All Your Fates (Currently editing/updating)

Chapter 36: Of All The Worlds... ~ Carrie Cutforth

David’s POV

The moment I laid eyes on her, sitting cross-legged in the middle of this cage, I knew it was her: my Emma. The one I loved… the one I had been searching in other world’s to love me back. And even the ones that loved me, or had the opportunity for the seeds of attraction to grow to love me, did not stir me the way she did.

I think it was Fitzgerald who wrote something about being moved chemically by one more than anyone else ever met. And here she was: my Zelda.

She looked up at me and I felt my soul flame this body that wasn’t mine.

We stared at each other for a hard moment. I had no idea how to begin? How the fuck do you explain to someone you aren’t who they think they are before declaring undying love?

Finally, she rose from her position and walked towards me on two unsteady feet. The body was different, like the rest, subtle differences that only a mother could define. But it was her grace, her lithe, her power, her soul that made me understand this was her: the Emma of my world.

She stared in my eyes at me for a moment, and then slapped me across the face, hard.

Owwwwwww, I grimaced in pain. What could I have possibly done to deserve that? I took stock of all the worlds I had been in and grimaced again. Am I really an asshole in all the worlds? I could feel Atticus’s burning judgement behind me on my back.

She was watching my reaction, and seething without rage. But what she said next totally threw me.

“Admit you do not love me,” Emma said through chattering teeth. She looked exhausted, weary, a marionette tethered to a waning string.

“Emma—“ I began.

“Tell me once and for all: it was all lies,” she hissed.

“I can’t,” I cried, “I have only loved you. I love you.”

“LIAR!” she screamed and pushed me back forcefully. The guard took a step towards her to beat her with the butt of her rifle, but Atticus gently signalled for her to let it go.

“Emma,” I began, “This is impossible to explain, but you have to believe, you are the only one for me.” And one, and one and one and one and one, my mind echoed in the chambers of my empty skull.

Then she was upon me, caressing my cheek that was still stinging red. Her lips lit upon mine as she trembled, “Insisting you love me is the worst form of cruelty.” And then I crashed against her mouth as my head swam in a biochemistry I’ve rarely succumbed to before.  I could hear the walls of the room groan, as our bodies pressed against each other. The expression, the Earth moved under my feet sprang to mind.

And the whole time she was tasting my lips, soft and then eager and hard, all I could think was: This is wrong. She doesn’t love you, asshat. She loves him. She chose him.

Shuddap, David, my brain argued with itself, give a poor dog a bone, as I wrapped my arms around her small figure.

And before I had even finished the thought, Emma pulled away and looked at me with an accusing glare.

“David?” she asked weakly.

I tried to smile, but shame prevented me. Instead I cast my gaze to the floor.

“You are not him, I see,” Emma said softly more to herself than to me. Then she began to berate herself, pulling at her hair, “No no no no no no no! I cannot hold on any longer, I’m going to lose my grip. It is over, there will be no goodbye.”

The walls groaned again and warp and the floor began to shift, and then when I saw Atticus’s face, I realized he saw it too. This wasn’t just some kiss.

Emma’s POV

I knew something was off the moment I kissed him. This wasn’t my David. This was the David of this world.

I groaned inside: The David of this world was never yours. He is married with a child. He lied to you. It was all a trap to use you as the tool you allowed yourself to be.

My mind wove back to the last few weeks on the run. How he had been set for execution, when I jiggered into this world. How he seized upon the moment of my body’s destabilization to use me as a human shield then hostage. How we bonded during our voyage across the plains to join the resistance when he realized it was me who had returned and not the evil woman he had grown to loathe.

How we fell asleep night after night in each other’s arms while looking at the stars, and for the first time in my life I felt a sense of place. A sense of home.

That was all over the moment we joined the resistance, and he had me imprisoned—which must have been part of the plan all along.

But I wanted him to admit it. I needed him to admit it. So I could let go of this world and move on. I could never let go as long as he gave me hope.

And now all my seeking for closure had been closed off. Of all the worlds, why did he have to walk into this one, right now? Why this David, the one I never loved, could never love? Why did he come to me now and thwart my final goodbye?

I was too exhausted to hold on any longer, but my soul was adamant. I must see him, once more before I cross over. I had to know he did not love me or it would haunt me forever.

It was then I too noticed the walls of this cement cavern begin to warp and bend.

And then I felt The Presence.

The searching, the tingling. Like the string of a spider’s web trembling at the touch of its maker.

I looked to David, and he looked at me with the Oh, We’re in Deep Shit Now haw he always wore.

And then out of the walls three ancient figures melted through, as if springing from the Well of Fate. They each stepped towards me with their cowls and staffs from all directions but one: Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld.

//A/N

Hey guys, forgive the grammar and typos. I'm erring on the side of ramming the drafts through and then going back to edit as opposed to make you wait for perfection. ~C

If you are bored check out my novella with Immersive Fiction called Del's Diary on wattpad on my Carrie Cutforth account and be sure to like, comment, fan and follow!