Epilogue

Epilogue 3.33

---Em---

     Paradise is a grassy meadow beneath a shimmering golden sky. There's no sun here; the sky itself emanates warmth that seeps through my skin, not only revitalizing me but restructuring every fibre of my being to make me feel weightless. Movement is different here. The air doesn't offer up any sort of resistance. It flows around me like a cushion, supporting my arms as I stretch them out to my sides.

     Every breath leaves a sweet taste on my tongue. I don't crave for anything—I know neither hunger nor thirst. My skin is cool though my core is warm, and each hair on my body flows seamlessly into the atmosphere surrounding me. My aura and body have become one, not only with each other, but with the world around me.

     The grass is a different colour every time I blink—sometimes a colour I recognize, sometimes one I've never seen before. Sometimes there are stars up in the sky. Sometimes rainbows. Sometimes a blazing fire, sometimes a shimmering ocean hanging suspended above us.

     Everything here has a soul; each blade of grass, each marble pebble, each smooth-barked tree, each winding brook. And all paths lead to a castle of sapphires, quartz, rubies, and other glistening gemstones. The castle sits at the top of a hill, and this world's god—our god—lives inside it. I can feel his presence.

     I'm not sure how long we've been standing here. Maybe a couple seconds. Maybe a million years. Everyone's smiling, even Gail, as we stand in the meadow, the blades of grass fluttering beneath our feet. Flowers blossoming all around us, spraying their perfumes into the air.

     Martha drops to her knees, removing her glasses and basking in the golden light. Ace and Liluye, arms linked, go to rest beneath a tree whose leaves are tinged with a sweet-smelling violet dew. Crawford lies down on the grass and closes his eyes, letting the gentle rippling of the ground ease him into a nap. Melody tilts her head back and sighs.

     Gail takes my hand and smiles at me. And Eloise takes the other.

     We stand like this for another five seconds, another two minutes, another billion years. Time doesn't matter here.

     But then everything goes wrong.

     The ground starts to shake. The warmth of the sky starts to vanish. And behind us, something that looks a lot like a mouth opens up. The inside of the mouth is a twisted, chaotic mess of distortion and digital noise and optical illusions. The mouth inhales, sucking all the colour out of everything. The world goes black and white.

     Eloise starts screaming, clinging to me and tugging me away from the mouth, which is slowly devouring everything; the ground we stand on, the sky above us, the living things all around us.

     I let go of Gail. I grab Eloise, lifting her up into my arms. And I see something, no, someone, running towards us away from the castle. Her auburn hair glints in the fading light. I can smell peppermint, even before she reaches us.

     It's Olivia.

     "This way!" she shouts, stopping just a few feet in front of me. Everyone gets up, and we all start running towards the still-shimmering castle. Away from that terrible mouth, which continues to chew threw the world at our backs.

     A garden surrounds the castle, with flowering plants made of gold, water, fire, and lightning. Hedges that dissolve into mists, rivers of pure light, hills that rise and fall with the wind as if the world itself is breathing. As we draw near the garden, I spot numerous figures scattered throughout it, all of them with golden or silver hair that flows down to their ankles, all wearing white gowns. They each start to glow, and sparkling feathery shapes emerge from their backs. Wings. These are angels.

     One by one, the angels take flight, shooting towards that awful mouth. Some of them glare at us as we trample the garden in our haste, but they all eventually fly towards the mouth. And they disintegrate as soon as they hit it, vanishing into the black hole down its throat.

     My legs are starting to give way. I stumble, and my foot lands in a river of starlight. I'm almost swept away by its current; Olivia catches me and we topple onto a bed of flowers made of clouds.

     What is that thing? I try to speak, but my words get sucked right out of my mouth and, without making a sound, are carried off into the black hole down its throat.

     Olivia's eyes dart towards the castle. The gigantic doors, fashioned of an emerald-like substance, swing open. A being of pure light emerges; a glowing orb a thousand times brighter than the sun. And I've only caught its reflection in one of the water trees.

     Don't look at it! Olivia says, her voice echoing inside my head.

     I close my eyes, but even then, I can see the blazing orb in all of its brilliance. I feel all of the liquid in my body evaporate; the light replaces my blood and runs hot through my veins. My eyes sizzle beneath my eyelids, and I feel my pupils liquify and dribble down my cheeks.

     And all I can see is the light.

     I can't move; I'm flattened against the ground, every bone in my body crushed. And I feel cold—a cold like I've never known, not even in Eloise's ice world. It's the mouth; it's reached us.

     The orb—the God of Ganeden—is here too.

     The two forces clash in the sky, creating a shockwave that consumes everything in its path, us along with it.