TERRIBLE THINGS

twenty-nine

Jase was surrounded by white.

Everything was glowing. He felt weightless and electrified and warm all at once. He drifted through the white

"Hello?" Jase asked, his voice echoing through the sky as he looked around but there was no one to be seen.

A warm laugh answered him as someone emerged. No... not someone, but Kova. Kova who didn't look like the Kova Jase knew. His hair was impossibly long, the pure white curls reaching his calves. He wore a dress - or something awfully like a dress - woven with the constellations of the night.

"Are you... Kova?" Jase asked.

"Yes and no," the Kova who was not Kova said. "My name is the Great Mother. Hykelia. God. Whatever you mortals want to call me." The Kova who was not Kova smiled at Jase. "I've been sleeping inside of Kova for a very long time, but he finally woken me. My powers are his powers. We are one in the same but we are not the same." Kova's arms wrapped around Jase's neck. "And now he's chosen you to be his right hand."

"His what?" Jase asked, recoiling from the god who wore Kova's face.

And when the god looked up, Kova's dark blue eyes were staring at him. "He's given you a portion of my power and thus you have joined his Court, my Court." The god laughed. "You shall be the ruler of a small portion of the cosmo and one day every sun, moon, and star will kneel before you."

"Are you going to help us kill Red?" Jase asked.

"Yes," the god said. "Now open your eyes and give me your body."

Jase did as the god commanded.

His eyes opened and he wasn't in the dreamy white world any longer, but one made of terrible things.

Coughing, Jase sat up. Red was getting closer with every heartbeat. He clenched his jaw. She called this her redemption. She thought that killing Kova's family - to do what, exactly? Awaken this god? - was redemption? She was selfish and cruel even now.

Jase's fingers found themselves curled around the hilt of Huraira's sword. He stabbed the metal portion of the blade into the earth, using it to sit up properly. His legs were gone and he had no real means of moving about, but that didn't matter. He was going to fight until his last breath to protect the people he loved.

Summon the earth, a small voice whispered. She is the nurturing mother of life and will lift you up if you ask.

With trembling hands, Jase closed his eyes and begged for the ground to carry him. He didn't know what he was hoping for or expecting, but suddenly he felt a faint heartbeat. He stared in wonder as he realized that this wasn't just pavement, but something that had been carefully crafted by the steady hands of a mother.

This world was filled with imperfection but it was also filled with great beauty and life. There was love in the earth, even hatred lived upon it. This place that Jase had always taken for granted was alive and had been so for eons. It was a place where humanity was born and took its first steps. It was the place that had nurtured them and watched as brother turned on brother.

It was a place that could remember when they were all one. And when Jase called for it, it would answer.

Almost as though happening in reverse, Jase's legs reassembled themselves. The metal undented the wires reconnected and Jase could once again stand. He did. "That's... that's not possible," Red whispered, staring at Jase with wide eyes. The same eyes that had not faltered nor shed a tear when killing a woman who was Jase's entire world. Eyes that had poisoned Huraira's mother. Eyes that had killed Kova's family.

She had turned on the earth and her connection to it. She abused her powers. She was the monster. Not Smiles.

Jase knew that now. After so many years of hatred, he knew that now. Smiles were like him. They felt love so strongly that it almost killed them and they just wanted to survive in a broken city of cowards, crested by mountain peaks and the bloody tint of the suns.

"You... you're human!" Red hissed. "Humans cannot possess the divine power of the Great Mother!" She pointed an accusatory finger at him. "You cannot exist!" she screamed, Morphing as she lunged forwards.

Show her who you are, the voice spoke. Move without fault. Kill without mercy.

The Smile who once seemed so great made a fatal mistake that day eleven years ago. She underestimated humanity. Jase grabbed one of her arms, using her own strength against her, just as Kova had done to him once and now the voice showed Jase how.

Jase twisted the crimson Smile onto her back, leaving her neck fully exposed.

And this time, Jase did not hesitate. She was a mere nightmare, one he had to overcome. As he pierced the blade through Red Riding Hood's neck, he watched as the blood sprayed from her body. She'd not been given the luxury of final words. Her body shriveled, reverting to its true form of wrinkled skin and silver hair. And just like that... she was dead.

Jase, at long last, had killed the Immortal Queen. But it wasn't over yet.

Devour her, the voice that most definitely did not belong to Jase said. This is a world of eat or be eaten. Choose which side you're on.

And so Jase ate.

[author's note]

annnnd that's three out of three protagonists who've committed kind-of cannibalism. see y'all next week for the final update :3