CHAPTER 168

CHAPTER 168
 The surroundings changed, and she stood in a field of white.

No sky. No sunshine. No noise.

There was an ocean of pale, soft-as-ash flowers all around her, as far as her eyes could see. No wind disturbed them. No breeze rippled the air. And yet, Emerald felt something staring at her.

She took a step.

The blooms whispered.

Not words. Only sound. a breath before a scream.

She went on.

The landscape was the same, an unbroken circle of emptiness, until. and then it wasn't.

A door stood ahead.

Wood. Tall. Red. Painted

She had not seen it materialize. It simply was, as if it had existed all along and she had only just remembered it.

Her fingers wrapped around the handle. Neither by instinct, nor by choice. but as though being drawn by some ancient, ancient string. The cold of the metal beneath her skin, the instant her fingers encircled it, and she remembered.

. Joel yelling.

. Chains wrapped in silver.

Black petals unfolding into flower in the earth.

She opened the door.

The planet tilted.

And then she was gone.

The cabin.

Incorrect, however.

Frozen in time, like a painting would be after it has begun to rot at the corners. The walls breathed. The windows wept. The fire crackled with no flames.

She stood in the center of the room, wearing a white gown unknown to her, her hands stained with ink and the ink sparkling like oil. She was flanked by the butler, standing silent and immobile, beside another incarnation of herself huddled on the sofa. eyes closed, face peaceful.

Dreams within dreams.

"Vraiment," said the butler. "I must admit, it is a confusing question

He spun around, but the face wasn't his.

That was Joel's.

But not  him  either.

The features were trimmed too thin, as though a memory had been edited. His eyes flickered with shadow, and when he talked, it wasn't him.

"She's the you who complied."

Emerald blinked. "Ob

She remained. She waited. Never opened the door.

Emerald looked at the sleeping figure of herself. Her perfect clone. Blemish-free. Untouched.

Not authentic.

"Pity she's dead, then," Emerald said.

And the moment she uttered the words, the cabin exploded.

The walls cracked. The roof was ripped off. The fire screamed.

And she fell.

. to the garden.

Her mother's garden.

Ante den flammans

Before the case.

Green vines wrapped around her ankles. The aroma of rosemary and basil filled the air. And in the center, Lena herself stood barefoot on the ground, a red-petal jar clutched in her hand.

She was young again. Before the madness. Before the blood. Her eyes were soft.

"You sat right here," Lena remarked, not even bothering to look at her. "Reading a book. Acting as though you didn't see me."

Emerald remained immobile.

"You would marvel at why the plants tilted towards my hands."

She finally turned.

"And I'd tell them it's because I loved them. Because they knew."

Emerald gulped. "Did they

"None," answered Lena sadly. "They leaned toward the person who would kill them."

The planet turned black.

The vines twined.

The herbs entwined around one another and withered.

She raised the jar. "You still have one, don't you?"

Emerald nodded. "Yes

"And do you know what it is?"

No.

"It's the echo," she whispered. "A memory of what we used to be. The tree remembers. The blood remembers. But you. "

She was close.

". you just can't forget."

Emerald's hands trembled. The ink on her hands glistened a second time.

"What's this location?" she inquired.

She stretched out and gently leaned her cheek.
A lesson, she stated. A final memory. And a choice.

The world began again.

Now we were standing beneath the big tree.

Ancient. Ageless. Clouds reached by branches.

The bark was adorned with symbols. Names. Eyes.

It pulsed with energy.

He was hanging from one of its branches.

Not deceased.

Not being.

Tied to the red vines which were bleeding where they made contact with his skin. Eyes shut, lips parted. Whispering her name.

Emerald stepped forward, but her feet sank into the ground. The earth caught at her ankles.

"She chose him," the voice said from behind her.

She twirled.

Her mother stood at the base of the tree.

Entwined with roots.

White eyes.

She offered the altar to him.

"I don't understand," Emerald breathed.

You will.

She slipped her hand into her bosom and withdrew something.

A red light.

A searing core of heat and memory.

She sketched it out.

Emerald was immobile.

"You must take it," her mother insisted.

"Does

Because she won't.

Lena

Her mother nodded.

"Failed the Rite. Accepted the very thing she spurned. But you."

Her tone softened.

You can still make a choice.

Emerald looked at Joel.

And then at the red light.

What if I take it?

You then receive what was meant for the both of you.

“And if I don’t?”

Her eyes grew dark.

Then she wakes in your location.

Thunder shook the sky.

The dream shifted again.

Emerald stood in a hall of mirrors.

Each of them was a different version of herself.

He wore a crown.

She was bleeding from the eyes.

It towered alone among a sea of bones.

And one was bearing a child.

She stepped closer to the last mirror.

The child had Joel's eyes.

By her own hand.

Her smile in the mirror smiled back at her kindly.

And behind her, the tree was ablaze.

Emerald extended her hand to touch the glass.

Everything ended.

And with it.

Joel screamed once more.

She was sliding.

No.

Always.

Into the red.

Into the blood.

Into the  echo.

Until

Silence

And subsequently.

Snow.

She stood by herself in the clearing.

The same location where Joel had been tied.

Now, however, empty.

No bouquets.

No, Lena.

No stone circle.

Only snow.

And quiet.

Her hands were bare.

The marks vanished.

The jar vanished.

All gone.

And yet she couldn't resist the pull.

To the tree.

To the altar beneath the rot of time and centuries.

She spun around.

And noticed a figure standing at the edge of the woods.

He was tall and broad-shouldered. Cl

He said nothing.

But her heart  knew.

"Jo

He stepped forward.

Something was nonetheless off.

The eyes weren't his.

Too much.

Too quiet.

She stepped back.

Darkened the snow around him.

Petals rained from the sky like ashes.

And when he opened his mouth.

Lena’s voice came out.

"You waited too late."

Emerald gasped

The wind howled.

And the world began to collapse.

She awoke in the dark.

Heaving chest.

Sweat drenching the sheets.

The cabin was quiet. Cold.

The fire out.

Yet the jar of blossoms remained on the bedside table.

And of.

another one had come into existence.

Similar

Yet, smaller.

She lay down.

And this time. it was  warm.