Marie

I am on another planet, in the middle of a crater only a meteorite could have created. Except the moon is up in the sky, full and basking me in her glory, identical to the one on Earth, except, much, much larger.

I remember I died. For a timeless moment, my mind had blanked, my heartbeat had stopped, and I had drawn no more breaths.

Then, I was cradled back.

I felt lethargic, my body unresponsive. As I took a deep, long breath, I managed to push my upper body up with my elbows.

I was on Earth, in an unnatural basin that had blown away the stumps of trees, rocks, and dirt. Only sand and dust remained.

“Gray?” I called.

Finally, my vision became clearer, and I saw further ahead. I could move my head slightly. I saw in the distance…people on the ground. They were…witches. Yes, those who had done this rite of death to kill my lover.

Some of them were trying to get up, piles of sand and dust falling from their covered and bruised bodies. Most of them were not moving at all.

In the corner of my vision, I saw a patch of black as night fur.

I would recognize it anywhere. It had haunted many of my nightmares.

I turned around.

There IT was. The Beast, sitting silently, proving its strength simply by posing as a statue of death and doom.

But something stood next to him. An impossible sight, giving me a sudden desire to kneel and revere.

Akin to a giant, a sixteen feet tall woman was gently caressing the Beast on its head. She had to lower herself slightly to reach him.

“MISTRESS.” The monster of old basked in her touch.

She had skin colored like moonstone, hair flowing down in a color so dark it seemed to absorb light itself. She was thin yet heavy, perfect yet flawed. As my gaze went higher and higher, I saw her face.

She was looking directly at me. All colors and more swirled in her eyes. There was only storm, no pupils, nothing remotely human.

“Gray?” I repeated, pulled by an instinct I couldn’t understand.

“Marie.” Her luscious mouth, her impossible features, nothing moved as she didn’t speak. Still, I heard her voice. It was something more terrifying than fear, something more beautiful than beauty.

Under my hands, the sand morphed. I looked down, earth was rising, dark and fertile, full of blossoming flowers and grass, emerging from the sterile desert.

“Gray is indeed here, my lover. We shall return her to you shortly.”

A tree grew out to my left, it rose to the skies, insects twirled around its trunk.

I saw a flower wilt, replaced immediately by another one, one with a shade of violet that didn’t exist.

The dead witches were pulled deep under, replaced with trees of gold and silver, bushes with leaves on fire, and giant mushrooms of rainbow colors. Crystal blue water flowed from under the giantess’s feet, forming a small pond where she and her pet stood harmoniously.

“I knew she was something special, but nothing quite like that.” I heard Astarte’s voice. As I looked in her direction, I saw she was looking down on the crater where me and the impossible existed. She was still stuck on her knees but was currently getting rid of the harpoons that were holding her in place. It was easy now that the ground had become sand.

“Astarte, what is happening?” I asked.

“It seems Gray saved you, and to do that, she transformed into... What is your name?” She asked the one who had brought me back to life.

The being looked at her and opened her mouth: “CHAOS.” The sky broke open, lightning pierced the clear night sky with a thunderous roar, as if planets collided or stars exploded. The sound itself was so loud, nothing subsisted, it was the first explosion, the creation and end of everything.

Yet, nothing happened. My eardrums were intact, the Earth was still in one piece.

Everything was peaceful.

“All right. Scratch my previous statement, I’m blown away.” Astarte smiled wildly.

“Child of old, you have been cursed and blessed by me. Would you like to be relieved and join me in nothingness?”

The being who called itself Chaos had spoken, once again without opening its mouth. It made no doubt to me she was talking to Arte, even though I had no way of knowing that, as her face was as immobile as one seen on a marble statue.

Astarte couldn’t hide her shock. She had stopped removing the chains holding her in place. “I…If I had been asked that before, I would have accepted. But right now, I’d like to see this one’s story until the end.” She pointed at me.

“An answer filled with life. I shall grant that wish.”

A gust of wind suddenly made my hair fly in front of my eyes, blinding me. When I looked at Astarte again, the harpoons were gone, her ripped clothes were gone, and her naked body was still, laying on the ground.

“Arte?” I said anxiously.

“SHE IS SLEEPING.” The Beast reassured me.

I looked back towards the one who called herself Chaos.

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She was back to looking at me. She was giving me a warm smile.

Emotions filled my heart. Love, adoration, and things I did not understand.

Then she gazed at an invisible horizon, far away.

“Order has reigned for too long and my grasp has gotten weaker. I have seen the way of change, do you agree with it, Set?”

“OF COURSE, MISTRESS.”

“So it shall be.”

I saw a squirrel in one of the trees, and the carcass of a tiny deer was laying on a wilting bush. All around me, life and death were happening at an impossible speed.

Something…happened.

Right when Chaos had spoken with no words, everything went still.

The newborn forest was calm and had stopped expanding. It had conquered the sand crater in its entirety.

The Goddess was petting the giant wolf again.

“It is time for us to…”

“You!” A voice went and perturbed the silence. Mr. Marak, as well as two other witches descended towards us, getting rid of the infant nature blocking their path with fire and earth spells.

“You are most certainly the bringer of apocalypse, you and your dog! But we shall protect this world! We shall vanquish you!”

“FOOLISH CHILDREN.” The Beast started moving.

“No. You have done enough. You can come back home.” I realized Marak and the other witches couldn’t hear her words. Once again, I had no way to be sure, but for them to act aggressively against her when you could hear the power in her voice was absurd.

The Beast howled to the moon.

The three witches couldn’t stop fear from shivering their bones.

“THANK YOU, MISTRESS.” The giant wolf became shadows and vanished inside the pond.

“He flees! Don’t let the other creature escape!” The witches following Marak didn’t seem as certain as him, but obeyed his order, nonetheless.

They moved in unison, and a gigantic fireball burst out of Marak’s hands, burning part of the forest in its wake, rocketing straight towards us.

Chaos didn’t seem to care, looking at me with a strange expression.

“Marie, behold this truth. They use my power but still serve order. It is as I intend, but you are my lover, and you may only serve me.”

The fireball ceased to be. One moment it was exploding towards us, the other, nothing of it subsided. Darkness filling what was once so brightly lit.

“What?” Marak exclaimed.

“Sir, I think…”

Another gust of wind.

They fell to the ground.

“I…I can’t…my magic…” Marak said before collapsing.

“It is time for me to return. I shall be back when you and Gray join the stardust, but I will always be there.”

And at that last sentence, Chaos transformed into millions of butterflies, birds, and little mammals, who fell and ran away from the pond, losing themselves inside the woods. At the center of them, unmoving, I recognized Gray. She was currently under Igris’s guise. She hovered in the air for a short instant, completely naked, then fell in the middle of the pond.

I finally recovered my ability to walk and ran with no real thought inside the cold water to pull my lover out of it. I almost fell and stumbled plenty, but I reached her.

“Gray? Gray?” I shouted, as she was unresponsive and had her eyes closed.

I dragged her out.

“The hell have you done?” I asked her, not expecting any response.

“It is not important what she did, it is simply clear you both need to be annihilated.” A young voice answered.

As I looked back up, I saw in terror that Alik had emerged from the foliage, probably biding his time, waiting for the perfect moment to act. He wasn’t as foolish as Marak and had not believed one second that he could face what Gray had become.

“Marie…?” Gray said my name weakly.

“Already capable of speech. Impressive, I don’t doubt that'll be the only opportunity I have to beat her.” Alik noted. “Too bad you need to go as well, Marie. You would be the only living thing in more than two thousand years who has ever been resurrected from the dead. A shame you shall die again so soon after.”

“You’re okay…are Illy and Rose…?” Gray asked, not hearing the vampire at all.

I cradled her head in my arms.

“Shh, everything is going to be okay.” I lied.

Gray smiled weakly. “That is a lie.”

“Goodbye, harbingers of chaos.” Alik announced. He started running at a terrifying speed.

I lifted my arm, calling for any magic I had left. I knew it was a lost cause, I had nothing…a vine reached for his body, he didn’t even blink, and continued running like nothing was blocking his path at all.

“Useless.” He still charged right at us our defeat certain in his eyes.

I created more vines. More than I ever thought I could use. This slowed him considerably, and he had to walk, while breaking the natural ropes off him.

“Please stop! You’ve done enough! It’s over already!” I begged, as he was still creeping closer.

“It’ll be over when you two die.” He raged.

“Alik, right?” A male voice suddenly shouted.

“Who…?” The Elder looked at the one who had called his name.

Henry was on our left, looking badly hurt, blood falling from his left arm, as he was only standing through the help of a tree he was hanging onto.

“You’re trying to kill the one who spared my wife and daughter.”

“And? You want to join them? I can feel your magic, witch, you are more than weak.”

Henry laughed sadly. “I am.”

Alik sighed, then continued with his struggled walk towards me and Gray.

He was only inches away now. He raised his hand high in the sky.

“Why take your time so much?” I asked him, knowing full well how fast he could have finished us now that he was close enough to strike.

“I take pride in my work.” Contrary to his neutral words, his expression betrayed the vicious and cruel joy he was feeling.

“Alik!” Henry shouted.

“Silence! You will be next!”

“No. This has to stop.” Henry said with a shaking voice.

Alik looked at him again, annoyed. “And you have to stop this nonsense, you can do nothing to…”

Henry raised his injured arm. “Sorry Illy.”

It only lasted a fraction of a second, even less.

I felt my body lose all its weight. Then it felt like it weighed tons, but not towards the ground. I was pulled towards Alik and so was Gray, who couldn’t fight it. I grabbed her and the plants underneath me firmly in my hands. My body rose. My bones creaked. Flesh on me began ripping away. The forest bent inwards.

There was no more light. No more moon, no more world.

Pitch blackness.

Then everything was back to its strange normalcy.

Of the Elder, only ripped legs remained, standing where he had stood moments before.

I had black spots in my vision, my eardrums were nearly ripped, my head was feeling like it had burst from the inside.

“Marie? Are you okay?” Henry shouted.

“I don’t think so…” I answered honestly.

“If you can respond, it’s good for me. We need to leave, before the remaining vampires wake up.”

“I, I need help with Gray.” She was unconscious again and resting in my arms.

Blood was dripping from my face and arms. I had wounds all over my body.

He coughed violently: “I don’t think I can move anymore to be honest.”

“Wait…I’m fine I think.” Everything was hurting less by the second. The damage on my body was superficial. The feeling was strange. “Let me see if I can use telekinesis to move Gray.”

As I tried, she hovered under my will. It had been too easy, and I didn’t feel the usual loss of energy.

The vines had been too numerous, strong enough to bother the Elder. But that was a question to be answered later.

I carried the unconscious body of Gray with my mind, then helped Henry back on his feet.

“Thank you…” He said softly.

“Thank you! You saved our lives.”

“I couldn’t let him kill you. Gray? I know you probably can’t hear me, but Rose and Illy are fine. Injured, but in one piece. Thank you for rescuing them. I don’t know what you did, but I’m certain it would have been much easier just to murder them to regain Marie’s inner energy.”

She didn’t react.

“Where are they?” I asked.

“In a jeep, I dragged them to safety before coming to look for both of you…did you hear it? This word. Chaos. What was it?”

As I suspected, he hadn’t seen her, his view most likely obstructed by the cars and the vegetation. I shivered as I recalled the literal goddess that had become my lover. “I…I don’t know. But it’s best you weren’t there to see what was happening, I assure you.”

“What about Mr. Marak and the other witches?”

“Some of them are dead, but Marak and the others…something happened to them. They are still alive.” I wasn’t sure I was creating coherent sentences, but it was the best I could do, my concentration was focused on Gray.

“Where are we going?” Henry asked, using my shoulder to advance.

“To Astarte, she was up there, I’d like to make sure she’s fine, then I’ll put Gray and you in the car and go look for Nat.”

“Marie…I don’t think Natasha…” Henry began.

I refrained a sob. “Don’t say anything else.”

One step at a time, we left the forest of wonders and impossibility.