Lucidity

Chapter Thirty-One: The End

All of her life, Kosa had had a skill for escaping death. As an abandoned baby, the future hadn't looked bright for her, but somehow she'd done quite well for herself. She'd spent chunks of her life being cared for by various loving locals. There was the spinster who had died two days after she'd turned seven. The lovely couple that abandoned her when she was nine. No matter how much people seemed to love her, they always left her. She wasn't sure whether it was a curse or luck. Although she cared for and relied on her carers, the idea of being their perfect daughter terrified her. It wasn't how Vilas worked.

The odds had been against her. With all her bad luck she probably should have died a long time ago. Somehow, however, she'd always managed to stay afloat. That was, until now.

From the ten seconds she'd spent in the afterlife, Kosa had decided it was boring. It was an endless empty space that existed only in greyscale, though it was fairly bright itself. It left Kosa with dysphoria when she lifted her hands and just saw grey. She didn't want this.

"It doesn't last, you know," said a voice.

She turned around to face the boy behind her. He was a weedy boy with broken glasses that kept having to be pushed up his nose. If people like this were all the afterlife had to offer, she wanted out.

"God, if you're the best thing here, I really should have found a religion." She felt bad for being mean, but she'd had a bad day. A day that included dying wasn't exactly a good one.

The young man chuckled fondly. "I'm not sure that's how religion works, Kosa."

"How do you know my name? Are you a god?"

His eyes sparkled like people's do when they know something the other person doesn't. Kosa didn't like it. "Don't just not say anything. I thought the afterlife is where you get to be all-knowing."

He held out his hand the way one does with somebody they've been hoping to meet for ages. It unsettled Kosa greatly.

"My name is Mentirix."

"Ohhhh," she said, "You're ginger tea guy."

"Excuse me...?" He raised a bemused eyebrow.

"Sorry, Anwyn has a lot of nicknames for you. Firehead. Spectacled Spectacle. Uh..." She raked her brain for the others.

"I see. She's a sweet girl, isn't she?" commented Mentirix.

"Yeah. I can see why you picked her to be the chosen one. She was a good choice," said Kosa. Soon afterwards, she begrudgingly added, "I just wish it hadn't been necessary for her to go through so much heartbreak."

Mentirix sighed. "I'm sorry that I dragged Anwyn into this but I had to. I had to if I wanted everyone to make it out alive."

"Yes, yes, I get it, all the chosen ones deserve to live. Their friends can die though," Kosa bitterly grumbled.

"Anwyn never was the chosen one. You were."

"I'm sorry, what?" Kosa rolled her eyes. "Stop trying to make me feel better. I know you're just saying it."

"I'm not, Kosa." Mentirix sighed and made a bench appear. He sat down and patted the space next to him. "Join me." Maybe he was a god now.

Kosa initially declined, but then the terrible day she'd had caught up with her. Uncertainly, she seated herself beside him.

"The initial future - the one Imperon and I originally saw - had all the same chosen ones except for the fact that you were there instead of Anwyn-" Kosa noted how he tensed up when he mentioned Imperon- "However, while you won, you completely broke in that future. You didn't die, but you were left forever scarred. I couldn't let that happen."