WHEN I LOOK back on that day five years ago, all I can really think about is losing two wonderful people: Christopher and Evelyn. Every now and again I will wake up in the middle of the night with tears streaking down my cheeks. The pain never really goes away.
But the dreams of my parents’ death almost never come to me anymore. Connor tells me that it’s because I finally realized that it truly wasn’t my fault, and once I knew that, I was at peace.
I suppose he is right. I miss them, but I no longer feel guilt.
I hold his hand tightly as we walk down the path next to the lake. It’s late spring and the first summer rays are ready to bring the heat for a few months, but it never really gets too hot in New Haven. Christopher had truly been on to something when he found this place. Its green fields are perfect for rich gardens and maintaining livestock. And any attack here would have to be very well-orchestrated.
It hadn’t been easy to clear a path to New Haven five years ago. The woods before it were crawling with greyskins and it took several months before we were able to get here at all. But it was worth it.
So much has happened since Jeremiah has been defeated. I often think about the details of that entire day and it always baffles me. I had been so near death, but because of the unselfishness of one human being, we were able to take down the tyrant greyskin, and begin a new world.
After I had shot Jeremiah through the head, I remember instantly dropping the gun to the floor of the roof and rushing to Evelyn’s side. I knew her wound was taking her life away quickly. But she only had smiles.
“Christopher healed you?” she asked me.
“I couldn’t stop him,” I said, “I was too weak.”
“Jeremiah is finally dead.”
“You got to be here to see it, just like you told him you would,” I said.
She nodded. “You’ve got to lead the Starborns. That’s why I think you came to us. I think you were meant to move us forward. The Starborns are meant to rid the world of the greyskins and help usher in a new world. You’ve started with Jeremiah.”
I held her hand tightly as she told me these things. “I won’t know what to do without you,” I said.
Evelyn smiled again. “You will.”
She then closed her eyes and stopped breathing.
The three of us had left the rooftop to help our friends down in the courtyard below. Trucks full of Screven soldiers had come out with their guns drawn, but all of us stood ready to fight them. I walked up front with my hands in the air and the soldiers surrendered their guns almost immediately. Their leader was dead. They had no reason to fight anymore.
The rest was a blur. The two remaining village elders of Springhill asked the villagers what they wanted to do when I had told them about New Haven. Unanimously, people wanted to move. They wanted to start a new life. Over the next few months, Springhill ceased to exist as a village, and the people became a part of New Haven.
I took my leadership role for the Starborns very seriously. After having everyone help me clear the way into New Haven, we had decided to create the Starborn Council. I facilitated it, but there was no definitive leader. The rest consisted of Heather, Danny, Jeffrey, and Aaron. Five of us.
The council was to meet every three months to discuss progress in each person’s assigned area of the region. Their duty was to help rebuild what had been destroyed by Jeremiah, to seek out new Starborns, and to destroy the greyskins.
Aaron had volunteered to help Allison rebuild Screven and to set up a proper government there. Jeffrey remained in Sudyka, while Heather and Danny stayed in Salem. There were many more places that needed help after Jeremiah’s terror, but we had to start small.
More Starborns join us every day. Every new Starborn that we learn about comes to New Haven first if they are willing. Here they meet with me where we discuss their gifts. Sometimes I even try to train them. Then, I send them off where I think they will be needed the most.
It keeps me busy, but I still see Jake and Grandma often. Sixteen-year-old Jake spends more time with Sadie than anyone, and Grandma hardly leaves my house now since I told her I was pregnant.
I let out a sigh and ask Connor if we can sit on the log next to the lakeshore.
“Is it the baby?” he asks nervously.
“No,” I say with a side-glance. I think it’s so sweet when he’s worried about me and the baby.
I have never regretted, for a second, my choice to marry Connor. He has been nothing but good to me. Sometimes he will ask me when I knew I loved him, and I tell him when he first stitched up my leg in Salem. But the truth is, I had also loved his brother. But Aaron was part of a world that I needed to escape sometimes. Aaron was a Starborn. And then there was the fact that I could talk to Connor from distances away. That I could tell what he was thinking and feeling just by closing my eyes and picturing him. I haven’t been able to do that with anyone else. It’s a special bond that I only have with him.
At some point throughout the crazy adventure, I just knew it was Connor. Aaron and I never even really discussed it. After I killed Jeremiah, it was as if he knew we wouldn’t be together. And we were both okay with that.
I still miss him. I enjoy seeing him when he comes for the council meetings, but it never really goes beyond business. He and Connor still don’t talk much when Aaron does come around. All has been forgiven on both sides, but there are just some things that are difficult to work past. I’m sure Connor resents Aaron for what happened to their parents, though he would never blame him outright. I’m sure Aaron resents Connor and I for pursuing marriage, but he has never said anything about it. It’s just one of those things.
“I wonder what sort of Starborn power this little guy is going to have,” Connor says, poking my belly.
“Oh, so now it’s a boy?”
He nods. “Yep.”
“Well, I hope she doesn’t have to get into a situation where a gift must be discovered,” I say.
“I think he will be able to move mountains,” he says.
“Move mountains?” I ask, eyebrow raised.
He nods. “Yep. Literally, just move his hands a certain way and mountains come crumbling down.”
“Powerful, but not very helpful, I wouldn’t think.”
“Well, maybe just figuratively then,” he says. “Just like her mother.”
“Her mother?”
He leans in and rests his forehead on mine and kisses my lips tenderly. “Boy or girl, I’m just happy I’m having a baby with you.”
He kisses me again and we turn our heads to stare at the glassy lake. The world is still in bad shape. Those of us here in New Haven have paid our dues, but none of us look at it that way. We still have more to pay because others still need our help.
I know there are more Starborns out there, and the world needs more of them. As Starborns, it’s our duty to heal the world by ridding it of infection. Jeremiah is dead, but his curse has left its mark on the world. There are still those that will find a way to use the greyskins for personal gain. There are those that will exploit the weaker people of the world. Then there are the greyskins themselves.
We have a long road ahead of us. Our job is not finished. Evelyn passed the torch on to me to carry on the mission of the Starborns. To help heal the world.
Until the day I die, I will carry on. But even after my death, I hope those I have left behind will continue the fight.
I know the world may never be completely healed, but the Starborns will never stop working toward that end.
Not until we have peace.