Epilogue

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Aly watched as Kyo faded away, Therin's arms phasing through his body as if it wasn't even there. As he faded, she could feel her senses slipping. The gray grass around them, the fallen bodies of the demons, the rubble, all of it started to be consumed by some kind of black rush. But Aly didn't mind. All she wanted to do was sleep. So she did, closed her eyes just before the darkness reached her.

Finally, Aly was calm, floating in the darkness. She wondered if this was what Kyo was talking about in his memories. Perhaps, but she had no way of knowing. At the very least, it meant that she was... what? Aly didn't know. For all she knew, Dream had destroyed itself and now she was stuck in limbo. But no, that couldn't be it. This felt too much like a lucid dream. But hadn't the whole thing felt like a lucid dream? So if it was now, all she had to do was...

Aly sat upright in her hospital bed, awake. She was dizzy, but quickly got over it. Looking around, she saw that the equipment that surrounded her bed was new, beeping at different rhythms and showing numbers that meant nothing to her. But none of that was as important as Zach and Ave standing there in her room.

"What are you guys doing here?" She asked, curious.

Zach blinked, apparently surprised, "U-um, visiting?"

Aly raised an eyebrow. Something was up, "Well, are you?" She looked at Ave behind him. They were both dressed weird, wearing black cloaks or something like that. She could see Zach wearing that kind of thing; he was emo enough. But Ave?

The taller girl just shrugged. Aly looked at the clock, "It's two in the morning!"

"I'm not stalking you if that's what you're implying," Zach replied.

Aly didn't even know what she was implying, "Then what are you doing?"

"It'd take a while to explain."

She looked at her hospital bracelet, "I've got time."

---

I hung up the phone. Sira had really gone into detail. Which was good, considering her side of the story had a longer and more complete timeline than Aly's did. Of course, I had recorded the whole thing, not knowing whether or not it would come in handy later on. The whole thing was really interesting. To think that I was having similar dreams the whole time.

Some things in her account of it conflicted with Aly, but that was to be expected, since they were two different people. I didn't care. All that mattered was that I got the whole story. Of course, since Sira was so behind on her creative writing homework, I suggested that she use it as her assignment material. Granted, I'd never be able to use it without her direct permission, but that was the price to pay for being a nice guy.

One thing didn't make any sense whatsoever. It had been only two days since she and everyone had woken up, but one of the players was standing right next to me and had been for the past week. In fact, Dom had never been in a coma the entire time I'd known him.

"What is it, Zach?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing really."

"Upset you had to leave Aly back at the hospital?"

"No, that's not it. I'm just trying to figure something out," I explained, deliberately keeping it vague in hope that he'd leave me alone.

"All right, then."

Good. Masterful conversation skills are useful, after all.

But if Dom was right here, does that mean that Anima just picked up another random Dom from somewhere in the world? No, that was unlikely; I'd asked Sira to describe him as he appeared to her and the description was spot on. So, unless he had a doppelganger that had the same name... Ugh, it was all so complicated. The only other explanation was... no, but I'd know if something like that happened. It wasn't that, trust me. Whatever you might think, reader, it certainly wasn't that.

Except for the fact that they were here. They might give me just the evidence I needed for such a hypothesis. Of course, if they wanted to introduce themselves, I wouldn't be using the pronoun game. But it was interesting how their weapons showed up in Sira's story about Dream. I'd have to think about it some more.

---

Therin sighed. This was her third day out of the hospital, a week and a half since she'd woken up. Since she was "feeling better", she might as well go with Ryan and Erin to musical theater. Since she hadn't had a dream of Kyo since, she was giving up on ever seeing him again. Guess he really was a dream after all.

Hopping out of the car, Therin realized just how normal everything felt. She'd never be the same way again. She could see it in Ryan, too. Sure, he was happy, but he got bored a lot more easily now. Of course, she'd always had issues paying attention, but now she found herself drifting off into a daydream every now and then, thinking about...

No, if he didn't exist, Therin shouldn't think about him. Not at all. Whether it was with his calm black eyes and wild black hair or the blue eyes and equally wild brown hair. She hit her head with the heel of her hand, "Stop it!" She whispered out loud.

"Stop what?" asked Ryan.

"Not you."

Therin walked inside without another thought, not even waving goodbye to mom. The older class was just getting out, chatting and singing based on whatever the song they'd worked on today. It gave no clues to Therin; they were all doing completely different songs for the showcase, anyway. For the most part, she kept her eyes down, not really in the mood to make eye contact.

She saw an oddly shaped pair of bare feet, poised on the toes, like a cat. Therin recognized them, but kept walking. She felt a hand grab her shoulder and she stopped, looking at her brother with contempt. Ryan didn't say anything, he just pointed at the table.

At it was sitting Zach, his feet pointing inward on the high stool. She caught his eyes for a brief moment, but he looked away, the blank look on his face unchanged. A crazy hat covered his brown hair, as usual, but something was different about him. It wasn't the hair, the bare feet, his blue eyes, all of that was normal. No, what was different was... he didn't look... tired.

It clicked. Therin almost started crying again, but it was time for class.

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