I close my eyes, bracing myself for the impact that never comes. I finally open them to find myself in a white void with nothing, no Cora, no knife in my chest. Am I dead? I wonder. I feel warm and almost happy but it's more like- peace.
"Hello, Oberon," A man's deep, calm, voice says.
"Cora, why do you have to do this? Why can't you just get it over with? I'm done. I'm done living a life not worth living! Just do it!" I scream.
"Why would you say that? Why would you do that to your family and to you friends? Why would you do that to yourself?"
"Cora, what's the point in this? Why can't you just do it already?"
"I'm not Cora." it says. "Then who? Who else could you be?" I ask. "I'm her maker. And I'm yours."
It takes a moment for me to process what they're saying. They're saying they're God. The god. I can't believe Cora expects me to buy this. "Even if I believed you, why in the word would you want to see me? Why would I even want to see you?" I ask. "I'd understand if you didn't. I destroyed so many of your kind. I even brought Cora here, but I have my reasons. If you're willing to listen, I'll tell you why. If you don't wish t listen I'll leave now."
I consider my options. I still don't believe it's not Cora, and if it weren't would I even wanna listen to him? Cora told me he wouldn't let her return home to her family until she killed us all. But maybe I can get him to take her back.
"Fine, I'll hear your side." I say. A figure materializes in front of me. It's like pure light but it's a shape resembling a person. It looks beautiful. It looks- perfect.
"As you know, I created cora. I wanted her to feel happy. Motivated. Her family was human. It was supposed to make her understand humans."
"So you stole her from her family?" I cut him off. "No. She never had one."
"What do you mean? Why would she need to lie about that?" I ask. "She didn't. I gave her memories of a happy home but sent her here to protect you from each other. That's why she sees into minds and sees your memories, so she can judge who's good and bad. She was meant to protect the remaining humans from each other. Over the years she became enveis of the humans and the way she saw it, if you were all gone, I'd have no reason to leave her here."
"And that's another thing, why did you destroy my kind? If you cared for us so much you should've protected us." I say, firmly. I know I shouldn't feel calm and I try to act like I'm not, trying to keep myself ready for whatever's coming, whatever Cora throws at me, but I do feel calm.
"It wasn't on purpose. There was a flaw when I created the universe. When it came time, just like any star, the sun exploded. You don't remember, but your kind used to understand this. The sun was very different from other stars though and when it exploded a gas filled the solar system.
There were very few parts of Earth untouched by this, but what was untouched, still affected your kind a little bit. The gas erased nearly everyone's memories when inhaled and you were put into a deep sleep, a stage where time didn't pass for humans, bugs, or animals. I sent an angel to keep you guys alive until I could create a new star. The angel gave you warmth, the vitamins, and other essentials you needed to live. It took me a very long time to create a new star and when you woke, the parts of earth that was inhabited, such as cities and towns, while they're still here, are far away from the small civilizations and the plants covered everything, erasing any evidence of the past. Soon Cora came and made the forest a dangerous place, isolating you guys in your small groups, however the angel made it nearly impossible for Cora to walk on human's land and even gave you something to help fight against her but recently, Cora's power has been growing and the angel's powers aren't working the way they did."
It makes sense. All of it makes sense. Maybe there is still just a little bit of hope still. Or maybe Cora managed to spin a good lie. But what would this do for her? I already gave her the chance to kill me. "So, you can remove her right?" I ask. "I can not."
"Why? You made her, why can't you just- unmake her?" I say. "Because it'll upset the balance, I can not interfere that much, not again, one of you must remove her. I can, however, help."
The glowing figure in front of me holds out it's hand. I hesitantly pick up what it gives me. I can feel it. It's cold and metal, but I'm struggling to open my eyes because the entire void is glowing brighter and brighter.
I'm alone in the tent and it looks almost noon. Why did no one wake me up? I think. And where are they? I quickly sit up.
When my eyes are finally adjusted to the daylight, I unzip the tent and head outside. And I can't believe my eyes. All of our tent is working on a pretty decent looking home. There's a full layout, I can see clearly where each wall will be and even the roof. Graham is working on a roof while Jaxon lays out the necessary wood for the walls and Jordan and the two boys chop wood and make the slots for the wood to slide together.
"Wow," I say, walking to Graham. "Why didn't you guys wake me up?" I ask. "We did- well- I mean we tried." He says. Jaxon puts down his log and walks over to me. He has a serious look.
"Did she visit you again? In your dreams I mean."
"No, well yeah- it um- got interesting."
They both look at me. "I'll explain later, can I help?" I ask. "Um, yeah, you could start on this wall over here." Jaxon says, and leads me to a wall facing towards the forest. "This will be a side wall, right there will be a door," Graham says, pointing to an area facing towards our tent. "Right here, there will be a bedroom, and we'll have beds up in the attic too."
Graham is still sitting up high, laying out logs to make up the roof. "Okay," Graham shows me how to lay out the logs and you can position the logs so that we don't need any nails but slide together sturdily. Each log is cut with little slots, which the other logs can slide into. They are pretty smart to think this up.
It's a lot of work, but by the time the sun is going down, the roof is done, and we have 2 and a half walls on the first room. I'm surprised by how much we got done in one day with only five people. Tomorrow, we're finishing the floors and other two walls, then we'll sleep in there for the first night and maybe we'll be able finish the rest of the home the next day. The general noticed us and him and his men began a couple small homes too. The general seemed furious that we got to start on the shelters before him.
We all go into the tents to sleep Graham stays behind for a moment so I decide to go talk to him. Graham and I haven't had to much time to talk lately. "So, this house will be done soon, I'd say we made a lot of progress today."
"Yeah," He says, slipping his shirt over his head, "It's certainly a lot of work though."
I immediately look away. He's very fit. I can feel my cheeks burn. "It- um- yeah, it was."
Graham smiles. "Did you see the general's already trying to catch up?"
"Yeah, I did." I chuckle a little. "Nice ring by the way, when did you get it?" He asks. "Ring? I don't-'' I look down and see a ring on my right pinky finger. "How did I not notice this before?" I say quietly. "Hmm?"
"I mean- I uh guess I got it last night?" I say, admiring it. It has a golden band with an orange and yellow lava like pearl on the top. It also gives off a faint glow. "You guess? I'd think you'd remember getting something so pretty. It looks a little- different."
I laugh a little. "Yeah, definitely."
I turn to face Graham, struggling to keep my eyes on his face and not his abs. We're face to face and last time we were this close was our kiss. "I never apologized, by the way. I never should've listened to your mother. We just both wanted to protect you but I realize I may've been putting you in harms way with Jordan and all."
"Thank you- for apologizing- I get why you guys did it." I look down and see several small scars covering his back, sides, and stomach. I touch one. "How did this happen?" I whisper.
"It doesn't matter, they're just scars, it happened a long time ago anyways."
"It does matter. Do mine not matter just because some time has passed?"
"No- it's not like that-" He says. "Then tell me. Please."
"They're from interrogations." He says. My eyes widen and I gasp quietly. This is all my fault, I think. All of it! How could I cause him so much pain? I should've done more to help. Graham touches my shoulder, pulling my from my thoughts. "Oberon, it's okay, everything turned out okay, didn't it?"
I slowly look up. "No, it didn't. We're all still here, right where we started because I wouldn't face my problems, because I decided to run instead of defend myself."
He grabs my hands. "Exactly, we're all still here. Jaxon's here because you ran, and we're all alive because of the mission you were assigned to."
"Would it really have been so bad to be with everyone else? Maybe even up in heaven or something?" I ask. He looks surprised. "I didn't know you were religious," he says.
"Yeah, me either."
He hugs me, making everything feel just a little better. There's so much on my mind I don't even give it a second thought before hugging him back. We stay there for a long time before going inside the tent.
It doesn't take long for me to drift asleep and I don't sleep long either though. I wake to Jaxon sitting up wide awake. He looks down at his hands which are curled up in his lap and he's sitting on his knees in the corner. "Jaxon," I whisper. He doesn't move he doesn't even look up at me.
"Jaxon," I say a little louder. He still doesn't move. "Hey," I touch his shoulder. His blue eyes look up at me. "Have you slept yet?" I ask. He shakes his head. "Are you okay?" I ask. He hesitates and shakes his head again. I crawl over to him and sit next to him.
"You wanna talk about it?"
"I can't." he responds, vaguely. "Jaxon, whatever it is, you can talk to me."
He looks back down at his hands. "I can't." he repeats.
I feel a little angry. We've been through so much and whatever he can't tell me is probably better out in the open than not mentioned at all. I don't say anything though. I just lay my head on his shoulder and drift back into a deep sleep. I didn't see Cora and I didn't dream. I just slept.
When I finally woke up, the sky was barely lit and my head was on a pillow. The first thing I notice is Jaxon is gone though. I quickly sit up and look around. The flap of the tent is unzipped and open and he's not here.