69| SPECIAL CHARACTERS

"I cannot believe I'm at Eron's funeral. I've always wanted to meet the man, but not like this, you know." It was yet another fangirl, on the phone with her friend as she passed by Eron's open coffin.

Frema stood over the coffin, her eyes glistening with unshed tears as she watched him solely.. or better still, what used to be him. She was the only one who stood there now, as she had chosen to be the last to see him again. His body no longer smelt so bad and she realized it must be from the preservatives they'd used on him. She shook her head when more memories of them started to flood in. Her chest was constricting with so much pain and the tears now flowed at their own will but she stood there and let it all out.

He had no family member to be here for him and everyone who came were either acquaintances or business partners. And then, her family. Almost everyone walked around nonchalantly, they even looked like they were at a mere business event and the only time she saw them twist their faces in sadness was when a speech was read out and it involved his impact in the business sector. For some reason, Frena hated them for not sharing her pain—for daring to come to his funeral when they did not feel even a bit sorry for him. They only cared about who he was, not him. Life sucked balls, Frema decided.

Meanwhile, Riley looked lost as she stared at Eron's coffin from where she sat, miles away. She'd never been so aware of the possibility of her being non-existent until now. As she stared at Eron in that coffin, she clutched her cup tighter, holding back her vomit only because of the amount of people around. Arsen walked up behind her and held her waist, causing her to lean into his touch.

"Arsen, I'm scared." She mumbled finally, a tear gliding down one cheek, followed by another. Arsen kissed her temple gently.

"You're not alone, wifey. I promise you won't be in this position before you. I'm not a supernatural, but I'm promising you a miracle. I assure you that it's going to happen, just like the doctor predicted." He assured her and she closed her eyes, allowing more tears to ruin her black dress.

Frema, however, kept standing beside Eron's coffin and was too out of it to notice when her twin boys walked up to her, before clutching her arm. She didn't bother to wipe her eyes this time. After all, she did not want them to grow up thinking it was a bad thing to feel pain. It's okay to cry; she wanted them to forever know that.

"Momma, I hate it when you cry." Drake said sourly. She just squeezed his hand. Josh just stared at his father and this time, he sniffed loudly. Then looked up at her and asked,

"We couldn't see him before he became an angel. Do you think he still loves us, anyway?"

"Yes. Yes I do, I always will."

Their heads turned so fast towards the direction of the answer, one could swear they'd heard the snap of a neck being broken in the process. Sure enough, Eron was behind them, still looking like a Greek god even if his head and neck had bandages strapped to them, even if his under eyes had developed dark eye bags, even if he was confined in a wheelchair, he was still no less of a god. Unlike the rest of the guests, he was dressed in an all-white attire, disregarding the colour of the day.

Everyone was frozen at the spot, including Frema—no, especially Frema. Her eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets as she looked at him like she'd seen a deadly ghost. Was that not what he was? Was she hallucinating? She thought. But everyone looked at him with almost the same expression too, so it was obvious that they could see him too, unless everyone was hallucinating.

"I'm really here, my love." His words were accentuated with a smile. A real smile, not a smirk or anything proud/sinister.. a real smile. It made Frema's inside churn with something beautiful, something familiar when it came to him. It was something she never thought she'd ever feel again. She shook her head, breaking out of her trance.

"It's not real. You're not here." She spoke finally and he turned to Drake, saying,

"Come on, boy, poke daddy and see if he vanishes." Drake looked up at his mother st that, as if waiting for her permission and when she did nothing but stand at the same spot, he took it as his signal to step forward and poke his father; once, twice, until he finally lunged into the man's arms in an embrace. Josh joined in seconds later and the cameras began to flash almost immediately, it was like the paparazzi around had finally escaped from the shock. The cameras continued to flash until Frema thought she would go blind. Drake and Josh finally pulled out of his embrace after long minutes and wincing in pain from how tight their hold was, Eron shifted in his chair and slid his hand into the pocket of his pants, extracting a box and a red rose.

"First things first, are you convinced it's me now, my love?" He asked, looking straight at Fremantle. She flushed a light shade of pink at the nickname now, then she nodded.

"You know I work with words, Princesa." He said again and she opened her mouth twice, failing to speak in those times. It was because she still could not believe he was here, at his own funeral, very much alive. Surely, God did not love her that much, did he? What manner of miracle was this?

"I-I'm convinced it's you..." She muttered in response. He smiled again, then suddenly winced like the action had hurt him. Then he spoke again,

"You still love me, right? No, first, did you finally forgive me while I was out? Did I gain your trust again? If not, please give me a chance to start all over again. A chance to show how sorry for everything I truly am. It hurts like a bitch to speak right now, so even if I wish I could get sappy and throw in some lies to convince you, I can't at the moment. So if you still love me, Princesa, would you do me the honour of saying yes, again? Would you accept to spend the rest of your life with me, again?"

Almost everyone in the audience had pulled out their phones by this time and while some sobbed like hopeless romantics, others pressurized her to say yes. Ignoring them, she turned to her family and caught her mother wiping off stray tears. They all motioned to her to say yes; surprisingly, even Arsen bobbed his head in acknowledgement to her silent question. She turned to him again with fresh tears in her eyes, but they were tears of joy.

"Yes." She finally replied. "Yes, yes, I'll marry you, Eron Castile." She responded, kneeling to accept his ring in her finger and then the rose, then hug him. She whispered against his ear during the course of the embrace,

"My God, I really thought you were gone."

He laughed softly, then pecked the shell of her ear before replying, "I told you, Princesa. Characters like me never die."