The Beginningafter The End Novels & Stories

I stood there one last time beneath the banners, listening to the echoes fade. It was a good kind of silence. The kind that doesn’t mean ending, but beginning again.

Let's end this. ***

We raise our glasses clink against one another. We drank our drinks and started enjoying the night then BODAK YELLOW by Cardi B booms through the speakers then we all shouted and get to the dance floor this was our Jam. We danced while we sang along to the beat. Shutting my mind off, I allow the music to flow through me. The three of us dance together for the longest time.

--- And for the first time since it all began— --- She didn’t feel divided. --- Not between love and duty. --- Not between past and future. --- Only present. --- Only aware. --- Only ready. --- And as the silence stretched— As the war faded into memory— As the next beginning waited quietly in the distance— One final truth remained: --- The end of war does not bring peace… --- It brings the choice of what to become after it.

after Corvyn Ashte. I think about after. I think about what it looks like when the thing that has been hunting you since you were seventeen years old is finished. I think about a table full of people. A bakery with a step. A window seat that became mine. I think about Eli on the porch with his hand raised. I think about "what do we do" like it was already shared. I think that after is not an ending. It is a beginning shaped like an ending and I have been building toward it since a wrong elevator floor and a wolf who bowed before I saw a face and I am almost there.

"Miss, my dad is a superman! He can fix my broken toys! Daddy and Mommy love each other a lot. Daddy kisses Mommy and me before he goes to work every morning. I'm Daddy's most precious treasure, and nobody can replace me!" I listened to him without commenting. He didn't know how much his words pained me. After all, Luke said the same thing to me before. He said I was his priority. He said I guided him out of the darkness. It seemed that his priority had shifted, and anyone could easily pull him out of the darkness. The scenery outside blurred as the car sped past. I suppressed the anger flaring inside my chest and softly asked the boy, "How did Daddy and Mommy meet?"

The future remained unwritten. And somewhere beyond the final page, countless new stories waited to be told. The End. Or perhaps... A New Beginning.

For a brief moment, I could almost see the younger Suzanna smiling at me again, clean and bright like the rising sun. Then the loud cry of a newborn rang through the room, followed by tears and joyful laughter, and the fading image disappeared. I lowered my head and looked at my gentle wife and my beautiful son. Slowly, a relieved smile appeared on my face. At last, it was time for me to let go.

I turned. What happened? He pointed upward. The End has awakened. I stared at the cracks. The Beginning said the universe would continue. Kael shook his head. That doesn't mean it will survive. Cassian stepped forward. Explain. Kael looked at all of us. The Beginning and the End are opposites. The Beginning creates possibilities. The End removes them. Then why was the End asleep? Because there was nothing for it to end. I looked at my daughter. Until she was created.

Chapter 6: The Training Begins The morning sun streamed through my bedroom window, and I was already awake before my alarm rang, my body buzzing with a nervous energy that made sleep impossible. Today was the day we started training. Today was the day I finally began to become the woman who survives the apocalypse instead of the one who dies in it. I dressed quickly in the workout clothes I'd bought yesterday, simple black leggings and a loose grey shirt that wouldn't restrict my movement, and pulled my hair back into a tight ponytail. I didn't want anything distracting me from what I was about to learn.