What You Are Is Beautiful

The Amulet, Heart, And Halo

Ava skidded to a halt when she saw the ground drop off mere centimeters from her. Michael slid to a stop too, looking at her, face painted with urgency.

"Come with me. We have to jump."

Ava looked over the edge at the seemingly endless void below. "Uh uh." She shook her head. "No way."

"Yes way!" Michael reaches for her hand and she pulled it away. "We have to. I have to show you how you'll defeat Adriel."

"Do we have to jump off a literal cliff to find out? Why can't you just tell me?" Ava backed away from the edge. "And how do you even know?"

Michael sighed as he rolled his eyes, exasperated. "I do! And I can't just tell you. I have to show you. I have to show you how to stop him."

"What if he just wanted to be freed? He hasn't attacked yet. He seems like he just wants to vibe. Maybe he just wanted to live his best life."

Michael widened his eyes, ridiculing Ava with his gaze. "He's a demon, Ava. Demons don't want to 'just vibe.' Living his best life means bringing all of this," Michael swept his arms wide, gesturing at the scene around them, "to Earth."

"So he is a demon."

"Well, not exactly. More just a fifth dimensional being."

"A what?"

"A fifth dimensional—Nevermind." Michael looked down at the drop off. "You have to trust me. Everyone—your friends, my family, everything that makes Earth as we know it—will be destroyed. Trust me. We don't have much time." Michael took the extra step, never breaking eye contact with Ava as he began plummeting to the bottom of the seemingly endless pit.

"Michael!" Ava's voice echoed as she screamed down to the boy who had just thrown himself into the unknown.

"You have to come with me!"

Ava looked down off the cliff and then back to the expanse of desert and dead bodies behind her. Either way, she was fucked. At least this choice didn't leave her alone. "God fucking dammit."

Ava took the extra step and was plummeting downward. Her screams echoed off the strange stone wall and the rocks and jagged edges that could impale her at any moment. She was at the mercy of chance and whatever it was that Micheal claimed to know about.

"Michael!" Ava hollered for the boy. She was met with silence. Fuck fuckity fuck. What if I jumped too late? Ava listened closely, trying to hear Michael's response over the rushing of air around her and the sound of her heart pounding in her chest.

The longer the silence persisted, the more the panic settled itself into Ava's stomach. A tear slipped from her eye. What if this was it? Was this how Ava was going to die?

Ava lost herself in her thoughts. She didn't have many regrets, but the Vatican incident was large enough to make up for her 12 years of paralysis. And her feelings for Beatrice were enough to motivate her for a lifetime. She had come so close to a perfect reality. She had friends and a family. She had Beatrice and her renewed purpose. She had so much potential and it was all going to be lost. Because she followed some stupid kid. This was going to be the stupid mistake that killed her.

A bright light interrupted her thoughts. She looked below at a an aquamarine glow from below her. She spotted Michael's blond head below and braced herself for impact. But when she got to the surface, she plummeted through it.

The substance was thick like jelly and Ava struggled against it to push herself to the surface. Who would've thought getting to the surface of a gel pool would be easier than swimming in water? Ava grinned from the relief after such a thrill. She laughed loudly, clenching her fist in the gel and watching as it slowly passed through her fingers. She wiggled her toes, just now realizing that she spawned in this world in just a T-shirt and sleep shorts.