Skye is dead.
How she perished is a mystery. All she knows is that she is trapped in After, a makeshift city of souls surrounded by infinite darkness and terrifying monsters that tear ghosts apart.
But while all other ghosts accept the eternity of...
I parted from them, carrying their Light in my hands in a glowing, humming orb.
The acolight leader fell to her knees before me and raised her open palms to the twilight sky. "We...we are free!" A wave of rejoicing spread across the whole crowd.
I laughed, too, and joined in the celebration, but I froze when the orb escaped my grasp. Everyone yelped and ducked out of the way while the orb shot upward into the sky, high above the city. "Shit! Sorry! Still kinda new at this!"
The sun spat another chain of lightning, but this time, unlike all the other flashes, a roar of thunder had everyone ducking and covering their ears. The lightning struck the orb, making it pop like a firework.
Where the Light had exploded, a white portal suspended in the air spiraled below the sun. Inside its swirling black hole of a maw, stars swam around and around and around before finally disappearing into its vortex.
"Um. Skye," Vale said. "What is that thing?"
We exchanged dumb-founded expressions.
"Let's go find out," I said.
She and I left the hollows behind and climbed up a crooked metal tower-all that remained of our old pylon. The portal hummed just above it, within reach, and it was like I had an entire galaxy at my fingertips. I touched the portal and my fingers slipped inside. Stars swam through my fingers. Then my fingers began to vanish. I wasn't fading, I was...disappearing.
The surface of the portal rippled. Beside me, Vale had also reached out to touch the stars. But unlike me, she was unable to reach inside the portal, like there was an invisible barrier.
The rim of the portal glowed white-steady and strong. Like a halo. Like my halo.
"This is the answer to my question," I murmured to my companion. "Long ago, I'd asked you what's next for all of us. And this is it. Albrecht made this."
"Albrecht? Blackburne's son?"
"Right, right. Remind me to fill you in about the nebula later." I beamed at Albrecht's creation. "This is our way out of this place. We just need to be whole again to go through it."
Was it scary?
Yes. Absolutely.
But taking that first step into the unknown was meant to be frightening. That was how you knew you were on the right path.
Everyone in After now had a choice.
Vale pulled my hand from the stars, her grasp steady and strong. Her skin...soft and warm. "So. How does it feel being whole?" she asked, turning over my intact hand in her palms.
My eyelids fluttered. A warm breeze kissed my skin. The mingling scents of ashes and dust and sunlight filled my soul with every breath. I laughed. And seeing Vale's startled, beautiful face filled me with as many stars as the sky above. I pressed my palm against hers and our fingers wove together."Why don't you find out?" I told her with a smile.
The tides had changed in After. Finally, whole, I grinned at the hollows and shadows watching us from below. "Everyone," I said. "Time to find your other half."
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