Chapter 14

  White Smoke

  A cathedral, hollow and dark. No choir. No sermon. No congregation. Just silence. A soft white light spills from somewhere unseen. Stained glass fractures it into slivers of color, casting saints in red and blue across the cold stone floor. Shadows bend around them like they’re ashamed.

  The devil sits on a pew, elbows on knees, staring up at a statue nailed to wood.

  “This would look so much better in my torture room.”

  He smirks. Then stops.

  His head tilts. His eyes go still.

  He listens.

  “It appears our little cockroach fights on.”

  He stands. Takes one last look at the statue and makes his way out of the cathedral. The sound of his heavy footsteps on the tile echoes, like hooves on marble.

  Somewhere in darkness, between Heaven and Hell, a place that does and doesn't exist all at once. Cal sits alone. Turning a piece of charred wood in his hands, over and over again. Slowly, methodically. The wood leaves small splinters in his fingers but he doesn't flinch, doesn't stop. The faint smell of smoke still clings to it, ingrained in memory. His jaw flexes. Grip tightening slightly, then loosening. He sits with it in silence and stillness. Places it down carefully, as if it's the most fragile thing he's ever held. Then stands, and walks further into the darkness until it swallows him whole.

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  Scott stands in his bedroom, except the doors are not where they’re supposed to be. There’s no light from the windows. He sees the bathroom door ahead of him cracked open, and he sees a figure standing in front of the mirror.

  “Hello?”

  The figure’s mouth moves with his, but it remains staring at the mirror.

  Ice hits the pit of his stomach.

  What he’s staring at isn’t right, and he feels it in his core.

  He calls again. “Hello?”

  The figures mouth moves again.

  Realization sets, a doppelg?nger.

  The doppelg?ngers head snaps towards him, and rushes.

  Scott doesn’t move.

  He stands his ground.

  Afraid. But unflinching.

  He lets out a scream. His eyes shoot open. He’s in bed. Breath ragged. He scans the room—everything is as it should be. No doors out of place. No one in the dark bathroom.

  He lets out one long, shaken breath. And slowly – he lets sleep take him again.

  This time he doesn’t dream.

  Evelyn stands in Her office facing the window into the cosmos. A tapestry of stars and planets cover the window. Meteors soundlessly fly by. She remains unmoving, her gaze remains fixed on one spot, as if she’s expecting something. Suddenly, a bright light flashes, engulfing her entire office in white, and it’s gone again. In a spot that remained empty before, now a bright shining star remains in place, illuminating planets once unseen. She turns sharply, the window is now gone, and she walks out of her office into the bright hallway, and slams the door behind her, rattling the walls.