EPILOGUE
PROMISE AND DIARY
CAROLINE HAVENS: BEYOND WORK
Sometimes, you just have to accept fate. You can't fight against it. The more you try to avoid it, the deeper you get stuck. Fate can act like anything; threads, chains, quicksand, clock. And we humans were, are, and always will be vulnerable to it. We can believe in our heads that our favourite character has fought fate and won. But in reality, we forget to choose ourselves as our first characters.
That's why we always lose to fate.
Fate isn't the result of our karma or destiny. It's the future written before the past, playing out by us more efficiently the more we try to avoid it.
In this world, there might be someone who exists who has fought and won against fate.
But what if that was their fate? To defeat fate is to follow destiny. To overwrite destiny is to follow fate.
There's no escape.
<3 MONTHS LATER>
La Mesphritania closed her diary and handed it over to me.
"So, is he still in that state?" She locked her fingers, gazing deep into Caroline's eyes.
Ding-Dong!
The school bell went smoothly as both of them were sitting in the school garden. They had both temporarily applied for nursery teachers — not for money but to find an escape from reality in this dread.
Inside, which resulted in his accidental emergency.
The piece was removed and he was slowly healing, but a sacrifice was a must. He lost his memories. Cupra, Nickel, Cass, Pursera, and Momo — everyone took turns weekly or daily to tell him about his past, slowly trying to rebuild his memories.
The reason Caroline asked La Mes to write this novel was that it was the best way for Gehrmensch to remember his life with her. Without this, he'd be an empty shell.
Living on bits.
"He did come back to consciousness in early operations, but his memories were lost." She had told these exact lines multiple times to La Mes, yet she repeated them every time.
Ding-dong...!
Caroline packed her stuff and held her diary in her hand.
"I still think you're the most unique person I've ever met. As promised, I've retained the 'He', 'She' and 'I's in the story. Overlooking grammar points, some things are beyond rules."
La Mes's words sat slowly in Caroline's mind. She thought something, looked back, and gave a dry smile. Letting out a sigh, she spoke.
"I have a regret and a satisfaction."
La Mes looked up at the sky, hearing Caroline's voice from the front.
"I couldn't write it myself is a regret. Having you write it is a satisfaction. May we meet again." Caroline gave a self-deprecating laugh as she walked away.
The weather was slowly changing to rain. She took out her pitch-black umbrella and started walking. The umbrella truly held some memories, dyed in pitch-black void.
Fleeting like islands in a large ocean of life.
The rain growled like a dying beast. Sunlight dimmed and dispersed behind the clouds, making the rain an obvious outcome.
She walked in her rain boots, leaving a shining trail behind. Her turquoise coat sipping the silver rain.
Her deep-black umbrella crowned her agony.
Glittering white diary, stealing the spotlight.
She walked with the will to reach the man who she once dared to stand equal to, who was now leagues above her—giving her something she couldn't repay.
Caroline Havens. Heaven shattered and hell froze from her sight. She walked with the elegance of a goddess.
Every piece of thread in her dress spoke a word, a poem, and a story.
Her lips kissed the silver platter of rain through unspoken words submerged in the deepest pits of the ocean.
The rain's rhythm shifted. An ambulance passed by her. She didn't care.
The rain was dying softly; a rainbow was formed, clashing against heavens.
Caroline's journey took her to the hospital where Gehrmensch was getting discharged today.
She walked inside, through the lift, to the floor where Gehrmensch was in bed rest.
The lift rose up and finally reached there. She was thinking—something different.
Cupra and Nickel were in that room too.
She stood in front of the door as Nickel came out.
"He's normal..." Nickel didn't move. Caroline leaned near his mouth.
"But something's off!" With that said, he left. Cupra followed him.
She was alone in the room with a single patient. Gehrmensch Dot.
She closed the door while both the brothers were guarding from outside.
She sat in front of the patient and took out a piece of cream bread and handed it to him.
"Thanks..."
"You seem to be in a pretty good condition, huh?"
"Yep. But you seem cold towards me, is there anything bugging you?"
"No... but yeah, there is one thing."
"What is it, tell me!" Gehrmensch took a bite from the cream bread.
"Mr. CEO, I can't remember, you said something when you were on bed rest last time. Why did you shoot yourself for us?"
Gehrmensch stopped taking bites as a sweat bead started to drop from his head.
"Of course! Because...
I love you all, guys. You all are my own family members! I can't let y'all die.
So that's why." He eased up a bit.
"Thank God! I was actually worried if you were fake or something!" His face mask was slowly visible from its corner.
"Bwaha! That was a good one!" He scratched that part and removed it. It was just his skin, which was peeling off due to a common disease nowadays.
"Can I ask you something else?" She looked at him with a sharp, curious look. He mirrored her.
"Um... oh! Looks like I'm having a small headache. Can we talk later?" He held his head and smiled at her a bit.
"Oh yeah, sure!"
"Yeah, I also wanted to talk. It's just—I can't disobey the doctor." He spoke really fast and then slowly rested his back on the bed.
"Oh yeah, I understand."
"Mhmm!"
"Yeah, sure."
"Yeah." He closed his eyes and was waiting for her to leave.
She took a deep breath and exhaled before speaking.
"You know..."
"Yeah?" he asked.
"I never answered, but you asked me this once. I don't know if you remember or not."
"I'm listening." He spoke in a whispering tone, but a little louder.
"Why do I always help you?" Caroline slid her hand into her purse, slowly pulling something out.
"Yeah, tell me. I'm eager to know. Is that a surprise gift you're taking out of your purse?"
Caroline gave him a frozen look.
"Oh—sorry, my bad. I spoiled the surprise."
"No, don't worry!"
"Oh yeah, where were we—...? Yeah, why do you always help me?"
Caroline was slowly pulling something out of her purse. The mystery was in the air. Every corner of the room whispered a guess, but none could bet.
"Promise...!"
"Promise?" He slowly stood and sat on his bed and looked at Caroline with a soft look.
"Yeah!" Caroline looked down in her purse. She opened it wide enough to see. There were some cigarettes and the panda lighter that Gehrmensch used to hold ownership of once.
"In this scary, dangerous, and mysterious world, only promise is something I could rely on." Caroline slowly pulled out something and hid it behind her purse before he could see it.
"Seems really intriguing and interesting. But you know some people can break promises. So you must be careful."
"Like you?"
He laughed it off.
"You know, if you hadn't forgotten what you've once held, what would you say now?"
He hummed and thought a bit, and at last, Caroline had to explain her expectation.
"You would say something like... 'Who are you'?"
The atmosphere was dead silent. The air froze, birds didn't chirp. Their breathing was the only sound echoing in this silent room.
Gehrmensch gulped his saliva and spoke with sarcasm and a hint of suspicion.
"Oh really?" He faked his smile.
"Is that supposed to be a jok-?" Before he could end his sentence, he saw something in Caroline's hand. Dark, shining metal. A refined revolver.
His fingers were ticking weirdly in his blanket.
"Caroline, isn't that a—?"
"No, it's just a toy gun." Toy gun?
"Oh‐h r‐reall‐y? Th‐that l‐looks so real‐l!"
"Why are you scared? It's not like I'll shoot you."
The patient was scared to the depths of his soul; the horror residing in Caroline's hand hit the bullseye without her much effort.
Therefore, she took the advantage and pressed the revolver on his temple with her face close to his.
"Tell me, who are you?"
"W‐what kind of—" His voice broke, and then he was about to cry for help.
"If you try to cry out loud, this will be your last cry."
His complexion was pale, sweat beads dropped from his head.
"Don't stare at me with those eyes of yours or I'll gouge them out!"
From the voices inside the room, which piqued the curiosity of both brothers, they came inside.
Slowly walking towards Caroline and Gehrmensch without saying a word.
"Now tell me... where is Gehrmensch?"
The question had more meanings than one—Where was the Gehrmensch she knew? Where was the person who held her hands once in awe to never leave it on the critical junction?
This question destroyed the fake—replaced with Gehrmensch.
How much was he paid? What kind of surgery did he go through? When was he replaced?
"H‐he was departed in‐n...n..an.."
Caroline grabbed his hair and pulled it backwards. His mouth opened, and she stuffed the gun inside.
"Tell me where he is, or I'll make sure not even a cell of yours leaves this place!"
The fake moved his hands, signaling he'd surrender.
Both brothers just stared into his soul with dead silence.
The fake constantly changed his focus from Caroline to the Nyco brothers, while rubbing his hands together and wiping his sweating head.
"They took him in an ambulance and went to the airport!"
Caroline slowly tightened her grip on his hair and pressed the gun on his lower abdomen.
"If you don't spill all the information within thirty seconds, you won't be able to call yourself a man in front of your wife again."
She wasn't playing games. The seriousness and sheer humiliation broke that man into pieces.
"They!.." he stuttered and spoke really fast under the pressure of fear and terror.
"Took him to the south-west airport to export his unconscious body to a different country!"
"I don't know much detail, just‐... just I know that..."
"Either speak fast or I'll hang you with your intestine wrapped around your neck!"
Her words were merciless and emotionless.
"They are taking him to..." He spilled the name of the city.
Caroline grabbed his nape and fired!
Bang!
The glass broke, the pieces shattered on the ground. The man wasn't dead, but his face had an unhealable wound—a mark, a scar.
"You don't deserve this face, maggot!"
She hit him under his chin. He fell on the ground as the hospital staff rushed inside.
Later on, police were called, and the man was arrested on charges of identity theft and misuse. To cherry on the top, both brothers also charged him with attempting to murder them, and Caroline sent a notice to ask if they could change his face again, since he was carrying the fake face of a man with respectable status.
The information of Gehrmensch's disappearance became a big issue within the police, which would be investigated in secrecy. However, Caroline once again held selfish information, keeping the whereabouts of the city to herself.
Promise was something which Gehrmensch could only cling to. It was the essence of his life, and none—not even Caroline—could understand its depth. Some fake could never understand the true nature of the term promise, which Gehrmensch understood.
Within a week, all the people in the mansion got ready for their departure. They would now commence the mission
Pursera held Nickel's hand, Momo held Cupra's hand.
Cass held Hoddy's hand, and Caroline held her panda lighter while lighting up her cigarette in front of the airplane. They were leaving in their private jet.
Nyco brothers weren't rich for nothing.
"Let's go to Vaneservallies!"
THE END.
[End of volume 1 "Caroline havens: at work"]
*Previous novel *Song of pen* is available on webnovel app*