/death./

[ scene start: ashton ]

And so I stood, atop the place where my sister worked, ready to jump, to reunite with Noe. Wrapped around my neck were the arms of a girl I could recognize but not name. I tried to turn around, but the arms would not let me. I was forced to stare out across the skyline I was about to cross, both alone and all too close to someone I couldn’t understand.

“Who… Who are you?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. “What do you want from me?”

“You know who I am, Ash, don’t you?” The voice replied. “You’ve known all along; you just chose to forget.”

“Is that you… Noe…?”

“There is no one named Noe, Ash,” The voice behind me said. “She isn’t real. I’m real, right? I’m the one you love, right Ash?”

I didn’t bother looking back now, I knew who I was talking to.

“Why did you do it? Why did you kill them?” I asked.

“Who?”

“Your parents. Why did you kill your parents?”

“I had to.”

“Why?”

“Because I have to stay with you.”

Silence. Not even the wind could be heard now. My mind raced. I had one more question to ask, a truth to unveil before I ended it all.

“Who’s going to die next?” I asked.

“A lot of people… More people in this city will die than ever before, and that’s only the beginning,” the girl behind me said. “They have to die, otherwise I can’t stay with you, Ashton.”

“I don’t love you, Brooklyn. I can’t.”

It began to rain.

“Why? Why can’t you love me? Why won’t you stay with me?!” Brooklyn asked.

“You- you lied to me, you lied to everyone. I don’t care that you did this for my sake, you’re a monster, you’re nothing like Noe,” I replied.

“You don’t know what she was really like, what she truly is,” Brooklyn said. “She and I are two parts of the same whole. Body and soul, ego and id, torn apart by one’s own will. One soul without flesh, and one machine without mind. Both hollow, they seek another existence to assimilate and make their own. In order to truly be whole, I need her. Together, we can be one.”

[ cut to: scarlet ]

“We need to find evidence and get out of here as fast as possible,” I said. “There’s no telling what else could be in here if a demon like that is the first one we run into.”

“You’re right about that much,” Claire said. “I can tell you for certain that we aren’t the only ones in there, someone broke in through the front doors while I was trying to get over here.”

“You think it’s a bystander?”

“Not sure, but it’s likely,” Claire replied. “Regardless, the security office is this way.”

Claire and I raced down the now somewhat navigable hallways until we reached the security office. I went through the air vent by decomposing and then recomposing my body and unlocked the room from the inside. Claire immediately got to work by pulling up the security camera footage from the front door.

She traced the time bar at the bottom until we were met by a familiar face staring into the camera.

“That’s my brother,” Claire said. “What the hell is he doing here.”

We then watched as Ashton began bashing his entire body into the front windows. Claire stared in horror as we heard cracking sounds muffled through the camera’s microphone. It was impossible to tell if it was the glass or her brother’s bones.

“Where is he?! Where’s my brother?!” Claire frantically scanned through the footage from the other camera, desperately searching for Ashton. We saw that he entered the elevator and ascended to the building’s roof. The roof’s sole camera showed Ashton, in real-time, staring out across the city skyline, teetering barely before the edge.

“This thing has a speaker, right?! How do I use it? I need to talk to him!” Claire turned to me, seemingly wanting my advice.

“I don’t know, you’re the one who works with computers,” I said.

“I going to go stop him, you have to figure out what happened here and who bound that demon,” Claire said as she ran out the door. “I can’t let Ashton do something stupid.”

“No, what if there’s another demon, or worse!” I tried to grab her hand, but she slipped away.

“My brother is more important than that!”

I let Claire go. There was no point in trying to stop her, she would just stop time and escape me anyway. That doesn’t stop me from worrying about her, however. I checked the security cameras on her route to the elevator, doing what little I could to look out for her own safety.

Then I saw a familiar figure in the hallway ahead of her.

I darted for the door and ran as fast as I could. Claire would make it to the elevator first, she could outrun time itself, but I might be able to save her from that girl, the investigator’s child. Had I known who she was when Ashton and I were waiting for her to wake up, none of this would have happened. Maybe I should thank her for taking Claire’s burden, but it was too late now. That girl is the vessel for the demon behind the Pentagram Killings, just like Claire was before her.

[ cut to: claire ]

I completely ignored my surroundings as I ran as fast as I could to the elevator. I needed to get to Ashton before he did something irreversible. I weaved in and out of stopped time as I barreled down the mostly straight hallways. I could only keep time stopped for around 10 seconds or I’d risk being unable to resume it, but it’s likely that I was already pushing that boundary by using my ability so frequently.

I was almost to the elevator, just a few moments to go, when I felt the pull of cold steel slicing across my throat.

= pause =

I instinctively stopped time, but quickly realized my mistake.

Within the stopped time, I felt blood pour from my neck and I fell to the floor, choking. I couldn’t even gather the strength to move and see my assailant. If I stayed in stopped time, I would bleed to death and nobody could save me, but if I leave, whoever just attacked me will surely finish the job. In truth though, I had only one option.

= resume =

I fully collapsed to the ground mere seconds after time resumed. It was up to Alex now whether me, and my brother for that matter, lived or died.

“We meet again, failure,” a girl’s voice said. I didn’t recognize the voice, but it still sounded familiar. “I’m going to have to take something back from you, you’ve long overstayed your purpose.”

“You’re the one who killed them, weren’t you?” I could barely speak, coughing and choking on my own blood with nearly every word. “My parents, my friends, all of those people two years ago, you killed them?”

“I owe no explanation to a vessel that defies orders,” the girl replied. Her voice sounded a lot like Noe’s, but her manner of speech was far unlike it. It reminded me of a voice that I had once heard, one I thought was my own.

The girl used her foot to kick over my body, turning me face up. When I finally saw her face, it all made sense. Ashton must have been lying to himself this whole time to not make any connection, though it might not have been consciously. Brooklyn and Noe shared the same face, albeit their hair and manner of dress couldn’t be more different. Brooklyn’s dark brown hair matched the darkness within her lifeless eyes, a darkness so impenetrable that the light within was distinct and alienated.

The girl, Brooklyn, as she was called, knelt over my body before reaching into my face. Her hand tore through my flesh with unearthly strength and efficiency. The pain was so great that my brain could barely process it, but I wouldn’t be granted the reprieve of a painless injury. I was in agony. My vision gave out a moment after she grabbed hold of my eye, leaving my only with the sensation of a part being ripped from its whole. I screamed, but I was silenced by my now-flooded lungs, what else could I do? I felt my body writhe, even after the pressure of her knees against the sides of my body was no longer there. By this point, she was already gone, likely on her way to bid my brother farewell.

I wished that I could fall asleep and wait until the pain was over, but that wasn’t an option. I tried to open my remaining eye, but it was stung by blood, more pain. I tried to breathe, but I only swallowed more blood. It was all blood, blood, and more blood. Blood everywhere. Crawling across my skin and into places where it isn’t meant to be. My blood, something that I needed to survive, was turning against me, drowning me. I was just like the others who had fallen victim to this girl, I was killing myself.

My ears, the only thing that still seemed to work, picked up the panicked footsteps of a young man. I could tell it was a man, the way his steps and breathing were paced made sure of that, or maybe I just subconsciously knew who it was in particular.

“CLAIRE!” I heard Alex shout. “NO!”

I tried to raise my voice to warn him about the girl, but I just ended up choking on more blood.

“We need to get you to Eden, now! He can help!” Alex continued. “You can still make it, you have to!”

“No…” I said, barely coughing out a few words. “There’s… no time…”

Alex was silent for a moment, but his breathing grew panicked.

“This is going to hurt, or worse. Just hold on,” Alex said. It’s bound to be better than my current situation. I nodded faintly.

I felt my wounds begin to stitch together. Alex was using his own blood to heal me. Within a minute, the gash on my neck had stopped bleeding and Alex had moved on to my missing eye.

“I’ve never done something like this before, but I think I can replace your eye,” Alex said. “I have no idea if it’ll ever work again, but it’s better than you bleeding to death out of your eye socket.”

“Just…” I mustered the strength to speak just three words, “do it…”

A bright flash of light was projected into my brain as my head began to throb. The lights began to repeatedly erupt in my vision, each one sending a piercing pain spiraling through my mind. Eventually, I had reached my breaking point, and my mind lapsed into unconsciousness.

[ cut to: ashton ]

“I want to know the truth about Noe, what was she?” I asked, Brooklyn still hanging around my neck. “What happened to her?”

“I’m right here and you care more about that girl?” Brooklyn spoke close to my ear, her words echoing within my head.

I didn’t have to answer her. In a moment, I felt her weight disappear.

“A long, long time ago, a time before computers or books, airplanes or other automated vehicles, a time before the language you now speak was even a mere idea, there was a girl,” I turned around. Brooklyn held in her hand a piece of shattered glass and was sitting on the railing that separated the building from the streets far below. “This girl was given a task by her Father, to kill those who defied Him. In one night, the girl slaughtered thousands of young men and children, all firstborn males of their people. For every child she killed, she cried. For every tear she shed, she began to break,” Brooklyn began pressing her finger against the edge of the glass. As her finger gently shed tears of blood, the glass began to crack and tear. Every word that Brooklyn spoke caused the fractures to grow across the glass’s surface. “Eventually, her resolve had been shattered,” suddenly, the glass broke, splitting into two separate halves. One fell to the ground while the other remained in Brooklyn’s hand. “She decided to abandon her Father’s task and take with her the sliver of freedom that caused her to rebel, leaving behind her duty and her purpose,” Brooklyn dropped the shard of glass. “I am what was left, and she is the one who left me behind.”

“No… you’re just a shadow, a demon inhabiting Brooklyn’s body,” I said. “I want to know more about Noe, not you!”

“The girl you call Noe and I are one and the same, just two halves of the same coin,” Brooklyn replied. “More importantly, this girl whose body I possess is nothing but a lie, a mere fabrication to conceal my presence, something you should very well know. She was born with half a soul, an empty shell, and I gave her existence life and meaning. The Brooklyn you know is me, no one else.”

“That’s not true!” I shouted back. “She loved photography, and she was always interested in weird, haunted places! She always enjoyed eating fish and chips at the market and spending time with me! For years she was the only thing I cared about in this rotten, disgusting world. Brooklyn was real, nothing you say can change that!” I closed my eyes and stomped my foot.

“Ash, what are you talking about?” Brooklyn said in an innocent tone. My heart skipped a beat. The nightmare was over, that was Brooklyn’s voice. I felt a warm presence approach me, her warmth. “Don’t say things like that, that you hate this world. I know that deep down, you care about every person in your life, even me…”

Brooklyn’s lips made contact with mine. It was a sweet sensation, a gesture of love. The feeling was strangely familiar, I recognized this kiss. It broke through my stupor and cut straight to my soul. For just a moment, my heart was at ease. For just a moment, the New Pentagram Killings, DEED, this building, this rotten world, it all ceased to exist.

My eyes were still closed as Brooklyn took her mouth away from my face.

“…even after everything I’ve done to you…” Brooklyn said.

“What did you do to me?”

“…even after I stabbed you…”

“It’s fine, you weren’t yourself back then.”

“…even after I hurt your sister…”

“I don’t even remember that.”

“…even after I had Noe killed.”

“You… had her killed?”

The world around me came into focus. The blurred lights of my mind gave way back to the place where the city met the sky. I stared into Noe’s eyes, her dark, hollow eyes. Her brown hair obscured some of her face, but I could clearly still see it was her. Noe’s eyes were always yellow, and her hair was always a pastel rose, why were they different all of a sudden, why did she look so much like… Brooklyn?

[ cut to: claire ]

I came to still lying on the floor of the office building. The sensation of the pressure in my veins increasing must have been what awakened me, My vision was blurry, but slowly my right eye began to acclimate, my left eye did not. Alex was sitting by my side, a cord of blood connecting him to me. His breathing was still sporadic, and he looked somewhat pale.

“Claire, you’re awake,” Alex said. “I was worried that you might not wake up.”

“Go after Ashton, I can wait!” I replied.

“You’ll die if you don’t receive any blood, just wait here. Ashton should be able to handle himself,” Alex said, trying to reassure me.

“The person who did this to me is likely already there, Ashton might not even be alive anymore.”

“Ashton can’t die unless he decides to do so himself.”

“What?” I was confused. What did Alex mean by this?

“The power that I used to fight you two years ago, I’m fairly certain it's similar, or the same, as the one he has,” Alex answered. “He should be fine if he can keep the resolve to live.”

“What does that mean?!”

“Ashton can reset time to a point before he dies, that’s what his reaper eye has the ability to do, I’m almost certain,” Alex explained. “He talked to me about it while we were looking after Brooklyn before she got kidnapped by Ronin.”

“It’s ironic that she got herself captured when Ronin was the real captive the entire time,” I said. Ronin was manipulated by her somehow, he practically confessed to it from what I’ve heard from Alex. “Maybe we’re all in over our heads, just like him.”

“Not just like him, he was still wrong.”

“Really? You’re a Catholic too, just like him, right?” I asked Alex.

“Yeah, but it’s not our place to judge whether others have the right to live or die,” Alex replied. “Ronin believed all of humanity deserved to die, he thought that we were all too far gone.”

“He’s not too different from Ashton in that regard,” I said.

“That’s a scary comparison, but you’re right.”

I stared up at the ceiling. Weirdly, I felt calm. I felt at peace. Alex made me feel that way, that was why I loved him. It’s difficult to understand, but even after just having my eye ripped out, I was brought to clarity by my best friend, or maybe he is something more. Nobody else could make me feel that way, just him. It didn’t matter to me what he looked like or the fact that he’s been running from responsibility for so long, just his mere presence could put me at ease.

That’s what it’s like to be in-

A sudden shock flowed across my body. Something was wrong, something was very, very wrong. I felt myself begin to barely shake as a wave of anxiety gripped my heartbeat. Why didn’t she kill me? Why was I left alive?

“Claire, what’s going on?!” Alex asked. “Are you okay?!”

“No,” I said weakly. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“I’ve never used my blood to heal someone before because of the risk, but I didn’t have a choice this time,” Alex explained.

“What risk?! What’s going on?!” My heart was racing. I felt like I was going to die.

“My blood type is AB+, I can’t be a donor. You needed blood, but this was all I could do,” Alex said. “You should be okay; you’re not dying anymore.”

Nausea welled up within me. “I… I feel terrible… Like I’m going to die…”

“You’re not going to die, trust me. You aren’t going anywhere,” Alex reassured me. “One of the symptoms of an incompatible transfusion is increased anxiety, its your body’s immune response to what it perceives as a threat,” He stood up.

“Don’t leave me all alone,” I said. “Please, stay here.”

“You wanted me to help Ashton. I already called for Eden to pick you up. I know you won’t be able to live with yourself if Ashton dies.”

“There’s nothing you can do… She took it…” I pointed to my newly recovered eyeball.

“Wait, that means-“

[ cut to: ashton ]

“I had to get rid of her, she has something that belongs to me,” She said in her innocent tone. The girl in front of me was Brooklyn, or was she Noe, or was she someone else entirely? “You understand, don’t you?”

This girl that I didn’t know was right in front of me. I wanted to push her away, she was too close. My mind was racing, what do I do?

“Oh, and that mark on your arm” the girl grabbed my hand gently, “that’s the most important part of all this,” I wanted to swat her away, but she looked too much like Noe. I didn’t want to let her go. “I gave that to you, remember? To keep you safe, so that I can keep you with me when you die.”

What did all of these words mean? Emotion was welling up inside of me, but it all confused me. Was I angry? Was I sad? Was I just confused? It was everything. I felt everything.

“I don’t want you to die, but you took something from me that I can’t get back anymore,” the girl said. “What’s left of that girl, the part of me that’s missing, is inside of you. She took refuge in you to avoid rejoining with me. If only she hadn’t been so selfish you might have been able to live a normal life, but it’s in her nature.”

I looked into the girl’s eyes; they were Brooklyn’s eyes. They were full of darkness, all but for a glimmer of light that stuck out like a diamond amidst coals. They were mesmerizing, inhumanly beautiful.

“Ashton, I’m sorry…”

I was crying. It was all of the emotions from within finally spilling forth. Pain. Regret. Frustration. Happiness that I had found her again. Sadness that she had lied to me all this time. It was her eyes that told me everything, who she really was, just as mine surely did for her.

“…please, die for me.”

[ cut ]

“We have a new student joining this class, her name is Brooklyn Schultz. Please, take your seat,” a teacher said. I couldn’t see his face. It wasn’t that it wasn’t there or that it was obscured, I just didn’t care enough to look at it. He didn’t matter any more than I did.

It was the first day of school this year, fall. Me and around three dozen other students all sat at our desks in an air-conditioned classroom. In some ways, it was better than the temperature outside, it was certainly more comfortable. There was something more memorable about the outside though, you felt the sun and the breeze. The outside was untainted by humanity, whereas in here, though it was much more pleasant, the rottenness of humanity pervaded the air I breathed. While sunlight did shine in from the classroom’s filthy, translucent window, it was muted and dusty, not unlike the mood I was in on this particular day.

“Where am I supposed to sit?” I heard a faint voice ask from the front of the room.

There was an empty desk next to me, presumably to be filled by the ass of our new classmate. It was just my luck to get stuck with the new girl. I buried my face into my arms. I was wearing a black hoodie, so it wasn’t the least comfortable position to be stuck in.

“Over there, next to Mr. Phillips,” the teacher said. My intuition was right.

The girl’s footsteps were silent, masked by the sounds of the air conditioner. I heard her pull the chair back from her desk and scoot it back in. She had taken her seat.

The day passed by until lunch mostly uneventfully. This girl, Ms. Schultz, raised her hand to answer nearly every question, even ones she didn’t know the answer to. It was so annoying. It wasn’t that I was tired of hearing her voice, it was that she had the guts to guess the answers and raise her hand again and again, failure after failure.

When lunch break started, most of the other students left for the cafeteria. I decided to stay here and wait for Brooklyn to leave, that way she wouldn’t try to talk to me.

I heard someone next to me rummaging about their bag, just before a quiet *click*. I recognized that sound, it was a camera shutter. I then heard the sound of paper being dispensed. A polaroid? Who the hell uses a Polaroid in 2023? My curiosity got the better of me, and I looked up.

Staring at me was the lens of an antique Polaroid camera, with a young girl sitting behind it. The girl had dark brown hair and blue eyes that looked almost bathed in shadow, but her disposition didn’t seem gloomy at all. She was curious, clearly, I don’t know why. It might have something to do with the fact that I’ve been sitting here with my face planted into my desk for hours.

“Are you a ghost?” She asked.

“What kind of question is that?” I asked. The girl jumped back, seemingly surprised.

“I’m sorry!” She squealed. “Please, take this.”

She handed me a photo. The quality was terrible, but I could make out what it was. It was a photo of me with my face planted into my desk, likely taken just a few seconds ago.

“Why did you take this?” I asked.

“Because I couldn’t tell if you were alive or not.”

“How is a photo going to help?”

“Because this camera can see ghosts!” She seemed proud of that. It sounded like bullshit to me.

“Bullshit,” I said, obviously. What else are you going to say to a claim like that?

“Eh! That’s not a nice word,” Brooklyn said.

“Were you raised in a church? Everyone else talks like that.”

“My parents don’t, most of the time anyway.”

“Have you never been around another kid your age in your entire life? What are you, eight?” I asked. She obviously wasn’t eight, but she did look young for a sophomore.

“I’m sorry!”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I don’t know!”

“You’re an idiot. Stop trying to act like you’re some kind of saint. I don’t care how you feel about the way I choose to speak, and I especially don’t care that you’re sorry for your judgment, I know you aren’t,” I stood up and began to leave the room.

Brooklyn grabbed me around my torso before I could leave and hung on tight.

“Let me go!” I shouted.

“Will you please help me order food in the cafeteria!”

“No!”

What was this girl’s deal? Was she homeschooled? No, even homeschooled kids are mostly functioning members of society. She doesn’t know how to order food? I might even pity her at this point.

Just then, I glanced out the window. It was blurry, thanks to the grime stuck to the inside, but there was someone out there, pounding on the window. I could faintly see the outline of a girl, no older than I was. Her hair was a pastel rose and she was wearing a black coat, similar to mine. She was probably just some crazy homeless person, but there was something so familiar about her. Oh well, I guess I have to teach this loser still attached to me how to order chicken nuggets.

Once Brooklyn let go of me, I led her to the cafeteria. We didn’t talk at all while in line. I ordered my food, but before I could go find a table the girl behind me grabbed my hand.

“What do you want?” I turned to face her, a scowl on my face.

Brooklyn scanned the cafeteria menu posted over the counter for a few seconds, all the while grasping my hand so I couldn’t leave.

“That,” she pointed towards something on the menu.

“Use your words,” I replied.

She opened her mouth and was about to speak, but I stopped her.

“And tell him, not me,” I pointed towards the student standing behind the cafeteria desk.

This girl really is just that pathetic.

I looked over to the window in this room. The girl who was outside before was there, still pounding on the window. I could see her more clearly now. She looked a lot like Brooklyn, actually, almost identical aside from her hair color. She was shouting something, but I couldn’t hear her. I couldn’t hear the pounding either. That’s strange, why hasn’t anyone else noticed her? Maybe I’m just losing my mind.

Once Brooklyn let go of my hand, I went to sit down at one of the tables and wait for my lunch to be ready. Brooklyn followed me to the table I sat at, but she didn’t try to talk to me.

“So, that camera of yours” I asked Brooklyn, “where’s it from?”

“My dad left it for me before he passed away, it’s all I know about him.”

“You don’t remember your father?” I asked.

“He died in the murders a year ago, but I don’t really remember him. I don’t remember much at all from before I was adopted,” Brooklyn said.

“Wait, you can only remember the past year?”

“Yeah, it seems that way,” Brooklyn said. “My memories are all faint though, I only remember bits and pieces. Weirdly, I remember growing up with my adoptive parents, even though I only met them recently.”

“That’s weird,” I said. “Do you take pictures?”

“All the time,” Brooklyn said. “I want to make up for all the time I forgot by photographing everything I can and exploring more too. I want to understand why this camera can see ghosts, after all.”

“You’re still on about that?”

“Of course, I’m serious!” Brooklyn said. “I would show you, but there probably aren’t any ghosts around here, anyway.”

“Of course there aren’t, ghosts aren’t real,” I said. “You know that, right?”

“I’m telling you! They’re real! I’ve seen them!”

“Keep your voice down,” I said. “If you’re going to talk crazy you don’t need everyone in the room to hear.”

“I’m not crazy!” Her voice only got louder.

I don’t know why, but there’s something so beautiful about this girl. It’s like she was divorced from the sins of humanity, from all of the pain and suffering. She was pure-hearted, everything the rest of the world isn’t. Maybe part of me wishes I could be that way, that I could see the world with rose-tinted glasses like she does. Maybe that’s why I hate the world that took my parents from me, the world that only gets worse and worse with each passing day.

“So your dad died in the murders, right?” I asked. It was probably insensitive, but I wasn’t thinking straight anyway. “You said that earlier.”

“Yeah, but as I said I don’t remember him at all.”

“My parents died around that time as well, in the big car crash. Everyone says it’s the work of a demon, but I’ve never believed that,” I said.

“I guess we have that in common then,” Brooklyn replied. “let’s be friends. Your name is Ash, right?”

“No, my name is Ashton,” I said. “Nobody calls me ‘Ash’.”

“Well I do now, Ash!” Brooklyn held out her hand to me. I didn’t really have any friends, so I couldn’t exactly say no to her. I met her hand, and we shook on it. We were friends.

I heard the sound of someone pounding on the window behind me. I didn’t hear it before, but it was accompanied by muffled shouting. “Ash! Ash!” The voice shouted. “Wake up! Please!” She was shouting at me, the girl outside the window.

I turned around to see her, but there was nothing there except for her. No tables. No walls. No window. Just the girl I called Noe. I felt Brooklyn’s hand disappear as I faced the girl I had sought for so long.

“Ashton, you can’t die right now!” Noe said. She was panicked for some reason; I couldn’t tell why. “You need to wake up!”

“Noe, it’s you! Finally, you’ve come back!” I stepped towards her, but she only grew further away. “Wait, no! Please! Don’t leave me!”

“I’m not going to leave you, just please, wake up!”

“I don’t want to wake up. This world here, this moment isn’t like the outside. I want to stay here with you!”

“You can’t do that, Ash,” Noe’s expression was clearly pained, but she was trying to smile. Why? Why was she smiling at me? “I’m not real, not like you are.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. None of this is real,” I said. “If anything is real here, it’s you.”

“No, Ashton. I can’t stay with you. Not in your dream, and not in the real world. I can’t abandon my duty again, not after I’ve hurt so many people.”

“Why did you say you wouldn’t leave me, then?” I asked. “Why did you lie to me?”

“I can’t stay with you, but I won’t abandon you,” Noe explained. “You have to move on and keep going.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why do I have to keep going?”

“For her.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That girl, Brooklyn, she was no soul. What inhabits her body is the one I left behind, a shadow of hatred that will only destroy. Her true soul rests somewhere else. It attached itself to a host, giving life to a new being.”

“What does that mean?”

“A soul cannot exist without a body; a body cannot exist without a soul. You really can’t put the pieces together yourself?”

Nothing made sense anymore. It was all too much. My mind felt like it was overloading. My head began to ring. My heart pounded. Tears streamed down my face.

“What are you saying? Where’s Brooklyn’s soul?!” I shouted. The words echoed back into me. Pain.

Noe only pointed toward her chest.

It all made sense now.

The two girls that saved me were one and the same, two parts of the same whole. That was why Noe didn’t remember her past, because she wasn’t a demon at all. She was just a young girl trapped in a world she didn’t understand, she was Brooklyn.

I had to save her, Brooklyn. How?

My head only pounded more and more. It was just like when I stared into the mark on my arm, only there was nowhere to run, no amount of covering it up would hide the pain.

“How do I save her; how do I save you?” I asked.

“You have to banish Abaddon back to its origin, me,” Noe explained. “If you can force it to reunite with me, all of this will be over.”

With that, I had reached my breaking point. The dream around me disappeared.

[ cut ]

I was clutching my head, screaming. My eyes bled, by ears were ringing more than ever before. More than anything else, it felt like my head was about to explode.

“You’re still alive,” Brooklyn said. “You’re more persistent than the others.”

“I…” I tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t form.

I broke through the pain and forced myself up. I was staring across the skyline. Across the tops of the buildings were dozens of tiny figures, people. Though blurry, I could see movement. They were falling. The people were falling. That was Brooklyn’s power, the one she tried to use on me, she forced them to die. That was how the first killing happened, the victims hung themselves. That was the second killing, too, they jumped into the harbor. The third killing was… I don’t know what it was… Was this the third killing? No, Brooklyn’s parents were killed, this is the fourth new pentagram killing. The trouble is, the falling people, they’re everywhere. There’s no way to save them, not like we tried at the harbor.

“You did this? This is your fault?” I asked.

“Yes, I did this to inspire fear that the end is coming. Only this time, it isn’t a shallow bluff,” Brooklyn, no, Abaddon said. “After the final killing, this world will be purified of sin, just as it should be.”

“You took Brooklyn from me, now you took Noe from me too,” I said. “I can’t let you get away with that.”

“I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to kill you myself, but it seems that my eyes don’t work well enough on you,” Abaddon said. “I’ll make this quick.”

[ cut to: brooklyn ]

I wish I didn’t have to kill you, but at least you’ll never be away from my side ever again. Time to put the failure’s eye to use.

= pause =

A clean decapitation will work well enough. He’ll never feel pain again. I would envy him if it weren’t me who had to kill him.

I drew from the expanse between here and the heavens a scythe, brilliantly gleaming, the Archangel of Death’s weapon of choice. I prepared to strike, rearing the blade back, before-

Ashton drew his knife from his coat and lunged at me.

“What?!” I shouted. “You can’t do that!”

I stepped out of the way, his body flew past me, barely missing with his outstretched blade.

“I thought I hated this world, but now that Brooklyn and Noe are gone I understand why.” Ashton pivoted to face towards me. “I took the people like them, and my sister, and even that dumbass Scarlet for granted, good people in this rotten world. I won’t let you destroy everything that I care about, however little it may be.”

“You’re foolish. The world is full of sin and corruption. Just because you know a few good people doesn’t make it worth saving.”

“That’s where you’re wrong!” Ashton lunged once more. There was something different about his knife this time. It’s blade was painted a brilliant white, the same as my scythe and the other weapons my eyes were linked to. He hadn’t harnessed this power before, which meant-

I looked into his eyes as I readied to block his second strike. Within one was a brilliant blue, the Eye of Seeing. This was the reason he could not be killed, the ability to see and alter the future. It had, since our last encounter, developed, he had awakened its power. In his other, however, was what concerned me, a hue of vibrant gold, the Eye of Unwinding, the power once held by my enemy, my other half. Had he traveled within my stopped time? Was that even possible?

The powers held by the Grim Reaper are many, but the greatest among them are its eyes. The Eye of Seeing, the power to see what cannot be seen. The Eye of Severing, the power to rend apart the soul and body. The Eye of Ending, the power to halt the flow of time. The Eye of Turning, the power to command all mortal beings. The greatest of these eyes, however, is the Eye of Unwinding, the power to travel across any distance, whether that be physical, spiritual, or through time itself. This power is what truly separates the Archangel of Death from all other spirits, a power now possessed, in some part, by a boy who wanted nothing but to end my existence.

[ cut to: ashton ]

I have to do this now, otherwise I’ll never have another chance. Moreover, I can’t rely on my ability to reset time, Abaddon will likely be able to counter it in some way. I have to leverage my advantage, the element of surprise, and defeat Abaddon before she can figure out what I’m trying to do.

I stepped into a thrusting strike; my blade connected with the scythe that Abaddon wielded. After that first exchange, there were no words between us, the only sounds were our footsteps, breathing, and the clash of metal on metal. Even the wind was now silent.

Abaddon made the next move. In a quick motion, her weapon wrapped around me to behind. She began to pull, trying to sever my body in two. Because of how far she had to extend her scythe, she could only pull it back to about an arm’s length away. This was my chance. I dashed towards her, evading the attack by diving further into her reach.

Noe banished a demon that was possessing a human by killing them within a cognitive projection, just when I met her. There’s no way a spirit would try to fight without the advantage of a projection, I can kill Abaddon without harming Brooklyn, that logic is sound.

I delivered a slash to her neck, or at least I tried. Abaddon disengaged her previous attack and stepped backward, giving up more of her ground. It’s likely that she knows I’m trying to kill her now, I didn’t have much time left.

I felt my strength waning. My arms felt heavy, my breathing grew less steady. I remember this sensation, just like my fight with Ronin. I haven’t used my ability yet, have I? Whatever the cause, this meant that it wasn’t just Abaddon finding out my motives that I had to worry about. I had to outlast her.

Now, Abaddon was standing a few feet away. Her weapon’s reach was much longer than mine, I would have to play defensively. She readied a strike once more, this time aimed at my neck. She wasn’t trying to just defeat me; she was trying to kill me as quickly as possible. I can use that to my advantage. I faced the blade and caught it with my own. I had to grip my knife with both hands to deflect the attack. There was power put behind it, enough to go clean through most parts of my body. She wouldn’t be able to exert herself like that again for at least a few seconds. She might be a demon, but her body is that of a teenage girl. I’m stronger than her.

As Abaddon recoiled from her strike, I took my chance. I dropped my knife and grabbed onto the scythe’s handle before yanking with all my strength. I felt the weapon slip free from her grip as I took hold. My next move was to make a thrust at her chest with the weapon’s pommel. It connected. Abaddon lost her balance. I readjusted my grip as I swung with the scythe. It no longer gleamed like it did in her hands, but it would have to work.

In the split second before the attack could hit her, Abaddon reached out her arm to grab the blade. The scythe dug into her hand, but she managed to stop the blow from doing fatal damage. It was over for her, however. She had no weapon, and her position was far from ideal. I had won.

= resume =

Suddenly, I was nearly knocked over by a blast of wind. I heard screams and cars below. All of the noise from before had come back. My eye, though not the one that normally ached after using its power, burned. I lost focus. By the time I had recollected my reason and bothered to check, Abaddon was gone.

Everything clicked now. The reason the wind was gone was because she had stopped time. Somehow, I was able to act while time was stopped, likely because of my ability. No, that doesn’t make sense either. It was the wrong eye. Noe gave me a second ability, likely when she died. Did Noe have that ability all along? Why didn’t she use it when she was fighting Ronin?

I was left with so many questions. Only one person could answer them, and that being had just escaped. I had lost. What’s more, this was my fault. If I hadn’t pushed DEED away, maybe we could have saved Brooklyn, maybe Noe wouldn’t have died if I just hadn’t lied to myself about what I saw. Brooklyn and Noe had always been the same person, I just didn’t want to believe that. I didn’t want to believe that someone I cared about would lie to me.

[ cut to: scarlet ]

I was worried about Claire, there was no question about that, but I knew what she would say if she was thinking straight. She said it just before I had healed her as well. I need to help Ashton. He’s facing an enemy that can stop time, he stands no chance.

As I approached the elevator, it opened without needing to be called. Standing inside Ashton himself. He was uninjured, but his face portrayed utter defeat.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Brooklyn… Brooklyn is…” Tears welled up in Ashton’s eyes. It was the first time I saw him cry.

Ashton ran up and wrapped his arms around me. I could tell he was trying to hug me, but he was terrible at it. How long had it been since someone had comforted him like this? He was just a kid, a kid who was lost in a world he didn’t understand.

“I’m sorry…” Ashton said between stifled tears. “I’m sorry for hurting you… I’m sorry that I hated you… Please, help me save Brooklyn…”

[ cut ]