Hybrid

Chapter 32: To Dream A Dream

"Amy?" I looked around and there was nothing. "Amy!" Something hugged me around my neck, something I couldn't see. It slowly faded into my vision, like the moment you wake from a deep dream.

 The girl holding me so tight was Ari. I could feel her, not only physically pressed against me but also... Mentally? Spiritually? Whether or not I could explain it, I definitely knew it was her.

 Ari was still in her dress, but she didn't look like me. She didn't have my shape anymore. She was taller than me and broader. Her hair was much wavier than I'd ever seen it, and more of a dark brown rather than her usual jet black-- and she definitely filled out the dress better than she did when she was still copying my body, to the point that the dress was struggling to contain her curves. "Amy!" She laughed, squeezing me tight. She looked happier than I'd ever seen her.

"Ari..." Though I so desperately just wanted to hold her and stay, I pulled away. "Ari... Where are you? Are you still...?" I felt the emotions well up in my throat as I fought to force my thoughts into words.

"Am I still what?" She giggled, brushing her hair back. Ari's gaze went from carefree to worry as she scanned my face. "What's wrong?"

"Do you not remember?" I looked into her eyes and in them, there were no fears. No anger, no pain, no... sadness. This wasn't satisfaction or relief, this was ignorant bliss. She didn't know she had been taken.

"Do I not remember what?" She chuckled in her usual awkward way, the way she did when I was acting so awful to her before, the way she chuckled when she was anxious.

The memory sent a twinge of guilt through my chest. "Where... Where are you right now? What do you remember doing before right now?"

Scoffing, she looked at the ground, her hands on her wide hips. "Well, uh, I remember... the cart... I remember..." Her face scrunched up as she struggled. "The house?... I remember our prayer and then... hmph." She shrugged her shoulders, crossing her arms over her stomach with the same ignorantly blissful smile on her face. "I guess I don't remember. Do you know where we are?"

"I think... we're in purgatory." I choked out. I quickly covered my mouth with my hand, afraid of what that might mean for us. If I'm right about this, my telling her could sway her entrance to heaven-- at least, that's what my mother told me. She said that's where souls went after people died. They would die and their souls, still in their bodies, would stay there until they had been judged. That's why she was so opposed to the thought of cremation. She thought it would prematurely take someone from their judgment, transforming them into lost souls, cursed to wander the earth until judged. I guess I'm glad that no one had destroyed Greed so far. Despite my worries... I don't think we had the time to wait for her to sort this out herself. "Ari... I think you're being judged. What happens here will determine whether or not you go to heaven."

She was silent for a second and then broke into laughter. "Amy, be serious." I must have been staring because her laughter faded into a nervous look. "You are being serious, huh?" Her hands planted firmly on her hips, she turned her gaze to the ground before returning it to me again with a suspicious look in her eye. "Okay, so... purgatory?" Her eyes began to scan the pure and empty landscape, not a person, place, or thing in sight. "Let's say you're right. How did we get here? Are we both going through some coma dream?"

"I... Don't know. We were fighting Greed and you..."

"What?" She let out another chuckle, her laugh bleeding with impatience. "C'mon, you keep looking at me like I'm..."

There was a God almighty crack and, before I could find the source of the sound, I was falling through the floor with the image of Ari's terrified stare burned into my mind as the light faded and I was swallowed whole.