The Lost Love Above | Elizabeth x (m) Reader!

The Lost Love

I could feel the pod sway as we breached the surface. It was a clear night outside, and the ink-black sky above us was covered in–

  "Thousands of doors," Elizabeth gasps. "Opening all at once."

The opening doors that I mistook for stars were bright blue-ish white, dotted the black in various circling sizes. The pod shifted, moving towards a sturdy lighthouse made of stone. Elizabeth was still awe-struck by the doors above us, however, and didn't seem to notice that we were again moving. "My god, they're beautiful."

I figured there was nothing to be afraid of, though. I took a breath in and looked up at her. It was, in every right, beautiful. To explain this, I would fail miserably. It is impossible to describe the dark ocean beneath an equally dark sky, but the contrast caused by the "doors" opening up above translated this unknown horror into a painting made by God– not a false prophet or unforgiving father.

We didn't just escape Columbia; the horrors of everything we've had to push through were now behind us. And at that moment, I thought it would be possible to get over everything. The luggage of life didn't seem so drastic or cumbersome.

Our "life pod," or whatever it was called, stopped at the stairs of the lighthouse. Elizabeth happily encouraged me to step out with her, and I did. I had no choice but to trust her with everything, much like she had to do with me when I first stumbled over her with Booker DeWitt.

A large golden door acted as a silent guard for the lighthouse; Elizabeth came over to it and fumbled with the lock. I watched her for a few seconds but eventually found myself looking outward again. I was still unnerved by the sea, but I had a grasp on myself now, so I could see all the beauty without the negative emotions nagging me.

  "It's no good," Elizabeth sighs. "Damn it. I thought once we were here, I could fully control it...I thought. After I talked and sent Booker to-"

She turned to face me, waving her hands around as she spoke, her frustration steadily increasing until a key appeared in her hand. I swallowed awkwardly. Wonders never cease to amaze me, and since I had no clue what was happening, I wouldn't start asking more questions. Floating City? Sure. Is there a city doing the opposite under the ocean? Yeah. Are keys now randomly appearing in hands? Just happened. I gesture at the door lazily. "Well, try it out."

Elizabeth unlocked the door, but I was the only one who opened it. My mind had already lusciously started to craft the outcomes on the other end. My journey inside a lighthouse was almost morbid, a teaser of what Booker and I would need to work through to complete our jobs. However, I was mistaken. Beyond this door was another ocean, with dozens of identical lighthouses on the other end. It was brighter here somehow, but I guess I should have concluded we WERE inside the lighthouse, but it wasn't confining us into some dainty spiral staircase of something else natural. This door was to another... dimension. It was brighter because of the vastness of new possibilities– lives, outcomes, futures...maybe even the past.

My eyes tried to take everything in, and I had difficulty comprehending it despite it being only two colors. One way or another, I started to understand this somehow, as memories returned to me steadily the longer I stood here with Elizabeth.

I looked at her differently, and when she looked back, I realized we've known each other longer than we both knew. I've loved her for years. She's loved me for years. Maybe a handful a year, even. We're not strangers to each other. "I know you," I tell her, and she smiles.

"These doors...they're a million worlds. All different and all similar. Constants and variables," she turns around and walks down a few stairs until we get to a dead end, but when she steps forward, the water ripples and makes a walkway for us. The stones are salty and wet but new and fully capable of keeping grounded.