We're All Stories In The End by Megan Rees (book club reads txt) 📕

~

When Luna awoke, she found herself in one of the solitary cells in the Nighthollow prison. She tried to move, but her muscles felt heavy and she was chained to the wall by both her wrists so she couldn’t use her power to free herself.

“You’re awake!” Ash exclaimed in relief, taking Luna by surprise. “I thought those officers had put you in a coma or something!”

“Nah, just tazered me,” Luna mumbled sluggishly. “Did they hurt you?”

“I’ve got a few red marks from the handcuffs, but I didn’t bother fighting back. You were really brave to rebel, Luna.” Ash remarked.

“Rebelling didn’t get me far though, did it?” Luna sighed regretfully, not meeting her friend’s gaze. “I got you arrested.”

“They were going to arrest me anyway,” Ash grumbled. “Some people just never learn from experience. They had no actual reason to throw you in here, to be honest – all you did was punching an officer.”

“That counts as assault, Ash,” the blonde girl pointed out unhelpfully. “That means we’ve both got criminal records here.”

“Partners in crime.”

“Please don’t joke in this situation. I’m really not in the mood right now.”

“When should I pull fun out of you then, eh?”

“Any days that doesn’t have the letter ‘a’ in it.”

“Wow. That’s probably the most decent sarcasm I’ve heard out of you. I should ask these guys to tazer you more often: you’re much more entertaining like this.”

“If I wasn’t handcuffed right now, I would have fried you.”

“Anyway, on a slightly more serious note, I’ve been thinking about us.”

“In what way?”

“I mean, I’ve hurt you plenty but never really appreciated you. I’ve been trying to pluck up the courage for several hours to ask you something that I believe will benefit us both. I was pondering about not asking to save myself from changing, but that last attack you did against the officers to shield Cody convinced me I’d made a good choice.”

“I’ll do anything to try and make you happy. Fire away.”

“I was wondering what you’d think of you and me being together. I mean, we could give it a shot to see where it goes. I was hesitant about it before, but after what’s happened this week I don’t feel so nervous about it.”

Luna narrowed her pale blue eyes at him. “You mean you want me to be your girlfriend?”

Ash nodded. “Yes, if you’re sure with it too.”

She smiled warmly at that. “Of course I’m happy with that. You know I would be: I’m over the moon, Ash.”

“If you’re brave enough to take on Demons and Councillors for me, then I think I’m brave enough to ask you out.” Ash responded lightly.

Before she could reply, Councillor Airing unlocked the cell door and stepped in light-footed with Kazran perched on his right shoulder, flanked by Robert Chase and an officer Luna didn’t know, but Ash clenched his fists when his uncle walked in.

“My, isn’t this just lovely!” Councillor Airing remarked with a sickening childish tone which made Luna want to vomit. “We hate to intrude, but we just strolled by when we overheard your sweet little conversation!”

“Considering you’re still single, that’s a pretty bad comeback.” Ash commented icily.

“You’re both children, for goodness sake,” Robert pointed out with a sneer. “You won’t understand love for a long time yet. You live in fantasy worlds where you see your dreams coming true before being shattered before your innocent little eyes.”

“You still live in a fantasy, Uncle,” Ash spat out the last word like venom. “You haven’t learnt the definition of love. Even if you did try, you wouldn’t fit it. You live in a pitiful world filled with booze and women.”

Robert raised an eyebrow, his blue eyes hard. “Alas, the fool has found the truth that has been right before his very eyes for his entire life. You ignorant child: did you really think I was your father?”

“The only truth that has been right in front of me was that I should learn to keep my friends closer than my enemies,” the dark brown haired boy responded. “You deliberately blocked out Will and Cassie to cause me more pain than you could possibly imagine.”

“You’re just a broken toy, Ashley.” the black haired man snapped.

Councillor Airing raised a hand to stop the fight between uncle and nephew. “Thank you, boys. I was here to announce that Miss Wilde is free to go and return to her cabin. A jury of Councillors still need to pass their verdict on Mr Chase as he is guilty of murder, but I can assure him that the punishment will not be light.”

The officer crouched down beside Luna and removed the handcuffs, dragging her away from the cell and out, closely followed by Councillor Airing and Robert Chase. As Luna turned her head, she caught a brave smile on Ash’s pale face before the door slammed like it was keeping the two apart forever.

"Cos it's all in the hands of a bitter, bitter man,

Say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in,

Take a bow, play the part of a lonely lonely heart,

Say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in,

To the world you thought you lived in."

- 'Any Other World' by Mika

~

To my friend, whoever you may be,

Loneliness is horrible, don’t you think? You feel completely empty – there’s nothing and no one left to show you the way. You feel vulnerable and exposed to the monstrosity that is commonly known as the real world.

I often think of the soldiers who are fighting every day to protect their family and country. I see my friends as soldiers, especially after what they’ve endured over the past few hours.

Oh, I haven’t told you about what happened to them, have I?

Well, Rune’s funeral was an hour ago. We didn’t recover her body, so we made her a little grave and decorated it with bluebells: they were her favourite flower. Atlas and I placed a candle each next to the grave to remember the wonderful light Rune had shown in her personality. I’m going to miss her so much its unreal.

Atlas and Rosco have shut themselves away in the library for the rest of the day. Rumour has it that they’re not coming back out tomorrow either, but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. You can’t believe everything you hear.

Councillor Airing has set down these ludicrous new rules to keep others from visiting the Normal world. This has given me issues with writing letters to Adele, Leon and Cece about what’s happened, but thankfully Naomi has the power of sending objects to wherever she pleases, so I got them to The Lodge within seconds. I just hope Councillor Airing doesn’t grow suspicious of me – I’ve already pushed him over the edge today.

Clarissa has actually left me in peace since I was released. I doubt it will last long because she’s grieving for Rune – sadly all things like this come to an end and the person returns back to their normal ways. I don’t foresee our bitter rivalry coming to an end, but we have bonded slightly thanks to the journey.

Cody has settled down okay now. He’s got a friend in one little boy, so it’s all good. I still solemnly vow to look out for him and make sure that’s he’s happy here. I refuse to be worse than Mia. I don’t want to stoop that low.

I’ve kept the family locket, but I rarely look at it now. I contemplated giving it to Cody, but I felt it would cause him more pain. I want him to put the past behind him and bound forward to a brighter, happier future.

The verdict against Ash was given at Rune’s funeral during a speech from none other than Councillor Airing. He’s got a month’s prison sentence and has also been suspended from the training program until he can be trusted again. Councillor Airing took so much pleasure in announcing the ‘gracious news of served justice’. He’s a completely sick alien who needs desperate help. And some glasses so he can see into how hard it is for certain people. Rosco isn’t happy with the sentence, but Atlas is too lost in grief to voice his opinion. Loosing his closest friend has obviously hit him hard, but he’s gone insane. I’m worried about him.

If we loose Atlas to this, then the price for victory was far too great. It already was ridiculously high, but I don’t want it to become worse.

It’s just turned midnight now. Ash’s 15th birthday, but he’s spending it in a lonely cell of shadows. Happy birthday. Ha.

Oh, Rosco dropped a bombshell to make things worse. Cynthia (The Seeker, or the prophetess if you like) received a prophecy about our quest. I’ll write it down for you;

“Turmoil and troubled times lie in the depths of the journey.

Great burdens will be discovered,

And mighty legends will be lost to the shadows.

The union will be shattered like glass.

The lionheart will bring peace,

The hunter will bring trouble,

And kindness will fall from grace.

Youth must look into the eye of wisdom,

And decree that we’re all stories in the end.”

I can see it clearly enough to understand it.

We suffered troubled times when we learnt that we all nearly died in Raven’s Run for nothing and we argued frequently, especially when I uncovered Celeste’s affection for Ash. I found out about my pathetic excuse of a mother and Ash found out that he was given up at birth and abused by his uncle and aunt. I’m not too sure on the mighty legends bit, but it could be the disappearance of Alpha at the end of the battle. Our group split up twice. The lionheart was obviously Rune as she restored peace to Nighthollow by recovering the sword and the hunter was aimed at Ash for goodness knows why. Rune was kindness – she literally fell from grace, if you like. Thanks to some help from certain elders, we did learn something.

We really are all stories in the end.

~

The creature couldn’t move.

Every weary muscle in his body ached so much. He had been sent to some far off world: it looked like a kingdom or something. A well-kept kingdom at that.

He was trapped under a tree and was probably badly wounded, but he wasn’t down forever.

He would rise slowly up again like he did many years ago.

He would return.

And he certainly would get his revenge.