Walk Through Thorns

Chapter 28

Part 6: I am Become

Chapter 28

My ashes scattered, carried on the winds of time. I had been someone once, but that life was like a distant memory. I had lived many lives, in many worlds. But which one was me?

My name was Celeste. That was true. There had been a great shadow, a parasite. I had chased it with my very being. This too, was true.

But what was I now? Where was I?

The Archtree trembled to its roots. My name was Celeste. Suffering was written into my flesh like names carved into bark.

I had wings. They emerged from my back, spreading wide and scattering white feathers around me. Did I always have these?

My name was Celeste. I had lived, and loved, and cried. I was still very alive. My form was different, but I was alive.

I opened my eyes. I was floating in the air above a pool of water. It glowed with a blue light, but I shone brighter. I watched a copy of myself emerge from the water, falling upwards. She ran backwards towards Brandon. He was reaching out for my copy, and took her hand as she closed. They spoke, but the words were garbled, like rewinding a tape. I waved my arms, but no one could see me.

Talmon said, "You were right to follow me." His voice echoed, as though from very far away.

"What is this place?" I asked.

No answer. Could I move? I felt strange. I had no body, so I couldn't walk. But I could think about moving.

Everything lurched around me as I tried. It was like the world was moving, not me. I found myself standing at the end of a hospital bed. I looked up to see myself laying there. Her eyes were wide, arm in a cast. I looked down at my own hands. My arm was healed, or at least the light that shone in the shape of my arm.

The knitting needle was still with me. It shone with the same light I did. I could feel the warmth it exuded, as though it was a part of me.

I looked back at her, and I realized where this was. When this was. The moment I stopped thinking about her I was yanked away. It was like their was a veil between us. I had broken through it for just a moment. Once I fell back to this side time began to flow backwards again.

Talmon's voice echoed. "We are in the Heavenly Throne now. Riding the shockwave."

How much control did I have here? I tried moving. My feet were useless, but it seemed like if I focused on my wings I could travel. In a sense.

Mom was only a few wards over from where they were keeping me. Everything seemed to be rewinding as I traveled. Nurses walked backwards, clocks ticked the wrong way. I figured I couldn't carry germs without a real body, so I floated right through the plastic barrier into her room.

She wasn't moving much, just breathing, but I could tell she, too, was going backwards. No, I was the one going the wrong way in time.

There was a barrier between us, like a pane of glass with no thickness. When I pushed against it, it deformed. My hand pushed through. The wall burned me as I forced my way through, into the physical, like walking through thorns.

I appeared in the room, translucent, glowing like moonlight. I really was the ghost this whole time.

She said, "Celeste?" She turned her head towards me, blinded eyes hidden behind bandages.

"Hey mom," I said. What could I say? There were no words to explain what was happening to me.

"I missed your voice," she said, "You sound confident today. That makes me so happy."