Just Imagine...

Perfect Future

The night before Sam left for Cardiff, she visited TwoTone, the ancient alien seer with dark green skin and messy white hair. She looked distraught and confused and desperate to talk to someone.
"I have to ask you something." She said hurriedly when TwoTone turned to face her, the blue crystals - that matched those on The Lion's Breath - on their necklace softly clinking together.
"Ask away, my dear." TwoTone responded.
"I need you to give me a Star Card reading. A glimpse of my future."
"What for?"
"To make sure I'm doing the right thing - if I knew what I was doing! I just need help now, I can't make up my mind and I think I'm going crazy! Saint Lucia is my home, but... I don't know. Please, TwoTone."
"You do not have to ask, young one. Sit."
Sam and TwoTone sat on the rug like they had many times before, and TwoTone laid three old cards between them. "Choose one." They said softly. Sam did so, hands trembling.
"I don't think I can turn it over." She murmured.
"You must," TwoTone urged, "come on now, child. Be strong."
Sam inhaled deeply, nodding, and flipped the card over. On it was a faded image of a purple wolf holding a golden compass in its mouth.
"The Compass," she said faintly.
"It means that whatever you decide now is pointing you on the best possible path," TwoTone said, "what do you decide?"
"Do I have to choose by myself?" Sam asked, tears in her eyes.
"Yes," TwoTone answered, "but I must show you something first. Close your eyes."
Sam did as she was told and remained still as TwoTone rested their hands on her temples. Then the visions came.
Sam's head flared with pain as images of a future she didn't understand came marching in behind her eyes.
There were five people - including Jack - around her. A young man trying to overdose on pills. Jack crying alone. A gunshot and a man with a hole in his chest. A woman bleeding out from a wound on her stomach. The man with the gunshot wound in his chest burning in flames. The same young man as before in Jack's arms, gasping and choking on poison air as Jack begged him not to die, though it was already too late. Jack and a second woman weeping over the young man's body in a room full of body bags. And so much pain. Pain so immense Sam couldn't believe it wasn't her own and it was choking her.
Sam leaped back, pressing her back against the wall of the hut and sobbing as the world stitched itself back together around her.
"What did you see?" TwoTone asked in a tone that implied they already knew.
"It was terrible!" Sam gasped, "everyone died and they were crying and the whole world was just warped and broken and awful! I hate it! How do I change it, TwoTone?! I have to change it! I have to save them! There must be something I can do!"
Sam didn't know why she was suddenly filled with so much passion over people she didn't even know. All she knew was that her heart was breaking for these strangers, and all she wanted was to fix that vision.
"Do you want to see the other possibility?" TwoTone murmured. Sam took a steadying breath, then nodded slowly.
"I do," she said, "I have to. Show me what happens if I go with Jack."
"As you wish." TwoTone said, reaching their hands towards Sam. She closed her eyes and let the new vision come.
This one didn't hurt nearly as much.
Sam was standing by Rodney Quay next to a pretty yellow house with pink flowers out front, watching a car that looked like hers driving through the streets of Gros Islet. But... this was Saint Lucia. How could that be? The car - which Sam realized with a jolt was her car - pulled into the driveway of the yellow house, and Sam shuddered as an older version of herself got out. She was wearing billowy coral colored harem pants and a white crop top, and her hair, it had such a unique style - a messy bun tied most of it back, but some was hanging beside her face on the right side. Future-Sam strode up to the front door and rang the doorbell.
"Are you me?" Sam asked, walking up to this new version of herself, "what happened? Why are you in Saint Lucia? You... I... WE went to Cardiff! How many years has it been since Jack showed up here?"
If Sam's future self heard her, she wasn't listening. Sam reached out to touch her and her form flickered as her hand went straight through her. Sam yanked her hand back like she'd been bitten, while Future-Sam gave the tiniest shudder. Then a voice called from inside.
"It's open!"
Sam could've sworn she'd heard that voice before, but she wasn't sure where. Future-Sam opened the door and was greeted by three children, two girls and a boy, rushing up to her.
"Nauntie Sam! Nauntie Sam!" They exclaimed, ecstatic.
"Hey, squirts!" Future-Sam said, bending down to pick up all three children at once. They laughed and wiggled in her arms as she tickled them.
Sam noticed a picture on the wall - everyone from her previous vision was in it, as well as herself, all smiling and holding hands with a plane in the background. She didn't understand this. Did this vision mean everyone from the previous vision had survived? Because of her?
"Hiya, Sam, how's the family?" A man with a thick accent Sam didn't recognize asked Future-Sam as she set the kids back down on the floor.
"Ay, wonderful," Future-Sam murmured, "I would ask how yours is but I just got three armfuls of a clue." They both laughed heartily, and that was when an extraordinary woman appeared. She was the woman Sam had seen crying over the young man's body with Jack in her previous vision. But she wasn't crying now, she was smiling the most radiant smile, and Sam felt both her own heart and her future self's heart flutter inexplicably at the sight of her. Future-Sam grinned.
"Hi there, Lil' G." She said.
"Sam, I told you to stop calling me that." The woman laughed.
"Alright, alright, I'll be outta your hair in a minute," Future-Sam chuckled, "I just wanted to drop this off."
She held out a bottle of something that looked like wine but had a strange orange color to it, with a label that read "Ryder-Barone Brewery" on it. The man took it with a smile and a "thank you".
The vision faded slowly this time, but Sam wanted to hold onto it. The last thing she saw was Future-Sam turning to her and winking before saying "keep fighting, baby!" and vanishing forever.
Sam fell back against the wall again, gasping for breath.
"That's what happens if I go with him?" She asked TwoTone.
"It's a possibility," TwoTone answered, "not the most likely one, but the one I can see your heart desires most. But I must warn you; that future comes with a price. To get it, you will have to fight harder than you have ever fought in your life. There will be pain. There will be struggle. But at the end, there will be peace. Are you willing to take that path, dear child?" Sam shook her head.
"I don't know," she said, "I'm so confused. Tell me, what do I do?"
"That is for you to decide," TwoTone murmured, "do not think; just say what your heart tells you."
Sam closed her eyes for a second.
"I'm going to leave," she said determinedly, "I'm going to go to Cardiff... will I really ever come back?"
Instead of answering, TwoTone once again took three cards and placed them in front of Sam on the floor.
"Pick one." They said. Sam looked worried as she slowly selected the card in the middle.
"It's The Claws," she said, "meaning... rough times ahead, right?"
"Not just," TwoTone corrected, "The Claws are the Spirit Token of Saval, The Tigress, the Spirit of courage and overcoming hardship. They who wears her claws into battle will defeat any enemy and come out victorious."
"So does that mean I'll definitely come back?"
"It might. It means that in the end, you'll get what you want from this, even if the fight is long and painful."
Sam nodded again.
"Thank you, TwoTone." She murmured.