-Open-

I was supposed to die today.

There was a light shining on my face.

Was Hell supposed to be this bright?

I opened my eyes more, and saw the sky. I realized the ground I was on was hard. I was in a dark basement just a minute ago. Now I was outside. Was this heaven? Was that one good deed my redemption?

Was I going to see Charlotte again?

I tried to remember.

The four of them stood with the Madame. The Fox masked one seemed confused. The Bunny masked one seemed amused. Grayson vowed I’d pay for what happened to Lavender.

Seraphine asked if it really was me. She knew immediately, even though I was unrecognizable. She seemed to speak louder, but there was that same defeated look in her eyes from when I was still around.

For a moment I didn’t want to pull the lever. If it guaranteed the deaths of everyone in this room, it wouldn’t feel right making her pay too.

And then I rationalized the possibility of calatoral.

The Madame would die if I did this.

The Black Crusaders would die if I did this.

Amaris was no longer part of my life.

I would never see Charlotte again.

Lav would forever torment me.

I had nothing.

I needed to die.

Once we were all dead, I figured, perhaps our mortal suffering would cease, and maybe then we’d finally have peace. If we wanted it.

I finally stood up.

I made an attempt to observe what the afterlife looked like. I still felt like- me. I had hoped once I died, I’d be my normal self again. Instead it appeared I was still trapped in this useless, pathetic physical form.

I saw.

Tall, rectangular buildings, veering over tons and tons of people. Unnatural vessels for transportation. There was no grass. The roads were black. Once my ears finally stopped ringing, all I could hear was noise.

I would realize that I was in fact still alive.

Pulling the lever of their prototype was supposed to be dangerous. The odds were supposed to be in my favor, killing everyone.

But if you know who I am, then you’d know said odds have scarcely been kind to me. I screwed us all. Big time.

I opened the portal.

Now trapped in a strange place.

No longer human.

SO I HOPED FOR A MIRACLE. IT WAS ALL I HAD LEFT.