50- In Which Elena Says Goodbye

Elena had a vision.

She entered her house to see her aunt, uncle and two cousins sitting in the living room all together, watching television. They had almost never done that before.

She went up to her room and sifted through her things. What here was actually important? Nothing was real.

The picture next to her bed was her favorite picture of her dead parents. They looked happy and whole, not cut up into bloody pieces in the middle of the road. Was it really so easy to believe that these two people she loved so much were actually not even real at all? The kids in her yearbook? Her aunt, uncle, cousins? Everyone she'd ever met or seen or spoken to?

She put the picture down and stared at it.

If she never came back, what would happen to all this stuff and all these people? Some other girl was going to wake up from this dream and have to go through all the terror and fear she had already endured.

And what about all the Sons? They were relatively nice to her now because she was useful to them. If she could no longer provide them with visions, maybe they wouldn't bother with her anymore. They'd drop her off somewhere and she'd be in this strange unfamiliar world all alone. It would certainly be safer, but she still wanted to help and do what she could and provide them with information from her visions.

Then again, Cole was right when he said that her visions were no longer reliable. It would be more helpful and safer for all of them to get reliable visions from a new Chaste Beauty.

She would have to have sex with someone—with Phinn. But that was a big deal. That was something that needed to develop because of a mutual attraction, not out of necessity. What would it be like? How long would it take? And how would she feel afterwards?

She guessed everyone had these questions about sex, but none of them had an entire reality hanging in the balance. She wished she could talk to Jenny. She'd gone through the same thing when she made the decision to retire with Quentin's help.

When this vision ended, all of it would end. She would never come back to this place and everything she had grown up knowing and believing would be gone. Though, in reality, none of it had even been there in the first place.

Did it even make sense to say goodbye? If she did, she was worried she'd chicken out. After all, she never said goodbye to movie characters when the movie ended, and they were just as real as this world.

There would be no use in crying. This world was over. It was time to fully Awaken.

Maybe this is what Judge Hunt had meant when he told her that she didn't have much time left.

/end book 2

Hey everyone! Thanks for reading and reviewing. I'm already working on Book 3, so I'll start submitting those chapters before the end of the month, I'd wager. So, if you're still interested, I'll see you then! Thanks again!