What happened next was impossible to understand much less describe.

The time given to humanity paused.

The time given to the Cold halted.

The Multiverse was speaking and it was sheer power.

Power flooded from and to the Multiverse the way a cascade of cold water hits the rock below it. Invisible energy filled the cold and every other dimension. There was not even a detonation, that implied a source of limited power. Sophie was more and her sadness and despair hit every living creature and more. Life, irrespective of the dimension in which it existed, stopped to heed a master.

To everyone, the feeling was one of standing on a hilltop witnessing a solar eclipse for the first time and unable to move. Greater matters were in play and humanity was not in charge. Everyone was a spectator, nothing more. One creature was alone on the center stage. There was no fairness or reason, this was the third wave of attraction.

The energy was different, warmer and softer than when she last spoke to the Multiverse after kicking in the rusty doors of her worst memories.

A force of pure uncontrolled emotion swept the world.

Next, the game was no more, the world was gone and so was every creature. Instead were primal things like emotions, primary colors, and music. The physical reality was gone. The time for living ceased, now the Multiverse awoke. People felt connections to friends, family, and the world. They were being blessed with greater things.

In the darkness, an alien music echoed and became everything. It replaced matter, time, and even light. Every consciousness now floated and beat to the same pulse. In the darkness of only the Cold was a single tenor male voice, supported by a flawless symphony orchestra and piano. The voice was pure. Each soul felt the music was written for them alone, but it made their hearts and minds vibrate in unison. Sophie had opened a door that every life had crossed. As the song continued the voices were not gaining in intensity, instead the words (different for everyone) were ripping bare the inner souls. This was rape of the soul.

In moments, the energy became so strong it felt like standing under a waterfall knowing the fight was pointless. The sound rose and rose until there were no eyes left to cry with, no bodies with which to shiver. The energy poured in and pushed against every fabric of every being of the Multiverse. One by one life abandoned itself to the power. This was different and if today was the end of the world, everyone agreed, this was the perfect way to go.

After the abandonment, everyone felt like he or she had a purpose: it had to be here, absorbing the energy and returning it tenfold like a drum. This moment was heaven to the believers and life after death for the others. The experience was surreal and gave purpose and meaning to all.

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As if it was possible, the music increased in intensity and after the first movement, another began. The beautiful, uniting music played for a long time. As time passed, the feeling of purpose increased. A female voice replaced the male voice. She helped push the energy to a new level. The third wave was a duet of the two voices. The instruments rejoined, and there was at time resonances, then silences. Humans were powerless, but quickly began to understand what this was: Attraction.

As the song played, emotions were being pulled from them like a dentist removes teeth. Visions began to flash in the darkness. These were orchestrated to render the watcher powerless. A grown man would see himself as a baby, his mother kissing him as the music punched a hole in any defense he had. No one could remain stoic watching the one hundred happiest moments of their life. The visions were too much. They were build to overwhelm. They did.

Every human mind in the Multiverse was hurting for having no outlet. Tears made sense; they were the body's way of coping with too many emotions. Dreams now made sense; they were airstrips where emotions rested during the day taking full flight at night.

This lasted for an unknown period of time as time here wasn’t relevant.

***

Then the Multiverse bent. In everyone's heart, they saw Sophie floating like a lifeless body in water. Then the sight showed the poor girl was sitting in the back seat of the car, strapped in minutes before the fatal accident. Everyone felt the horror. They had been forced to watch this senseless scene several times, one more was torture. The invisible tears turned to pure frustration. It was like a lover tied to a chair, watching the object of that love be brutalized in ways too horrible to explain.

The music tripled in power.

The car holding the Lapierre family drove off the cliff. Minds went wild. Everyone struggled to yell, to warn, to do something. The energy created by everyone listening to the music poured forth in the form of light. The energy resembled a human soul charging into darkness, only to light it brilliantly with its shapes. This time Sophie has not travelled with two companions, she tagged along all living creatures.

Lines of light started spiraling in the vacuum and darkness. The car crashed. The trunk entered the side door, killing Sophie's mother and unborn brother. There were no mouths to cry out with, no fists to shake in agonized rage, only the golden energy pouring out from the world's frustration and merging with that of the voices singing. Laurent was impaled and died. Young Sophie was yelling and crying from her back seat.

The least and most powerless creatures of the Multiverse were participating. On earth, animals, vegetal life, even water-based life in the oceans bled gold energy. Everyone was now able to help. They gave their raw energy, to some they prayed.

A river of light was created fueling out of the young girl.

Finally, the music paused, the visions stopped. Everyone was obviously drained of any emotional energy. The Attractor had drained them of every piece of emotional energy. The gold light formed a strange structure, like a giant knot in a long tube. It bent, if bent then the knot closed.

Time itself — pinched.

The Multiverse did what it could to save her Attractor drowning in sheer power, it gave her time and took it away from herself.

Like on a long road in the darkness, going to the horizon, going to a point ahead, three points of light formed along the way. Behind were also points. Then the visions rushed ahead to the next point of light. The Multiverse moved Sophie forward two days when next she would be happy. So the power went there with her in tow. It stopped the dance of cause and consequences just long enough to blink.

***

Reality shifted.

Time warped.

There was a knot in the fabric of the Multiverse.

Time pinched.