Things calmed down after that night. I was treated, and saved. Medically, I was fine. I could physically live a normal life. But my life could never be normal again. Not after what happened that night. 

But Alison had it worse. Naturally, she told the police everything. Her parents grounded her for 9 months, which practically killed her. She had to go through extensive tests, too. But these weren't the tests of modern medicine. They were witch tests. 

Turns out, the "Shards" I saw break from her eyes, weren't shards - they were flakes of witch's blood. Apparently, that's how the possession worked; the eyes are the windows to the soul, so the witch's blood covered the eyes, trapping Alison inside her own body, and leaving the witch on the outside. She spent a whole year going back and forth to the department of witchcraft, going through test after test to get any remaining witch's blood out. 

But it may surprise you to find out that Alison WAS allowed to continue her witchcraft, however supervised. See, witchcraft is looked upon like one might look upon being a Jehovah's Witness. Meaning that Alison couldn't give it up; it would be like saying that she's not allowed to go to church anymore. However, she almost exclusively used it for community service, even after her hours were done. (The law decided that she could do community service, rather than time in juvie, due to the circumstances.) Even after her hours were done, and even after her parents were satisfied, she kept going with community service, which is hard when your medium of spell-casting is via cauldron. 

Watching her put herself through all this just to redeem herself, even when she's already been redeemed to everyone else; it's the same as me. Because I was the "victim," I got in less trouble, but I still worked hard to redeem myself. Yvette and Jamie spent their days trying to convince us that we weren't bad people, and while we did believe them, a part of us would never be at peace with what we did. Happy endings come with a price, and this was it. 

But there was a happy ending. I found Yvette, Jamie was known as the girl who saved us, and even Alison, who cast the spell in the first place, was known for her skills in witchcraft, as it was incredibly hard to cast it. 

I was risky, I get that now. What I did wasn't brave, it was reckless. But in the end, bravery is what saved us all. Bravery disguised as risk, just as risk disguised as bravery got us into that mess.

And so, we all lived (sort of) happily ever after.