For Shits and Giggles [2024]

Chapter 44: The Final Chapter

Gracie was floating. There was no ground below her, nothing above her or to her sides. Her body felt light. Ethereal.

"So be it," suddenly, she heard a voice. Gracie looked around for the source, but all there was was darkness—an endless sea of black and nothingness. The voice came again, seemingly from nowhere, and everywhere, both at once, "The deal is undone."

"Holy shit," a second, more familiar voice. This time, the voice came from her right side. Gracie turned her head toward it, but she couldn't see anyone. Or anything. Many more voices erupted around her and she was lost. Some were crying, others were laughing or cheering.

"Deal, what deal," asked one.

"I can't believe it," said another.

"What is that," and another.

"Are we flying?"

"God?"

"Where are we, what is this?"

"Do you see that?"

Ah.

So the world hadn't plunged into darkness, this darkness belonged uniquely to her. Gracie lifted her hands to her face, trembling, and felt the hollows of her eyes. Empty. There was no pain, no pleasant or unpleasant sensations anywhere on her body. She felt nothing, was nothing.

"Holy shit," said the familiar voice again, closer to her now.

Gracie turned her head toward it, "Felix? Is that you?"

"I can't believe you did it," he said. She held her arms out and felt around, her body still floating heedlessly in the unknown. She felt two hands grab her shoulders, and then a thumb was on her cheekbone. Felix felt just below her eye socket. "You actually... you did it."

"What's going on," she asked, holding onto him tightly, confirming to herself that she still had a body.

"I am rewriting the laws of your town," the voice answered her instead. There was gasping from all directions.

"Who is that," Gracie asked, pressing her body closer to Felix, terrified.

"It's the Witch," he whispered. "She's here. Everyone's here."

"Tomorrow you will wake up," said the Witch. "And life will be as it was before me. You will know permanent death."

More cheering. More sobbing.

"Why," asked one voice, "Why us?"

"Because I was invited," the Witch said, "By one of your people."

"I didn't know," Felix yelled, incriminating himself to the rest of the town. A slew of cursing and jeering fell over them like a heavy, wet blanket. But there was also clapping, whispers of admiration.

"I didn't know! I just wanted to live."

"And so you lived," the Witch grinned. "You lived many times. As did everyone else in your home."

"This isn't what I wanted..." Felix choked out. "This isn't what I meant!"

"You made a deal with me, and your life was spared. In my benevolence, I allowed you a way out. It was your choice."

"It wasn't... it wasn't so simple. You tricked me!"

"But it was that simple," said the Witch, "It was you who prolonged your suffering. You knew the way out, you knew what trade had to be made. But you found joy in punishing the people around you."

Felix said nothing.

"So that's it," Gracie found herself saying, "Just like that... the trade was made, you have my eyes. Now what?"