What Happens Afterward

the werewolf was you

the werewolf was you

"Are you sure you want to tell people like this?" Ashley asked as I stepped out of the capitol building.

"They need to know."

"Aren't you afraid that Linus fellow will take advantage of this situation?"

"He will either way, might as well be open about it right now than hide the truth forever."

"We'll keep working on figuring out a solution," Felix said, "please let them know that."

I nodded, and began my journey to the square we all had met at several times before.

"DONT TRUST A WITCH" signs were scattered across the entire way, some of them featuring gruesome imagery of me being injured, but I pushed my worries down and pressed on. Already on stage were two of those Asset Protection guards carrying large polymer rifle-gripped weapons with drum magazines. "We'll keep things under control," one of them said.

"Hopefully you don't need to," I replied.

"Eh, we'll see," the other said, lining up an arbitrary part of the crowd in the weapon's sights.

"Thank you all for coming out today," I replied, "I have to let you know how things are progressing with returning access to Earth and its telecommunications infrastructure, and at the present moment... there is a problem. I asked the town library to prepare a projector for one very particular reason."

I connected the camera device Ashley had let me borrow and opened the photo gallery. "This here... is the Earth. When your world collapsed into the afterward only a week ago, it did not take an instant. To be completely honest, it took about a century for you all to be reclaimed into the universe in some way, and as a result the Earth you once knew is gone."

There was commotion from the crowd over this, and someone tried to rush the stage, only to get pushed back by one of the guards. "Please know that I have been working with two people knowledgeable about your rift technology and they are looking for alternative locations for you to emigrate to with that knowledge in mind," I said. "At the moment, our options are to track down a space colony of displaced humans and make contact with them, to connect to your universe's most direct parallel universe and displace you there, or for you to remain in the afterward as a permanent residence. There will not be space concerns with the latter, I guarantee, but we are looking for alternatives, no matter what."

"How un-leader-ly-like!" a voice called from the crowd as they walked onto the stage.

Of course it was Linus.

"This doesn't involve you," I reminded the man.

"That's what you think," he sneered coldly, before returning to the crowd. "The witch is keeping you all hostage! Why, just the other day I returned to the Earth! It was lovely! Everything is fine, and fixed, and if I become the Resident Sage of the afterward, you are all free to return and enjoy a life of luxury! Everything is perfect!... Except for the sad Portland-and-Norwich-shaped holes in everyone's hearts! They need you back, and... they just won't let you return! That's truly horrible!"

"But what about the pictures?" someone in the crowd asked.

"Clever manipulations! They aren't real!"

"I know what I saw, Linus," I seethed.

"You saw paradise, and you lied to these people!"

"Linus, what do you get from lying to people?"

"What do you get for lying to people and also lying to them about whether you're giving them the truth?!" Linus replied.