CALEB POV
I called Lily’s na, but she didn’t hear .
She was standing right in front of , but her eyes were looking sowhere else. Sowhere I couldn’t see. It was like she was watching a movie that only she could watch.
"Lily," I said again, louder this ti. "The battle is over. We won."
She blinked and looked at , but it took her a few seconds to focus. When she did, I could see pain in her eyes.
"Did we?" she asked quietly. "Did we really win?"
I looked around at the battlefield. The supernatural union had defeated the Void Walkers. The dinsional tears were fixed. Reality was stable again. Everyone was celebrating.
"Yeah," I said. "We did it. The worlds are safe."
"But at what cost?" she asked.
I knew what she ant. Lily had saved everyone by becoming a dinsional anchor. But now she existed in all realities at once. She was here with , but she was also sowhere else. Always sowhere else.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. "I’m watching my sister make friends with a thing that wants to turn her evil. I’m seeing versions of myself die in seventeen different worlds. I’m feeling the pain of every Lily who ever lived. So no, Caleb. I’m not okay."
My heart broke for her. Lily had always been the strongest person I knew. She’d been my best friend since we were kids. But now she seed so lost and alone.
"Maybe there’s a way to reverse it," I said. "Maybe we can find a way to disconnect you from the other dinsions."
"I tried," she said. "I can’t let go. If I do, all the worlds will fall again. I’m stuck like this forever."
"There has to be another way."
"Does there?" she asked. "Caleb, I can see the future. Not just one future, but all possible futures. And in every single one where I’m not the center, billions of people die."
I felt anger growing inside . It wasn’t fair. Lily had saved everyone, but she was the one who had to pay the price.
"So what?" I said. "You’re supposed to suffer forever so everyone else can be happy?"
"If that’s what it takes," she said.
"That’s not right."
"Right doesn’t matter anymore," she said. "Only necessary."
I wanted to fight with her, but sothing else was happening. Lily’s body was glowing. One second she was solid, the next she was see-through.
"Lily, you’re fading," I said.
"I know," she said. "It’s getting harder to stay in one world. The connections are pulling in too many ways."
"Fight it," I said. "Stay here with ."
"I’m trying," she said. "But it’s so hard. There are so many other forms of that need help. In one world, I’m being chased by monsters. In another, I’m trying to save my parents from a fire. How can I ignore them?"
"Because this is your real world," I said. "This is where you belong."
"Do I?" she asked. "Caleb, I can barely rember what it feels like to be totally human. I can see through the eyes of a thousand different forms of myself. I can feel their thoughts and feelings. Sotis I forget which mories are mine and which belong to other versions of ."
I reached out to touch her hand, but my fingers went right through her. She was becoming more ghost than person.
"I’m losing you," I said.
"I’m losing too," she said. "Yesterday I tried to rember my favorite color. Do you know what happened? I rembered a hundred different favorite colors from a hundred different forms of myself. I don’t even know which one is really mine anymore."
"It’s blue," I said. "Your favorite color is blue. Sky blue, like the color of the ocean on a beautiful day. You told that when we were eight years old."
She smiled, and for a mont she looked completely solid again. "You rember."
"I rember everything about you," I said. "I rember when you were afraid of the dark, so I gave you my flashlight. I rember when you cried because you thought you were too weird to have friends. I rember when you first discovered your powers and you were afraid you were going crazy."
"I wasn’t crazy then," she said. "But I think I might be now."
"You’re not crazy. You’re just carrying too much. Let help you."
"How?"
"I don’t know yet," I said. "But I’ll figure it out. I promise."
She was quiet for a long mont. Then she said, "Caleb, I need to tell you sothing. About the future."
"What about it?"
"I can see what’s coming. The Void Walkers weren’t the real threat. They were just the beginning."
"What do you an?"
"Sothing else is coming. Sothing that makes the Void Walkers look like harmless dogs. And it’s coming because of what I did. Because I opened links between all the dinsions."
I felt cold. "What kind of sothing?"
"I don’t know exactly. But I can see pieces of it. It’s old. Older than the dinsions themselves. And it’s hungry."
"Hungry for what?"
"For everything. It wants to swallow all of reality. Every world, every dinsion, every option. It wants to be the only thing that exists."
"How long do we have?"
"Not long," she said. "Maybe a few weeks. Maybe less."
"Then we’ll fight it," I said. "Just like we fought the Void Walkers."
"We can’t fight this," she said. "The only way to stop it is to close all the dinsional links. But if I do that..."
"You’ll die."
"Maybe. Or maybe I’ll just cease to exist. I don’t know which would be worse."
I felt tears in my eyes. "There has to be another way."
"I hope so," she said. "But hope isn’t enough anymore."
She started to fade again, but this ti it was different. Instead of becoming see-through, she was breaking apart. I could see various versions of her overlapping each other.
"Lily, what’s happening?"
"I’m being pulled into too many dinsions at once," she said. "I can’t hold myself together anymore."
"Focus on ," I said. "Focus on this world."
"I’m trying," she said. "But sothing is calling to . Sothing powerful."
"What is it?"
"I think it’s the thing that’s coming. The thing that wants to eat everything. It’s trying to use to get here."
"Don’t let it."
"I don’t think I have a choice," she said. "Caleb, if I disappear, if I can’t fight this anymore, I need you to promise sothing."
"Anything."
"Promise you’ll find a way to save everyone. Even if it ans forgetting about ."
"I’ll never forget about you."
"You might have to," she said. "If this thing gets control of , I might beco the enemy. I might be the one trying to destroy everything."
"That will never happen."
"It already is happening," she said. "Look at my eyes."
I looked. Her eyes were changing. The normal dark color was being replaced by sothing else. Sothing that looked like the empty space between stars.
"It’s inside ," she whispered. "The thing that wants to eat everything. It’s been inside all along."
"Fight it," I said.
"I can’t," she said. "It’s too strong. And it’s using my links to the other dinsions to spread. Soon it will be in every world at once."
"Lily, you have to fight it."
"I am fighting it," she said. "But I’m losing. And when I lose totally, it will use my body to destroy everything I’ve ever cared about."
Her eyes were completely black now. When she spoke again, her voice was different. Deeper. Older.
"Thank you, little anchor," the thing said through Lily’s mouth. "You’ve given exactly what I needed."
"Give her back," I said.
"Oh, I will," it said. "Right after I use her to end all existence."
It laughed, and the sound made reality itself shiver.
"Starting with you."
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