The third Planet

12. Destiny

Claire's POV

Long, long after Ana left me to the madness in my brain, to them, I found myself on my back, laying in cool flowing water on stones.

Looking back it seemed like a miracle that I got out of it. Alive.

Ana, who left and betrayed me, twice.
Ana, one of the few people I really love.
Ana, who killed my best friend, Tim.

*****
"No, I can't. Not until you finally accept, that you have to stay with me. Not until you finally accept that you belong to them."

She smiled cruelly.

I heard shouting and people come  nearer.

"Look to the right. I'll search left" they said.

Ana dragged me up, hissing I should do faster. The noises came from everywhere and nowhere.

She cursed and asked where Lennart was when she needed him. But I knew, Lennart wouldn't come because his pride was too strong as that it would let him save the person who held him in prison.

"ANA, YOU CAN'T FLEE NOW!" they shouted. "Give her free and maybe we'll let you run!"

But she didn't. She grabbed even harder and my blood streamed from my shoulder under her tight hands over my skin and palms.

"If you run now, nobody will ever be save who'll try to hide you from me. Think twice."

I swallowed hard. But before I could make my decision, I saw the soldiers build a circle around us.

In one moment Ana turned me around and her hand was around my taille and some sharp knife at my throat. 

My heart beated faster. I could feel every centimetre of Ana's body touching mine. I turned my head a little and looked directly at her.

Her eyes were cold and a little red, as if she had cried.

"Ana" I whispered. "You can just come back to me. I miss you."

No one heard me, except Ana and for just a blink of my eyes I saw worries and fear in her pupils, just like on the first planet. But just the next second this moment was gone and I looked at her angry eyes, hard and cold.

I missed her. I missed her like I felt never before, like she ripped something out of me and I needed it back for surviving.

"No. Not in hundred millenniums! Come near us and I'll slip her throat."

I didn't see the arrow but I felt the blood in my back as it flew from Ana's shoulder and I felt the knife falling down and just touching my body lightly.

Without hesitating I ran and no one tried to hold me back.

I didn't hear the screams and my name as they shouted after me.

*****
I sat up. My clothes were soaked with blood, water and tears. I held one hand up and just let it paint through the air. The trees around me chuckled but I didn't listen.

The first words flew over my lips before I could prevent them and started in a sad tune.

Light sparkles started to fly in front of me in circles and again, like this one night so long ago, on the beach, the hopes for a new planet reached me and I stared into the portal.

It could be better than now.

It could give me a new chance. I gave everything to this planet. Stories and arts, music and words. I did my job.

I knew my destiny.

Other than Ana, Lennart and Daphne, I wasn't something clearly defined.
I wasn't a goddess, because I didn't reign in somebody or made them go mad like hope, war and love do.

I'm art. I'm colour and words. I'm flying and diving. I'm rhythm and poetry.

Nothing can hold me back. I will be, what these people call revolution.

And I will come back when my time arrives.

And then, I'll get back what's mine.

I'll defeat them and I'll get Ana back.

With one look back I half crossed the boarder to the next planet. I'd return and I'll do what I have to do. But first I would have to learn.

Tears streamed down my cheeks again. Even though I now understood what I was, I wasn't what I called human or god. I still didn't know who I was.

I didn't belong.

My shoulder and hands started hurting again. I smiled.
Tim would be proud. He'd be proud that I made it and he'd want that too.

Behind me I heard the soldiers again. They called my name but deep inside me, I knew I wasn't ready for another war which will definitely come.
The promises they made looked very tempting.

I had to make my decision. A new start or another war.

My body tensed and I put my hand in front of my mouth so that no sound would slip.

The light of the portal was already dimmer. Now or never.
I stepped fully into the light and it closed behind me, faster than the first I made so long ago.