AllFreeNovel
Share Us
102
PSYYYYYYYCHE!
Sorry, I had to do that.
Oh my God, you should have seen the look on your face…
I realize that’s a messed-up thing to joke about, but when a monster like Miranda has inflicted so much harm and destruction on you and your loved ones, you’re entitled to a little gallows humor.
Sometimes you laugh so you don’t cry instead.
No, Miranda’s body was found. We made absolutely, 100% sure that she was gone, unable to threaten us ever again. There’s no way we would have appeared in public if she had somehow managed to escape. Instead, Connor would have ensconced us behind a massive bunker and paid for a global manhunt to track her down. Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary.
None of the passwords and information she’d extorted from Sebastian were ever used, either. Obviously she hadn’t had time, and she apparently didn’t have any confederates helping her from the shadows. Every password was changed and extra security measures taken, but nothing ever happened.
All the bodies were recovered from the wreckage, and Miranda and her mercenaries were given a proper burial – at Connor’s expense. Which is more than they deserved, in my opinion, but whatever.
Connor also paid to have Stan’s body returned to the US from Tanzania, then paid for both his and Juan’s funerals – not to mention he gave three million dollars to both of their families. He felt horrible that Stan and Juan died in his service, but helping their loved ones gave him a certain amount of closure.
That’s one thing I don’t entirely have yet – closure. Part of me still carries some guilt. After all, I was the one who shackled her to the chair. We both left her to die – with a gun in her hand, and shooting at us, yes, so it was completely justified – but I was the one who chained her there. Don’t get me wrong; I hate her, and I’m glad she’s dead. What I did saved both my life and Connor’s.
It’s just that I feel this heaviness at having been the one who sealed her fate.
I still wake up occasionally from nightmares with her in them – though usually in those dreams I’m the one shackled to the chair, or she’s killed Connor, or something equally horrible. So there’s a case to be made that it’s not guilt that’s tearing at me, but the trauma she put me through.
Fuck Miranda. I’m alive, and she’s not. If a nightmare every once in a while is the price of having her gone forever, that’s a price I’ll gladly pay.
Sorry, all of that was pretty grim. But I needed to say it. To help me get past it.
Now back to the regularly scheduled festivities.
