The Jade City

Epilogue

The fireworks burst into the air from the valley below, sending a shower of sparks cascading onto the village. Every year during the anniversary celebrations, I would deliberately avoid everyone and come up here to enjoy the peace and quiet until the festivities ended.

It had been exactly five years since he'd died and I'd permanently tainted my hands. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I would still suddenly wake up in my bed, screaming, my entire backside wet from the sweat. The nightmares of an empty-eye-socketed Shadow Knight taking on his form, reaching out towards my face with my hands, eased after a while, but around this time of year they were the worst. I used to have terrible hallucinations and randomly collapse in the middle of the street, and whispers of how I'd gone insane followed me wherever I went.

But the further away I went from Jade City and the village, the better I would be.

I used to visit his grave all the time and just sit there and cry, as if there was a magnetic force pulling me towards it, until I forced myself to leave. The Ninja tried to convince me to stay, but I made the decision impulsively, knowing that if I debated for too long, I'd ultimately give in.

If I stayed, I'd never get over him.

So I headed north, as far away from everything as possible, and settled down. Nobody knew who I was, and I preferred to stay anonymous. I didn't really talk to anyone, and nobody tried reaching out to me, either. I was the girl who was mad.

Admittedly, I still hadn't completely moved on, and he would visit me in my dreams from time to time, each occasion leaving me in tears when I woke up.

At least things were now somewhat normal, or as normal as they could be. I still mostly kept to myself, not ready for any sort of relationship, but maybe one day.

No longer would I blindly obsess over the past and whine about how I'd never make it up to Lloyd. He'd never know about anything that happened here, but I did, and that was enough. As for him and my parents, maybe I wasn't going to see any of them again. I wasn't sure what was going to happen if I died here, and if I never made it to the Departed Realm... at least the memories would be with me until the very end. And hopefully they wouldn't be ashamed of who I'd become, even if they weren't proud.

A breeze tickled the bottoms of my bare feet and I leaned back against a tree, taking in deep breaths as twilight faded into dusk. It was getting cold, but I didn't care. My breathing slowed as I closed my eyes, and with the distant pops of firecrackers in the distance acting as a sort of lullaby, I drifted off to sleep.

Soon, I found myself floating in an empty black void. I frowned, wondering where I was, until a blinding white light suddenly appeared in front of me, so I quickly shielded my eyes with my arm, wincing at the sudden change in brightness.

"Congratulations, Princess Harumi, you have completed your mission."

The voice appeared to echo, yet there was nothing solid for the sound to bounce off of. I protectively curled my legs up to my torso, twisting my body around but unable to really steer it in any direction.

"What mission?" I asked skeptically, still wondering where the source of the sound even was from. There was no sign of mocking in the tone, but after having already dealt with the Shadow Knight, I wasn't exactly sure just how well someone could hide their true intentions anymore. Still, I doubted that Ruby was back.

"You are ready to enter the Departed Realm."

I would've jerked backwards in surprise if I wasn't just hovering in this space. "Are you Eve?"

"Yes. Thank you for eliminating the Shadow Knight."

I paused, a wave of confusing washing over me as I tried to gather all the questions rushing through my head.

"What even is this place? What's the purpose of this?" At this point I remained unsure of where the voice even came from.

"I'll say this much. There are many, many alternate realities. Ninjago just happens to be the main one, while the rest are simply pocket realms. There are some where you are still alive and ruling over a city, and others where you do not exist."

"So that's why the Shadow Knight wanted to leave? What happens if you die in an alternate universe?"

"Reincarnation into another. Lucky ones may end up in Ninjago, and from there, you enter the Departed Realm."

"Then why am I here?"

"You seem like you needed a second chance. Many have gone through similar processes, if you were wondering. You and Morro were not the first."

His name was something I hadn't heard in a while. "Was... was there a reason we both came here?"

"He came here randomly when his counterpart died in an accident right as he was dying in Ninjago. The Shadow Knight, anticipating your death, killed your counterpart right before it happened so that your soul would come here and they'd have a chance to go to Ninjago."

"Is... is the Shadow Knight in another alternate reality now?"

The idea that she'd murdered my counterpart... suddenly made me very uncomfortable.

"I would assume so. But the chances that they're in Ninjago or possess any sort of power or memories of what happened here are so low it is negligible."

I would've pursed my lips at that statement. Negligible didn't mean nonzero.

"How many pocket realms are there?"

"What do you think? But enough questions." With that, a glowing white rectangle appeared only several feet (I wasn't sure if depth worked the same way in this limbo-like state) in front of me.

For a second, my breath hitched in my throat as I reached out towards the "door," then just as I was almost there, my fingers stopped in mid-air. I glanced around myself, managing to turn my body 360° with some difficulty. "Eve?"

There was no response, and I knew I was alone.

Again.

Turning back to the door, I swallowed, still unsure. I had dreamt of reuniting with my parents for years, but...

It was almost like I could hear the laughter from the other side, happy voices saying things I was unable to decipher at the moment. Somehow I understood that if I went, I'd have to face everyone whose lives I'd ruined, and everyone whose lives I'd taken, but if I didn't, I could forever live in bliss, my soul rotating between different alternate universes with no recollection of anything I'd ever done. The Quiet One would become nothing more than a story of a psychopathic girl, someone I'd never have to associate myself with ever again. I could be normal.

There was a chance my parents would hate me, and if that was the case, he'd be the only person not to. And he might eventually get tired of being my shoulder to cry on and leave me all alone again. If I stayed, I could run away from everything.

But I could also take that chance. 

END