After belting out a completely unnecessary, but nevertheless cool roar out into the afternoon sky, Caelian shrunk back to his humanoid form and turned towards me.

I honestly didn’t know what to say. The villain entered, monologued, had a hissy fit and was yeeted out of existence in barely a minute of imaginary screen time. The climax was over. Now what.

“I’m sorry.”

Well, shit. Did not expect that!

“This whole situation is my fault. I…” Caelian rubbed his ear nervously, looking up at me from under his lashes. He sighed.

“You were right. About the bond. I have forced it upon you without your consent, and that was wrong of me. I will make it right.”

Baffled by this genuine human interaction, I stood silent.

“We haven’t completed it yet. So I can undo it and… set you free.” he reached over to my chest, the neon blue sigil lighting up again between us, sending tingles through my skin.

“I am grateful. For you saving me, that is. Genuinely. And if you want me to do a favour of your choice, you may simply name it. I will do anything within my power.” he frowned, concentrating as the rings of the sigil snapped one after another. Once it was done, he breathed in a sharp gasp and backed away, wincing. It probably hurt him to do that.

I felt no pain, but a subtle sense of loss that I could not describe. Caelian looked so brokenhearted that I felt a little bad about the way I treated him.

“Hey, it’s not your fault. It's just bad writing.” I patted him on the shoulder in solidarity.

“I… don’t understand.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I shrugged and looked around at the idyllic landscape.

“So… now what?”

“I don’t know…” Caelian replied, looking like a lost puppy. He was the last of his kind, no purpose, no bonded partner, not even a crazy ex to bother him. I knew this was not how the original story was supposed to end. Probably had a dramatic betrayal scene, maybe one of the male leads sacrificed themselves for the other or something along those lines. This was just… bleak.

“Mind if I take you up on the flying thing?” I asked, jokingly punching him in the bicep. Caelian looked at me, confused but a little happier. He was about to answer me when the entire area started to glitch.

“Aw man, not again,” I complained as I rubbed my head, a headache coming on fast and brutal.

“Ethan… what is happening?!” Caelian was looking around me frantically. He gasped when a particularly bad interference zig-zagged by the Heart of the Forest, interrupting the rainbow fountain stream.

“Wait. You can see it too now?!” I exclaimed, worried that I messed with the script so much that even Caelian was now involved.

“Is this what you saw previously? No wonder you were afraid.” 

“Yeah, it wasn’t as bad though,” I replied, looking at ominous patches of black static now consuming swathes of the landscape. I had a sinking feeling that something truly horrible was going to happen, and I couldn’t stop it.

“Ethan, take my hand!” Caelian reached for me just as a black patch appeared under my feet. I felt myself slip through the ground, hand outstretched towards Caelian’s worried face. It was the last thing I saw before being plunged into the abyss.

I hurtled through the darkness for what seemed like days. I felt my mind stretch and bend, a cacophony of sounds and voices intermingling in a horrendous noise that made my ears bleed. I screamed in agony, but it was lost in the miasma of sound until…

I was slammed into a metal locker by some kid wearing a strange football uniform. I was still disoriented from the unravelling of the world around me.

“What the hell are you doing here, Liam!”

Who the hell was Liam? Oh, shit. I guess me?

“Huh?!” was the only coherent response I could muster.

“I told you not to follow me around, you freak! I don’t care if we are on the same team, and I don’t care what my dad says…”

No…. No, God, please, no…

“Our parents may be married now, but I’m never calling you my brother.”

God fucking damn it.