The Swords of Memory: Second Chances

Epilogue

Zara woke up in her room. It had been two weeks since she had seen Eli in the hospital, the day where he had nearly died. The doctors had just diagnosed Eli as being in a prolonged vegetative state, meaning that he had been in a coma so long that his chances of recovery were miniscule. Zara knew that he was in the portal game. She knew that the only way he would ever wake up was if she could save him. She also knew that she couldn't get to the portal game anymore. She had tried. She had slept at night, during the day, for short amounts of time and for long, but it was always just sleep. She was cut off from the portal game.

She sat up in bed and reached for her bedside table. She picked up the glowing rock and metal shard. She pricked her finger with it and relived the memory again. The memory was different than all the others. It was uncensored. There were names in it.

***

Zara felt a sword plunge through her. It was a sensation she was familiar with. She wasn't surprised that it was this memory that had been trapped in the shard from the sword. She felt blood flow out of her chest as a girl covered in fire fought someone who looked exactly like Daniel. His real name was Ben though and he was Daniel's evil twin. The girl covered in fire hit him with a ball of fire and sent him flying. She would have killed Ben if he hadn't escaped through a secret door in the wall. With her target gone, the girl rushed over to Zara, or the boy she was experiencing the memory as.

"Mark, you're going to be okay. I'm going to get you to Elizabeth and she will make a potion to cure you." That was the boy's name, Mark.

"I don't think so. I'm bleeding a lot. I'm already getting colder. I can barely feel my hands." Zara said.

"Shut up Mark. Conserve your strength. I'll take you to the sorceress. She can heal you. She healed Emily's sister. She can heal you." In response Zara let out a weak laugh but instead of just air, blood came up and the laugh turned into a cough. The girl looked around for help. The only other person left in the room was unconscious on the floor from where the cloud people had shocked her. She was alone. "Mark, don't go. You have to stay. You can't leave me. Turn into a cloud person. Stop the bleeding that way."

"I'm not going anywhere." Zara said. She knew it was a lie. She could feel the blackness starting to cloud her vision. "Dakota, my shoe is untied. Tie it for me?" That was the girl's name, Dakota. Dakota looked at Mark's shoe and saw that he was right. At some point in his fight with Daniel it had become untied.

"Why don't you tie it yourself?" Dakota asked. She smiled as she said it, getting Mark's reference to when they were little and he didn't know how to tie his shoes. She had always been there to tie them for him. Tears started to flow from Dakota's eyes, but slowly. She was fighting to hold them back. She knew Mark was saying goodbye. She just didn't want to admit it.

"I don't know how." Zara said. The rising and falling of her chest was becoming less and less noticeable. Dakota knew they didn't have much time. Instead of arguing that he needed to hang on, she shifted over so she could reach his shoe and tied it. Zara then felt the world disappear as she died.

Then the memory continued. Zara woke up in a bed but it wasn't hers. She sat there as thoughts rushed through Mark's head, thoughts that had become part of the memory. He doubted if the portal game was real. He thought that it might have all been a dream. But his instincts drove him to believe that it was real. Zara silently celebrated as Mark decided that it was real and he would go back to the portal game. He rushed outside and up a steep hill to a fire pit. Zara experienced everything as she started a fire. That was supposed to make a portal. Mark and Dakota used portals to get back and forth between the portal game. They were the heroes. They had existed in both worlds. Zara built the fire higher and then Mark realized that he wouldn't be able to summon a portal. He needed someone else to do it for him. As he set out to find someone to help him, the memory faded.

Zara had experienced the memory three times now. Once in the portal game when she had been stabbed, and twice in her world. It had so much significance, so many answers. Eli could have come home through a portal. But now they were gone. Mark had died in the portal game and came back to life in his world. That was promising for Eli, even though Zara had a feeling things in the portal game had changed since Mark and Dakota had visited it.

And then there was the most important piece of information from the memory. The names. Her only lead. The memory said that they had been able to go to the portal game. Zara only had names, only first names, but she had something. She had struggled to remain driven during the two weeks of nothing, then she had pricked her finger on the shard by accident last night. That second experience of the memory had held so much more significance. It had made her recognize the names. She now had a lead. And without Eli and the portal game, it was the only hope she had left.