EPILOGUE 3: From Death To Another Chance

EPILOGUE 3: From Death To Another Chance
\[Elise’s POV\]

I stare at the crone as she watches me with a look of amusement, and I can’t help but wonder what exactly it is that she is planning.

“How can you send me away without any answers?” I demand. “You’ve done nothing but talk in riddles.”

“Have I?” She asks, cocking her head to the side. “I think I’ve been pretty clear this whole time. You said that you didn’t wish to go back to the time when fate was changed because you thought that it would be too painful for someone, so I’m giving a chance to go back to a different time.”

“But what time is that?”

“You should know that better than anyone.” She tells me. “You’re the one who cheated fate and managed to connecting your life with that child’s. So, you should know when that happened.”

But I don’t, I think silently, realizing that even though this woman was supposed to be all seeing and all knowing she didn’t even realize that I didn’t possess my memories. I don’t know how this happened or how I came to be like this.

“Don’t think too hard on it.” The crone murmurs, and I realize that she can read my thoughts. “It is easier to do and act than it is to try to figure out the right answer, but…” she continues, giving me a slow smile. “I can at least help you out a bit.”

“Help me,” I repeat. “And how on earth are you going to do that?”

“Come here,” she tells me and I feel my body coming to life without my moving it. “If you can’t remember when you managed to cheat fate, I can at least remind you.”

“What?” I hiss, trying to fight my movements. “What do you…”

I don’t get to finish my words as the crone lifts a finger and then presses her nail against my forehead.

“What was once lost is now found.” She whispers.

Instantly, the room around me begins to disappear, swirling, and changing to what looks like a hospital room, and then a nursery.

I feel like I’m lying in one of the many beds that the infants are in, and as I do a man appears above me with a look of contempt.

“Take this one,” he says to a woman who stands beside him. “Do with her what you want.”

As he speaks, the woman reaches for me, and as she does, the scene shifts once more until I’m sitting in a small hut with a man and a woman staring at me in horror.

“Monster,” they whisper, pointing at me. “You’re a monster!”

What is this? I wonder, trying to make sense of these scenes until the man and woman calling me a monster pour gas on the ground in front of me and then throw a match, and as the place bursts into flames, the scene shifts once more.

This time, I’m sitting in an ally, my hands are bloody, a cigarette hangs from my fingers, and a handsome man approaches me with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

“Looking for a place to stay, kid?” He asks me. “I saw what you did and I’m impressed.”

I don’t bother responding as the man continues to eye me, but when he reaches out a hand, I take it like it is a life line that I have been desperately searching for.

Once again, the scene changes, this time I’m standing in front of a man that leaves a mixture of emotions in me, and when he moves forward, his arms wrapping around me, I feel myself leaning into him.

Again and again the scenes change, from doing whatever the man who I was convinced was my soulmate says, to trying to harm Denali and Rosco, to killing the man that I loved.

One by one, they come in waves to my sitting in a cell, to being freed, and then teaming up with William and a few others to try to protect Serenity who is nothing more than an infant, and finally, to being in a large mansion that is collapsing where I save William only to be crushed to death, and find myself standing in a beautiful field where a beautiful woman with shining blonde hair asks me to make a choice.

This, I gasp as the scene disappears, and the crone and her cabin come back into view. Those were…

“Your memories,” she tells me, releasing me. “The memories that you lost when you lost your humanity and your wolf. After having them returned do you understand where it is that you should return and begin your fight?”

“I don’t,” I admit, still reeling from everything. “But you said that I could return to the point where I defied fate, correct?”

“That is correct,” the crone confirms. “The moment you died you defied fate, and it is from that point that I can return you to. However, I can not guarantee that it will change the fate of you and your friends.”

“Way to be useless,” I grumble, and the crone gives me a look of warning. “Mind your words, girl.”

“Well, you aren’t being of help.” I point out.

“That is because it is not my place to change things. Now, you have wasted enough time here and must be going.”

“But you haven’t…” I begin only to stop as the black tendrils from before start to slowly wrap themselves around my ankles. “WAIT! HEY!”

“Good luck,” the crone says while they wrap themselves higher and higher around me. “I do hope that you manage to create the ending that you are looking for.”

“No!” I hiss, beginning to fight, but not managing to make any progress. “I’m not done!”

My voice rings out as the tendrils complete their ascent wrapping around me like a cocoon, and then I’m falling.

“NO!” I yell, my eyes flying open as I shoot up into a sitting position.

Gasping, I feel my heart hammering in my chest as I desperately look around for the crone.

She’s nowhere in sight, and I slowly come to realize that I’m no longer in her cabin. Instead, I’m in a dark hospital room with beeping machines, and a single person jumping up from a chair in the corner that they were just sleeping in.

“Elise!” The person gasps, his deep voice washing over me like a beautiful song that I haven’t heard in so long. “Elise, you’re awake!”

“William,” I whisper, trying to make sense of what was happening. “William, you’re…”

I don’t get to finish my words as his arms wrap around me, pulling me into a fierce hug that makes my whole body scream with agony.

“Ouch,” I hiss and he immediately releases me with a curse.

“Sorry,” he says, panic and relief mixing on his handsome face. “I’m just…I’m just so happy to see you awake.”

See me awake. A hospital room. This…

“When I died,” I whisper, and William’s expression shifts to panic.

“No one died,” he growls. “You’re here and alive.”

“Right,” I continue, slowly taking everything in. “I’m alive, which means…”

I’ll return you to another time where fate was cheated, but I can’t guarantee that it will make a difference.

The crone’s words come back to me, and I immediately understand what is happening. I’m back to that time where I died saving William. I was eighteen years in the past and since I was aware of what was to come, I could most likely change the events that led to the defeat of my friends.

I can’t waste this opportunity, I tell myself. I will change the future and save everyone.

TO BE CONTINUED…