Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Downstairs my parents are still fighting. They are so invested in this fight, they don’t even see me, so I just slip out the door and turn right, heading towards one of the main roads that runs through Spokane.
At first, there’s no one out here but me and it’s kinda creepy. But then I realize that if I want this world to be real, then I have to create the people in it. So I do.
Cars appear. Just a few, at first. But as I continue walking there are more.
At the end of the next block there is a purple mist waiting for me. This is the end of my fiction, I guess.
But only until I think up something to put in its place.
So I do that, and the street continues.
For now, I just populate my personal version of the infinite emptiness with what I remember being here.
A gas station. A dry cleaner’s. A strip mall.
One day, when I’m comfortable with my new existence, I’ll try making brand-new worlds. Maybe even brand-new species of people. Fun animals and cool places.
Because even though I’m not magical, Josep gave me… something. I’m not sure what it is, but that power, in combination with the knowledge of how vampires travel, was enough to get this world started.
It took me a lot of tries before I had the house right. Took hundreds of mistakes before I had a realistic representation of my worthless parents. My bedroom was a little easier, but that’s because it was all mine.
It was worth the effort though. Because this is it for me. This is my eternity and I’m going to make the most of it.
I’m getting a do-over.
Yes, I know it’s fake.
Yes, I know where I really am.
Yes, I’m damned and there’s no way to change that.
But it’s not going to feel new forever.
One day I’ll wake up and a new person will enter my life. Someone I made, obviously, but forgot about. So this new person will be my beginning and after that I’ll start forgetting about other things too.
And once you forget you’re not real, well… then you are real.
If you have no memory of your real self, it doesn’t exist.
The sun breaks through a long bank of thick clouds, shining rays of light down on me.
And it feels like a blessing.
I am blessed.
EPILOGUE – SYRSEE
“Are you ready?” Ryet and I are standing in the mist between worlds, ready to do what needs to be done so we can carve out some semblance of normalcy for the next seven years. Not that that’s something I’m excited about. It sounds like a pretty shit deal, if you ask me. But it could be worse. It can always get worse, so I am thankful for every extra minute Ryet and I get together.
Is it paradise? No. From what I’ve read, it’s literally going to turn into Hell on Earth. But that hasn’t started yet and I have decided that I will cherish every moment.
A few things have changed since I picked up all my pieces. The first is the color of the mist, which is still purple, but all the gold has turned scarlet, the color of blood. Which makes sense, I guess. The second is Ryet.
“I’m ready,” he says. He’s been stuck in his true vampire form since everything happened down in Josep’s cave and he looks like Darkness. Which also makes sense, because he is.
He’s more than that, though. He’s… well, the actual incarnation of evil.
Except he’s not. He’s really not. I know this man and he’s good. He was tricked. Paul said it was fate, but fate doesn’t need to trick people. That’s what monsters do.
So we’ve decided that we are in charge of our fates and we can do something about this. That’s why we’re here in the mist.
After picking up all my pieces, I immediately split myself in two and gave that other Syrsee the demon baby. I’m so grossed out by that whole thing. But I’ve felt a hundred times better since leaving it with my other half inside the dreamwalk, and I’m sure Ryet will be back to his old self once we get rid of his Darkness too.
“OK.” I blow out a breath.
I hold up the Coyrah mirror. This, I’ve learned, is the secret to my power. It’s how I made myself whole and it’s the only way I can split myself in half. Or, in this case, split Ryet. How the Obscurati did it, I have no idea. Blood magic, I’m sure. Which probably involves summoning the Darkness, but they can’t do that anymore because Ryet and I control it.
Every bit of it, from what we know.
I have half inside the baby, which is now tucked away in a scarlet dreamwalk, and Ryet has half inside himself.
But not for long.