His grin fades. “Redemption comes in many forms. You must’ve forgot what I said. This place is changing. By nightfall, it will have overtaken me. I will have become something entirely new. Isn’t that redemption?” he asks.
But he doesn’t wait for me to respond. “Now, come on. There’s something I’ve been waiting to show you.”
I follow him down the gold steps of the temple, careful not to tumble all the way down. As much as I would enjoy ending my life, Ava wouldn’t want that. She’d want me to continue this journey to the very end.
Besides, her father will probably kill me, anyway.
I realize the irony of me being here, in an ancient city, complete with a pyramid bearing drawings of my story. I used to be worshipped by some. I was hated by others, of course, but now I am nothing. It is like I never existed.
I have almost reached the end. I can feel the inevitability of it all. Soon, I’ll be able to rest easy.
But it doesn’t matter how far away from her I am. Even in death, I’ll search for her.
We reach the last set of stairs, and when he doesn’t stop walking, I know I’m in for some weird shit ahead. Through the row of trees, he rounds a corner, headed to a garden of what appears to be blue roses and round, green bushes. Soon, we’re on our way out of this place, through an exit I have yet to walk.
“Where are you taking me?” I ask.
But I don’t need to ask. I can smell it in the air. I can hear my surroundings, so clear that I’m taken back to another life.
I can taste the salt, feel the cool breeze, and the sound of palm trees over my head instantly calms my nerves. This is my home planet. My old world that probably never existed in the first place.
We head through that garden and walk through a narrow refuge that leads to a beach. It’s the same sands I made love to Ava at, and suddenly, all I want is to see her naked body glide in that water again.
It’s not fair. None of this. But life isn’t fair, right? It’s a fucking parlor game, a cheap trick that ends faster than you can blink.
I watch the waves crash against the shore, and I keep walking until the water hits my ankles. Ava’s father stands behind me, watching, but he no longer feels ominous.
It feels like he’s finally ready to be honest with me.
“Is my planet real?” I ask.
I can sense him nod. “Yes,” he says.
“And my parents? My sister?” I ask.
The tide rolls back. “Real enough,” he says.
“What does that mean?”
“You know what it means,” he says.
He constructed their images by stealing other aliens’ experiences. They are real, but I’ll never get to meet them. Even if I did, it wouldn’t be the same.
They wouldn’t know who I am.
I feel empty inside. Like the tide of this very sea, everything I thought was mine has been pulled away from me. I start to walk, wading through h
igh waves, hips dipping into the frothy water.
I close my eyes and hear her voice in my head, whispering, “Let’s make a vow. A promise that we’ll never leave each other. That, no matter what happens to this world, we’ll always remember how our hearts connected.”
I’ll always remember.
And when I open my eyes, I hear another voice. “Kalxor.”
It’s familiar, but so distant in memory it takes me a second to pin-point where I know it from. I turn and see my mother, my father, and my little sister. They’re all standing on the shore, fresh tears in their eyes.
I’m speechless. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Standing behind them, Ava’s father removes his hat, placing it over his heart.