Epilogue

     It’d been five years since I returned to Earth.

     That day, I was found on the sidewalk crying and people just walked by, probably assuming I was some kind of junkie. Sure enough, same country, same city, same sidewalk I was on before I’d been taken.

     Apparently, five months had passed while I was in the Demon Realm. Of course I was fired from my job and was kicked out of my apartment, everything I had was gone. I borrowed a stranger’s phone, called up my parents, and moved back in. Not much choice, after all.

     They asked me where I’d been for those months, thought I might’ve been dead, but what could I tell them? I’d been taken to hell? Well, I tried anyway. Naturally, they thought I’d gone crazy. Thought I was just on drugs and stumbling around for five months. I can’t blame them, that’s what I’d think too.

     I got some psychiatric evaluations and, aside from the wacky story, I was otherwise stable. They just said some part of my memory must’ve been fried from hallucinogenics and to keep an eye on me, make sure I don’t relapse.

     So I started rebuilding my life. New job, making money again, buying new clothes to replace the ones the landlord threw out, but it wasn’t the same. Every day felt empty, and every night I was plagued with nightmares. Visions of the Demon Realm, a land made of corpses, monsters without remorse or decency, oceans of waste, and the end of everything. The world could go back to the way it was, but I couldn’t.

     There was just one thing that was different. I took up a hobby: gardening.

     I started with potted plants and researched them, taking meticulous care of every single one to the best of my ability. It brought me some small joy to see those little seeds sprout, especially one. The one possession I had when I returned to Earth, the one thing that Siti left for me: a seed.

     It wasn’t shaped like any other seed I’d seen before, spherical and smaller than a walnut. Still, I planted it, watered it, and hoped. I thought my heart would burst when I finally saw it sprouting for the first time, vibrant and green. It was the first bit of genuine happiness that I’d felt since returning.

     And so it grew, and I tended to it, day in and day out. It grew bigger, so I gave it a bigger pot. It grew bigger some more, so an even bigger pot was needed. Unlike some kind of flower or vegetable, it grew slowly and steadily. Was it some kind of tree? It didn’t grow directly upright like a tree.

     Eventually, with my parents’ permission, I transferred it to the back yard and continued to tend to it day in and day out. A huge bulb grew on it, leading my parents to think it was some kind of melon or pumpkin.

     And that’s how I’ve spent these last five years, working and tending my plants. I’ve taken to sleeping in a tent next to the strange plant, as it’s the only time I don’t have nightmares when I sleep.

     My parents went out on vacation, leaving me to watch the house. They invited me to come along, but work wouldn’t permit the time off. So, with a tired sigh I returned from me shift and headed straight to the back yard, but before I could get there, I paused in my tracks.

     There she was with her green skin and white petaled hair, standing in the back yard and gazing toward the setting sun. She turned halfway, grinned, then turned to me fully.

“Here I am! Your lovely Siti, ready for our date~!”