“I never got to say goodbye,” Meredeath whispered to herself.

  Tandy elbowed me before I could open my mouth. I wanted to comfort her, to tell her that Lilly knows she loved her. But as I looked up, wiping the tears off my face, I saw what Tandy had seen.

  Anger.

  Meredeath was angry at herself and her sister and, apparently, Richard.

  “Why did you pull me out of there?!” She added no insult, the accusation diamond hard.

  It does no good revisiting past mistakes. Richard used [Party Speak], letting us all in on his reply. It wasn’t your fault.

  “I wasn’t the one who made the mistake! She gave up.” Meredeath had shrunk in on herself, sinking to the floor, curled in a ball. The skull on her neck glowed ominously red.

  Briyain sat in the SCMMOO bowl next to her, his tubular eyestalks a dim green spark.

  Briyain is here.

  Meredeath didn’t reach for the bowl. She just curled up around her boots as though wishing the void would take her.

  We stood over Meredeath like ancient sentinels. Frozen by the choices of her long dead sister and the grief she still held.

  [Necromancy] didn’t seem so evil before her naked grief.

  We need to go. The void is collapsing. Richard’s mental voice was tight. He’d inched away from us, his slime trail glistening.

  Meredeath was unmoved by his words.

  Tandy looked at me worriedly.

  “Meredeath, we’ve got to go.” Ash had kneeled down to prod at our friend, knocked out of his own grief.

  I kneeled too, my joints cracking.

  “Hey, we’ll have time to grieve later.” As soon as I said the words, I knew they were the wrong ones. She balled tighter, as though she’d been flogging herself with later her whole life.

  I tried again. This time, leaving the expectation of what was next alone.

  “Lilly knows you loved her. She knows.”

  Meredeath let out a harsh laugh that echoed in the void.

  “Funny thing is, Cole, I don’t anymore.” Meredeath’s pale face looked up at mine. She clutched her skull amulet as its magic flared. Tension and pain lined her face as she whispered, “I hate her.”

  The fiery magic engulfed her hand, an angry challenge to the emptiness of the void. Briyain thrashed in his bowl, giving us a hint of what was going on. Meredeath’s eyes flared with fire as she burned herself.

  “You’ve got to let go of the amulet, Meredeath.” Ash grabbed her hands, trying to pry her fingers off. The sticky-sweet smell of cooking meat filled my nostrils as Ash jerked away.

  Briyain was growing desperate as bubbles formed in his bowl. The SCMMOO remnant glowed.

  It’d been her mom’s amulet. Apparently, she’d had a love that burned both her daughters.

  “Leave me alone.” Meredeath looked up, and Ash fell back. His hands slapped on the slimy floor of the void.

  [First Aid] triggered.

  [Ash Haddad - Burned. Apply a cool compress to the burn. Do not treat with oil or derivatives. Use a poultice of aloe, plantain, and calendula with a clay or oatmeal base.]

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Why couldn’t my skills be useful? I didn’t need help with Ash’s burn. I needed help to snap Meredeath out of her mental spiral. With effort, I switched the focus of the skill triggering [First Aid] on her.

  [Meredith Steele - [Error]. The subject is in pain. A ginger and tumeric tea, lettuce of the gods, and popi extract can treat general pain. Apply analgesic drugs to the patient.]

  “Fucking useless [System].” This wasn’t a physical pain I could slap a poultice on or give her some sort of tea. This was heartache.

  I could feel the void closing around us. The darkness pressed in.

  “Grab Briyain, and go.” I told Ash, his eyes wide in panic. Tandy was already moving, trying to keep an eye on Richard.

  It was time to go. Every fiber of my body could feel it. Ash scooped up Briyain’s bowl. His arms sizzled as he did so. The man lurched down our slimy path, and as he moved off, I could feel the weight of the void pressing in.

  “Meredeath, we’ve got to go.” I urged her, panic swallowing me.

  “Let it take me.” Her words sent a shiver down my spine. She wanted this nothingness. This void of unfeeling numbness.

  “You don’t want to be here.” The words slipped out as the realization struck.

  Meredeath had been given a second chance here on my earth, in my universe. And she didn’t want it. She hadn’t asked for it.

  I bent down, wrapping my arms around her balled-up form. Her skin burned. Meredeath looked at me, her eyes afire.

  “Leave me alone. Leave me here,” she commanded. The full weight of whatever mental powers Briyain granted stacked on me. My interface blinked with debuff after debuff.

  I held her closer as I stood.

  “Cole.” Her voice warned, as though I weren’t already on fire.

  “Meredeath,” I answered between gritted teeth.

  “Put me down.”

  Her skull amulet sizzled.

  I took a step with her in my arms. With the debuffs, she was heavy. Each painful step was too slow. We weren’t going to make it. This was going to be it.

  [Heartbeat] triggered and tied us together.

  Our minds pulsed in pain.

  Her anger, her desire to end it, the unfeeling numbness, the exhaustion of survival. The need to be done.

  All of this was pitted against my puny infatuation and lust. Set against my instinctual need to make it all okay, to ease the hurt, and mend the bridge.

  “I’m not leaving you behind.” I would not leave another friend behind.

  “You’re not, I’m choosing this.” Meredeath answered my unspoken plea.

  I was not leaving her behind. Even if it killed me.

  As my feet moved, I could feel the bubble of my flesh under the heat of her fire.

  The connection between us, the haunting cello music, thinned.

  “Let me go, Cole.”

  Richard’s trail was faint. Tandy and Ash had made it out.

  I couldn’t hear Richard anymore, the void played its own melody. Sweet, welcoming. It could be an end to the pain and doubt, the endless self-criticism and the search for something better.

  I sank down to my knees.

  Tandy’d be fine without me. Look at Leo.

  My mind burned. My skin bubbled. The void sang to me of sweet relief. Of a cool numbness that could take it all away. It was hungry, and in exchange it offered a blissful nothing.

  No more rejection or failure or expectations unmet.

  The floor wasn’t hard anymore. It was spongy, welcoming. It cooled my burns, sucking the heat out of them.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Cole.” Meredeath’s fingers wrapped around my wrist, her nails biting into the flesh as she tugged at my arm. “I was supposed to fall into the void, not you.”

  “I can’t help it if you’re right. Why bother?” The words burned as they came out, as though Meredeath’s malaise had infected me.

  My feet scrambled against the ever-softening sponge of the floor as we lurched forward.

  “You, Ash, and Tandy have the world in front of you,” Meredeath grunted as she pulled at me. I kicked into the void, helping our momentum.

  “And you don’t?” I mumbled.

  “My future died…”

  I got back on my feet and stood next to Meredeath. We didn’t touch we just looked into each other’s eyes in the faint light of her heat as we sank into the void.

  “Your future is with me,” I said, immediately regretting the way it sounded.

  “Cole, you’re a nice guy, but you’re not for me.” She spoke the rejection she’d been nonverbally giving me for months.

  “I know,” I admitted. “We’re not a great fit.”

  I lifted my foot and took a step towards the faint slime trail that was left, pulling at Meredeath.

  She stood rooted in place.

  I gave another tug.

  Turning back, I looked at her red eyes.

  “This isn’t about being lovers; this is about being family. You’re one of us, remember?”

  The amulet on Meredeath’s chest popped.

  A wide crack had split the skull in two.

  The path forward wasn’t hard to find after that.