Page 99 of Cookbooks and Demons

She feels the call, the pull of oblivion. She gives in to it. There is no point in fighting.I’ll pay the debt.She repeats Rafferty’s words.

She gives it all she has.Take it. It is what youare owed.

She gives all she is freely.

It returns it alland more.

Energy, pure and strong fills her. The power that had always been within herself and even morejoins it.

She is becoming. She is aware. She understands and she knows that understanding will fade when she returns to the otherreality.

But that is alright. That is how it’s supposed to be.

Eternity is always where she has been, even if she doesn’t remember. Even when she’s there.

Her love for herself, her love for the infinite, it is allthe same.

She finds him, at last. He is contained within himself, clutching against the pain. He resists it, holding himself there.

She reaches for him, to pull him out of his dark bubble, but he can’t let go. She does touch him and feels what he feels, his pain, his sorrow, his regret. His belief that he has lost love forever and that Helenais dead.

Helena?

She remembers. She is Helena.

I’m here, she tries to say, but he can’t step out of the darkness. He’s trapped, even though the Eternity around him calls to pull him out, he resists. Afraid to fall apart and let go.

There are so many black bubbles. She watches as some try to eat each other, taking what little they have from each other. Unaware of the feast just outside of themselves. It’s too scary. Too unknown. She can’t reach anyof them.

But she can pull him away. Back to the place where he could change. The spark within him is her way in.

He loves her. His being sings it out. The spark of it he holds in his center. He is trying to protect it from the darkness all around him, eating him tiny bites at a time. Tormenting him.

Rafferty, take me home,she says.

He opens, just a small crack. She reaches through and takes his hand. They have hands now and the idea makes her laugh. They have bodies, created for them from the same stuff. He twists it, believing it is what he is, what he cannot hide. She has to accept that is where he is, but he does not have to be if only he could see it.

It is timeto rise.

Time to go home.

Time to…

Wake up.

Epilogue

Maybe It’ll

Be Okay?

“This is sad,” Agent Archon said, shaking her head as she peered into the crime scene.

The summoning circle inside had ceased smoking, but the smell lingered in the air and would for a long time.

Her fellow officer, Agent Sophia, approached, an annoyed look on her face. “So far no explanation as to why this room wasn’t still locked. They have documentation of performing the cleansing ritual up until September and that’s it.”

“That’s a citation at best. Few thousands of dollars and they’ll go back to forgetting,” Agent Archon dismissed.

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