Epilogue

Lance grinned as he walked out of the tattoo shop, not really noticing the pain of the new tattoo.

"How does it feel?" Catriona asked Lance as they walked down the street.

"You were right, it doesn’t hurt that much," Lance told her.

"That’s what I thought." Catriona grinned, looking at the man beside her. "You need to touch up your tips."

"I like them." Lance ran his hands through his spiky, blue tipped blonde hair. "They look kinda cool all faded out. Besides, I think I want to try a different color."

"Green," Catriona told him.

Lance thought for a minute. "Yeah, that’d be cool."

"You ready to go to the cemetery?" Catriona asked softly. Although both Faith and Elona had been cremated, they had plaques at the cemetery, and she, Lance, JC, Sarah, Justin, Chris, and Joey were all going to go out to the cemetery with flowers. It had been a ear since their deaths.

"No. I’ll never be ready. But I suppose I can go."

"I know it’s hard, but you’re adjusting well."

Lance smiled sadly at her. "I’ll never get over the guilt, but I can live with myself now."

Lance had become so depressed when Faith and Elona had died that everyone was afraid he’d do the same thing. He’d slowly gotten better, and now they weren’t afraid to leave him alone.

"I’m sorry," Catriona said, hugging him.

"Not as sorry as I am," Lance told her. "Thank you."

"You’re welcome." Catriona kissed his cheek, then let him go.

~*~*~

Lance placed the flowers down next to the plaque and knelt down next to it. "It’s been a year, Faith. A long, hard year. I’m so sorry about everything. You have no idea how sorry I am. There was so much I wanted to tell you. I think I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. I think- no, I know I loved you. Or if I didn’t love you then, I was falling in love with you.

"So please forgive me, Faith, wherever you are," Lance continued. "I know I don’t deserve it, but I need to ask you that. And I doubt you can hear me. Or, if by some lucky chance you can, you won’t be able to show me that you do forgive me. I just had to ask."

Lance stood up and turned around to walk away. Then he paused and turned back around. "On a better note, Wade was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, no chance of parole for at least seven. I thought you might like to know that."

~*~*~

"Excuse me," a voice said behind him. Lance turned around to see a tall, slender red-headed girl. If he’d seen her a year and a half ago, he would have been frightened by the metal in her face and the tattoo’s he could see and the blonde and black streaks in her hair.

But it wasn’t a year and a half ago and he wasn’t frightened by her.

"Can I help you?" Lance asked.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you knew where I could find the witchcraft section."

"Let me show you," Lance said, walking down the long row of bookshelves until he reached the section he was looking for. "Right here. But they don’t have a good selection. You’d be better off going to a used bookstore. The Bookshelves is a good one."

"Where is that at?"

"You’re new in town, right?"

The girl nodded.

"I can show you around town, if you want," Lance offered.

"I’d like that." She smiled at him.

Lance knew then that Faith had heard him and forgiven him.

The End!
Index