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What Will Be Will Be

"Plato wasn't always bad..." Elias kept his eye glued to the road. "I wasn't there but...they told me that when you went outside for the first time it felt amazing. The temperature was always right, there were no bugs to swat, no animals to murder." Elias stared at the road, now in a state of what he considered joy. "It was just...people. They played together, and at that time family and friends—pretty much anyone you had a strong bond with—were just naturally drawn together. That's how they found people, not through some crappy government-style system. There was no need for sleep, and many didn't want to because all of their dreams had already come true." Elias smiled. "Everyone was happy, everything was happy, there were no bad thoughts..." The smile faded. "But then Lucienne came...and with his mere human touch the world was corrupted. The sun burned you, the nature of people was divided and artificial, and suddenly these buildings were made. They didn't need buildings. I won't even get into the pain. There was just so much...too much." He rubbed his eyebrow. "Not only that but through him came the ability to come to a complete end and never return...and to think that just the touch of man can ruin the afterlife forever." Elias repositioned himself in the driver's seat, slowing down as they had arrived. "But then again, it's just a fairytale. There's no way to tell if it's true or not...but I hope it is, and that maybe one day we can return to it."

"They're asleep."

Elias turned around to see Hershey and Beta fast asleep in the backseat. "Oh, yeah they are," he confirmed, glancing at Matrix who still refused to look at him. But he did speak.

"Did you know your name means 'one damn sexy mother fucker'? Funny how the internet lies to you in such a way," he commented, trying hard to be sarcastic even though his mind was screaming.

Elias didn't find it amusing, in fact, he didn't find any of it amusing. The laughs and smiles weren't real, they never could be like before. "Matrix—"

"Stop." Matrix turned to him with dead eyes. "I don't even want to hear my name in your mouth," he said, anger dripping from his words. He opened the car door and slammed it shut.

Elias took a deep breath and sighed. For some reason, angel was still trying to resonate. I'm no angel, Elias thought to himself. He got out of the car and opened the door to the back seat. As he did so, Hershey almost slipped out, but Elias caught him before he could go too far over the edge. Hershey woke up, eyes barely open as they looked at Elias.

"Oh, sorry," Hershey responded. Hershey got up and yawned, hitting Beta to wake him up. Beta shot up in full awareness, tapping Ah so she could wake up and take Min.

"Hey guys!?" Elias looked over at Matrix and walked over. Hershey and Beta got out of the car to follow, Hershey stopping to release Ah from the trunk.

"What's wrong?" Elias asked.

Ah unstrapped Min and rocked her as she started to wake up and cry, walking over to the boys.

Matrix looked at him like he was stupid and gestured to the empty space between the two houses. Elias had parked in a neighborhood cul-de-sac. "There's nothing here, as I suspected," Matrix said.

Elias tilted his head, furrowing his eyebrows. "Yeah, I know." He started walking through the two houses and into the woods beyond them. He stopped and turned back to them. "Do you want to see or not?"

Beta, Ah, and Hershey followed, and soon after so did Matrix. The first step into the woods felt like a step into another world to Ah, like she was entering her future. She took a deep breath and released after six more steps into the grass. The first part of the forest was hard to trudge through, branches and vines and trees so close together you could attach a swing set to it, but once they were out it was easier to breathe. Before them was a large grass field, the sound of crickets and surely snakes among it. It didn't stretch out forever, just about a few yards long until the next stretch of woods waited for them. As they crossed the field, Matrix sped up a bit to meet Beta and leaned into his ear. "I don't think I can do it," Matrix admitted, his voice just low enough and the rest of the gang just far enough for him to only be heard by Beta. "I don't think I can just blindly follow this guy, not after all the mistakes he's made so far."