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"Well, you did a daning annoyance as an ao break with a sword or so? It’s Halloween"
"Hey, that reminds me! Today’s the anniversary of the first time you two crazy kids made out"
Haven smiled "It hen I kissed him"
"I still can’t believe youthat decision now, huh?"
Glancing at Carret it"
His face lit up at her words, and she was ihts She was still hurt, unsure of what the future held, but one thing Carive up on her She ht she lost, but it was a life she would have never dreaht for her in the first place He had sacrificed for her, his world irrevocably altered to give her a chance Carmine deserved a life outside of the violence
Hoould she forgive herself if he didn’t get it?
She sighed after Do her bowl of soup down on the s fros, and Car She held her hand up to stop hi a feeak steps on her own to hi into his chest Her shoulder throbbed from where it had been dislocated and her knees felt as if they were going to give out, but she held on to his mattered They would fade, and with theo away
He hugged her back, pulling her closer and resting his head on top of hers Haven’s s, she still felt safest in his ar, but she still struggled mentally as days turned into weeks She spent , but eventually ventured outside with Carmine He held her hand the first ti out different landmarks from his childhood They were about a block away frorew tired, and the two of thee white house Carmine pulled her to it and sat on the front porch
"I don’t think you should sit on sory"
"This is our house, tesoro," he said with a s as she took the seat beside hirew up, but it’s been eht, finishing the sentence he still couldn’t say She glanced at the bright blue door, a stark contrast to the chipped red paint of the shutters
"What are we going to do, Caro back to Durante Sal’s gonna give me some tiuess we figure it out as we go"
And that was exactly what they did A few days later, Dr DeMarco rented a car, and the three of them made the journey back to Durante She slept a lot, sprawled out in the backseat as Car They stopped so frequently it took a few days before they saw the broooden DURANTE WELCOMES YOU sign
An odd sensation overcahway and up to the fah it was deep within her chest, surrounding her heart and stealing her breath
It wasn’t until Carmine muttered the words that it struck her "We’re finally hoot it now For the first ti felt like hoether It here they had found love
She finally knehat that wordback in hadn’t been easy Memories haunted Haven’s drea hours Flashes of faces, horrific screa words constantly ate away at her, and the worst part was she wasn’t sure any of it was real
She scribbled in notebooks again and sketched pictures of the i her with his scaly face and evil eyes It reminded her that no matter where she went, that part of her life was never far away
Carain He would sneak out of bed at night, and so for hours on end
They were two broken kids, desperate to be whole again, struggling to find balance in a world out of their control What’s black and white and red all over? Carely ripped in half, bleeding out for all to see The yin and yang, the good and evil, the love and pain all at odds with each other Two sides, two vastly different worlds, but souarisce tutti i s in life only happen once, theforever They areyou into a person you never thought you would becoical rewind button in life, no take backs or do-overs to fix things you wish you could change
If there were, Car his mom wait for a car to pick them up They wouldn’t wind up in that alley, and his o back to sixteen and put his gun away instead of driving to his best friend’s house in anger Bygones would be bygones, and there would be peace, instead of public rivalries that hurt everyone in the end
He’d be in that kitchen at seventeen again, cleaning his spilled juice instead of frightening Haven so badly He wouldn’t have passed judgirl, and maybe he would have knohat love was a little sooner