Echoes Of Power

Epilogue

Antonio awoke to the sterile smell of antiseptic, the soft hum of fluorescent lights buzzing overhead. The room was cold, with white walls and a single small window barred from the outside. His body felt heavy, as though it had been weighted down by years of weariness. Slowly, he sat up, his head throbbing with confusion. Where am I?

As he glanced around the room, memories of Oniisa, the battle, and the pendant flooded his mind. Michaela, Ethan, Trey, it all came back to him in a blur of adrenaline and terror. He looked at his hands, half expecting the familiar pulse of power to surge through them, but nothing came.

The door creaked open, and a woman in a white coat stepped in. She wore a gentle, professional smile, her clipboard tucked under her arm. "Good morning, Antonio," she said softly. "How are you feeling today?"

"Where am I?" Antonio asked, his voice rough, his heart pounding. "What happened? Where's Ethan?"

The therapist approached him, pulling up a chair beside the bed. "You're at Fairfield Psychiatric Hospital," she explained calmly. "You've been here for a couple of weeks now. You were brought in after an psychotic episode, your mom said you were... talking about demons."

Antonio's heart sank. **A couple of weeks? The battle with Oniisa felt so vivid, so real, yet everything the therapist said cast a thick fog of doubt over his memories. "But it wasn't a delusion," Antonio muttered under his breath, shaking his head. "It can't be."

The therapist's expression remained neutral, though there was a hint of sympathy in her eyes. "I know you've been through a lot, Antonio. But these delusions are part of your condition. Schizophrenia can make it difficult to separate reality from fantasy."

Antonio stared at her, his hands trembling. "No... you don't understand. Oniisa is real. Michaela, Ethan—they were with me. We fought together. I saw... I felt..." His voice faltered, his mind spinning between the images of the battle and the sterile reality around him.

The therapist paused before continuing. "Ethan Lockwood and Michaela Rhinehart are patients here too. They've been here for a while, Antonio. I know it's hard to accept, but they are just patients. They're undergoing their own treatment."

Antonio's heart shattered. They're patients? His mind reeled at the thought, the weight of doubt pressing down harder with each passing second. Was it possible that it had all been in his head? That everything—the battles, the betrayals, the deaths, the magic...had been a figment of his fractured mind?

Just as the therapist stood to leave, the door opened again, and Antonio's family entered. His mother looked worn, her eyes filled with sadness. His father stood beside her, quiet, holding her hand. "Antonio," his mother whispered, coming to his side. "We've been so worried about you."

Antonio looked at her, the ache in his chest growing. "Mom... am I... crazy?"

His mother's face saddened even more, and she kneeled beside the bed, holding his hand tightly. "You're not crazy, sweetheart. You're just... sick. The doctors here are going to help you get better. You were talking about demons and people we don't know. We just want you to heal."

The words hit Antonio like a punch to the gut. Everything felt so raw, so confusing. Could all of it have really been a lie?

His father's voice was gentle but firm. "You've always been strong, Antonio. You'll get through this."

Antonio nodded numbly, barely able to meet their eyes. He couldn't tell what was real anymore.

After his family left, he sat in his room, staring at the walls, the weight of the world bearing down on him. "Had Oniisa really won? Had everything he fought for been nothing more than a delusion?

As the sun set and the room darkened, a familiar presence began to fill the air. Antonio's pulse quickened, his instincts sharpening. The air grew cold, and a familiar voice echoed softly from the corner of the room.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"

Antonio's heart stopped as Delirium materialized before him, his dark figure looming in the shadows. "My master is not so easily defeated. No matter how hard you try, you will never be free of him."

Antonio's breath caught in his throat, his mind racing. "No...this isn't real. You're not real. You're just in my head," he stammered, his hands gripping the sides of the bed.

Delirium's cold laugh echoed through the room. "You think this is all in your head, but you've only just begun to understand the truth. My master, Oniisa, lives on... and so does his power. You think you won the battle, but the war is far from over."

Antonio clenched his fists, his pulse roaring in his ears. He couldn't let it be true, he wouldn't. But as Delirium's figure started to fade, Antonio felt something shift inside him. A strange warmth began to spread through his palms. He glanced down, and to his shock, his hands began to glow faintly, a soft light forming between them.

His eyes widened in disbelief. "No... no, this can't be happening."

Delirium's voice echoed one last time, a sinister whisper in the fading light. "It's only just beginning."

Antonio stared at the light forming in his hands, his heart racing, knowing that whatever came next, he wasn't finished yet. The battle wasn't over.