by Sean Platt
Boricio felt like the bull’s eye of a cruel joke. “So, what the hell am I supposed to do? Lock it in a cage? Put up a sign: Do Not Feed The Alien?”
“No,” Will said. “You must do something else.”
Boricio didn’t like the conversation’s direction. “What are you talking about?”
Luca looked up at Boricio, hope in his eyes. “You need to absorb it.”
“What? The fuck I will!”
“We did all we could,” Will said. “The best we could to neutralize most of The Darkness. But this bit will not die. It cannot die. We can only hope to contain it.”
“You think I wanna be bodysnatched? I don’t fucking think so!”
“You’re the only one strong enough,” Luca said. “And you still have some of The Light inside you to keep The Darkness at bay.”
“No.” Boricio threw up his hands and turned away. “I didn’t sign up for this shit. It’s done. It’s over. I’m going back to find Mary and the others. I deserve my own Happily Ever After!”
Boricio started to walk away.
Will and Luca appeared in front of him.
He walked through them, pushing what was left of their bodies out of his way.
Will pleaded behind him. “If you don’t do this, The Darkness will return.”
Boricio spun on the old man. “What’s the difference? If I put it in me, and let’s say for shits and giggles I can somehow contain El Feo, what happens when I die? It’s just gonna get out and do whatever the hell it wants, anyway.”
“No,” Will said, putting a hand on Luca’s chest. “That’s the thing. You will live for a long, long time.”
Boricio looked back at the pit to make sure the alien wasn’t slipping out of its shell as they spoke. It was struggling, trying to stand. Not yet a threat.
Boricio turned to Will. “So, what, I’m Methuselah?”
“You will live long enough to keep it from ever harming anyone.”
Boricio shook his head. “I know this might come as a surprise to you, but I kinda like myself after Boy Wonder here fixed me. How do I know this thing won’t turn me back? Won’t this only make me worse?”
“You are strong enough to fight it,” Luca said. “I believe in you.”
Boricio laughed. “First time someone believes in me, and it’s ‘cuz they want me to take one for the team. Take a hard one, too. I mean, shit, if I do this, I can’t ever be around Mary and them, right? How can I trust that it won’t try and kill them? It seemed to have quite the hard-on for Mary and her little lamb.”
Will met Boricio’s eyes. “I don’t think you should be around any of them. Don’t allow The Darkness strength to gather.”
Boricio scowled. “Bullshit.”
Luca said, “You love them, don’t you?”
Boricio stared at the alien, tears stinging his eyes. He never would’ve guessed how much this could hurt — the very idea of never seeing Mary or Paola was a sharp blade through his tender heart.
“Yes, of course I do. And I hate you for making me love them. Shit was easier before you forced me to give a fuck.”
“Sorry.” Luca looked down at the ground.
“It’s okay,” Boricio said with a deep sigh.
“So, what happens if I do this? Is there any danger it’s gonna jump in the driver’s seat and take over, like it did with the other me?”
“No,” Will said. “The Light is too strong. It might fight you over time to try and wrest control, but I have faith you’ll be able to fight it. You’ve already come back from so much.”
Boricio looked out over the mainland. He could feel Mary and his friends, too far to see.
“Can’t I at least say goodbye?” Boricio asked.
The alien gasped, choking as it fell back to the ground.
“Looks like it’s dying,” Will said. “I’m sorry, Boricio. If you’re gonna do this, you need to do it now. Kill the alien, then suck his soul into your mouth.”
Boricio looked at the mainland then back at the alien.
“Fuck it,” he said. “Let’s do this.”
**
Eight months later …
Washington State
Boricio stood along the mountain ridge, training his binoculars down at the wedding taking place in the valley behind the church.
“Well, looks like Brent finally found his nuts,” he said, staring down at Teagan’s swollen belly.
Mary and Paola stood behind Teagan, wearing the ugliest fucking bridesmaid dresses Boricio had ever seen — orange as a rotten tangerine.
Boricio laughed.
Despite the ugly dress, Mary couldn’t have looked more beautiful. His heart ached at the sight, the first time he’d seen her since The Island.
He longed to descend the mountain.
“Go ahead,” The Darkness whispered in his ear. “Let’s go.”
“Fuck you,” Boricio said.
Living with The Darkness inside his head, seeing his every thought, was tough to get used to at first. But in time, Boricio mastered his ability to shut it down. It was like throwing an unruly child into a locked room. They could scream and cry all they wanted, but Boricio held the key, and he wasn’t giving in.
Of course that didn’t stop The Darkness from trying to woo him, pretend they were long-lost friends, lure him back into killing. And while Boricio wasn’t averse to killing fuckers who deserved it — he wasn’t about to give in and go back to his old ways. The Darkness would find a way to take over if he did. But even if that weren’t the case, Boricio didn’t ever want to hurt an innocent again. Fortunately, the world didn’t have many innocents left. And he could keep killing bad fuckers who deserved to be killed.
In a way, Boricio enjoyed having The Darkness where he could watch it, keep it under lock and key, knowing it would never get out and hurt the people he loved.
He watched Mary, again wishing he could go down and see her.
She suddenly looked up, toward his spot on the mountain. There was no way Mary could see him, especially with the sun at his back, but for a long moment it felt like she could.
“I love you” he said, even if his Miss Mary couldn’t hear him.
He had to go. It was too much, and if Boricio didn’t leave, he’d lose his willpower, head down, and crash the wedding.
He left the woods and sent a thought to the only other person who knew he wasn’t dead.
“Thank you for letting me see this, Emily.”
You’re welcome, she thought back.
“I’ll see you all around. Watch over them, will ya?”
You know it. Bye, Boricio.
“Bye.”
Boricio kept walking until he found the road winding through the valley below and back up toward mountains. He looked north and south, unsure where to go.
The Darkness asked in his head, “Where are we going?”
Boricio reached into his pocket, found a quarter, and flipped it.
“Wherever the road takes us.”
THE END
AUTHORS’ NOTE
Hello, Dear Reader.
If you’re one of those people who jumps to the Authors’ Note BEFORE reading the book, turn back now. We’re gonna get into some serious spoiler territory!
Last chance!
OK, now that we’ve got that out of the way, on with the final Yesterday’s Gone Authors’ Note.
First of all — thank you!
We’re so honored (and humbled) that you’ve joined us on this journey through six seasons, thirty six episodes, and more than 750,000 words. A journey that began back in 2011 with two writers trying to figure out this whole “serialized fiction” thing with barely a clue what we were doing. All we knew for certain was that we wanted to write serials — wanted to write the kind of things we enjoyed watching on TV.
There is no way we could’ve pulled off six seasons of Yesterday’s Gone without YOU! Your support, reviews, email, and messages have shown us how connected you are to this series, and for YOU, we wanted t
o make sure we delivered the BEST series finale we could possibly write.
GOING OUT ON TOP
Whenever a series (whether it be books, TV shows, or movies) gains a certain amount of popularity, the countdown to expiration begins.
When will the series end?
How will it end?
Will it overstay its welcome (or Jump the Shark)?
One of the toughest decisions a creator can make is how and when to end a series. You don’t want to go on too long (I’m looking at you, Dexter — you could’ve finished with Season Four, dropped the mic and been remembered as the BEST show ever!). Going on too long leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths, polluting the memory of a beloved franchise and its characters.
You also don’t want to end too early, when your fans are still clamoring for more of the magic to continue or there’s still so much left to explore (most great BBC shows — why must you all end so prematurely?).
For me (Dave), the measure of when to end a series is simple. I ask: are there still mysteries to explore? When the mystery leaves, the magic is gone. It’s one of the reasons I think a lot of shows overstay their welcome. We’ve seen it all, and now you’re just moving pieces around a chessboard.
We never want any of our series to feel like that.
There must be a compelling mystery or great character developments to drive the story. We aim for both, by the way!
Originally, my plan was to end Yesterday’s Gone at Season Three. But somewhere along the way, I realized there was no way to do what we wanted with the characters in such a short amount of time. So we decided on six. It was a nice even number, and it allowed us to really explore the story the way we wanted to — in a story told over two trilogies.
Part of the reason we wanted to go six seasons was because we’d barely scratched the surface of Boricio by Season Three. We knew early on that Boricio was more than his beginnings.
We also love a challenge, and wanted to do something insane with Boricio. Build him as the most despicable character in the series (or any series, judging from some reactions), then tear him down, turning him into this heroic, tragic figure. I think this really started to take shape with the introduction of Other Boricio and Other Luca, which we explored in Season Three. When you realized how all of this Darkness was initially unleashed — as an act of desperation and love, really, it made the story something special to us.
One of our original plans was to almost reverse Boricio and Luca’s roles, turning Luca into the main bad guy of the series with The Darkness inside him. We’d also considered having Boricio kill himself in order to save the world.
Well, I thought about it. Sean never wanted to kill Boricio!
But as we were writing Season Five, Luca fought me during the draft stage. Turning him into the main bad guy felt forced and untrue to the character’s development. And it totally negated a lot of the stuff we’d set up with Will Bishop. So, he remained a force of good, which I think was the right choice.
We also thought of a better ending for Boricio.
No, he’s not dead. Instead, he continues on, but as an entirely different kind of monster than he started out as. In many ways, this is a fitting punishment for his prior sins — make him care about people so much, then exile him to a life away from them, because of the monster inside him that he must be vigilant against.
We also wanted to give Mary a happy ending. She’s been through a lot of shit! How many times did Paola die? And we wanted her to be happy — but it had to be believable. And she had to go through hell to get there. I think we succeeded there.
Brent is one of those characters that started off as a main character — an everyman you could experience The Event through, but as we discovered the story, he became less important to the overall narrative. Plus, as some people (mostly Sean) said, Brent was kind of a wimp.
I don’t see Brent as a wimp at all. I think he’s a realistic portrayal of a regular guy when shit hits the fan. He’s scared of losing his son, and that fear causes him to think things through, rather than going off half-cocked like some Billy Bad Ass. But the thing about being overly cautious is that it begins to weigh on Brent. He feels a pressure to do more, to step up. When everyone he loves is suddenly thrust into danger, the stakes become even higher. I think he rises to the occasion, even if he’s not Ed Keenan.
We also thought it would be cool to bring back a few fan favorites for the finale — Will, Charlie, and Callie. And their return had to come in a unique, believable way. That was one of the tougher sequences to get right. I hope we pulled it off. It felt great to have them back, even in only for a moment or two. Charlie’s prologue chapter begins exactly the same as his opening in the very first episode, just to bring things full circle — and hint at the purgatory like existence he (and the others) were living inside of The Light (inside of Luca).
And perhaps most important this season was that we finally revealed the origin of The Darkness (and The Light), unfolding the last mystery of this story. I like the trajectory of The Darkness as a collective — even when it was divided against itself in Season Five, different beings wanting to achieve their ends in different ways. This season, The Darkness has not one, but two foes — our survivors of October 15, 2011, and the very aliens that created it in their likeness, touching on a bit of the Artificial Intelligence as self-realized life theme. In many ways, The Darkness is actually the hero of this story. All it wants to do is fulfill its potential. If you look at it in a very scientific evolutionary way, man (and The Light and the aliens) are standing in its way — refusing to allow progress.
It’s important to us that the bad guys have goals which make sense to them. It makes for both a complex, and believable, narrative. Bad guys are rarely the bad guys in their own life’s story. And The Darkness wasn’t bad, even if it had grown arrogant and allowed human emotions to warp it.
So, what did YOU think of this series finale?
Feel free to email us at [email protected] and let us know. Or leave a review wherever you bought the book (preferably without spoilers) and let the world know.
We’ve already heard from quite a few readers who don’t want the series to end. Thank you. That means a lot to us. But all series have a lifespan and we never want Yesterday’s Gone to overstay its welcome. We like that you have a special place in your heart for our story, world, and characters. The worst thing we could do is take that for granted.
While we don’t currently have plans for more Yesterday’s Gone, I know enough never to say never.
If the right story came into our heads, we could be tempted back. And Boricio will definitely continue to appear in our Dark Crossings short stories. He’s already been in four, in case you’ve missed them. We’ve had lots of people ask for a Boricio spinoff series, too, which is just all kinds of awesome to feel that kind of love for our character. We’ve tossed a few ideas around, but it would have to feel perfect for us to want to write it.
So, what’s next for Sean and I?
We’re still writing WhiteSpace, Available Darkness, and ForNevermore. If you’ve not read them yet, you’re missing some of our best work. Especially WhiteSpace! We also have some cool new stories — standalone and series books — we want to tell.
In other words, we’ll go wherever the road takes us.
If you want to continue on this journey with us, just join our mailing list to make sure you’re always the first to know what’s next.
http://collectiveinkwell.com/be-a-goner
Thank you for reading,
David Wright (& Sean Platt)
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Sean Platt is co-founder of the Collective Inkwell and Realm & Sands imprints, children’s author under the pen name “Guy Incognito,” speaker, and author, with breakout indie hits such as Yesterday’s Gone, WhiteSpace, The Beam, and Unicorn Western, as well as traditionally published titles such as Z 2134 and Monstrous, published by 47North.
Sean is one-third of The Self Publishing
and The Worst Show Ever with co-hosts Johnny B. Truant and David Wright. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, daughter, and son.
Follow Sean on Twitter: http://twitter.com/seanplatt
* * * *
David W. Wright is the co-author of the Yesterday’s Gone, WhiteSpace, ForNevermore, Available Darkness, Z 2134, and Monstrous series as well as the Dark Crossings collections of short stories and the standalone books Crash, 12, and Threshold. He’s also a sometimes cartoonist.
He co-hosts The Self Publishing Podcast and The Worst Show Ever (formerly Better Off Undead) podcasts with author Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt.
David lives on the east coast with his wife, his 8-year old son, and the world’s most pooping-est cat.
He writes about Collective Inkwell stuff at:
http://CollectiveInkwell.com
He blogs about creativity, pop culture, and other stuff at:
http://DavidwWright.com
Connect with David at:
[email protected]
http://twitter.com/thedavidwwright
http://facebook.com/CollectiveInkwellPublishing
* * * *
::OUR OTHER BOOKS::
//SERIES//
Yesterday’s Gone: Seasons One - Six
WhiteSpace: Seasons One & Two
(Season Three coming soon)
ForNevermore: Season One
(Season Two coming soon)
Available Darkness: Season One & Two
Season Three Coming Soon
Z 2134 - Z 2136
Monstrous
//STANDALONE BOOKS//
12
Crash
Threshold