The Gate

Epilogue

The freezing wind blew through the night and pierced her skin, but Terra didn’t feel it.  She didn’t feel anything, not even the gun in her hand as she gripped it so tightly that her knuckles turned white.  What did it matter anyway?  What did it matter if she felt the pain of the metal, the pain of the wind?  What did it matter?

“Terra!” Errika shrieked into the phone.  “Something awful has happened.”

“What” Terra demanded.  “What happened?”

Of course Terra had already known what happened before Errika called.  She could feel it deep inside her.  She could feel the sudden loss, like a chunk of her had been ripped right out of her and thrown out of her reach.  She knew that Faye was dead.  She knew it.   

“Faye is gone,” Errika whispered.  “The Government picked her up.”

Terra had shut the phone and chucked it across the room, letting out a mangled cry of despair.  She’d fallen to the ground and curled herself into a ball, all her strength over the years seeming to diminish in a single moment.  Faye was gone, her mind repeated over and over again.  She was gone.  Terra hadn’t even been able to say goodbye.  She hadn’t been able to hug her, to kiss her on the head like she’d done when Faye was a little girl.

The Government took her little sister away from her.

And why?  Why did they take Faye away from her?  Because someone gave her name to them.

Terra’s grip tightened on the gun and her pace sped up.  Zander, her mind screamed.  Zander did this.  It’s his fault!

Terra’s feet slapped against the pavement, clouds of air appearing in front of her with each breath she took.  It was hard to breathe, as it had been since the moment she knew her sister died.  Terra was honestly surprised she was operating at all.  When Alex found her earlier that night, she hadn’t even been able to speak.  Not really, anyway.

“Terra,” Alex whispered, his eyes wide from his doorway.

Terra tried to open her mouth, to tell him the simple words “my sister’s dead” but she couldn’t.  She couldn’t without him realizing that his brother was dead, that he would never see Kole again either.  There was one thing Terra was certain of: if Faye was dead, Kole was dead too.  Both of their fears had been released into the open.

She’d always been so sure that she would make it through this all right.  Terra had worried about Faye’s well-being, but she’d never truly imagined losing her like this.  Terra wasn’t going to let it happen.  She wasn’t going to allow a sleaze like Courtnie ruin her life like this.

But she had.

Terra turned down the street of Zander Khadel’s house, her feet moving faster and faster.  With each step she took her anger and despair seemed to grow.  She wondered how much pain her little sister was in before she died.  Courtnie was never one to hold back on the torture.  When Terra was first placed in the prison wards she was tortured for days on end.  Then Fortis found out about it and he put a stop to it.  But he only stopped her because Terra was his daughter.  Faye wouldn’t have that same privilege.

Guilt stabbed her in the gut and Terra almost fell over.  She should have been there.  She should have saved Faye and Kole from the fates that they received.  They should be alive right now, not in what she could only assume as a bloody mess on the holding cells’ floors.

“Terra,” Alex murmured, pulling Terra into his arms.  For the first time her hate for comfort was completely forgotten and Terra wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly.  “Terra, I’m so sorry.”