The Shadow Kingdom

Epilogue

After I verify that Adrian is fast asleep, I slowly climb out of bed and wrap myself in a robe. A handful of Praesidium soldiers patrol the long hallways, and they bow as I walk by. In the past, I would have assumed that was just out of respect to Adrian, but now, I think I might have actually earned their respect after all that has happened.

I stop inside a bathroom and lock the door. I remove the small salve container that Anessa gave me and stare at myself in the mirror. She warned me explicitly not to use this stuff too much, but I have to see the future again. If I see the same one that I saw in Mumbai, it will confirm that recent events haven't changed anything and that my happy ending is still waiting for me.

I lie down in the bathtub and light the pipe. The Providentia takes over, and my neurotransmitters start firing in overdrive. I grin like a junkie as the feeling sweeps through me, but that grin quickly fades when I see what the drug has to show me.

I am standing in streets of Manhattan. The streets are deathly quiet as though the city has become a ghost town. Stores and houses all have windows that are sealed shut with metal gates or are boarded up. I slowly walk down Madison Avenue, trying to find any signs of civilization.

As I round a corner, I cover my mouth and shudder at the sight of a street paved with red bodies. Some of them are piled together into a large heap in the middle of the road. There are hundreds of them! I can't tell how they died; some look as if they were shot while others have no visible signs of trauma.

I suppress my horror and continue down the street, faster than before and desperate to find out what happened here. A military convoy is blocking a road, and they scan people as they try to cross the barricade. The convoy is heavily armed with Humvees and APCs, but what surprises me most are the soldiers themselves. Their uniforms are a mixture of Praesidium, Prometheus, and regular United States military. Whatever they are fighting, it must be so terrible that they are forced to fight together against it.

Some of the civilians are waving around handfuls of cash, obviously trying to buy their way through the barricade. I see a woman who is carrying her young child thank the soldiers as she is finally allowed through the gate.

And then I hear the roaring sound from the other side of the barricade. The civilians scream in terror and desperately try to climb or claw their way to my side. The soldiers open fire blindly into the crowd, killing everyone indiscriminately!

I decide that I don't want to know what is on the other side of the barricade, so I turn around and run in the opposite direction. I keep running south until I reach Madison Square Park, and that is where I find the most nightmarish thing that I have ever seen. The entire park is a mass grave. The bodies are piled on top of each other like a garbage dump.

Another military convoy arrives, this one with a large transport truck. Inside the truck are more bodies, and the soldiers empty the contents onto the garbage dump. Once again, I turn to run away, praying for this nightmare to end soon.

But a soldier stops me in my tracks. He is wearing a full HAZMAT suit and points an M16 straight at my face. It sounds as though he is speaking to someone through his earpiece. His speech is unintelligible through the gas mask, but once he is finished, he focuses his weapon on me. I raise my hands in surrender, pleading with him not to kill me.

And my vision ends with a gunshot. I stagger out of the bathtub and sit on the ledge for a moment as I collect myself. What on god's green earth was that? How could the future change so drastically as a result of what I have done? Unlike the first time I used Providentia, I pray that this future never happens. What I saw wasn't just my nightmare; it was everyone's nightmare. It was the end of the world.

I stumble out of the bathroom as the effects of the Providentia slowly wear off. I return to my bedroom, and I find Adrian awake when I get there. "Where did you go?" He asks.

"I just had to go to the bathroom." I answer as I climb back into bed with him. "I had a bit of a nightmare."

"Of Nathaniel?"

I scoff. "No, not of Nathaniel. He's not so scary anymore now that he only has one arm." I pull myself closer to Adrian. "I was just worried about the future is all."

"Hey, look at me."

I turn my gaze to him.

"You have already done the impossible once. The second time can only be easier. Whatever misfortunes life throws at us, you will find a way to overcome it. And I will always be right there with you."

I kiss him softly on the lips and allow him to close his eyes again. And just as I did with Alex, I keep repeating Adrian's words until I believe them.