Chapter 62. Jade
Jade
A warm light appears before me. It’s as bright as a star, but I feel no pain.
I can look directly at it without wincing.
I have a vague sense that I should be afraid, that I should run from this light.
But honestly, I want it to take me. From it, I feel an overwhelming sense of …
love, a love unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.
The light intensifies. It’s blinding, but where is it coming from? Nothing makes sense.
Then I hear a voice. My mind struggles to make meaning of the garbled words.
“Jade … are you down here? Jade?”
I’m here, I want to say, though I can’t actually speak. But more important … who is Jade?
No sooner do I think of the question than I realize Jade is me. I am the girl who runs—who has been running her whole life until I got here … to Beauport … and to Holly. And that’s who’s calling my name. Holly. I recognize her voice.
I want to stop running and go to her. But the light. It’s calling me—me and someone else, another person nearby. I’m not alone in here. A new memory strikes—my weapon, the glass bottle, sinking into flesh, blood leaking out.
Yes, my attacker—my would-be killer who came to finish the job—I got you first, and now we’re both going into the light. I can feel their life force slipping away, same as mine is fading. We are now one—the kidnapper and the victim, fused into a single consciousness.
I can’t explain it, but I hear their voice in my head as they lie dying beside me, talking to me telepathically, repeating the same phrase over and over.
I’m sorry … I’m sorry … I’m sorry …
Too late, I say back to them using my mind, not my mouth.
It’s too late for sorry. The light has come for us both.
We must go to it. We must go. Our time here is done.