Evolved [Book 2 of the Life Hearts Trilogy]

The Boogeyman - Blue

So... after all these months, we meet again.

"...I thought you were done with me."

I will not be until the demon Xornoth is done with your sister.

"What do you mean?"

While you are occupied by what I am about to do, he will distract Gemini Tay from finding a way to bring you back. He is one who wishes only for destruction and power. He blindly corrupts and destroys, while others use deals and strategy to get what they want. He is a fool, but he has his uses.

"You're behind this?!"

I may or may not be. The Listener has chosen a new representative, and we can't have that.

"What?"

In the meantime, enjoy seeing some of your friends again... there are three new additions to the punishment. They should add some... flavor.

"But why? What punishment? What did we do?"

I have said that Third Life would become a reality. I love to imagine the horror on your siblings' faces when they realize you are gone...

"No! What are you going to do to them?"

That is not your concern. It is theirs.

A feeling of dissolving and re-forming accompanied the next statement, as if the dream had shifted, but still I saw only blackness.

Last Life is not unlike the last dreamspace. But instead of every person possessing three lives and three lives only, you will be assigned a random number of lives from two to six. You will be able to transfer lives to one another by chanting a spell.

Like Third Life, when you descend to your final life, you will turn red and your goal will be to harm other Last Lifers. But unlike Third Life, you can be changed back to yellow if someone transfers a life to you. Once you turn red, all deals and alliances are over. Your only goal is to kill.

There is one more thing: one or more green or yellow names will be selected every so often. This person or people, called the Boogeyman, will have one task: kill one green or yellow name. If they fail to fulfill this task, they will be on their red name when the next Boogeyman is chosen.

I started to see a spruce forest above my head, then suddenly I drifted back into slumber.

You will watch this time.

"What?"

You will watch and experience the pain of betrayal, the Boogeyman Curse, and death from someone else's eyes. But be warned; if you interfere, you will join them.

"No, do it to someone else. Grian went through a lot of trauma last time, let him watch!"

He has angered us. He does not wish to watch. If he wishes to experience it, we will let him experience it.

Then I actually woke up.

I was in the spruce forest I had gotten a glimpse of before the second dream. But there was something different. The colors were more muted, and I looked like I was made of vapor.

Then I realized what had happened.

You may watch this time.

They meant I would be able to spectate Last Life without going through the things I had gone through in Third Life. I was already a ghost, which meant...

I willed myself to drift up. My feet left the ground.

Yep, I could fly.

I didn't know if it was a good or bad thing.