her until there was no space beneath her. Just the ocean.
Meredith fell, and she began to flail her limbs about.
Live…live…I want to live. I want to-
Meredith hit the water from that height, the pain doubling all over her body. It felt like she was ripped in half from how much it hurt. She sunk below the surface, down towards that old relic of a skyship. Her eyes were open in the clear liquid, staring at it. The Corps’ emblem was so much clearer here, unsullied and untainted by everything that had happened.
The Corps isn’t a building or its people…
Terrill’s statement rang loud and clear, and Meredith found her hand twitching. Despite the pain, she reached for that symbol on the skyship, the one that had driven her so far. She touched to it, fighting against the water’s currents, and could feel the warmth inside it.
The Corps is its belief.
A flood of emotion surged into her, something she’d long forgotten. She wanted to cry, and break down, remembering what had been lost to her in grief. On instinct, thinking about the Corps, her magic activated itself, her Soul Vision spreading far and wide. The little lights that were the souls she had been avoiding became visible to her. Those that were ready to fight. Those dealing with their own conflict. There were so many emotions that threatened to flood Meredith. She was afraid to be overwhelmed by them, wishing to shut it off, when she saw two souls that were the most important.
Emil was running to the edge, panicked. He truly cared what happened to her. His love for them had broken through the confusion that Rico’s aspersions had given him. He was no longer running away, but walking forward. There was still a heavy guilt resting on him, but he used that to push himself, rather than letting it anchor him.
And Vivian.
That girl’s soul was more complicated than Meredith ever thought to give it credit for. She was happy to be back with them, her reluctance at leaving her behind having weighed on her, but she’d known she had to all the same. She was hesitant about having been with her father, but determined to stop thinking she was his. She was filled with anguish over Eddie’s death, the horror of it threatening to put her over the edge, but she replaced it with an adamant command to move forward. She wanted to save everyone, even if saving them meant beating the crap out of them.
And Vivian’s soul wept for her.
Move…forward…
The concept had become foreign to Meredith, but seeing Vivian’s soul, she knew. Inside, she despaired over her own weakness. How she’d given in to her own fears and stopped living.
There’s a world beyond you, Meredith. It’s not just about your pain or fears…
Meredith felt her body being lifted out of the water, under the effect of Emil’s Gravity Magic. When she emerged, for the first time, Meredith saw clearly, instead of through the gray-lined despair she’d allowed herself to be enveloped by. She saw Lumarina, and all it once stood for, and what it would stand for if she stayed still. Her eyes closed, and she felt her body roll upon the grass, two people at her side. She looked up, Emil collapsing while Vivian hovered over her.
She understood the tears.
“Viv…”
“Mera…” Vivian gripped Meredith once again, pulling her up by her wet clothing, trying to hide the fact she’d ever been crying. Then she looked into her eyes and said the words that Meredith supposed she wanted to hear most. “We’re friends, right?”
“Friends…” she whispered. It sounded…foreign. Until this moment, it was like she’d only seen Eddie as her friend, the one pushing and supporting her, and everyone else had just been a teammate or an ally. Now, Vivian offered the hand of her own accord, letting down the walls that made her so prickly. “Yes…friends…”
“Then don’t do this alone. Let us help you,” Vivian insisted. She leaned down, and much like Eddie always had with her, their foreheads touched. “Remember, we’ll go through hell for you.”
Meredith didn’t know what to say. She was still so scared inside; scared of what moving forward meant, and what it would acknowledge. But hearing Vivian insist upon the same thing she’d once yelled to her, bringing her out of the hole she dug herself in…it put a new perspective inside Meredith. Of how much she’d lost…and how much she could still lose.
So, while she still didn’t know what to say, Meredith knew how to sob. She cried aloud, throwing her arms around Emil and Vivian, beginning to wail like a newborn child. It took a few seconds, but they joined her in her outpouring of grief.
At the end of it all came clarity, and Meredith raised her voice, finally knowing what she wanted. Finally acknowledging the grief that tore her apart.
“I want to live!” she sobbed, her tears unnoticeable on her soaked shirt. “I want…I want to be the Guardian he believed I could be! I want to move past this pain!”
Her companions were unsure of response, but Emil reached forward, taking her hand in his and pulling her up. “Then let’s do it. For all the Eddies of this world.”
For everyone…
Her goal became evident, and Meredith stood. She looked to the grave that sat there, but it was no longer lonely. It was smiling, as if Eddie himself was reminding her of the strength he always believed she had. With shaky steps, Meredith walked up to it, placing a hand atop it. Emil and Vivian stayed behind her, supporting her.
Thank you…Eddie…Thank you…
For the first time in a month, Meredith let go, allowing her pain to become strength as she took her step forward to the future.
She was choosing to live again.