The Continuous

Part 1 Chapter 17: Mass

(WARNING, MENTIONS OF DEATH THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR READERS )

I grabbed Monica's hand and led the way to the row of chairs. There were a total of 11 chairs now. I sat on the second to last chair from the left side of Sa. I left the chair at the end for Monica who now looked very pale.

"Your original seats," Ahati said.

I eyed him angrily and got up, making my way to sit on the right side of Sa, following the order of families I sat right next to him. The right side of Sa was meant for the Red House and the left for the Blue House. The order that we would sit in from closest to Sa out, would be the wealthiest families to the least wealthy.

So on the right side it consisted of Me, Jake, Monica, Claire, and Mei, on the left side were Daneil, Noya, Eric, Micheal, and Fabolia. There were only nine families left from the original eleven.

"There don't you all look so perfect, and look at you, all so young. Why keep the masks you all know who you are now? Trust me when you walk out of here you won't want to separate yourselves from each other." Ahati said.

No one answered and I looked to face Monica who was shaking. She had to sit next to Jake, mimicking how it was in the beginning. Had it been other times it would have made her happy.

"Get on with it, tell us why you want us to be here." Sa said.

"Well of course your majesty, but no need to rush, you Benjamin are already caught up no doubt." Ahati said.

I turned to my left and saw Sa smirking, that was his name in this life, now there truly were no secrets.

"Now I believe I did say that you all should remove your masks, yes?" Ahati asked.

No one removed their masks, and there was no way that I was going to.

"Fine, I guess I will have to do it then," Ahati said with a flick of his wrist bringing all of our masks down.

I gasped, trying to reach for my mask that was now on the floor. I turned to my right to look at Monica who was also looking to the right, not wanting to look Jake in the face, I assumed. I tried not to look to my left but my curiosity got the better of me. I turned my head to the left, looking at Daneil who was looking at Noya.

He turned to face me and I kept my eyes on him for a few seconds before calmly facing the front again.

"That's way better, don't you guys agree." Ahati said.

"What do you want with us," I asked.

"I think the better question is what do you want?" he asked me.

"To leave," I responded.

"Well yes, but...what is it you truly want?"

"To die," I said in almost a whisper.

He smiled before taking a few steps back, still facing us, "that is what all of you want, yes?"

I didn't want to look around. Instead, I kept my head down but heard no protest.

"Well, congratulations it's your lucky day, you will all die," he said enthusiastically.

I raised my head up looking at him before speaking, "what do you mean?"

"It's exactly as I said Emerald, you will all die. You will no longer come back, all this suffering of yours that you face will be gone. All the possibilities that you have experienced you will no longer have to see."

I gulped, I had never seen the possibilities, never experienced them. What did this mean for me?

"All of us?" Daniel asked.

I turned to face him and then looked back at Ahati who was nodding,

"What if I don't want to die?" Benjamin asked with a smirk on his face.

I kept my eyes on Ahati who had a smile on his face, "you all know what happens during Mass. You get to see each other, you get to see your rooms, and what is the last thing we show you?"

"The future," I said.

"Correct, are you ready to see yours?" He asked, pointing to the ground.

His motion caused all of us to look down, there a hole opened up and we were pushed from our seats, sucked into a black hole. I don't know how long I was falling for, but I awoke when I hit the ground, from the fall I thought that it would have hurt a lot more.

I was still wearing the same dress except it seemed a bit more distorted, like it could easily be destroyed with the touch of my finger. I got up and looked around. Everything was dark until a light appeared above me.

I was able to see a circle of mirrors, they reflected the current me. Through the gaps of the mirror I was able to see Noya across from me and to my right I was able to see Claire. I tried calling to them but I could tell that my voice did not travel further than the circle that the mirrors were making.

They seemed to see me too and I could see their mouths move, but no sound came from any of us. To my left there was nothing, only blackness. That was when I realized that we were in the order of the rooms. The hallway that we passed before we entered Mass was displayed here, but rather than rooms, we had mirrors.

This was definitely the Mass that I remembered. Extravagant dressing from a time period, drama, a peek into the future, and of course Ahati trying to kill us.

The lights up above flickered and the mirrors began to rotate. I moved along with it slowly but then decided to stop, worrying that the spinning would make me sick. When I decided to stop, I was facing the emptiness, the mirror that stopped in front of me was hollow, there was no longer a mirror, just a brown frame.

The mirror to the right of that hollow one showed me as well, not the current me though, the me from my second life. I was Egyptian in my first and second life but I could tell that this mirror showed my second life because of the clothes that I was wearing. In my second life I was not as wealthy as the first and the clothes were a big indicator of it.

I walked down to the next mirror and there I saw me again but from 1200 BCE, it was me but me with blonde hair and fair skin. I remembered this life clearly because of the young death that befell me. I was a Trojan and the fall was up and coming, to the wealthy families...our death was more personal.

I was about to walk down the next mirror but a woosh made me go back to the empty frame. There was still no mirror but instead a shiny metal that I recognized from my first life, when we had used shiny metals as a type of mirror.

I tried to make out my face from my first life and only then noticed that the clothes I was wearing seemed to reflect the clothes from the mirror, the green dress was gone. I moved to the second mirror again and noticed the clothes that I had on were the same as the one in the mirror.

I went back to the first mirror and reached out to touch it when a hand pulled me through. I landed hard on the ground. I assumed from the missing padding that my green dresses had provided me the first time.

As I got up I noticed the old clothes that I would wear in my first life. I now had on white silk garments and the old jewelry that belonged to my mother. Even though my hair was different, it was still the same color but much shorter. Had it not been for the green ring I still had on my finger as proof of the green gown I was wearing just seconds ago I would have assumed that the silk garments where what I came dressed in

I turned to face the familiar voice, "Mom?"