A cool draft slips down my shirt making me shutter. The eerie feeling after its collapse made us stand there in silence. Lily, the tanker of our group, clenches an amulet and drops to her knees. Sobbing. Leo, the priest, begins tearing up and rubbing his eyes furiously trying to hide his tears from us. Lucas, the leader of our group, looks towards the sky and doesn’t move. He stands over the corpse and a couple of flies land on him, but this however, does not cause him to flinch in the slightest. He stares into the sky with an almost vacant, yet cheerful expression. As for me, I find a stable rock near the area and sit down, while wrapping bandages around my abdomen. I stare at everyone with a blank expression. No thoughts enter my mind as I take this chance and touch my temple. A status screen opens with all my skills appearing. Two new skills and the title “Savior” appear, but I close the window as Lily stands up and looks at us.
“We did it,” she says in tears. “We finally killed God.”
Night falls. Everyone is laughing and eating roasted meat. I try to laugh with the rest of my party, but there’s something unsettling eating at me. Like a centipede gnawing on a cockroach. I can’t hide it anymore as Lucas turns around and stares. Through the corner of my eye, I see Lucas leaning in for a closer look on my dumbfounded expression.
“Well that’s a first. What’s wrong?” He asks with a puzzled look on his face as well.
“Nothing in particular, there’s just… I don’t know. I can’t quite put my finger on it,” I reply.
I feel everyone stare at me as anxiety begins to creep over their faces.
Lily interjects, “What are you talking about! We just killed God over here and you’re just-”
“I know. It’s just…” I take a long pause and hold my breath. “What now?” I reply. My hands gripping my staff, almost breaking it.
The other members look at each other in confusion as silence consumes us. Lucas looks at me and tries to say something, but immediately closes his mouth and tightens his fist, raising both hands so that they are now covering his mouth. Lily caresses her amulet between her thumb and index finger while Leo begins to carve symbols on the dirt with his foot.
“You’re right… What now?” Questions Leo, still looking down at his blood stained shoes.
“We can try looking for survivors. I mean… who knows, maybe a couple of people were able to escape underground or… or maybe they weren’t touched by the hands.” Lucas states in a reluctant manner. Swallowing his pride and belief as he utters these sentences.
“No. There’s no way anyone else could have survived. We were the strongest people out there, and we only just barely managed to survive his hands. And even then, it took us a couple of months to get back to full health and well… There was literally no one.” I state with a somber expression. I tilt my head up and notice a translucent gate stationed in our atmosphere. The gate itself spans almost the whole sky, yet the darkness of the night almost consumes it, but somehow, someway, it’s visible. What everyone thought was heaven at one point in time, ended up being everyone’s worst hell.
The rest of the members look up too.
Lily is the first to look back down. “I can’t believe it’s been eight months since the gates opened,” she states. She pushes her hair out of her face and tucks it behind her ear. A dark smudge is left on the top of her ear as her dirty finger grazed it.
A cool wind envelops us which would have left us shivering if not for the fire that I created at the start of this. Some embers jump out of the fire, reminiscent of the great jump. A mass suicide where thousands of self-immolations and jumps occurred at the same time. Lucas and Leo are still staring into the night sky with blank expressions, while Lily is staring at the flame, lost in thought. I take a deep breath and resolve myself.
“I have a couple of ideas if you want to hear them?” I state in a confident manner as to not worry them. Everyone is now staring at me as they begin to nod one by one. “We can travel the country and look for survivors, but I’m pretty sure we all know how that’s going to end, or we…” I hesitate to finish my words. “Or we can all go to sleep.”
They look at each other in befuddlement until Lucas speaks up, “Sleep? I don’t understand, we’ll just wake up the very next day and be in the same situation as today. What does holding off our decision for the next day even accomplish?”
Leo grabs his shoulder gently and shakes his head and softly says, “Suicide.”
I look at Lucas as his eyes widen at the mear mention of the word suicide, but I swiftly interject. “Actually, it’s more of a spell. One that I never showed anyone because of how inhumane it is.”
“What’s the spell?” Asks Lily.
“It’s sort of a sleep spell that makes you forget who you are and gives you an illusion of my choosing. You’ll be in a state bordering death, but in a state of paralysis,” I reply almost immediately.
“How’s it inhumane though?” Questions Leo after a couple of seconds of silence.
“You don’t age when you’re asleep, neither do you need food or drinks to keep you alive. I can make you live the worst day of your life or your happiest.” One of my fingers begins to glow as I clench my fist, and the light disappears. “Not only that, but a person under my sleep spell can never wake up unless I undo it, and the only way to break the spell is with my death.”
Everyone looks at each other in morbid curiosity, but I notice their faces light up ever so slightly. Lucas even smirks a little bit.
“And how will the dream work?” Asks Lily.
“I could either let you live day by day within a happier world. No hands of god, no death, no fear. Only you and whatever you want. Or, you can choose your happiest moment in life and keep reliving it.” I reply swiftly.
“But won’t we get tired of repeating the same dream over and over again?” Leo asks.
I shake my head slowly and say, “You’ll live your happiest moment, and by the end of the day, you’ll forget everything that happened and go back to the beginning of that same day. You’ll be stuck in that same loop without even realizing it.”
“I’m in,” says Lucas as he looks over to Leo and Lily. “I mean think about it guys, we can wander around the country, trying to survive, or we can live happily without a care in the world. We’re all in our mid forties already. We’ll slowly begin to lose our power over time and eventually die due to some heart attack.”
“Do you think you can give me a minute? I need to think about it for a second,” replies Leo.
“I’m in” says Lily as she stands up still holding onto the amulet around her neck. She opens it up and stares deeply into it.
I look over to Leo, “I’m planning to put myself to sleep right after everyone, and once I do, that’s that. You’ll be stuck living by yourself for the rest of your life. Do you really want to go through that?”
Leo lets out a heavy sigh, “I guess I got no choice,” he says while rubbing his bald head. “Do you mind if I go first then?”
Everyone shakes their head.
“Not at all,” I reply. “Lay out your blanket on the ground and lay down.”
Leo opens his backpack and unravels a brown, torn up blanket and extends it on the ground. It’s not entirely unfolded however, as wrinkles and clumps are visible even in the small bit of light that we have. This doesn’t matter to him however, as he lays down. His ankles are peeking out and resting on the dirt, instead of the blanket. I approach him and get on my knees. The tip of my finger begins to light up.
“Give me about two minutes,” I state.
We all sit there in silence as my party members are observing me.
“So,” I say softly, trying to break the silence. “What do you want to be when you’re in the dream?”
“I want to stay a priest,” he replies.
Lucas speaks up from behind me, “Are you sure about that?”
“Yeah, we literally dedicated so much of our time trying to kill God and you just want to return back to being an ignorant priest!?” She replies in a cold, yet heated manner.
“I want to go back to being a priest, not because I want to be ignorant or can’t handle the truth, but rather, I want to see my village again. I want to see Petra helping out the homeless again, I want to taste Madam Oakley’s food once again, I want to see everyone from my village once again. They meant the world to me and… If I can see them one more time, then, I don’t care if I’m a priest,” replies Leo.
“You know, I can give you all that and not make you a priest.”
“No. It’s fine. This is a sin I have to bear,” he replies. “Thank you so much for everything. I really love you guys.”
Tears roll down his smiling face as my finger touches his forehead. The light makes everyone, but myself squint as the light only grows brighter. He slowly closes his eyes and says, “Thank you so much… Lu-”
He falls asleep.
I close my eyes with him only to be standing in front of a large fountain. There are several pennies lying at the bottom as more people throw in coins. Leo passes me, but doesn’t recognize me as his attention is on an elderly woman. He’s holding three bags of food and looking directly at her as they talk. A young boy runs to him and extends his arms out in a hugging position. Leo hands the child a bag as they walk into the distance.
I stand up and rub my wrist out of view from everyone. I turn to them with a forced smile on my face and ask, “So, who’s next?” They both look at each other and eventually Lily raises her hand slowly.
“Sorry Lucas. Looks like I’m going on ahead,” Lily says.
“It’s fine. As the leader, I need to watch you guys off don’t I?” He says with a smile on his face.
Lily grabs a blanket and neatly places it onto the ground a couple of feet away from Leo. She stares at him and smiles. After placing the blanket down she stands up and hugs Lucas tightly. She lets go and then hugs me.
“Thanks. You’re the best,” she says with a smile on her face.
She quickly lays down and as I’m kneeling next to her, she takes out her amulet and opens it. She stares at it for the longest time and eventually closes it as she sees my finger light up. “Can you set me back to when I was sixteen,” She asks, “I want to make everything right this time at an early age. I want to spend more time with all my brothers and sisters.”
“Of course.” My finger lights up as I slowly set it onto her forehead.
“I’m finally going to be able to see my brothers and sister again! I-” she says, choking on her own words. “I really miss them.” She grabs a hold of my finger just before I’m about to touch her forehead. “I long since wanted to hold their hands again, eat with them, play with them.” She says with tears flooding out. “I- I- I wasn’t always the best sister to them. In fact, I had no idea where they were being sold to and because of that…” She bites her lips. “If only I had known… Thank you! Now my last memory of them won’t be just me holding their corpses. Really… Thank you so much!”
I touch her forehead and the light engulfs us for a brief second. She calms down and smiles. Her eyes slowly shut as her tears began to dry. I close my eyes as well.
A run down orphanage is seen in a field of flowers. Lily is in the center of about ten children. All of them ranging from ages five to thirteen. Some of them are holding hands and running around in circles, while others are sitting on a bench. Everyone with smiles on their faces. She stands up and all the kids scatter as she begins chasing them down one by one. Even the children who were sitting on the bench stand up and hide. With the older kids she tags them almost immediately, but feigns ignorance when it comes to the younger children.
A little girl runs up to me and says, “You’re not going to play with us mister?”
I shake my head and crouch down. “I’m only here visiting. You should go back and hide before Lily finds you,” I say.
“Okay!” She replies swiftly and begins to run back to the orphanage.
“Hey!” I call out to the little girl, not realizing what I had just done. She stops and turns around. “Tell Lily I said thank you for everything. Tell her… Tell her I love her. I wish I could have told her sooner, but I didn’t want to distract us.”
The little girl smiles. “Ok!” She turns around and runs towards Lily who scoops her up into her arms. She taps her shoulder and points to me while relaying the message to her. Lily blushes and looks over to me who smiles and waves.
She places the little girl down and looks up, only to see nothing but trees and flowers.
I open my eyes and see Lily sleeping soundly next to Leo. Lucas has his blanket set down next to hers, but with a large gap in between for my blanket. He is sitting directly in front of the fire as he looks over to me and says, “I guess it’s my turn next huh?”
I nod.
“You know, as the leader of the group, I always wanted to look after everyone. I held myself responsible if any of you got injured,” he says. Lucas stands up and slowly walks over to his blanket where he sits down and looks over at me. “You’re not gonna set up your blanket? I even left you that space next to Lily.”
“Was it that obvious?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “You said love when you had your eyes closed. I just connected the dots from there,” he says.
I chuckle a bit. “I’ll do it after you fall asleep,” I answer, while trying to avoid eye contact.
“Sure. Whatever makes you happy,” he replies.
He lays down with his hands behind his head and looks at the night sky with the translucent gate.
“You know,” he says, “I’ve lived a terrible life even before the hands of God came… I drank everyday and caused my wife so much pain. Once my son came into the picture however, everything changed. I sobered up for a couple of years and dedicated my time training him into the next master swordsman… A little too much,” he says with sadness slowly creeping over his face. “I took him for granted and forced him to train everyday. He hated fighting though, and would rather spend his time reading a book under a nice tree. He had no talent for fighting, but deep down, I wanted to believe it was there. Deep down, I wanted to believe he was going to become a better me. I mean, he was my son after all. Tears roll down his face as a small whimper escapes him. “I gave up on him! I went back to drinking, and beat him almost everyday! I didn’t know how much I loved them until they were gone and I- I was…”
I place my finger onto his forehead and say, “I know.”
He wipes his tears. “Thanks Lucky” he replies. Lucas smiles as I close my eyes along with his.
I’m standing under a tree with a makeshift wooden swing hanging from it. The smell of lavender and roses is the first thing I notice however as rows of lavender and different colored roses are lined up on the outside of their crops, sort of as a decoration. There’s a small, humble house in the distance as Lucas is carrying his son in his arms. Lucas’s wife comes out of the living room and begins to play with them. They all have the biggest smiles imaginable as their son laughs. Lucas turns to me and signals for me to come on inside. He continues to wave his hand until I shake my head. He hands the baby over to his wife and I lose sight of him for a moment as he steps behind the door to open it. Once open however, only flowers remain as he looks around searching for me.
I stand up and look over at everyone’s sleeping faces. The fire is almost out as the last bit of the flame dances violently. Resisting the wind. I sit down in front of a rock and my finger begins to glow. I press it to my forehead and close my eyes…
Nothing.
I open my eyes and stop the glow from my finger. I take a deep breath and curl up into a ball. I stare at the happy faces of my former party as the fire slowly dies down. My savior, my love, and my best friend.
“I hate you guys.” I mumble.
The flame dies out as I curl up even more into a ball. My head is pressed into my lap to stop my tears from coming out, but it doesn’t work. A chill runs down my back as the heat from fire is no longer there to keep me warm. I should have stayed quiet, I think.. I tap my temple and a list of skills appear. Under the “New Skills” tab I see “Magic nullification” and “Immortality”.
“I hate you guys.”
