“You did it,” he whispers.
I shake my head,watching the children huddle together beneath the storm.
“No.”
Emotion catches hard in my throat.
“We did.”
And somewhere in the darkness behind us—
the sun is finally beginning to rise.
Epilogue
Hannah
Six Months Later
Colorado
Snow falls softly outside the lodge windows while children laugh downstairs.
Real laughter.
Loud.
Messy.
Wild.
The kind Ascension tried to erase.
I stand quietly on the second-floor balcony overlooking the recreation room below while morning sunlight spills across the mountains outside.
And sometimes—
sometimes it still doesn’t feel real.
The lodge used to be an abandoned retreat tucked deep in the Colorado mountains.
Now it’s home.
Not a facility.
Not a program.
Not a containment center.
A home.
The younger children are decorating an enormous Christmas tree near the fireplace while social workers, trauma specialists, and volunteers move throughout the lodge helping wherever needed.
Healing isn’t quick.
Some nights the children still wake up screaming.
Some still hide food.
