The cold, stone walls were crumbling. The magic circle could hold on no longer. A door opened in the wall. Two people stood in the center of the room. A girl and a boy, their bodies covered by the shadows. Everything they worked for had come true. The two adventurers ran towards the exit. They were almost there. Freedom was only an arm's length away.
Something pulled the girl back. Back into the shadows. Back to the monster who had imprisoned them. The boy reached for her, grabbing her arm. He tried to pull her towards him, towards the exit, towards freedom. But a powerful magic separated them. A magic far too powerful for the only person who could climb the tower. The boy recognized the magic immediately. He turned to the girl.
"Why would you...?" he asked, feeling betrayed.
"I didn't do anything. I don't-" she said, looking towards the source of the magical pull. "-know."
But she did. A shimmer of light reflected off of a silver pendant. A man stepped out of the darkness. His face was covered by a deep hood, and in his hand was the source of the powerful magic that had separated the two adventurers. A pendant carved with a star design.
"I'm sorry," the girl said, refusing to meet the boy's eyes. She walked up to him. "But this is my happy ending."
Then she pushed him through the exit.
The boy landed softly on the ground outside. He could not see where he was, and the tower was gone. He stood up and dusted himself off. He waited for the fog to part, and walked towards the nearby city. He closed his hand around his most cherished item. It was a magic pendant that never worked, nor seemed to have any magical properties. He understood what he had to do. If she could not be his happy ending, then he would find his own.
***
The girl turned to face the hooded figure. He moved closer to her, closing the exit door in the process. He brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face.
"How long did you wait?" she asked, removing the hood and allowing it to drop, resting on his back.
"Ever since you left me."
The man was only a few years older than the girl. He reached out with his arms, sweeping her up in a tight embrace. His hair was long enough to fall to his waist, tied back in a ponytail. His icy blue eyes were nothing like they used to be, hardened by the passage of time. Hardened by loss.
"This is why you did all those things. You did it for this. For me."
The girl slid her hand down the man's face. Her hands were cold against his skin.
"How did you know?" she asked.
"Who wouldn't recognize themselves?"
"Oh...you're the other one."
"Does that change anything?"
The girl looked away. "Why did you do it? Why become the collector?"
"Because I did it before."
She backed away from him. This man who had been the love of her life. This man who had sacrificed everything to be with her. This man who had many names. They called him the prince of the people. They called him the collector. They called him the author. And there might even be more names she did not know about.
"Did you kill them?" the girl asked, tripping over her own feet and falling to the floor. "They were your friends! How could you?"
The man advanced. "You know I wouldn't." He stared down at her. She backed away, her back hitting the wall. She had nowhere else to run. "Why won't you believe me?"
"I don't know who you are anymore. Y-you've become a monster."
The man kneeled on the ground in front of the girl. He leaned in, close enough for her to feel his breath. Such a familiar feeling it was. She recalled all the times they had been together, fighting for what was right. But was this right anymore? The man placed his hand on the wall. His expression changed from menacing to kind.
"You know I wouldn't. They will never die here. They can live in harmony and happiness."
The girl did not want to believe the man, but she knew that everything he said was true. After spending so long in her designated room, she knew how the rest of the system worked. She knew that the boy she had known so long ago would not be the kind of person to betray his loved ones. She bit her lip.
"Still the same, even after so long?" he reached out a gentle hand, raising her head. His eyes met hers. He blew her hair out of her face. "You know I've been waiting for this. And I've been waiting for a very, very long time."
He leaned in, and she closed her eyes. He kissed her, warm in the cold, stifling air of the stone room. His hand rested against the base of her neck, where he had never dared to touch before...except in dreams.
"I missed you," he whispered, reluctantly pulling himself away from her. He stood up. "But I promised you a happy ending."
The man walked back into the shadows. A clattering of metal. A glint of steel. He reappeared with a knife. The girl's eyes went wide.
"Do we have to end like this?" she pleaded. "They did it. They became gods. Why can't we?"
The man sucked in a shaking breath. "I came across an immortal once. He was young when he became a god, even though he was just a minor god who could only wander the earth. But despite all that, he learned about all the other gods, and one day, he knew more about divinity than all the other immortals combined."
He paused, reliving the memory. "He told me something. About when we could become gods."
"What was it?"
"Only on the cycle that we remember our past will our past come to find us and make it our last."
"This...isn't the first time, isn't it?" the girl asked, searching the man's face for answers. Answers that she could not find.
"No, it isn't. In fact, there was never a beginning. We exist because of a paradox. Do you understand? We can't be fixed. We can't change. We can't deviate from the plot. Our lives are bound by those who came before us."
"You don't have to do this."
"Have you ever wondered why, why you never truly had a childhood?"
She nodded.
"It wasn't because your parents died early, but because you only began to exist when you turned five. You were never born."
"No...no...they...they wouldn't...they wouldn't lie to me like this!" The man could feel her anguish, her pain, all flowing out of her in this moment.
"I'm sorry."
"Is there a way to fix this, fix me?"
"I'm truly sorry," he said, tracing a line across her neck. He reached out and covered her eyes. "But I promise this will be fast."
A flash, and it was over. Blood splattered across the floor.
"I'll find you again," he said, touching the blade to his neck, pressing down until there was blood. Red like the eyes of the girl he loved. "We can do this forever..."
The silence was all that remained. The two adventurers, still as stone, side by side, finally finding their happy ending. But the last word that the man never said still echoed in the recesses of the tower. It echoed in the minds of their friends.
"Cleo."