Epilogue

Epilogue 1.13

     Gradually, I start to recognize things again. Make sense of the images. The moments start to cycle more rapidly as my consciousness sputters back to life.

     I've got an itch, only it's in that part of me that got scooped out, the part of me that I couldn't reach even if I clawed through to my own centre. My fingers grab for something, anything to bash my head in with. Failing that, I decide to scratch my throat until I tear it open and bleed to death. But before I can to that, Gail notices that I'm awake and kisses me. Contrary to popular belief, that doesn't fix anything; all I can concentrate on is the itch and the piece of me that's missing.

     After a while, I do get used to the itching though. And then I'm able to get a look around. Not that there's anything to see. We're back in the nothing. Right back where we started. Like some sort of sick joke. Gail lets go of me and I just hover there. We all just sort of hover there.

     "Welcome back," says Comma. Her ears—the pointy ones—twitch when she looks at me. Mental note: find out more about that later.

     "I'd prefer it if you didn't contaminate my vessel," says Gail. Her eyes look funny when she says it. Then her expression shifts to one more familiar, and she scowls. "I ain't your vessel. This is only temporary, until we find you a new body. Anyone here know origami?"

     Something claws at the back of my mind. I'm forgetting something important...

     Whatever it is, it'll have to wait. A quick scan of our current place that's not really a place tells me everyone made it out alive, except for...

     "Tahj. He—"

     Comma shakes her head. "He's gone, and that's that. We don't have the luxury of mourning the dead. Not anymore." She toys with something in her hands—her toque, only it's all shredded up.

     "Fancy finding us another rip before the glowdarks show up?" asks Mya.

     They all stare at me expectantly, as if I'm about to bust out some miracle. But all I can sense is a whole lot of nothing. Not that I'm eager to get that familiar tugging feeling in my gut; something tells me that'd be pretty damn painful right about now.

     "You can't sense them anymore, can you?" Comma crosses her arms.

     I blink, and even that hurts like hell. "What do you mean?"

     "I mean Selina sucked out a piece of your soul," she says. "She took your powers."

     Selina? Oh, right, the impostor. The missing piece starts aching again. I swear I can still feel her cold fingers squeezing my heart.

     "Phantom pains?" Comma smirks. "Join the club. She drained me as well."

     Topher clears his throat. "I think I have the monopoly on phantom pains, no?"

     So where does that leave us? If I can't rip anymore... we're as good as dead. It's only a matter of time before the glowdarks catch our scent. And when they find us, we'll have nowhere left to run.

     "I'm still here, right?" I say. Barely here, sure, but still here. "She clearly didn't take all of my soul. Maybe that means I've still got some of my powers. Maybe I can still open a rip."

     "You can't open a rip if you can't find one," Comma points out. Always with the logic.

     "So you do it. Use that transmitter thingy."

     Comma's eyebrow twitches. "I don't have that transmitter thingy. You didn't give it back to me; you gave it to Selina. Who, for the record, is nothing like me. How exactly is it that you weren't able to tell the difference?"