In a strange way, it was worse than what humans experienced – facing eternity alone.
And as far as I knew, Jericho didn’t have anyone else.
No partner. And now no brother. Not to mention, she obviously hadn’t been super close with her sister-in-law, who was likely suffering too, assuming she wasn’t dead as well.
I gritted my teeth as my eyes stung, my fingers digging into the ground beneath me.
That monster.
That damn monster.
I might really have to kill him, even though a powerful creature might come for revenge if I did, I might still need to do it.
I could feel Miriam’s opposition. I could feel her torment. And, I could feel her guilt, because she felt partially responsible too, not having realized the depths of Ragnarok’s wickedness. But she didn’t say anything in my head, at least not in the form of words.
What was there to say?
Nothing, really.
Jericho and I laid like that long enough for Miriam to finally catch up, with her settling next to me and resting her hand gently on the back of Jericho’s white hair while the broken soul sobbed incessantly. We were all then silent for hours, defeated whines against my chest the only noise between the three of us.
The sun had risen before my love attempted to speak, her tone empathetic, but also firm.
“I haven’t had the chance to thank you yet, Jericho, so I’ll do so now. You’re going to sit up, and you’re going to drink this blood. You can cry all you want once the wounds inside your body are at least healed. I know they must be painful.”
She sniffled and then scoffed, her eyes still hidden against my chest. “I’m older than you.”
Miriam’s tone was still gentle, but more firm. “Yeah, well I’m stronger. So, don’t make me make you. Because I will.”
Jericho didn’t respond for a long moment, before slowly pushing herself up, her expression absolutely miserable as Miriam helped her sit upright. My love then grabbed a blood bag and held it to her lips while she gulped it down. By the third one, Jericho was grabbing them on her own, allowing her devastating need to feed to take over, her icy eyes looking wild with hunger.
I had stolen more than enough, so she was only halfway through the crate before she finally began slowing down, a good fifteen or more bags lying around her. She also finally held an arm across her chest, once her skin began to heal fully on the outside, not having her smaller wings to do the job.
Miriam took the opportunity to begin making a few trips to get food, including meat, metal, and anything else she could find that would help Jericho regrow her missing limbs. Miriam also stole a black shirt for her to wear in the meantime, so that she could use both arms, not bothering with her lower body due to how she was sitting. And thankfully, Jericho’s hunger was enough for her to continue to eat willingly, instead of needing to be threatened again.
However, much to my surprise, when I decided to try to eat some of the metal Miriam brought, she scolded me, nearly swatting my hand in the process.
“No, Michael. You can stick your horn back on your head, and if it doesn’t start reattaching, then you can eat it. That’s your punishment for being so reckless.”
I gawked at her, surprised either of those options were possibilities – and a little shocked by her attitude about it – before sighing heavily.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, with a hint of sarcasm.
Her tone softened, becoming just slightly playful. “I thought we already discussed this – it’s mistress to you.” She then dramatically pointed her finger at me, lightening up even more, her other hand on her hip. “And you know which kind I mean!”
“Ugh, you two,” Jericho complained. “Keep it to yourselves.”
We both gave her apologetic looks, knowing full well we could have at least kept that last part in our heads. However, when neither of us said anything, Jericho glanced up at us both, before quickly continuing.
“I didn’t mean don’t talk at all,” she clarified, only to avert her gaze. “I just…” Her voice trailed off.
“I know,” Miriam whispered. “Sorry. We’ll keep that stuff to ourselves. I wasn’t thinking.”
Jericho shook her head, her eyes pained. “It’s fine. I don’t even care anymore. I don’t care about anything.”
“I’m sorry,” I said almost inaudibly, knowing all the apologies in the world wouldn’t bring Seth back.
She didn’t respond, taking another bite of a rebar pole, seeming to be eating now to have something to do, rather than a concern for her own body.
Her horns appeared to be growing again, though she was still otherwise maimed.
I decided to go ahead and put my horn back in position, holding it there for a few minutes, only to unexpectedly begin to regain my sense of touch in the maimed spike. I could detect that it wasn’t fully reattached yet, but I was able to drop my hands as the crack slowly sealed and returned to normal.
Jericho and Miriam had been watching me do it, both with somber expressions.
“Well, that was different,” I said after a moment.
“You didn’t have to hurt yourself,” Jericho said quietly.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I deserve worse for even letting this happen in the first place.”
“It’s not your fault,” she replied almost inaudibly.
“Isn’t it though?” I asked seriously. “How can you not blame me?”
Her eyes tightened, glancing away. “For one, because you’re truly Chrysalis – that’d be like blaming a baby. And, besides, I understand your perspective now. There’s no one to blame except for that fiend. He’s responsible for all of this. And I was listening to your discussion with him too. No matter how someone looks at it, all of this is his doing. It’s just that he’s also above the law they created. There’s no one to punish him for his actions.” She focused on me again, lowering her voice. “Well, except maybe you.”
Miriam immediately interjected. “And we do want him to pay for what he’s done. But my father is convinced that the being who created them would come back to kill anyone who eliminated one of the Originals – at least, from what we’ve gathered. And it seems as if Ragnarok also acts as if that were true, like he’s untouchable.”
Jericho’s expression pained again. “I wasn’t saying he should,” she replied to her. “Neither that fiend’s death, nor Michael’s, is going to bring my brother back.”
Brother.
Unexpectedly my muscles locked up, my eyes unfocusing, as I heard a familiar voice speak to me.
‘I’m really sorry, dear brother. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’ve lost everything and everyone – so I had to do it. But it’s coming – soon – and I don’t know what will happen once it arrives.’
“Michael?” an alarmed voiced called out, as if from a hundred miles away, a pressure appearing on my arm.
But it was too late.
Instantly, I was falling. Plummeting rapidly through an absolute emptiness, surrounded on all sides by nothing.
I could hear her voice far in the distance, like a distant memory. ‘If you kill him, you kill me! It’s already too late!’ But I was falling too fast. The voice faded away entirely, only for another to take its place.
‘Michael, I’ve missed you so much.’
Off in the distance, far to the side, I saw a blinding white light – one in which I was quickly plummeting past, unable to escape the pull of the darkness below.
‘Long ago…I promised I’d tear the whole world apart for you – to protect you. To save you. And now…I’m doing just that.’
‘Sis?’ someone’s voice called out, sounding confused and devastated.
‘I don’t know what the consequences will be for doing this, but I don’t care anymore. The whole world can burn in hell for all I care, the whole universe can implode, but so long as I’ve saved you, that’s all that matters to me.’
‘Michael!’ that first voice called out again, m
ore than a world away.
‘I’m tearing apart time itself, brother. For you. Now live, for me…take care of your Amelia. Don’t let her feel this pain. Don’t let her experience this agony. Live. And protect her from this.’
‘Michael!’ that first voice said even more urgently, sounding even more distant as I fell endlessly.
Unable to look back, I focused on a glimmer of warmth down below, shimmering deep within the great abyss.
A tiny speck, in the vast nothingness.
Rapidly, I fell even faster, being sucked downwards towards the small blemish that flickered like an invisible flame. Until suddenly it was right in front of me, hovering before my chest as we descended together.
It wavered briefly, as if startled, prompting me to reach out with both hands in an attempt to comfort it, despite our impending destruction – it floating in between my palms.
In response to my gesture of goodwill, it began radiating gentleness, life, peace, and hope – revealing that it wasn’t as empty as it appeared.
And there was a familiarity to it, as if we’d met once before.
But as I held it close, I noticed something at the edge of the invisible flame – a shadow tormenting it, a fear threatening to consume it. I looked more closely, unexpectedly falling into a rapidly widening void that was even darker than our empty surroundings.
Instantly, it consumed me, and I saw a horrifying sight deep within. Everyone I loved was there. My father and mother, as well as Grayson, Riley, and Amelia…and even Miriam.
All of them were deep in the emptiness, falling much faster than me. I watched in horror as they began to disappear, disintegrating into the void, feeling completely helpless to stop it.
‘No!’ I cried out, but it was too late.
They were already gone, as if they were more than just dead – it was as if they no longer existed. I desperately reached out and tried to pull them back with every fiber of my being. But it was hopeless. There was nothing I could do.
Unexpectedly, a pair of warm hands wrapped around my torso from behind, a blinding light surrounding me.
‘Michael, I’ve missed you so much.’
I reached up to cover her hands with mine, feeling agony, sorrow, and devastation radiating from her.
‘I can’t stop what’s coming, dear brother. But I won’t let you face it alone. If we die, we die together.’
I felt it then, a terrifying presence sneaking up behind me. I rapidly turned around to see…nothing – the absence of everything. It was the void again, and it was coming. Nothing could stop it.
It would destroy everything, erasing it from existence.
The arms around my chest tightened, even as I felt someone else grab a hold of my right hand, intertwining our fingers together. But I couldn’t look away from the horror. It was an absolute force that was truly unstoppable.
My heart was racing, pounding in my chest, throbbing in my throat.
The hand gently tightened, squeezing, urging me to turn my head. A warmth began crawling up my arm then, entering my chest and filling me from within. I broke my gaze to look into her crimson eyes, finally remembering.
We were one. We would face it as one.
With one hand intertwined with my love, and my other hand resting on my sister’s arm, I echoed those words as I turned to face the void, knowing it was all we had left.
‘We won’t face it alone. If we die, we die together.’
A pressure appeared on the sides of my face then, coupled with an unfamiliar voice a universe away.
“What’s wrong with him?!”
“Shh. Just wait,” came the reply.
Another pressure then brushed against my lips, warmth cascading through my jaw and into my skull, followed by words spoken directly into my mind.
‘Come back to me, love.’
Instantly, a pair of red eyes came into focus, barely an inch from my face, her soft lips pressed gently against mine, the sides of her face lit up with a bright azure light. It took me a moment to realize vibrant arcs of blue electricity were crackling in the air around me.
After a moment, Miriam pulled away slightly, as we just stared at each other, our thoughts intertwined, with us both considering what I had just experienced.
This thing that the future version of my sister said was coming, was something horrible and unstoppable. World-ending, even.
A void of nothingness, that would consume everything in its path like a black hole.
Except, it wasn’t like a black hole. It was like the opposite of existence.
And with that, we both came to the same conclusion at the same time.
I was terrified for my sister’s fate, and didn’t want to make things worse by telling her about her future-self, but if we were all doomed anyway, then there didn’t seem to be any other options.
Because, she was our only hope of looking for a way out – of discovering some means to stop whatever was coming. And, from what we had already seen, it was almost as if the future Amelia was somehow speaking through my sister, if her eerie words several hours ago were any indication.
“We have to tell her,” I whispered out loud. “We have to talk to her about it.”
Miriam only inclined her chin slightly in acknowledgment, knowing the idea terrified me. For all we knew, the future version of my sister – the one who saved me – might just stop existing if we told the current Amelia about herself. But then again, it sounded like we were all about to just stop existing in the near future anyway.
So it didn’t seem like we had much to lose in the end.
Not to mention, hadn’t my sister said she dreamt of talking to herself?
So then maybe it would be okay? Assuming that dream wasn’t truly a dream.
I took a deep breath in resignation, and then glanced at Jericho standing off to the side, just staring at us in absolute confusion.
She was still wearing the black shirt, her white horns having mostly regrown. But she wasn’t wearing anything on her lower half, her tail still missing, so I quickly averted my eyes when I noticed.
She took the opportunity to speak up.
“Someone going to tell me what’s going on?”
Miriam took a deep breath and stood again. “This is going to be a lot to accept, so prepare yourself, because I’m not joking. Michael’s sister is psychic – she literally stopped Ragnarok in his tracks when he first tried to kill–”
“Yeah,” Jericho interrupted. “He showed me his memories earlier, remember? And I know he’s had a few visions too. Was that what this was? A vision?”
Miriam looked at her in surprise. “Wait, when did he show you his memories?”
Now Jericho cocked her head to the side in confusion. “Just after he broke his horn to get my attention…”
Miriam abruptly looked at me, seemingly for an explanation. “I was in your head, Michael. I didn’t see any of that. You kept it from me?”
“Not on purpose,” I exclaimed in surprise. “I didn’t realize you weren’t aware.”
Jericho chimed in again. “That’s what I meant earlier when I said I understood his perspective – I’d seen his memories and knew it wasn’t in any way his fault.”
Miriam’s brow furrowed, as she spoke almost to herself. “That’s not how this works.” She then raised her voice, directing her words at me. “Let her in your head again. I want to see what happens.”
Jericho abruptly crossed her arms over her chest. “Hey, what if I don’t want to go in his head again? Are you just going to order me around from now on?”
Miriam’s expression was instantly firm. “I am your Queen,” she retorted, only for her crimson eyes to soften, appearing apologetic. “But no. I don’t intend to treat you like that.”
Jericho had dropped her icy gaze, looking ashamed of her outburst, prompting me to suspect that Miriam hadn’t spent very much time lording over others, thereby causing Jericho to have forgotten her place for a moment.
“I apologize,” she whi
spered, her tone sounding sincere, but also a little formal, like she was truly addressing royalty.
“No,” Miriam responded shaking her head. “As I said, I don’t intend to treat you like that. But please, humor me.”
Jericho nodded, still averting her gaze as I felt her mind appear at the edge of mine.
Instantly, all of her sudden submissive behavior made perfect sense, as I was bombarded with flashes of agony and torment, fleshy bone tearing off her body, solid fists barreling into her ribs, her stomach, her face.
Watching her brother be torn apart before her eyes, his head ripped off his body, his skull crushed in a monster’s grasp, everything done to ensure he couldn’t ever recover.
All of it caused by a different Ruler – one who had just reminded her, in the worse ways possible, how powerless she was against them.
Her response to Miriam’s reminder that she was a Queen made perfect sense now.
The shock to not have Jericho’s mind closed off from me was so abrupt that I stumbled backwards, even as I grasped her mind like a vice grip and yanked her into mine, like an instinctive attempt to shield her from what I was witnessing.
To protect her from horrors that no one could undo.
My reaction had an unintended effect though.
Jericho instantly fell to her knees, bowing her head and covering her eyes with her hands as she began sobbing intensely.
Because, with her mind open to me, and mine open to her, I had just yanked her further than what was usually possible – almost as far as one, single, other connection she had once experienced long ago. A very unpleasant connection, that should have been the happiest moment of her life, but instead had turned into the worst.
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