P.O.V Leonard

It was like a nightmare, the worst of all.

I kept looking at the starry sky above the big rock, hoping that the portal may appear again, hoping that we read it wrong in the text left by Stephan, and hoping that the prophecy was about three portals, not two.

I heard her shuddered breath, making my heart squeeze inside my chest. I couldn't dare look at her or comfort her.

I couldn't believe what just happened.

Tightly shutting my eyes, I tried to blink away the tears that gathered inside them. It was too much to believe. The pain was overflowing, and I couldn't put a lid on it. I rubbed my chest, trying to calm my heart from the outside. But, it was beating so slowly that I almost couldn't breathe.

And I let it all go. I howled loudly. I wailed. I cried, not even trying to notice Caitlin's pain. My heart was sore, her's might have even stopped beating.

Finally, on that thought, I turned around to look at her. She was hugging her knees tightly while Eve gently rubbed her back. Her face was hidden behind her knees, but I was able to see her contorted features and her eyes that shared the pain with me. She was looking at me. She was waiting for him.

It took me a split second to forget my grief and rush to her. I hugged her closely. As if she was waiting for me, she immediately straightened her legs and hugged me back. Caitlin loudly sobbed under my chest, and I tried to squeeze her more into me, trying to control my tears.

Moments passed. Time change. Our whole world changed.

What didn't change was us.

I lightly opened my eyes and gazed at Eve and Darren's wet cheeks. And I closed my eyes again.

It wasn't until then that I remembered Cathia. My eyes shot open again. Searching for her, I saw her lying on the ground, hardly supporting herself with one arm.

"Ca... Caitlin." I nudged at Caitlin, diverting everyone's attention. "Cathia!" And the moment I was sure Caitlin saw Cathia's state, I hurried towards her.

I sat beside her. Putting her head on my legs, I hugged her sideways.

"You're okay?" I whispered, afraid of listening to my hoarse voice.

"I..." She barely parted her lips when she clenched my shirt and curled into a ball. She was in intense pain, and that was written all over her. Nuzzling inside my chest, Cathia slightly shook her head.

"Leo, let's go. We have to hurry." Caitlin said, sitting beside me.

Looking at her, my eyes held so much disbelief that she wiped her cheeks instantly. "I've lost Lionel." She barely said when tears started streaming down her cheeks again. Caitlin bit her lower lip hard before saying, "I can't dare lose Cathia too." Her eyes glistened, making me feel torn.

Nevertheless, I nodded. "Neither do I."

And pulling Cathia up in my arms, we stepped out of that hellish clearing. Cathia was sleeping soundly in my arms when I turned around one last time and watched the big damn rock.

Just a rock, and it had changed so much for us.

It took us three days to come back to the car as we took shortcuts and didn't even stay for a single night. No one talked. Not even a single word. Other than, 'You want to rest? No? Yes?', there wasn't another thing that any one of us said. It was like, with Lionel and the pain of losing him, our words and all kinds of emotions bled out of us.

Until we reached the car, Cathia was already unconscious. There was no food or water, except for the river we met on our way back. Watching her lose consciousness on top of that made me lose my patience.

I was unable to drive with an unclear mind. So, Darren had to do it without a license. The only place where he pulled up was the nearest hospital.

Everything happened so quickly that I couldn't even fade out of the previous day and enter into the new one.

Cathia went into the ICU, making me realize that I couldn't do anything more for her. I was impatiently sitting on the ward bench with nothing more to do than to pray. So finding Caitlin's hand, I held onto it, and we both sobbed, unaware of the attendants, staff, and the doctors passing by. Leaning my head back, I hugged her.

I've always been closer to both Darren and Lionel. But the two weren't as close as I was with them. That naturally made me and Caitlin lean onto each other for comfort.

"Leo." I had my eyes closed when Darren called me. Opening my eyes, I took a deep breath. It had been half an hour since we stopped crying and an hour since Cathia was inside. I quietly hummed, noticing the head of sleeping Caitlin on my shoulder.

"I've called, dad." And I abruptly opened my eyes fully. I had completely forgotten about dad. And that being thought, I knitted my eyebrows in distress, thinking, how would I explain this to him.

"And he said..." Darren's silence stopped my train of thought. I tilted my face, gesturing for him to say more.

"He said, "Lionel isn't with you, right?" Leo..." Darren bit his lower lip. "... he knew all along already." He closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. His features made him look worn out as if he had lost something countless times.

"Of course, he did." I smiled at him, "So did Lionel." And I remembered that chuckle, that request, and that promising smile that he showed us. He knew his fate and he was ready for it to come. And my heart finally found an ounce of peace.

A tear slipped down my cheek, and again, closing my eyes, I drowned in the thoughts of the previous days. I didn't want to think more about it, for now, so opening my eyes again, I looked at Darren. "How's Evelyn?"

"She's fine. The doctor gave her some vitamin shots. So, she's resting now." Dark circles were way more prominent under Darren's eyes.

"You should rest too." I smiled. Shaking his head, he slowly leaned against the wall when his phone rang.

"It's from dad," he said and picked it up.

"Yes, dad... She's still in the ICU... Okay... Okay, dad... When the doctors come out, I'll ask them about this... Okay... Xiu? Okay... Bye, dad." He hung up. I looked at him questioningly.

"Dad said that he's sending someone named Xiu to look after the hospital matters of Cathia. He wants her further treatment to get done at home. He wants us all to come back, actually," He said. I nodded, trying to understand dad's situation.

I had just parted my lips to say that let Cathia get out of trouble first when the door opened and the doctors came out. I was so nervous that I didn't even notice that Caitlin was sleeping. She woke up from my hurried movements.

Darren approached the surgeon right away. "How's she?"

"Fortunately, she has good healing power. Unfortunately, she may take over a month to recover fully." I heaved, listening to him. 'It's fine if it takes her a whole month. In the end, I just want her to be fine.'

"But, sir," The doctor looked at Darren curiously. "What happened to her? She didn't look beaten from the outside, but her insides were quite hurt. I mean, if she became a victim to some new kind of violence, are you going to call the police for this?"

"No, we are good this way." Apparently, out of nowhere, a stranger came in front of Darren and replied instead of him. "Thank you for your work, doctors. I would like to pay the bill and take the girl and her family with me." I glanced at him, up and down. He looked like an Asian. 'Maybe he is someone that Mr. Sulu knows.' I tilted my head, meeting Darren's gaze. He shrugged, telling me that he doesn't know this man either.

"No, sir! She isn't in a condition..."

"I know." That person had a domineering aura. He cut the doctor's sentence and said, "We can manage to give her home assistance." He took off his sunglasses and rose his eyebrows.

The doctor pursed his lips and looked at the other doctors beside him. "Okay, then. Sign the discharge papers and don't blame the hospital if something happens to her."

That person took a step towards the doctor and lifted a corner of his lips. "Don't worry. We are going to get assistance from your hospital. So, there shouldn't be a chance for us to blame you, right? Go and prepare the papers for transfer. You have 5 minutes," Shooting an eyebrow up, he chewed each word he said.

Then he hurriedly turned towards me. I was slightly taken aback by his sudden and domineering movements.

"Sir Morris, I am Xiu. It's a pleasure to meet you." He humbly smiled and bowed, making me suddenly feel awkward. I nodded.

"Sir," He looked at Darren and then again at me. "The car is waiting for you outside. I will escort Miss Myles. So, don't worry about her and go home."

"Thank you, but I would like to stay with Cathia," I said, ignoring the unwanted coldness in my voice. He bowed again. I looked at Darren and Caitlin. "You both should go home with Evelyn. I'll come with Cathia."

They both nodded and left. Meanwhile, the discharge and transfer papers were ready. I signed them, and we set off. Throughout the way back home, all that I thought was that how will I face dad. Little did I know that he had already silenced himself after crying for more than the past ten days.

******

It had been a day. Cathia was fine now. She was bedridden though.

Rose... Dad didn't tell us about her. She was severely sick. Dad said that the day the portal opened, Rose became unconscious. She had been like that since then. "Then how was she able to respond to us?" I looked at dad.

We all were gathered in the living room because dad had called us so. Only Cathia and Rose were in their rooms.

"Well, there's another world of souls and minds, Leo. Cathia had the power to open the door to that world for the time being and talk to her," Dad said, his voice lighter than usual. His eyes were red, and his expressions were weary.

We all want to see the future or forget the past. What we don't know, is that we should be thankful for what we are given and be ready for what is in the future for us. Those who have sharp memories can never forget the horrible scenes they've seen. And those who can see the future don't want to live to actually see that happen.

We have to live eventually. We weren't given birth so that we kill ourselves, committing suicide. And at times, it is quite hurtful. For us, Lionel's loss was a great shock, but eventually, we overcame our grief. But for dad, he was alive for days, even when dad knew that Lionel would die.

After a while, dad sighed, "Sometimes, I ask myself..." His eyes shimmered with tears. "What was so hard in telling Lion how much I loved him?"

"Dad..." I whispered, knitting my eyebrows, hearing his sad tone.

"Caitlin," Dad touched Caitlin's back, who was silently looking down. "I am so happy that you told him. I always felt that he thinks he is alone even after having me. But now, I believe, he would have gone with a hope that he can give his heart to you and you will keep it forever."

Caitlin smiled. She was silent since yesterday as if her tears had dried out from her eyes. "I will. Forever." Dad smiled at her response.

Then, he went inside his room and came back after a while with a box in his hand. He placed the box on the table and sat at his place again. "I knew, Lionel occasionally caught the signals of my future dreams. How? I am not sure." He leaned forward and opened the box. There were further smaller boxes inside of it. "He had seen that he will die. That's why he insisted to go. He had seen everything. That's why he gave me a hug for the first time in my life." Dad kept taking out the small boxes until the big box was empty.

He then took a pause. "He has left letters for all of you." Dad didn't say anything more. He couldn't say anything more. Words failed him. They failed us all.

The smaller boxes had our name tags on them. There were five small boxes. When my eyes started searching for the sixth one, dad said, "I already have mine opened. Take yours."

Without hesitating, I picked mine up.