Page 81 of The Reaper

I left my own box on the table and walked out to our room, holding the snow globe. Devon followed me, and when he pushed the door open, I went to the chest of drawers and placed it on top. Twisting it so that it sat just right.

“Everyone has made me feel so welcome,” I said, sighing and feeling contentment wash over me. “I’m going to love living here.”

I spun around, smiling wide, and then from the corner of my eye, I noticed something.

My heart stopped. My body shivered.

There, sitting on the pillow on Devon’s bed, was a black origami raven. Perched perfectly. Looking right at us.

“Did you do that?” I pointed at it, and then turned to see him staring in wonder.

“I have no idea how that got there. Do they know about the paper ravens?” he asked, referring to the others, but they didn’t. I hadn’t told anyone. The only people who knew about them were Devon, me, Jodie, my dad… and my mum.

“It can’t be…” I put my hands over my face, and I started to cry. I could help it. “She’s happy that I’m happy,” I managed to say through my sobs.

Devon didn’t doubt me. He didn’t try to belittle what I was thinking or saying. He just took me in his arms and held me, rocking me and whispering that he loved me.

I blinked away my tears and held him tightly. No moment in my life had ever felt this perfect. Nothing had ever been so right until now. We had been down a rocky road to find each other, but I’d do it a million times over if it brought me back to him. He was my everything, and knowing that my mum was looking down on us, giving us her blessing, meant more than anything.

I could still hear the chime of the snow globe as we held onto each other, and so, when it got to my favourite part, I sang it to him, meaning every word that I said. My mum loved me in a place where there was no space or time, just like the song said, a place that I’d love Devon, when our time came to be parted. I’d always sing for him, be with him, love him, just like my mum had done for us. Remembering when we were together, keeping those memories locked away, memories more precious than anything.

He was my heart, my soul, my present, and my future. In this life and the next, I would always search for him.

He was home.

My Devon.

The boy with the darkness, and the man with the spark that lit a fire inside me.

He would forever be my everything.

The raven had found her reaper.

And she would never let go.

The End