Deception | Alias Duology

Chapter Twenty: For the Rest of My Days

Taking my own watering can, I sprinkle water over the dirt and shake my head. "She did. But...maybe she deserved a chance. It sounded like she never got one."

With a huff, Wraith stabs the trowel in deep and heaves up a clump of dirt. "Some people are too far gone for second chances, Elias."

"Maybe." But Edison says otherwise. "But was she one of them?"

A frown scrunches her face and she goes back to digging another hole, carving huge gouges away with a ferocity that I don't bother pointing out we have no more plants to put them in. It's fine. Sometimes, that's what's needed.

Silence washes over us like the quiet hiss of sprinklers, and I lose myself to the soothing motions of caring for living things. Over the weeks since my return to End, I've found that plants don't care who you are, or what you've done, or even if you could destroy them with a single touch. All they want to be is loved.

And that's enough.

Eventually, some time later that I don't have a measurement to, Wraith sits back and sighs. "Thanks," she mumbles as she eyes the plant in front of her, "for offering me one of your chances."

I smile and nod. "Thanks for getting the heroes."

"Couldn't leave you to her clutches," she mutters.

"You didn't have to come."

Wraith sighs and shakes her head. "It's better than rotting in jail."

I wait for her, knowing her well enough that she'll continue to fill the silence.

She opens her mouth and a cough comes out with a little puff of dark grey smoke. Wincing, she pulls out a metal tube from a little pocket on her sleeve, unscrews the top, and blows into it, filling it with dark black smoke.

Carefully screwing the lid on before any of it escapes, she clears her throat and speaks. "I knew she was a puppetmaster of lies from the day I joined her. You live long enough where I grew up, you learn how to spot them quick." She pockets the tube. "I guess if you're starved enough, you don't care that that affirmation is a trick."

Her gaze finds mine and not for the first time, I am struck at the darkness hanging below her eyes. "I'm tired, Elias. I'm tired of being used. It was about time I did something for myself for once."

The words reach into my mind and resonate in the quiet, rolling banks of my blanked memories. I am tired too. Tired of struggling and fighting and being led around on a string. Tired of chasing the past and dreading the future and trying to make my own way with the scraps of self I have left.

I am tired of all this, and...it's about time I—we—start riding the waves instead of being tumbled underneath it. It's a struggle, readjusting to PowDown and healing up, and it's a long way to go. But I am happy to do it because it's the right way. It's the way I've chosen.

Perhaps, together, we'll learn how to walk the paths we're meant to take.

I take a breath. Two. And nod at her. "Yeah. Me too." We don't share a smile, or a nod, or anything else, but for now, simply being here, free from purple strings, is enough.

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When gardening hour is up, Edison and Wraith's guardian come to fetch us. I flash a smile at Wraith as I leave, and while she doesn't return it, she nods. It's enough. Smiles will come in time. I know they will.

As we walk away from the biodome, crossing the big OPEN AREA towards the halls that will take us back to the apartments, we pass people like me, shaped by the world and slowly clawing their way out of the boxes it put them in, and their guardians, friends, maybe even family in there somewhere. Some faces are hard and stoney, some are wrinkled and frown-filled, and some are scrunched in hidden pain. But as I look around, they are...not the majority. There's smiles, and laughter and lots of chatter that fill the empty space of the BIG ROOM and high ceiling.