The Greatest Power

Chapter 12 - I Don't Want to Live Without You

"Bea, what are you doing here? What the three of you are doing here?" Ava was startled to see that Camila and Yasmine appeared running right behind Beatrice.

"Ava, please... you don't have to do this." Beatrice spoke with a voice choked by the cry that rose in her throat.

Ava looked from Beatrice to Yasmine.

"Did you tell her?" Ava's tone was far more sad than an accusation.

"Look at me, Ava!" Beatrice claimed Ava's attention. "It doesn't matter how I found out, the important thing is that we managed to get here before you did that stupid thing! You can't really be thinking of doing this."

"It's the only way, Bea..."

"It is not! Even if it was, you can't end your life like that!"

Beatrice's desperate tone broke Ava. Pain washed over her, flooding her chest.

"I almost died yesterday when I saw you lying on the floor, unconscious, with that tarasc about to kill you. And that's no exaggeration, Bea... I can't even bear to think about it. I couldn't bear to see you die... I couldn't. And it's for you that I'm doing this. So you can live a full life, a long life... and safely. I cannot bear to live in a world where you are at risk because of me."

"And do you think I could bear to live in a world where you no longer exist?"

Beatrice's words took Ava by surprise. She was already fragile and hearing that from her beloved Bea broke her for good. Tears broke through her eyes, accompanying those that had already flowed down Beatrice's face since she entered that place.

Ava walked over to Bea and touched her face.

"I want you to live a beautiful life, Bea... and I put you at risk just by being around you."

"I don't care, Ava! I want to be with you, close to you... don't leave me here alone."

"You are not alone... I'm sure all the sisters love you and will take care of you... for me. Maybe it will be hard at first, but I need you to live... to be happy... to fall in love several times... to enjoy everything that life can give you... My beautiful Beatrice." Ava caressed Bea's face, wiping away her tears with her thumb.

"I don't want to live without you, Ava! I don't want to fall in love with anyone! I love you! Are you listening to me? I love only you!!"

"Please Bea... don't make this so much harder for me... I love you more than you can imagine and leaving you is the hardest thing I've ever had to do in this life."

The pain could be seen in Ava's teary eyes. It was clear to anyone who saw that she didn't want to go, but she felt that she needed to do this, that this was the only way to end this problem once and for all.

Beatrice then took a deep breath and declared.

"Then I'll go with you."

"What? No! No, you will not. You'll die if you go through the Arch, Bea... no! No way!"

"I will, Ava. I don't care what is going to happen. I'd rather perish on your side than live a miserable life here on this side without you."

Ava burst into uncontrollable tears upon hearing Beatrice's statement.

"I'll go, Ava. I'll go with you."

"Bea..."

"No! Don't try to change my mind. I won't be here without you. I won't!"

"And I don't want to go, Bea... I don't want to go. I want to be with you... I don't want to go. But-"

"So don't go! Stay with me."

Beatrice took Ava's face between her hands and brought her lips to Ava's. Once again it felt like a goodbye kiss, but Bea wouldn't let it be this time. Ava surrendered to that kiss so loaded with the pain of having to leave everything she wanted most, the love she couldn't live.

In the middle of the kiss, between the tears of the two that mixed on their faces, Ava began to feel strange, with shortness of breath. Her heart sped up and Beatrice realized that something was wrong with Ava.

"Bea... there's something wrong..."

Beatrice looked up and saw that the portal was beginning to have a little activity, like the beginnings of a brewing storm. She held Ava in her arms, intending to protect her with her own life if necessary, and felt that Ava's whole body was warm. Much hotter than it had ever been. No one could understand what was going on.

Then Ava sucked in a breath, like someone coming out of water after nearly drowning, feeling like something was sucking the life out of her body. There was a second when everything was absolutely silent. And then a surge of energy came out of Ava's body again, similar to what had happened the night before. That wave of energy pushed everyone away from Ava, making Bea unable to hold her anymore. It was like a very strong, continuous wave of air, and even if Bea tried to get close to Ava again, she couldn't. She was pushed back by the force of that wave that resembled hurricane winds.

"Ava!! AVA!!"

Ava was lifted off the ground by that wave, and she floated while a golden thread shot from her back through the Arch's small opening.

"Lilith, for God's sake!! DO SOMETHING!!!" Beatrice screamed in despair.

Lilith, like all the others who could only observe what was happening in astonishment, still tried to get closer to Ava, but the closer, the greater the wave that repelled her. No one could reach Ava.

The golden thread continued to leave Ava's body towards the portal, without anyone being able to do anything. The glow around Ava's body dimmed by the second. The Arch was making more noise by the moment as it consumed Ava's energy. And that noise was identical to what they thought to be what you would experience inside a tornado: deafening. Beatrice screamed nonstop, tried to get closer to Ava and couldn't, despair rising inside her chest.

Then the last gleam of that thread passed through the Arch. Immediately the sepulchral silence returned and the Arch imploded, becoming a heap of shards, with missing parts that had been sucked into the vacuum of the portal's implosion. Ava's body, just now suspended in the air, fell to the floor, inert, to Beatrice's complete desperation.