Eyes Through The Aether

Beginnings are always tricky, aren’t they? You never know how to word it correctly, what feelings to convey, how to introduce yourself properly, or even when. In any case, I should get started then. Right, no judging, eh?

It was a rather stormy night when--no, no. that’s all wrong. It was actually dusk, with minimal cloud coverage, and the skies were hued with purples and orange, and the moon was in clear view, as if waiting for its turn to shine. Quite a lovely sight, really, and my friends--no, right, I didn’t have friends. Just one. My friend, Joey, with their brilliant and intense green eyes, more vibrant than emeralds, reached for my hair to twirl it between their delicate fingers. It was a comfort thing, Joey loves hair, mine in particular, it being so long and curly. And the eyes; you see, it was their eyes that drew me first all those years ago. I’ll get to that later though, right now there’s a lovely sunset and fingers playing with my hair and green eyes gleaming in the dying light.

Joey never really looked me in the eyes, but today when I glanced back to see the wonder on their face, those splendid uber-emeralds fixated on my dark brewed coffee-in-the-sun colored eyes. The contrast must have been magnificent. I wouldn’t know since I was in the picture and not looking from the outside at the moment, and how could I not be? It was to me, a momentous occasion. Six years of avoiding eye contact, six years of never knowing, six years… It all came to an end here, at the top of the town’s water tower, after a whole day of living hell, after a whole week of terrible things, after so much happened. I guess it took all of that for Joey to realize…

I’m never going to leave.

There is a reason I said “friends”, and also why I mentioned a dark stormy night; there was a point where those two were actually true, well, I mean, dark stormy nights are common here but we’re talking relevance. There was a series of events that were kicked off by a storm of unusual proportions at around, say, three in the morning, and at the beginning of it I did have friends, plural. A lot happened and where I started, only Joey and I were left. If you haven’t picked up on it, they died. How many? That’s rude to ask, but three: Mandy, Jack, and Kori. They were my friends for, well, longer than Joey, that’s for sure.

You’re probably wondering what actually happened that three of my beloved friends are dead and Joey, who never looked anyone in the eyes--not even me--made eye contact with me during a sunset at the top of a water tower. Well, I’m not telling you just yet. It’s called character development, and you need to know who Mandy, Jack, and Kori were to actually care that they died.

This is where the introduction ends.

What’s that? My name? Oh, yes, I forgot, how rude of me. They call me, El. Why? What do you mean, why? It’s a nickname! I won’t tell you what it’s short for no matter how much you ask. Not even Joey knows that. Now quit bothering me and let me narrate.

Six years, three months, twelve days, eight hours, forty-seven minutes, and ten, nine, eight, seven, six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two…

Cue the cheesy teen movie track because, indeed, There she goes. Before I knew Joey, I referred to them as a she, and she was beautiful. Like I mentioned before, it was the eyes. It was in the hallways of our old high school where I saw Joey, they(out of respect for Joey and those like Joey I will continue to refer to Joey as they/them etc. until dialogue happens which will be time appropriate) were scuttling out into the nearest stairwell when they caught my eye and they looked in my general direction and immediately cast their gaze down and kept going. That split-second was enough for me to vibe; I vibe people, by the way. It’s a gift. Their image and their soul imprinted into my brain; anxious, overwhelmed, sad, different, her hair was a punk-style pixie cut, wearing a fitted band tee and ripped skinny jeans. From that day on, I knew Joey was going to be a huge part of my life, just didn’t know how large.

Mandy punched me in the arm and smiled, “You vibed someone, didn’t you?”

“What? No… Maybe.”

It was lunch time, and she sat next to me. Two seconds later, “It’s the new girl. New… Person… That’s more accurate.” Kori said patting my head.

“She’s new? No wonder. We gotta get to her before anyone else does.”

“That’s not even going to be an issue, El. We’re the only people that matter in this school.” Jack sits across from us. She likes her space.

If there were a camera, though, that’s when we’d all turn and look into it in one of those “Meta” moments, as if we need more of those.

And, coincidentally, Joey walked right by our table within Jack’s circle--Oh, I forgot, Jack’s an empath; a particularly powerful one--and really tweaked Jack’s mojo to the point where Jack turned and stood up and said, “Hey, you. There’s nowhere else for you to sit. Get your punk ass over here.”

“Jack!? What the fuck dude? You can’t just…”

“El, she’s coming. Don’t worry, she’s not offended by Jack.” Kori reassured me.

Joey seem unfazed by Jack’s rudeness, actually, it seemed as though Joey found it welcoming and sat with us.

It was mega silent for a while, everyone waited for me to say something but it was Joey that spoke first, looking down at her food.

“You’re all… different.”

They say three words can change people’s lives. Those were the three words that changed us all. That’s all it took.

From then on, we were inseparable. We all had “gifts” and together we were a force to be reckoned with. Yes, we were all different; That was an understatement. We learned so much about each other since Joey came into our circle.

A few months passed and Joey kept mostly quiet and to themself any time we’d hang out. They definitely knew to stay out of Jack’s circle. They carried a lot of emotions, most of which weren’t her own. They never quite told us what their gift was, but we all kind of figured. We’d catch her sometimes in the school courtyard and in the old quarters whispering to what seemed like nothing. In the locker room, she’d be scared to go near the showers since… well, shit, ever. To flashback inside of a flashback: After gym class, we all hit the showers; and to be completely honest, we all get the major heebees from them. They were the first one in, because privacy, and everyone was still getting their shit together when we heard them shriek in absolute terror.

When we got to them, they were curled up across the showers with their head in their knees and whispering to themself. I wrapped my arms around them and vibed my energy onto them to try and soothe them. It took almost an hour, and a lot of my energy.

One can imagine what they saw.

By the end of the year, we’d gotten closer. We’d also gotten more in touch with our gifts. We set up a meet for Summer Solstice where we’d sit in the woods and commune with nature, with our Mother, ourselves, and the spirits. The advent of the sun, at dawn, was ideal. We sat in a circle and invoked our Mother, invoked our spirit guides.

Hand in hand, we chanted, “Oh, Mother, our mother. Who allows for all life, hear us, feel us. Oh, Mother, our souls are open, we see, we feel, we are. All is one, one is all. Interconnected in cycles of life and death. Oh, Mother, grant us enlightenment. We are your humble daughters. We are you incarnate.”

We each represented the elements. Mandy was Fire, Kori was Earth, Jack was Water, Joey is air, and I am Spirit.

We sat with our eyes closed and holding hands in absolute silence; The stillness was deafening. Within moments, the clouds closed in on us creating a darkness almost as black as night and a sudden surge of gusts began to envelop us. We didn’t budge, not an inch, we knew she was communicating with us. Lightning crashed down and burned the ground within our circle and its energy hit us hard. For a second, we couldn’t breathe; we collapsed onto the grass. All of us gasped back to life… all except Joey. We were so excited and felt rejuvenated from the gift our Mother had bestowed us that it took us a bit to realize they were still down.

“Holy shit! Holy shit! Guys, Joey isn’t breathing. Joey!”

I shake them, I am freaking out so hard I forgot I could bring them back. Mandy pops me in the back of the head.

“Gods Damn it, El, bring her back! Use your Will!”

I snap back into it and place my hands on them; one on their heart, the other on their forehead.

“Joey… Hey, come back. I invoke your spirit, return to your vessel. Return to your vessel. Return to your Vessel. I invoke you! Come back!”

I feel my Will flow through us both, goosebumps cover me and beckon me to look up. I can’t fucking believe it, it’s Joey; their spirit, looking down at me and at their body. I watch as it takes my hand as a conduit to them. Their spirit looks up at me before returning and my heart drops. That look, it chilled me to the bone. I knew then that something dark was coming. Joey did, too…

They gasped hard, their eyes opened so wide I thought they’d fall out. They push me off and search around, grasping at the grass.

“I--I saw it. I saw… everything… Everyone. I--I was, I was there. I was there. I saw them. They were waiting for us. We did this… we did this!”

They curl up and sob heavily, rocking back and forth. We all look at each other speechless and completely clueless. We felt something powerful hit us and imbue us with new power, but what Joey felt seemed different; darker. Joey saw something we couldn’t, and we wouldn’t understand til it was too late.

We let them recuperate, giving them time to work out what it is they saw. By the time Joey was able to speak, the clouds had retreated and given way to Summer’s morning sun.

“I died.”

“Joey, we all did, for like a second.” Jack added.

“No… this was my second death. I…” they paused and pulled up their sleeves, “died before. This death was so different.”

We all kinda expressed a collective, “Oh.” with nothing else to say, receptive.

“I crossed completely into the Ether, I saw them. The spirits. I saw a parallel that exists intertwined with our realm. Shades of blues, grays… Black…” They shook, “Red.

I walked for miles in this open space. There were no buildings, no houses; No civilization. Only shapes of what seemed like people in those colors. They were spirits of those who have passed before us. I’d seen them before, but never like this. Often they cross the Ether to our realm as ghosts, I can see them, but they look as they did when they died. Sometimes, they take on the appearance of a younger self. But in the Ether, it’s their essence that can be seen.”

“Joey… You… you crossed over?” Kori had asked.

“Yeah…” Joey took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “The black ones were very, very old; ancient. They own these lands and don’t like humans dealing in magic.”

“What? Why? I mean, if they’re ancient, wouldn’t they be like, the earth spirits?” Mandy probed.

“Yes, but they exist to keep the red ones from crossing. They fear that use of Will can open a rift and let them out.”

“How do you know all of this? Like, you’re just one of us, right?” I inquire.

“They told me.” Joey’s hands gripped their arms tightly in fear. “I was attacked by the red ones, and the black ones swarmed. The red ones noticed me, that I wasn’t really dead; still connected to my vessel, and wanted a way out through me. One of the black ones pushed me and sent me flying. When I landed, I was surrounded by them.

“They said, ‘Witch, cease your meddling in Will lest you become lost as we. Tell your coven of this, warn them of the Nether Spirits. The red souls. They are malevolent and intent in hurting humankind. They were corrupted by evil. We were the first to know them, and the first to be broken by their evil. If they are unleashed, the creatures you deem as myth shall return. Man shall devour man in blood. Darkness will come.’”

Another collective expression, this time it was, “Fuck…” with a heavy sigh.

“After that… I saw you, El. You brought me back. The shift was jarring, I’m sorry how I reacted.”

“Joey, I understand. It’s fine. I’m just… holy shit. So, we can’t do this anymore, can we?”

“No.”

“That’s bullshit! We were given so much power! Can’t you feel it? Come on, you can’t tell me that shit. If those red fucks come through, we can take them.” Mandy says.

Everyone kind of looks down.

“I dunno Man, I’m feeling what she’s feeling and I’m totally not into it.” Jack adds.

“I mean, it would explain why I can’t really see that far ahead for us.” says Kori.

I get up off the ground and say, “Guys, we can use our Will, but we have to be careful. Some of us can’t help but use it anyway, I mean, look at Joey, she sees dead people all the time. She can’t turn it off. I say, we hold off on combining our Will and invoking spirits until we can figure this out.”

We never figured it out.

Okay, so, this is where I explain a few more things. We were shook, to say the least, I mean, wouldn’t you be after hearing that? We all technically died back there, and Joey more than us. Joey saw what it’s like on the other side, pretty in depth. And, I’m probably gonna mention this a bit later, but when I vibe’d Joey back, it wasn’t a one-way flow. I absorbed some of her Will into myself. From that day on, I could vibe those on the other side of the Ether. Hell, I astroprojected a few times into it by mistake, and let me tell you, that shit is scary. Those Red Ones are fucking mean. Well… You’ll find out soon how bad they are.

Anyway, we made a pact to never do that shit again unless it was dire. Like, life or death.

The Old Ones came to me also, because of Joey’s Will, and spoke to me. They reiterated the thing they told Joey. But also, they said I was essential to the Ether, but I needed sacrifice. Also, I needed the love of ‘One who walks between life and death, the Ether-Born, to open their heart’. I didn’t know what that meant, I wish that now, at this moment with Joey’s eyes fixed on mine, I still didn’t know.

You’re probably thinking, “El, you’re full of shit. You’re some delusional goth kid that plays D&D way too much.” You’re wrong. I play Vampire the Masquerade. Semantics aside, I promise you, this is real. This happened. We didn’t know what we were messing with and we all paid dearly for it.

I’ll explain the Red Ones more as we go along… But for now, I’m fast Forwarding to a much later time that brings more relevancy to the story.

Bear with me.

Two years, ten days, and I don’t remember how many hours ago, nor will I bother with the countdown again. That was a one time deal for dramatic effect.

Mandy was caught in really bad fight. Well, it was more like a bunch of ignorant douche bags jumped him for being a transgender male. Mandy’s Gift often gets him in trouble, he can read minds and when he reads something he doesn’t like he usually doesn’t stay shut. This time it was at a bar and he was trying to pick up some chick that he knew was totally into him, when he read some asshole’s mind say something along the lines of “no wonder she wants to be a man, she’s ass ugly. Ain’t no chance she picks up that hottie.” or something like that. I’m surprised I remember that.

Anyway, so Mandy politely excuses himself from the lady and walks up to the bastard and says, “Got something to say limp-dick?”

And douche master replies with, “Yeah, I don’t like your kind. You wanna be a man so bad? Why don’t you grow a pair of big hairy balls, huh?” and proceeds to laugh with his buddies.

Now, Mandy is like 5’10 and pretty strong. He even took self defense classes in the way of Krav Maga. So normally, he could hold his own. So he smiled and cold cocked the guy dead in the nose, breaking it. Apparently it gushed all over the damn place. The dude’s cronies got up real quick and ganged up on him. It wasn’t pretty. Yeah, Mandy did some damage, but they did more.

Where were the rest of us? On our way. Kori had called us saying that Mandy was about to get killed, so we fucking flew to that bar. By the time we got there, Mandy was down. They’d called the ambulance but we knew what we had to do.

We took him back to mine and Joey’s place--I’ll explain that one later--and prepared.

Mandy had broken ribs and a punctured lung, his face was barely recognizable.

Kori, Jack, Joey and I all placed our hands on him and invoked the spirits to give us the power to heal him, to strengthen and focus our Will. We chanted in unison, focusing our Will as it flowed from us into him. As it filled him, his wounds began to heal--I shit you not, it was unreal--, his bones snapped back into place, his face mended and deflated back to normal, minus the blood, which was still there.

The craziest part, though, was that I felt his Will being transferred to me as well. I was propelled back by the force of their Will combined and began to convulse.

“What the..!” I heard faintly, I couldn’t tell who said it. Everything was going dark and voices were unintelligible. I began to see images of us; good and bad. I saw death, despair. I saw darkness. I saw the Red Ones in the Ether, and they saw me.

I saw something, that in the here and now, as Joey and I look on the chaos below, is about to happen. And it fucking hurts. I can’t stop it.

When I came to, they were all looking over me. Mandy was good as new, and was the first to say something.

“Hey, bitch. I’m the one that got shit-kicked tonight, get your ass up!”

Classic Mandy.

“I’m up, I’m up. Holy shit, Man, what’s on your face? Oh, look, it’s back to normal. My bad.”

“Ha. Ha. So funny.”

I thought so.

“Something’s wrong, what happened, El?” Jack saw right through me. “You saw something didn’t you? You feel different.”

“Yeah, I can’t read you anymore. It’s like your mind is blocking me. That’s weird… I’ve never not been able to read anyone.”

I tried to play tough, but they knew. I just didn’t know how to explain to them everything I saw.

“I don’t know why you can’t read me, Mand, but…”

“What, what is it?”

“I… you…”

“Fucking spit it out, El.”

“Okay,” I paused for dramatic effect, “Well, I can read you. You’re completely flooding me right now and, oh, my gods… Mands… Why didn’t you ever tell us?”

“Tell… what’s flooding you?”

“Everything.”

Fucking, years ago, as soon as Mandy was born…

“Congratulations! It’s a--hold on, there’s… there’s a complication…”

“What do you mean, doc? Do we have a son? A daughter? We’re dying here.” Mandy’s father badgers the doctor.

“Please, Doctor… we want to know.” Momma Mand.

“Uhh… we don’t… we need to take your child for further examination.”

They cut the cord, made sure he was breathing and all that good baby stuff, wrapped him up and took him away without further explanation.

In a separate room, the doctors debated Mandy’s sex. Upon further examination… they decided to operate and construct a… well they made him a girl. They figured with what they saw, it made the most sense.

Mandy was--is intersex. We never knew.

They brought back a “daughter” for his parents. They cried. They were happy… they didn’t know.

Shit is fucked.

Mandy grew up believing he was a girl; being bought all the girly things, pink shit everywhere. But inside, Mandy knew, felt, something was off.

Preteens went by, teens went by… no period. Nothing normal; for a girl. “Her” voice got deeper, “she” developed more body hair. “Her” puberty was closer to male puberty. But Mandy’s parents decided to put their “daughter” on hormones to try and kickstart a “normal” puberty for him. Along with hormone therapy, came a shrink, and constant emotional abuse.

“Why can’t you sit like a girl?

“Why can’t you just wear dresses like when you were little?

“What happened to my little girl?

“Does this mean you’re a lesbian?

“GET OUT! Don’t come back until you’re normal!”

Etc. etc.

Mandy then moved into his aunts house, whom understood the condition quite well. It runs in the family, and she was intersex as well.

It was his aunt that introduced him to the occult; to witchcraft. Although the damage had been done, Mandy didn’t have to live a lie anymore. Except that was too hard, after everything he’s been through. And he went through his teens as a she.

Holy shit. I cannot stress that enough.

And we’re back!

“Mandy, we all thought you were just… you know, Trans.”

“El…” He starts crying, “Fuck! FUCK! I… I hadn’t thought about all of that in so long.”

“Mand, you could have told us, who are we to judge or, like, not understand?”

“I know, I know it was just… easier, you know? I mean, you saw, El! You saw what it was like… I’ve never been able to tell anyone but my aunt, but that’s because she already knew.”

“Wait, knew what? You’re… not Trans?” Jack interjects.

“It doesn’t matter ‘what’ you are, Mand, because you’re our friend, boo.” Kori cuts in.

Joey just nods.

“Boi, we love you. Come here.” I go and hug him so hard, “you’re my human. Our human.”

Now as you all may have guessed; this story jumps all over the place. My bad, but not really. I told you, you have to get to know my friends. They were… They were my only family.

Elsewhere, in the Ether…

“Soon… it will open.”

“We will be free!”

“So many vessels, so much to destroy.”

“They will bring ruin, they will free us.”

“Yes! The witches! I will feast upon their souls.”

“They are mine!

“I will take them, I will sunder them, I will thank them with death. I will absorb them into myself… I will be reborn!”

“Silence! You are nothing, forgotten gods. Nothing but petty spirits, demons.”

“You will not stop this, El-Whotan! You are powerless.”

“I may be, for now… But my progeny is not. They are one, one is all. They are me.”

They are me…

Whispers woke me that night.

“No! I am not--oh, shit. I could swear it was all real…”

I had been dreaming often of the red ones. The black ones surrounding me, the reds attacking, and one big golden light impaling me. It’s all one big ass what the fuck, but I can’t shake it.

It’s a few years before now. I can’t remember exactly when. All I know is that Joey lives with me and they cannot sleep when I do. They say,

“You call too many spirits to you.”

I asked them what that means and they just shook their head at me.

They say, “They’re loud, and make me uneasy. But they mean well.”

Joey is a human of little words.

I completely enjoy living with Joey, minus the sleeping part. Though, luckily, they sleep while I’m at work, which works out. Joey doesn’t work, they can’t, their PTSD mixed with seeing all of the random spirits makes it near impossible for Joey to even go out alone. So, you ask, if spirits trigger their PTSD, how can they live with me, the sleep beacon of those long dead?

“They mean well.”

And the fact that while I’m not in my coffin of cotton and satin, Joey has always said, “[my] presence causes a feeling of eternal peace usually impossible on this plane of existence[…]”. My energy pleases them, to be straight. So while I’m there and awake, Joey remains close. At first, and this is cute as fuck, they’d just sit in the same room. Then slowly, over the years, Joey’s adorable ass kept moving closer and closer, adapting to my energy, taking solace in it, until… and this is recent… Joey plopped literally right next to me(our thighs touching), looked at me(still no eye contact), and sipped their tea.

Told you it was cute.

“It’s good tea; green.” They said.

I melted.

At some point that month, I awoke to a phone call.

“El… Can… Can I come over…?” It was Jack on the other side.

“Jack… No… I mean yes, come over.”

Fuck. Not Jack… Not that… I thought to myself.

Knock, knock

I let her in. I know instantly.

“El…” She collapses on me, hugging me mega hard.

We sit down on my couch, Joey makes tea, chanting over the leaves.

“I was at a goth club, you know I like those now that I have a hold on my powers and I can block people off. I was dancing… and… this guy comes over and he seems cool, you know, they always do. We dance, have a few drinks, talk. He’s nice, right? I mean, something was telling me be careful but I didn’t listen… and I think he put something in my drink.”

“Jack… no…”

Joey brought Jack her tea and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Thank you, Joey.” sips, “So I start feeling off and all that,” she pauses and chokes up, “Then I wake up behind the club and he’s on top of me, and I start screaming, ‘stop!’ you know, ‘stop it! No! it hurts!’”

“oh my gods… sweetie…”

“Yeah, he uh, didn’t stop. He hit me and told me if I didn’t shut up, he’d kill me… And… And… I…” she starts sobbing uncontrollably, “I tried to fight him, I was too weak! I’m such a piece of shit!”

“No! No, baby girl, you’re not a piece of shit. You’re… he did this to you. You didn’t ask for it, you didn’t do anything wrong. Baby girl, Jack, come on. No… We can get through this…”

Joey rubs her back, “Your grandmother is here. She says she’s sorry. She loves you. You’re her perfect baby.”

“Abuela!? You… Abuela! I’m so sorry… I didn’t…”

“’It’s okay Jacky, it’s not you.’ She says, ‘Don’t ever blame yourself like I did, Jacky, you’re stronger than that.”

“Your grandma’s right, baby girl, you’re strong.”

Jack sobs into my shoulder for hours, I hold her tight.

“We’ll get him. I promise.”

In her moment of utter sorrow--in being broken--her Will searched for mine. As she sobbed hardcore into my chest, I felt her Will, like, invade me. It assimilated with mine. And in that fucking terrible moment, I took her in me and the same fucking thing that happened with Mandy before, happened with Jack.

I saw her memories.

I saw that she was born, Jackson Hugo Gonzales III. That all of her life, she felt different. She wasn’t like the other boys, she liked dolls and dresses, wearing her mother’s shoes, hanging out with her Titi and her primas because they understood and encouraged.

I saw her father being furious when he found out. Jack being sent to conversion camp… where they’d shock the gay out of you. She was only twelve.

What the fuck.

But she had a legacy to uphold, she had the family name to pass on. That’s what her family wanted. That’s what they pushed. Jack was beaten every time she was caught playing with ‘girly’ things, or wearing a skirt or whatever the fuck.

But then, at age fucking fourteen, her dad died.

Jack took that as a sign of bigger things and became pretty fucking spiritual. Dabbled with Ouija boards and spell books and shit to contact the dead. She learned her abuela was heavy into Santeria, which is why her dad never spoke to her. So she went to live with her abuela, whom understood as well, and started on her road to Santeria, and well, witchcraft shit.

And transitioning.

Her abuela fronted cash for hormones and surgery. She said that the only legacy that matters is that of the soul.

“Lo que yo quiero que tu le pase al futuro, mija, es tu fuerza de espiritu, y tu Fortaleza.”

Then… She found us. And now, this.

“Jack… remember; Fortaleza.”

“…How do you know that?”

“I, uhh… Your memories. I saw them.”

“But… how?”

“I don’t know, I think your Will merged with mine. Like… The same thing happened with Mandy.”

“That’s how you knew about him…?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit, he didn’t even give details til, like, way after that incident.”

“Yup, and he didn’t ever have to. Shows how much he loves us.”

“Yeah…”

“Hey, I love you. We love you.”

“We all do, Jack.” Joey adds softly.

At this point, you’re probably seeing a pattern; something shitty happens to one of us, they end up in my care, I take in their Will and memories… Trust me, I got tired of it too. But how else will you know their stories? How else can you get as close as I did? Love them like I did?

It’s really impossible to love them like me. And what happened to them--any of the bullshit they went through--should never have happened. These people, were the purest humans I’d ever known. And I fucking failed them; Time and time again, I failed them.

Time for a little lesson on the Ether souls. Sigh, here goes.

Gray. Gray souls are normal people whom have crossed over. Grays are usually what people see haunting homes and shit. Residual hauntings mostly. They’re low-end spirits with no real power, intelligence… they just exist as energy. In the Ether, they serve no purpose other than, well, their own. They go on “living” as if they never died.

Blue. Blues are a more awakened spirit. They think, feel, interact, what have you. They’re just like us, except not… alive… Anyway, they are the souls of more spiritually awakened people, like, you know, us. Witches, Yogis, Monks, Masters of their own life force; masters of their Will. Witches aren’t the only ones that can control their Will. Haven’t you seen old Martial Arts movies? Those motherfuckers are totally in control of their Will, they just call it Chi or Ki. Same thing. Blues are the souls of the spiritually attuned--awakened. When they cross to our realm, they are more intelligent hauntings, sometimes “poltergeists” if they were douche bags in life. The reason you never catch these in those ghost hunting shows is because they don’t like people very much and don’t feel like talking or showing themselves to a bunch of randos with cameras. Would you? I mean like really, ghost hunters are like paparazzi to ghosts. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Fuck, okay so… this is where it gets heavy.

Reds. Red souls are… Red souls are old. They’re the malignant, malformed descendants of the Black souls I’ll explain later. They were never human. The common term for them would be Demons. They cannot cross the Ether to our realm without a vessel to hijack. Literally the only way is to cross into the Ether via a ritual meant to beckon them, leave your astral self(your soul) in the ether, and let them jump into your body. It’s possible to share your vessel with a Red, but it’s rare and you’d have to be a powerful psychic to do so. Reds serve to keep a balance, there must exist evil to give good purpose. But if they were to tip this balance by invading our realm… it would fucking suck. Also, they came before man, they were supposed to be perfect, without fault, but they were twisted and sought destruction, so they were banished into the Ether by the Black souls.

Which brings me right to them. The Black souls. They were the first sentient beings to emerge. They created life, nature, everything you see. They created us. But before us, they created the Reds. The Black souls are, for all intents and purposes, the gods of old. Before they were Black souls, they had bodies. No one really knows what they looked like but it’s speculated that they were humanoid, and took on qualities of whatever element of earth they presided over. It wasn’t until their descendants, their creations, the Red ones, turned evil that they became Black souls.

So you’re probably asking, “El, if they turned into the black souls, how did they create us?” Shut up. I’ve got consistency issues, okay? Can’t you tell by the timeline jumping?

Okay, the reason they had to banish the Reds into the Ether is because they created us after the Reds. We and the Reds lived with one another at one point. For a while, they were like, our link to the old gods; they spoke for us. We gave offerings, the Reds would inspect them and such, then carry them off to the old gods for judgment.

Then, the Reds grew weary of this. They became resentful of us because we were free to do as we wished as long as we gave offerings and did things in the name of the gods. The Reds had to obey the gods, there was no forgiveness for them if they stood out of line. So they revolted. They became cruel and stopped bringing the offerings to the gods, instead they’d lie and punish people telling them the gods were not happy with them. Punishments became torture, torture became straight up murder. And as people stopped sending offerings and were disappearing, the gods took notice. They watched, they exiled the Reds, they seemingly abandoned us. Upon their departure with the Red ones into the Ether, they bestowed us with mortality, so that we too can go into the Ether with them. They also imparted Will. Will was meant as a tool to communicate with them through the Ether, but people misunderstood, misused, and ultimately fucked it all up for everybody.

We are part of the problem.

Without proper communication with the gods, religion became a thing, it split into factions, and the rest is history.

“But El, how do you know all of this?” You ask? Yeah, well, I’ve spoken to them. The old gods. They told me everything right after we…

I’ll get to that.

Foolish…

Now, if I’m to follow the pattern that I’d already lain out for you, Kori would be next. Kori is psychic. Kori has successfully avoided any situation in which her life would be in danger.

So let’s fast forward to just before the shit hit the fan.

Thirteen days ago…

“El…?”

“Mm, yeah hi Kor…” I yawn.

“I have to tell you something. I’ve been keeping this from the others. El? You still there?”

“Yeah, Kor, I’m here. What is it?” I sit up. Joey noticed I’d been awake and came into the room. I waved, they sat beside me.

“Joey’s there, huh? …N-no, don’t worry about it. They should hear too.”

“Kor, I can tell this is serious. Joey can as well.”

“They’ve been acting strange.” Joey interjects.

“Yeah, well… for good reason.” Kori pauses, “I’ve been having these… Nightmares.”

“Nightmares?”

“Yeah. Well, you know when I have ones like this that don’t let me sleep, shit tends to happen. They’re less nightmares and more bad premonitions.”

You guessed it, Flashback.

What? I gotta fill space somehow.

Kori had called, dead of fucking night; 3:33 am. Said that I need to keep an eye on Joey because they’ve been having dreams of jumping off something high. Said that they’ve been traveling into the Ether and communing with the spirits of old there, but wasn’t sure whether or not they were the Red Ones or the Black Ones.

“Are you sure?” I’d asked.

“Dead fucking sure.” Kori responded.

I hung up and fucking flew to the other side of the flat. Now, we live on a 5th floor in the middle of downtown in a fairly busy small city. But this night was mega dark and there was no one out. No one but Joey, who was standing on the window ledge looking down.

“El, they’re coming. They’re coming and I have to. If not now, it’ll be too late.”

“Joey…”

“I have to fall. I’m going to fall sometime…”

That had struck me. Remember when I saw the thing? Yeah… It was this. Them falling. But not at this particular time. “I’m going to fall sometime” Joey said… They know. They saw too. What did Joey see?

I still didn’t know.

“Joey, now’s not the time. You have to come back in.”

“They’ll come, El. If I don’t, they’ll come.” Joey was so calm, even now, albeit with a hint of sorrow.

“Who is this ‘they’?”

“The Red Ones, They will come. They want to come. They’ll use me.”

“We’ll, We’ll stop them. They can’t use you, I’ll put up a block. I’ll… Something, just please! Joey, come back inside.”

“El, you can’t stop me. I’m going to--” Joey screamed something fierce.

One of them had materialized inches from their face, startling them so hard they fell back into the room from the ledge of the sliding window.

I caught them, “Joey!”

“Not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet” Joey kept repeating, in my arms, rocking back and forth.

It wasn’t until well after that that they would tell me it was an Old God.

An Old God, a Black One… Saved Joey. For what? To what end? What do they want from us?

Joey said that they were going to use them, that they were coming.

The Red Ones…

There was so much going on that I didn’t understand. So I went in search for answers.

That night I went into the Ether.

It was different. The usual bluish-gray haze was absent, in place was a magenta fog under red skies. The usual black trees were inverted; white. There was no population of souls. It was, for lack of a better word… Dead. There was this strange whirring noise in the background, like a sort of low drone, that rang in my ears in a way that I could almost ignore it.

But I couldn’t ignore it.

I walked for what seemed like forever in the fog, through the trees. It got more and more dense, became harder for me to navigate. I tripped, but when I fell to the ground, I seemed to have just stumbled, and everything around me was different.

It was a clearing now. Expansive, tall grass, but the fog was still there, so I couldn’t see more than five feet in any direction. But the sky…

It was black.

The droning sound had become more intense.

I was spinning. Walking in circles. Every time I went far enough, I ended up right back where I started. I spun and spun and spun until--

--“ELUWILUSSIT!!”

“Holy fucking shit!” It appeared in my face literally as I turned.

But you probably saw that coming.

“ELUWILUSSIT! YOU COME HERE, YOU PUT YOURSELF AND YOUR WORLD IN DANGER. YOUR VESSEL LEFT UNATTENDED IS AT RISK OF BEING POSSESSED BY THE FIRST BORNS!”

“First off, it’s just ‘El’. Second, Joey’s got it. Third, I have questions, Old God.”

“YOUR SEER CANNOT PROTECT YOU. WHAT IS IT YOU SEEK, EL!?”

“Joey had said before you saved them that the Red Ones are coming and will use them. What does this mean? How are they coming?”

“…”

“Oldie, What’s going to happen? I saw something a couple years ago…”

“THAT WILL COME TO PASS. YOU WILL ALL DIE. IT IS THE WILL OF SHE WHO BORE US. THE FIRST BORNS WILL COME BUT WILL FAIL UNLESS THEY TAKE YOU ALL. THEY CANNOT TAKE YOU. THEY CANNOT POSSESS YOU ALL. YOU MUST ALL DIE.”

Its voice was like thunder. But it couldn’t shake the droning.

“What!? No! That’s not fair! Why would you--Why would She give us all this power if we must all die?”

“TO STOP THEM. TO END THEM. YOU MUST ALL DIE!!”

“But--Oh shit! My body!”

I start running, using my Will to cut through the fog, “Where the fuck…!?”

“GO!!!”

I can’t find the veil from which I came, no matter how much I search and run.

“FUCK!” I yell in frustration. “JOEY!”

I start yelling for Joey, hoping they’ll hear me.

“El!” they scramble up over to my body, “El, I’m here.”

“Joey! Good, you can hear me. Pull me through and back into my body!”

“I--I don’t know how.”

“Joey, just fucking make something up, you’re a witch! And a damned powerful one!”

Joey stammers, “Okay.” they breathe deeply, “Mother imbue me with power, spirits of old be our guide, bring El back, bring El back, bring El back.” Joey chants this over and over and over.

The Ether begins to tremble and shake all around me. I feel my body being sucked into a vacuum and everything starts to warp around me.

I gasp loud as all hell as I sit up on my bed, “Shitting Christ, it worked!”

“El.”

“Never doubted you, Jo.”

Now back to where I left off before this flashback.

“Yeah, I know Kor.” I’m making a face, except neither you nor Kori can see it.

“Well, um, so like, we’re all dead. But before that, everyone in the city has gone all 28 Days and started killing each other and, well, us.”

“Oh.” Both Joey and I react.

“Yeah.”

“Is the water tower involved by any chance?”

“Yeah… that’s where you and Joey die, how did you know to ask that?”

“Um, I vibed the future a bit.”

“What? When?”

“When we healed Mandy and I got knocked on my ass.”

“Shit, so that’s why you got all weird after.”

“Yep.”

“So what do you think, El, are we… is this really going to happen?”

“Kor, I don’t know. But if we stick together, we can beat whatever comes our way. We are a complete circle, Kor. Our power is fucking beast.”

“True, boo. I don’t know, I’m just freaked out, and Leah doesn’t know. Leah just see’s me all stressed and she, like, tries, you know?”

“Yeah, she loves you, Kor.”

“I know, that’s why I’m so fucking scared, you know?”

“I know. When are we going to tell Mandy and Jack?”

“Let’s all get together this Saturday.”

“Sounds good. Hey, I’m gonna try to go back to sleep. Take care, Kor. Love you. Try and get some rest.”

“Alright, boo. Love you too. Goodnight.”

El… El, what was it you used to say to me all the time?

Do you remember…?

El…?

“You don’t have to look to see, Jo…”

That always brought me comfort. You understood; you lived inside of me.

We were always one.

Always…

Joey and I spent years together. Since the day we met In high school, there was an otherworldly attraction between us that neither of us could deny or even try to fight.

Our relationship developed slowly. We’d always sit close to each other, within sight at least. Though they never made eye contact, Joey always looked my way, glanced toward me and just… Well, Joey never smiled, but you can tell they were smiling, at least I could. We were drawn to each other. Took classes together, did projects. Everything.

Every ritual night, they’d sit as close as possible, and I have to say… Their aura strengthens mine, and mine theirs. It makes the circle more intense. It always had, and always…

Will…

Their Will… It was meant for mine. How can I bear to lose them? How could I let this happen?

We were so reckless.

As we got older, graduated, we moved in together. We got jobs and worked out a schedule. We had to have time in the day together to just be. To drink tea, or read, or literally just sit in the same room in silence. To practice our magick. I’ve already talked about how we came to actually touch outside of a circle, so I won’t be redundant. But sweet fuck, was it the happiest I’ve been, and the happiest I’ve felt them. And since then, every time we did touch--be it holding hands, sitting close, cuddling, etc.--their will would melt into mine.

This is how I was able to walk into the Ether. This is how I’m able to see them. Joey gave me the power.

It seems silly now, all our little moments, so trivial… But they meant the world to me, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Not even if it meant saving us all.

Selfish.

I love them, what can I say?

Ah, enough mushy stuff. I dunno, I guess I felt I had to, things are looking grim. And now I gotta get to the part that leads to taking in Kori’s Will, and the subsequent memory overload.

And after that, we’ll catch up to the here and now and the inevitable fall.

Good luck, winky face.

So, from present time, it was about maybe seven days ago.

You know how I said Kori was always good at avoiding shit because she’s psychic? She didn’t see this one coming, or rather, it was supposed to end differently, but there was intervention from the Ether. And while Kori can see the future, it only really pertains to the mortal realm. Our realm.

It was during one of our circles, leading up to Samhain. As we all chanted to invoke the spirits as guides to show us a fate different from what Kori and I have seen, lightning struck the center of our circle and immediately the moon shone on high right above us. We used our Will to subvert the energy from the lightning, but instead it concentrated all of that energy into a rift that manifested within the circle.

Yeah, it was a holy shit moment. There was this intense vacuum emanating from it almost pulling us in.

It fucking wanted us.

One of the Old Gods appeared in the rift and seemed to fucking just glare at us, it was so intense, it’s like it wanted to scare us into submission. Then more showed up and that droning began. We all heard it.

And then they began to whisper in their tongue. Their voices were like nothing I’ve heard before. Both raspy-demonic and ethereal at the same time. The rift grew and as did the vacuum; they too, grew. Things seemed to flicker in and out of existence, like a glitch, and the rift dissipated, leaving only Them. They turned to Kori so fast we couldn’t track it, like from one split second to the next, their masked faces were on her.

The droning intensified.

Their looming grew.

A burst of some invisible force threw us like rag dolls into four corners of the woods we were gathered in as they converged on Kori.

Everything went black.

Next thing I knew, Kori’s scream was echoing through the woods. It was fucking chilling.

“Kori!”

I was hollering so fucking hard it hurt, but I didn’t care. I ran through the woods, yelling for her, “Kori!”

I could hear the others doing the same.

Even Joey was calling out to her, and I’ve never heard that human be louder than library tones.

We all came together at the clearing we were in with her, but it was fucking empty.

And it was quiet again.

“Where is she?”

“Fuck, she was here, wasn’t she?”

“…Kori…”

“Godsdammit! What happened to--”

Kori’s scream filled our ears again and suddenly a body plummeted to the ground behind us. We turned.

Yeah, of course it was Kori… She was all mangled and broken.

Jack gasped and began to cry hysterically, while Mandy tried to console her, “We can heal her, J, we can bring her back.”

Joey’s eyes were like something I’ve never seen, they were so wide and full of so much. Like they couldn’t process what had happened.

Me? I was so fucking done. “Joey. Joey, can you see her? Is she still here?”

It took Joey a bit, and some light shaking, but finally they responded, “Yes. Yes it’s not too late. We have to do it now.”

“You heard, Joey. Mandy! Jack! Form a circle.”

We surrounded Kori’s body and knelt over her. My hands placed on her, their hands entwined, Joey’s hand on my shoulder, Jack’s on the other.

“Mother, grant us the will to heal. Grant us the strength to mend. Broken body, fleeting spirit, come together once again.”

We repeated that over and over, a whirlwind engulfing us. Our conviction, our Will, began to restore Kori and pull her back from the brink of crossing.

In that moment, everything slowed and faded into darkness. When the light emerged I was in Kori’s past.

She grew up in a strict Afro-latinx household in the Dominican Republic. Though brujeria was a common practice, it was mixed in with catholic beliefs. And with the dogmatic, narrow view of catholic communities, both being gay and atypical were viewed as the devil’s work. Not only did Kori live with autism, but also bipolar personality disorder. Which to catholics…

“Ella tiene un demonio encima!”

Yeah. All her life, she was told she was possessed by demons. Her urges were because of the devil, so were the episodes. Everything was the devil. It got so bad that they would periodically subject her to exorcisms, rituals, bleedings, and would make her flog herself. It wasn’t until they shipped her off to live with her father here that all of that stopped, and by that time, damage had been done. Though once all of that stopped, that’s when her power began to surface. Apparently, her subconscious had suppressed her psychic ability in order to save her from an even worse fate… Which in itself is pretty trippy.

Her father nurtured her, sent her off to a wonderful therapist, that she saw up until a year ago. After high school she met her long time girlfriend. All went well… until…

Kori came back to us with terror in her voice. She screamed “No!” And backed away. Then realized it was us,

“Was I… Was I dead?”

We all looked at each other, then at her and nodded, “yeah…”

“They killed me. They’re supposed to be the good ones? They fucking killed me! They pulled me apart and ripped my soul out of my body and killed me! What the fuck!?”

“They’re actually indifferent. Neutral.” Joey interjected.

“Well, fuck that. Fuck their neutrality. Fuck their interference. This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

“Kori…”

“No! El, don’t even. I am done playing by their rules.”

“I was gonna say the same thing, basically.”

“No more holding back?”

“Nope. Come Samhain, we’re doing it.”

So, from what you can probably gather, it’s Samhain. Or rather, the morning after.

Samhain was… We did the thing. We did the thing and everything turned to shit.

A few hours ago….

It was Halloween night. Samhain. We thought it would be a brilliant idea to open another rift into the Ether and actually enter. We felt as though we should confront the Old Gods and get answers, forgetting, of course, that I knew the answer all along.

The Red Ones.

Black Candles, our silver bladed dagger, our copper bowl filled with cinnamon, apple peel, gourd stems, and personal items of family members that have passed. Shit like that; Offerings. We burned a pentagram into the earth to make sure the seal wouldn’t break. Everything was set up, so we passed the dagger and the bowl and each of us offered up our blood to bind us to the ritual, and as a live sacrifice.

I placed the bowl in the center of the pentagram, then we stood in a circle, holding hands around the pentagram, each one of us at our corresponding points.

“Tonight, as the veil thins, as the Ether seeps into the realm of the living, we offer these with a sacrifice of living blood as a conduit from the spirit realm to ours. We hold hands to channel our Will into one. We use our power to the fullest to open the door the land of souls. We offer our energies, we offer our blood, we offer our harvest, and bonds to those past.

From life to death, physical to spirit, we bridge the breadth and break the limit; Of mortal eyes which cannot see, beyond demise that beckoned thee!”

We feel a surge of ethereal energy below our bare feet like tendrils rising from below causing the earth to shake. Before we know it, we’re there.

We’re there.

It materialized all around us in the blink of an eye.

Everything was shades of gray. The trees were shapes in haze that disappeared as we moved closer. We seemed to see others as we made our way back to what would be the city, but they weren’t actually there. They were like ghosts, afterimages of people. I realized that those “people” were in our plane; they were the living. There were no souls here. No blues, no grays… no reds… Which was troubling. The veil is thin, but the reds and black souls are too dense to phase through. They can’t pass without a door.

We made a door.

Fuck!

“Fuck!”

“What is it, El?”

“Don’t y’all think it’s fucking strange there aren’t any Red or Black souls here?”

“Shit, right, they should be here.”

“They’re at the door…”

“What door, Joey?”

“The fucking door we made, gods-fucking-dammit! This was a bad idea!”

That droning began again.

They’re here.

“ELUWILUSSIT!! YOU FOOL! YOU OPENED THE WAY FROM THE AETHER TO THE EARTH! YOU LET THE FIRST BORNS PASS THROUGH! WE CAN NO LONGER PROTECT YOU, WE CAN NOT HELP!”

“Old Gods, how do we stop this? How do we bring them back in? There’s got to be something we can do!”

“YOU MUST SACRIFICE YOUR WILL. BUT IN DOING SO, YOU WILL DIE!”

“Die?”

“You’ve got to be shitting me!”

“YES! YOUR WILL HAS BECOME TIED TO YOUR SPIRIT! THIS IS WHY YOU WERE WARNED NOT TO USE IT! AS WILL IS BECKONED UPON BY A WITCH, THE WITCH BECOMES ONE WITH THE WILL! AS WILL COMES FROM THE AETHER, SO TOO, ARE YOU TIED TO IT! TO US! AS YOU DIE, WILL SHALL FLOW BACK INTO THE AETHER TO BE BESTOWED TO FUTURE PROTECTORS OF THE DOOR!”

“That’s what we were supposed to be? Protectors?”

“YOU WERE TO KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED! YOU WERE TO ENSURE NO ENTITY WOULD PASS! EACH OF YOU WERE GIVEN A GIFT UNIQUE TO YOUR ROLE IN PROTECTING! YOU WERE BROUGHT TOGETHER BY OUR WILL TO COMBINE THE FIVE INTO ONE! THAT ONE WOULD SEAL THE FIRST BORNS FOR ANOTHER CENTURY! SO IS THE CYCLE!”

“But why were we chosen? Why us?”

“YOU HAVE ALL BEEN TOUCHED BY EVIL! YOU HAVE ALL SEEN GLIMPSES OF US, OF OUR REALM! YOU HAVE ALL LIVED WHILE LESSER HUMANS WOULD HAVE DIED OR SOUGHT DEATH! WHAT YOU CALL ‘TRAUMA’ BRINGS YOU CLOSER TO THIS REALM, GIVES YOU SIGHT TO THE UNSEEN!”

“You don’t have to look to see…”

“YOUR FATE IS SEALED! GO!”

Another blink, another realm. We’re back home.

We started back to the city, and as we drew nearer, chaos was apparent. The Reds have already started to take hold of the living.

Sigh… The people of the city have all been possessed by the Reds, and those that weren’t, were brutally killed. There was blood and body parts everywhere. Cars were on fire, stores and buildings were destroyed and broken into. There were people jumping out of windows to their deaths. And we were powerless to stop it.

We had to die to pull them back, but how?

A sacrifice circle.

We had to go to the center of town and draw a pentacle, chant some shit, and then die within its range of effect, which in this case, would be anywhere in the city.

It wasn’t long until they noticed us and came after us. One of them jumped toward Jack from the top of a city bus. When Jack put her hands out defensively and screamed in terror, a wave of Will pulsed from her hands pushing the possessed away and against the bus.

“Holy shit, Jack, how’d you do that?”

“Uhh… I dunno, but it was awesome.”

“Concentrate your Will, use it as a weapon.” Joey commanded softly.

“I think the Old Gods gave us one last gift, perfected our Will for this so we can lock them back.”

Everyone nods in agreement, a renewed sense of badassery comes over us as we rush headlong toward the city green.

Possessed come at us from all around and we are on fucking point. They were right, the power of five became the one. They didn’t mean that all the powers would be stored in one perfect witch, they meant that all the powers would work together within and without each other in perfect harmony as if we were all one.

What I didn’t know was that as I was absorbing their Will, each one of them was absorbing the others’ as well. All of our Wills were cohabitating within us all.

Yeah, it was selfish of me to think I was the only one, but no one else seemed to say anything about it. Although because my power is Vibing, I’m the only one that saw their memories.

We are kicking ass so hard right now, like a bunch of Jedi without light sabers force pushing these fuckers away. Nothing can touch us.

We get to the center of the city, the green, and concentrate our Will to carve a pentacle onto the ground. We hastily chant: “Old Gods, elders, and spirits of past witches, consecrate these grounds for binding, may our life force be the sacrifice necessary to send the wicked souls of the first borns back into the Ether, through the door left open, may the energy released from our deaths serve as locks to hold closed the doorway between realms.”

A light pulses from the pentagram and engulfs the entire city.

It’s done. Now all that’s left…

Mandy dies first. He bulldozes through a crowd of possessed and eventually is overwhelmed and torn apart.

Jack is taken by surprise by three of them and tells us to run before being decapitated.

Kori, Joey and I make it to the water tower, but Kori is pulled off the ladder by a massive possessed and bludgeoned to death.

And that leaves me and Joey, right where you found us.

“Why are we resisting?” They ask.

“Because I’m not ready to lose you, Joey.”

Joey doesn’t speak for a long time.

“Joey, say something, please.”

“El, tell me again. Tell me your story.”

I choke up, “okay.”

“I was born Eluwilussit Gaia Marquez. My father was not there, my mother died shortly after. That’s all I know about my family. I had been in the foster system since I was born, basically. Every family I had, to my memory, started off well, then… not so much. I was abused, beaten to near death. I was… I was molested; raped. I was broken. I guess that’s what the Old Gods meant…

It wasn’t all bad. I was with a family that put me through MMA, instilled a sense of justice and balance, they were nice. Katherine and Harriet; said ‘a little thing like you needs to have the tools to defend yourself from assholes bigger than you that wanna hurt you.’ They loved me.

But they couldn’t keep me and I was back in the system, neglected and hated. One even said that they didn’t know why they hated me, they just did, there was something not right with me.

Everywhere I went, something was wrong with me. Save for Kate and Hare, and the last family I was with. The ones that awakened me.

Xavier and Marcelina. They were spiritual, almost witches. They knew there was something different about me, they said they could feel it as soon as they walked into the home. They said I had the potential to do beautiful things. They believed in me, healed me, and nurtured my talents. When I graduated with you, Joey, they helped us with a security deposit for our apartment, and even offered to pay for a few months until we got our shit sorted out.”

“I remember.”

“I hope they’re alright… I hope the reds didn’t get to them.”

“They’re alive.”

“They are?”

“Yes.”

“Thank gods…”

“El… El, what was it you used to say to me all the time? Do you remember? El?”

“You don’t have to look to see, Jo…”

“That always brought me comfort. You understood; you lived inside of me.

We were always one. Always”

That’s when they looked at me and our eyes met. They caressed my face and smiled warmly and said, “I love you.”

“I love you too, Joey.”

We stand and look down at the chaos below. The possessed are climbing up toward us.

“Shall we?”

“Together.”

We hold hands, entwining our fingers and squeezing tightly.

Then…

We jump.

END