--
He just wanted to be normal. Let those damn Conduits take him away; as long as he wouldn't have to come back.
Tonight would be the night. The night he had planned for ever since he saw the Conduit. The night the only real person he knew was take...
All I remember about the water was that it was cold. Cold and dark. I expected, or wanted, to reach the ground with my feet. Maybe I'd have a chance at getting back up.
I knew how to swim. I knew how to tread my way back above the surface of the water. But I couldn't do it. Gravity, or some unforgiving force, was pulling me under.
And then I opened my eyes to absolute darkness.
-
I awaken in a field of flowers. A blanket of orange and yellow completely covering the ground underneath. I recognize most of the flowers; tulips, yellow roses, and the same sort of lilies from in that forest, except they weren't blue. Marigolds and chrysanthemums, sunflowers, daffodils.
I saw flowers everywhere around the castle, of all colours, of all sizes and types. The gardeners always took special care of them, even though I always thought they were just wasting their time.
Flowers die quickly, so what was the point of taking care of them until then?
Looking at the individual petals of all the plants around me makes me realize just how beautiful flowers are. Maybe it was worth living a short, but worthy life where people cared before you inevitably passed.
But it was too late for me to consider that now.
A figure reveals themselves in the distance. Their back faces me, so I can't exactly tell who it is. They wear a white jacket, their hair fading into a faint pink.
Could it be?
I don't want to jump to conclusions, so I decide to try calling out to them.
"Who are you?"
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They turn their head toward my voice, their solemn gaze lifting into a shocked one when we make eye contact.
"I'm Jake."
He strides through the flowers as if he was wading across a pond. Once he reaches me, his expression goes soft, and a desperate hope is laced in his voice as he asks me the one question that will either make or break him.
"Is it really you, Drew?"
After all these years, I wanted him to forget. Forget about the person who did nothing to help him. Forget about the boy who led him here so long ago, never to come back.
"Yeah... it is."
He embraces me in a tight hug, a sigh exhaled through his nose. "I've missed you."
He hasn't aged a bit since that day. The top of his head only reaches to my chest, and I nuzzle my nose in his hair. He smells of the flowers around us.
"Me too."
-
Hailey's POV
-
I watch Drew as he sinks below the surface, never to be seen again.
I tighten my grip around the lily they handed me just moments prior, Jake's soul essence hovering around the closed bud.
It was time for me to suffer the final consequence of my actions.
It's in our nature to be cold beings, both physically and emotionally. The most I was with everyone, the most everyone was with each other, we were all just acquaintances. We worked together to live and survive under the same roof, and that was it.
Maybe it was the lilies. They sucked the soul out of a human, it would make sense that they'd suck the souls out of us too. We barely smiled, and when we did, they were for the humans.
Even though I knew this, it still hurts every time I get made fun of, when I get judged for my failure.
Perhaps this was for the best.
I look down at the crystal clear water below my feet, a single ripple expanding from a point in the lake every now and then. It looked so harmless. Like it could put anyone into a state of total peace.
Though that's exactly what it does.
The lake was waiting for my arrival, letting me in.
"Say your farewells, Austin," someone announces to me.
I pluck the glowing orb off of the bud, chucking it in Lake Lethiferous. Some of it evaporates into a glowing steam, some of it crumbling in the water.
I turn my head back to the so-called family of mine, the conduits who would probably give me away the first moment they got. What did I have to say to them?
"Good luck with Jake."
And finally, I jump in,
Ending the story that's been written for me.
Ending all the good, all the bad, and all the stuff inbetween this life of mine.
I can only hope that Jake writes his story better than I did.
