May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 19: Release

James was then aware that the violent girl was a child of Livestone. They were the only recent investors of his company. They are real bigshots whom he has worked hard to attract for three whole years before they took a shine on their projects. He does not want to ruin all his hard work just because of some fight, so he took a step backwards.

He did his best to dismiss the fight between the children and decisively retreated. In just a while, he and his family left the villa. Much to everyone’s relief the moment they left.

Currently they are in the garden where they are setting up some barbeque as they wait for the peak of the meteor shower. The hyenas had decided that even if the said lightshow that would happen alongside the shower was a sign of apocalypse, they wanted to have the best experience as they watched it. Future problems will be dealt with by their future selves. At the moment, they wanted to have some relaxation after their stressful semester and encounter.

For consideration of their currently out-cold friends, Liza decided to record the whole thing. One to let them see what they were doing and seeing, making them feel a little regretful for missing the moment. Should they have been careful in restraining Bella, considering that the other is simply a woman of great strength, carefulness is a given in dealing with her in her rampage state.

“I have always wondered how the hell that man managed to win over Honeylet,” Judith said with a huge sigh. “She does not deserve the kind of life she has now.”

“There are many kinds of life there for everyone. We have no say in what she has now and we cannot interfere with what is on her path. At most, we can help her when she really needs it.” Aila was pessimistic enough to be to be indifferent to Honeylet’s situation most of the time. Although she liked the woman enough to consider helping her, she was not that saintly to blindly help her because of how she saw and felt about her.

“In the life she had in the future you lived, how did her wonderful family treat her?” Judith asked, as she was afraid that at the first sign of danger, that woman was most likely to be thrown away by the snakes in order to save their own skins. Although she and her husband had yet to address Aila’s past life, they choose to believe their daughter no matter how absurd things are.

Aila took a while to answer her mother’s question. “She was pushed out by James when a zombie came behind them. At that time, she was holding and protecting Cristine. But due to her wonderful husband, she and her youngest perished a few months after the outbreak of the zombies.”

“How about us?” Judith asked as she sensed subtle hatred in her daughter's words as she emotionlessly described what happened to Honeylet.

Aila faintly trembled as tears briefly pooled her eyes. “Mom and dad died in the same time frame as Honeylet did. It was partially due to James and his spawn that it happened, but nevertheless, those trio are equally responsible for what happened.”

Judith embraced Aila as she saw how hard she was holding back her emotions. Her child is a calm child who has never made them worried as she was growing up. It was the first time she saw her so emotional and it made her feel distress about how hard life could have been for her in that life she lived without them.

“Everything is okay honey.” Judith coaxed Aila to calmness. “You are telling us all this is worth it. It must have been so hard to hold it all inside of you. I know not much of what the future will bring, but I am sure that we will not fail the trust you gave in confounding these knowledge to all of us.”

Aila clung to her mother for dear life. Even if she has been living a life back to the peaceful days for the last six months, she still has a sense of unrealness up until now. Every day, whenever she opens her eyes for another day, she always wonders if this is just another dream waiting to weaken her and make her breakdown again and again.

If anyone else has noticed the sudden emotional moment between the mother and daughter, no one has commented on them. Moments like those are an envious luxury for most of them, therefore they cherish the sight by not breaking it. Because they knew if they also had the same moment, they also knew they would not react quite well when being interrupted.

Stephen was the one who broke the atmosphere between the two. He brought over some cooked meat and shared it with his wife and child.

Judith smiled and Aila shook off her sadness. At the moment, they are all alive and future worries are still so far away. Knowing what was to come was already a good thing, even if it came with disturbing details of their deaths. They can try to trick fate and survive this time around.

Judith was a mother to her child. But past that identity, she was a close loved one to the children who had befriended her little Aila. They must have been as devastated when she and her husband had died in that future, a future where these children had to face alone and without others' protection.

As a mother, she wanted to be selfish and not let them experience the loss. But she is realistic enough to know that in the face of their time, they cannot do anything during that moment. At most she wanted to prepare them a place where they can grow peaceful until they are ready to face the cruelty of the world.

Judith nudged her child to join the others. She wanted to make Aila relax and let go of the burden of knowing. Let her act her current age and enjoy the last days of light before darkness descends.

Satisfied that the children were enjoying themselves as the meteor shower began, Judith pulled her husband to the side to have a word with him. Their child has done the best she could to make a paradise for her loved ones. It might be her pride being on the way. She just thinks it sounds too bad that, as parents, they are not contributing anything to their child's biggest endeavor as of yet.

For her, something like this should have a touch of their loved ones who clearly can do more than their child. With them being their child's biggest backer, everything would have been easier and her child did not need to carry all the burden. They could have lightened her load and not overwhelmed her like she obviously was.

“Stephen, what do you say if we forgo the low-key lives we have now?” Judith asked as she watched shooting stars start to paint the night sky.

Stephen saw through her determination and smiled at his wife. “What do you think? I will follow your lead, my wife.”

“Wouldn’t it ruin your years of silence if I made you act and assume what your last name is entitled to?” Judith said as she felt Stephen’s arms wound her waist.

“If it would make you happy, why not?” Stephen softly said in Judith's ear. “I grew up living as Justine and I have always been Justine , my wife. It makes no difference to me either way. As long as you and my child are safe and sound, I don’t mind pointing the spotlight at us once again.”

“Those fools will bother us and make us uncomfortable, but it will make sure that we are not missing anything we will be needing when the disaster strikes.” Judith said as her eyes opened in wonder as the sky lit up as the shooting stars continued making a show in the night sky.

“I can deal with them,” Stephen assured her as he tightened his hold on her beloved woman. “As Aila said, the apocalypse is around the corner, they cannot do anything to us as long as we live past that day. With civilization being in a state of degression because of the catastrophe, we will have more than enough time to build some strength to make them not pester us. If they pester us by then, I don’t mind killing them. I had held back for so long to let them go during that time. I am sure that law and order is no longer in place to let me be considerate to them.”

Judith chuckled as she recalled their younger years when her husband was not the kinderest man there was. It is hard to imagine this family man now used to going all around and causing trouble all over. He even went as far as dipping his feet into the borders of the darker sides of society while making his parents clean up his mess. It was a dark time that made everyone wonder if he would ever mature and change his ways.

“I think I was too indulgent of our current life to forget your dark history. I just remembered something I have always been curious about. If you don’t mind, can you sate my curiosity?” Judith said as she trained her eyes on the children who were now taking pictures with their gadgets and doing all the teenage things.

Stephen hummed in response. He had no qualms about whatever his wife’s question would be. He promised to never hide anything from her. It was that she wanted to know things on her own terms that he hadn't told her about things he was not proud of. Besides, he knew that no matter what he had done before and what things he held to himself, his wife would always accept all of him.

It was because of her that he had hidden his claws and scared off those leeches from disturbing their lives. She is his life. Whatever she wants, as long as he is capable, he will provide it. Even if it meant going back to what he used to be, he was more than willing. The greatest reason why his Judith was careful in voicing her wants to him.

“Stephen, what was it like to kill?” Judith asked, as her mind was on her daughter’s bloodlust when James' children had crossed her back then. “Does killing someone have an effect on one's psychology?”

Stephen was silent for a while as he followed his wife’s eyes on their daughter. In Aila’s figure, he saw a resemblance in between them that he hadn't noticed they had. Aila might have been forced to do things she did not approve of or wanted to do to her fellow men in that future she had experienced. But under that experience of hers was a latent characteristic Stephen thought that blood indeed works in mysterious ways.

“To most people, killing others will have an impact on their psychology. But it does not apply to our child as you fear it does.” Stephen said, as he did not voice out more of what he thought.

Justines were warriors before they became nobles back in the days. Bloodlust was in their blood, and the chaos, war, and fighting was where they bloomed the most. Aila exhibiting her claws back then is just her touching her roots. An arrogant king on the battlefield who no one wants to cross.