chapter 6
Alex
There’s a battle going on inside of me. Helena and Annabella are pissed off at one another. Each of them is trying to win the battle over who owns me, who gets my soul—who gets to keep me. Helena wants it for sheer greedy reasons and Annabella wants it so she can gain back her freedom from Helena. I think the two of them will rip me apart if they don’t stop it, then neither one of them will have me.
“You need to go back to the Afterlife, Helena,” Annabella says. “You must obey, Helena. You were never supposed to be here to begin with.”
Helena fumes. “No, I don’t. The loophole is not complete—I’m still here and so are you. You are still my prisoner. Mine!” She hisses at Annabella. “You can’t make me go back!”
Their battle is freaking exhausting, even if I’m technically dead, well on the outside. On the inside, I’m still thriving; however, I’m growing weaker. I’m trying to fight the compulsion to surrender to one of them, but their bickering is smothering me. I feel like I’m dead on the inside, especially watching Gemma lying helplessly on the floor. I’m worried that she’s lost the desire to fight and survive. Then Evan puts his hand on Gemma’s head and tries to help her recover. Relief and happiness overpower me, knowing that she’ll be okay.
Then suddenly, Gemma is crawling towards me with tears pouring from her beautiful violet eyes. My heart breaks and I desperately wish there were a way I could tell her everything will be okay—that I’m still here.
When she reaches me, she rests her head on my chest and sobs hysterically for what seems like hours. I lie powerlessly, knowing there’s nothing I can do for her; that I am trapped on the brink of death.
After her tears stop, she leans over and kisses me through the remaining tears staining her face. Life sparks inside me, as if the electricity has returned, even though I know that’s not possible. We got rid of that when we stopped the portal and destroyed the power of the fallen star, but it feels like it’s back, pulling me to her, radiating through me. In fact, there was even a spark when Helena and Annabella transferred into me, and for a second, I’d thought Gemma had been placed inside me.
Helena and Annabella’s voices grow quiet and, as the spark of life inside my body accelerates, I start to feel alive again.
“You see that,” Annabella says. “It is just as I said. You can’t have me and you can’t have Alex or Gemma. You cannot cheat your way to get what you want, Helena, or things eventually fall apart.”
“It’s not true!” cries Helena. “I won’t let you win again, Annabella.”
“You have no choice.” Annabella replies sternly. “It’s the way things are. Why do you have to be so greedy? You’ve always been like this, ever since we were kids, and it’s always gotten you into trouble, yet you continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.”
“It’s not about winning,” Helena complains in a shrill voice. “It’s about power and revenge. The power to rule the world and to get my revenge on the humans and their useless love that I don’t see fit to exist.”
“You act as if love is powerless, yet without it I’d still be trapped inside,” Annabella replies. “But here I am free and ready to send you back to where you belong.”
“You really think you are capable of sending me back, my dear sister?” Helena sneers. “Even if you do manage to send me back to the Afterlife my Lost Souls will still be able to roam the earth.”
“Oh, I’m perfectly capable Helena,” Annabella says. “The loophole has been found and I’m free. Love has conquered over your hate and self-loathing. As for the Lost Souls, I just hope they realize what you really are and find a way to resist your control over them because, if they don’t, then they really are lost. Goodbye and good riddance, my sister.”
“I can come back you know,” she calls out in desperation. “I will change my vision—I will make things how I want them.”
There’s a loud snap, followed by a scream, and I feel Helena leave my body while Annabella stays behind. It feels like my limbs have been ripped off and then attached back to my body crookedly. I feel wrong, yet right. The spark from Gemma’s kiss still burns inside me and it gives me comfort in the darkness I’m still imprisoned in.
“Alex,” Annabella whispers. “Helena can’t take possession of you or Gemma again. She has been banished to the Afterlife… and you won’t die.” She pauses. “The bond that you and Gemma share is unbreakable. It’s because of this bond that I was set free.”
“But I don’t get how our bond sent Helena away,” I confess to her. “I know love can be powerful and everything—that Gemma and I are proof of that—but how can our love destroy Helena’s ability to possess us? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Because of the loophole,” Annabella answers and her voice sounds like it’s fading. “The loophole made it so that in order for Helena to be able to keep me prisoner, she could not possess a person filled with undying love. You felt the electricity of Gemma’s kiss, right?”
“Yeah...” I tell her, unsure if what she’s saying is true. Love is what ended this. Our love. Gemma’s and mine.
“You sacrificed yourself for Gemma because you love her and she was too helpless to stop you because of Helena. She wanted to, though. She tried to keep Helena inside of her, instead of letting her possess you.”
“I knew she would,” I reply. “It’s what she always does.”
“When you completed the sacrifice, everything that Helena planned began to fall apart and Gemma’s kiss made it crumble until it didn’t exist. That was the loophole. You love one another endlessly and it’s very powerful.
“Forever,” I say underneath my breath.
Annabella continues, “You’re both free from Helena and the possession of her Lost Souls and I’m free to return to my Essences.”
“So that’s it?” I wonder with doubt. “Helena’s gone for good? Just like that? Because it seems too easy.”
“I didn’t say that she was gone,” she clarifies. “I said she can’t possess you anymore. She’ll still have reign over the Lost Souls that are roaming free and possessing people. She’ll seek her vision and try to change her past so she can have more power in the future.” There is sadness in her voice. “I want to thank you, Alex, both you and Gemma. The power of your love continues to amaze me every single time I’m graced with it. It proves to me that there is hope for the world and that true love still exists, even though it’s rare and seems to be becoming extinct more and more each day.” I feel her drifting away, leaving my body.
“Wait… Annabella, what about Laylen?” I ask. “What happens to him? Gemma… Gemma loves him, too.”
“It’ll be fixed,” she says softly.
“Do you mean it will be—” I start to ask, but I’m cut off as I feel her separate from my body and I’m left feeling empty.
I’m alone in my body. There are no extra voices, no whispers of evil. Everything is just as it should be. My body gradually recovers; my arms and legs returning to my control. My eyes open and I can hear Gemma crying from the opposite end of the castle, where Laylen lies dead. I try to get up so I can go to her—tell her everything will be okay—but I’m frozen. I can’t move my mouth, my arms or my legs. I’m paralyzed.
I hear her footsteps as she walks passed the open door and then she trots down the stairs. I try to yell to her, to tell her I am okay, but I can’t get the damn words out of my mouth. When I hear the front door to the castle slam shut, fear seeps into my veins because, for some strange reason, I can feel her pain, sadness, and hate coursing through me, like it’s my own. She’s not herself and I’m afraid of what she might do, not just to someone else, but also to herself.