赤裸裸的滑稽故事

When they returned to the hospital, Axel and Ashleigh found Corrine awake and sitting in her bed. As they entered the room, she turned to look at them. Fresh tears fell from her eyes, following the same dried lines of those that had already fallen hours before.

She gave them a sad smile and a nod before opening her arms.

Ashleigh let out an audible sob and ran to her mother. Corrine caught her and immediately wrapped her arms around her.

Axel clenched his jaw, feeling the warm prickling along his sinuses. He sniffled and lowered his eyes as he walked into the room. Then, sitting beside the bed opposite Ashleigh, he took a deep breath.

Corrine raised her eyes to him as she held her daughter. She reached her hand out, and Axel took it. Letting out a soft sob as he felt the warmth of her hand. He leaned his forehead to her hand.

Together, without words, they mourned their loss.

***

The pyre was held two nights after Wyatt returned home.

Across all of Winter, ceremonial pyres were held to honor him and help light his path to the Goddess.

Before the firelight, Corrine remembered the feel of his arms wrapped around her shoulders. The way that he would pull her just a little closer whenever he sensed her discomfort or displeasure in any situation.

She remembered the way he would still, after all these years and two full-grown children, look at her with hunger in his eyes. The way he would gaze at her with unyielding love and affection. The soft words he spoke when they were alone together.

The tears he shed before her and her alone.

Corrine closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of the fire. She squeezed her eyes tight, imagining him behind her, holding her close. Imagining him leaning down and kissing the top of her head before he faded away into the smoke and ash of the pyre.

‘Goodbye, my love,\' she whispered in her heart.

***

Galen held Bell close, and she was grateful. Her heart had been shattered when she heard the news.

Now, as the pyre was lit, the brightness of the flames forced her to close her eyes. She thought back on when she had met him.

She couldn\'t speak. Even if her jaw had not been wired shut, she was terrified by every aspect of her life. So when Tomas brought her to the main house, she didn\'t know what to expect. When she entered the room to see this large, imposing man covered in furs and braids, all she felt was fear.

Until she looked into his eyes. Warmth, concern, and tenderness reflected back at her. Things she had only ever seen from her parents and her grandmother.

He had been careful with her, treated her like a fragile doll, but never made her feel broken.

Bell took in a shaky breath as she watched the flames.

She touched her hand to her belly and wished her son could have met him. But she promised herself to make sure he would always know Grandpa Wyatt.

***

Mateas had not woken up after surgery. He still remained in a deep sleep days later. The doctors were not sure yet if he ever would wake.

Penelope had only left his side for a few hours spread out over the days. But, even now, as the pyre was held for Wyatt, she couldn\'t bring herself to leave him alone.

She watched the glow from the fires out the window.

When she joined the team, she had no idea that Wyatt would be there. For the first few days after they met, she hid, trying to make herself small and avoid his gaze. She feared how he looked at her, consumed by the pain her brother had caused his family and the whole pack.

But Wyatt didn\'t see her as her brother. Instead, he pulled her from the shadows, forcing her into the light. He challenged her to speak, to converse, to smile.

There was a long way for her to go still before she could accept that she was deserving of friendship and love, but it was Wyatt that had first put her on the journey.

“Goodbye, my friend,” she whispered.

“Goodbye?” a groggy voice asked. “I just woke up.”

***

She sat in her bed, knees pulled up to her chest, and her arms crossed over them where she rested her chin.

She wanted to go to the pyre, to be there for him. But the doctors had refused her, and so had he.

The healing was slow and painful. She knew the reason, but they didn\'t. Because of that, they didn\'t feel it was safe for her to be up and moving around for too long.

Alice did not enjoy being told what to do. Her life had been filled with undeniable orders. But this time, she was willing.

As much as she wanted to stand beside Axel and support him tonight, she knew that she didn\'t have the strength for it, and it would only distract him from his grief.

She sighed, remembering the car ride to Winter.

“You love him,” Wyatt whispered.

Alice glanced into the rearview mirror, catching his eye. He looked tired, worn down. He wasn\'t going to last much longer. Her mind was getting harder to focus, but she needed to drive faster. She needed to bring him home.

“I do,” she smiled. “Very much.”

“He deserves it,” Wyatt smiled back. “So do you.”

Alice swallowed but didn\'t respond.

“I mean it, Alice,” he replied. “You both deserve to be happy.”

Alice took a deep breath in her hospital room as his words echoed in her mind. She sniffled and wiped away the tears that had fallen without her permission.

Alice sighed as she wondered what it might have been like to have known him for longer than an ill-fated car ride.

***

In the three days that Ashleigh had been struggling with her grief, something else had been weighing on her, something that she had been fighting to keep out of her thoughts.

The whispers.

Even now, as she attended her father\'s pyre and tried to say goodbye to him, they wouldn\'t stop.

‘This is a travesty! A crime that needs to be punished!\'

‘They mock the strength of Winter with this insult!\'

‘The girl lies! She has caused this!\'

‘Kill her!\'

‘The brother is weakened by his affection for her. Save Winter from this weakness!\'

It was endless.

She had done her best to ignore them, to push them back. She had wanted to call Lily, but something told her that Lily was also struggling.

Ashleigh was barely holding herself together.

‘You are weak.\'

The loudest of the whispers called out.

‘You are weak!\'

Ashleigh closed her eyes, trying her hardest to push it away. But she was tired. She was exhausted.

Sad, angry, overwhelmed.

She was weak.

Ashleigh felt herself letting go. She didn\'t have the strength anymore to fight, to argue. Her father was dead. All she wanted was to have a moment of peace.

‘You are weak!\'

‘I am weak…\' Ashleigh thought back.

‘That is not your voice. Those are not your words.\'

Ashleigh felt her heart jump. That voice. His voice.

‘You are the strongest person I have ever known, besides your mother, of course,\' he whispered with a smile in his voice.

‘Daddy?\' she called out into the darkness.

‘Your voice is the only one you need to listen to, Ashleigh,\' he replied. ‘You know yourself better than anyone.\'

Ashleigh let out fresh tears, and she fell to her knees sobbing. Caleb wrapped his arms around her, holding her close and whispering comforting words she couldn\'t hear.

‘I love you, Ashleigh,\' Wyatt whispered softly. ‘I am so proud of the woman you have become.\'

‘Daddy!’ she cried out.

‘We all lose sight, we all make mistakes, and sometimes we get dragged down by them,\' Wyatt said. ‘But you can\'t stay in the dark. You can\'t listen to these poisonous lies. No one, alive or dead, can tell you who or what you are except for you.\'

Ashleigh listened to his words. She felt his presence as though he were hugging her, kissing her forehead like he did when he tucked her in at night as a child.

‘I have always been proud of you and always will be.\'

His voice drifted away, and she knew he was gone.

“Goodbye, Daddy,” she whispered and then turned into Caleb\'s arms and sobbed.