Paradise Lost (JSAB)

Long Live The New Fresh

I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night

Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down

The dark descent, and up to reascend.

-John Milton, Paradise Lost

I can now proudly say that I've experienced both ends of death. I have had my soul shattered (willingly on my part) and I have shattered souls (unwillingly on theirs).

The seas instantly fell still, the leaves fell off the trees, and everything went silent. Everything changed. This change must have attracted the final name on my Hitlist, as Trinity emerged from the now barren trees. Her face was pale, the rainbow colour on her face duller than I had ever seen. She lacked colour. She was almost grey. This was not the iridescent rainbow Goddess I had loved. Remember how I said that I could not describe her as "white" because she was so much more than that? Well, now she was white. Now she was grey.

"...Who are you?" She asked, hands shaking as much as her voice was. She was crying. I could tell by her voice and by her puffy eyes.

"Who am I? I'm sure you can answer that question yourself."

"I... I don't know who you are... You're not him..."

"No. I'm not."

"So just... Who... What... Are you? You don't have a soul... I can't feel one in you... Why are you... In the image... Of my... My..."

"You're stammering. I can't understand what you're saying. Compose yourself, woman, before you talk to me."

"You share his voice but you sound nothing like him..."

"I'm not who you have in mind. Not anymore, at least. I share his body, I share his face, but I am not him."

Trinity swallowed.

"What did you do to them? What did you do to Aster and Tess?"

"They're dead."

She went silent as her greying eyes went wide.

"I shattered their souls like you shattered mine." I explained. "I never knew they were so breakable. I never knew I was so breakable. I could press my thumbs into them and they would break like eggshells, crumble like glass. They were a pain in the ass to get to though. Surprising how much resistance someone will put up when they don't want to die."

"You're lying."

"If you believe they're still alive, call out for them. If I'm lying, they will respond. Go on, do it. Call their names."

She did. Every repetition of their names, her voice grew more hoarse as the harrowing realisation that now all three of her friends were dead dawned on her, and I watched the despair wash over her face like a cruel sunrise. Her grey face grew paler as she then shattered, collapsing to the ground onto her knees. A child, a lover, and two dear friends all gone in one night. Each of those losses tore more and more away from her.

I taunted her further. "Tesseract went first. She was easier to find. Caught her by surprise so she had barely any time to react, but she put up a good fight. Brief, but good nonetheless for someone who was ambushed. She was screaming for help. She was screaming for you."

"No... No, nonono, no!"

"Aster must have heard her, she screamed for him too. So he flew over, calling out her name, and she did not respond. So I attacked. He was feisty, until I ripped his arm off like he destroyed my leg. It took him a second to heal himself, and in that split second he left himself open."