As Above

Sophia's eyesight was seared with a brilliant white light as she was catapulted from one dimension to another. Her vision blurred, as prisms of multicoloured reflections danced around her. She felt she was flying through a rainbow, and once on the other side a world different than her own came into focus.

The sky was a deep indigo and the sun appeared to be green. A gentle breeze kissed her cheeks and the scent of fresh hay permeated the air around her. The landscape was filled with natural beauty where no concrete was to be found. Golden fields extended to the horizon before her, a mixture of yellow, copper, red, orange, and other brassy hues speckled sweeping blades of deep green grass. Each flower head was as large as Sophia's hand, and each petal felt like silk slipping through her fingers.

A rustling noise in the distance caught Sophia's attention and she watched in fascination as a translucent orb floated from the centre of an orange marigold flower. It zipped through the grass and hovered in front of Sophia before transforming itself into a beautiful goddess with long flowing red and golden hair.

“Welcome Sophia” the goddess smiled peacefully, “my name is Tages”.

“Where am I?” Sophia questioned, dazed.

“It's not really a place as it is a point beyond time, but where is not important. The real question is why. You see, you have a choice to make” Tages alluded.

“What kind of choice?” Sophia frowned.

“The only one there ever really is”, Tages plucked and twirled the stem of a flower between the her fingertips, “the choice between life and death of course”.

Sophia thought back on the night's events and wondered if the bullet flying towards her had indeed breached the inners of her brain. Had she imagined being saved? She thought to herself. It would certainly explain a lot about the evening, most of which seemed to fly in the face of physics.

“No, no” Tages shook her head slowly, reading Sophia's mind, “You are still very much alive my dear, but your destiny is intertwined so closely with death that sometimes it's hard to tell the difference”.

“I don't understand” Sophia confessed.

“You would if your memories were intact" Tages shrugged, "I'm afraid I can't do anything about that but, I can give you a glimpse into your future. It will then be up to you to accept your fate or to change it”. Tages beckoned Sophia to follow her through the meadow until their feet reached the edge of a pond.

“Look into the waters and tell me what you see” She instructed.

Sophia peered down and initially only saw her reflection, but a butterfly appeared as if from nowhere and landed on the image of herself, creating ripples that distorted her features. The image changed and she saw Lucan's face staring back up at her. He looked distressed, his eyes lost in a panic. All of a sudden water turned to fire and she watched as he was dragged down by the flames. She instinctively reached out to him, almost falling herself.

Tages placed a hand on Sophia's arm to stop her before she could touch the surface of the water, “be careful, it's more real that it looks” she warned.

“What's happening to him?” Sophia asked.

“Keep watching” Tages instructed.

Sophia cast her eyes down again. Lucan disappeared and the roaring flames danced themselves into a concentric mass of heart-shaped petals. Her face reappeared in the centre but her eyes weren't her own. They belonged to Lucan, as if they had merged into one and the same.

“You have been tied to this man since the very inception of your soul. You are the light to his dark. As above, so below. There is a power dormant inside of you. Once you discover it you will have to decide who to save with it. One choice will cause destruction for all, the other will bring about balance like the world has never known. You will not know the consequence until after the choice” Tages riddled before continuing, “there are two types of marigolds. One represents grief, destruction and death. The other symbolises the sun, protection and rebirth. The only thing that distinguishes one meaning from the other, is the person who plucks that flower and what their beliefs are. You are the flower Sophia. Just be careful by whom you are picked” Tages advised.

At that Tages put the head of a red marigold into Sophia's hand and closed her fingers around it,

“To remember me by” Tages offered with a comforting smile.

Sophia's surrounding landscape started to blur into a palette of mixed colours, “no, wait. Wait!” she protested as she felt her consciousness slip from one ether to another.

There was no blinding white light this way back though. The transition felt darker, heavier, as if every single cell in her body were tearing themselves apart only to regroup in a different formation. When reality started to form once more around her, she was not back in the diner where her journey began. No, she was somewhere else entirely. Everything around her resembled a hot fiery pit of spitting lava. A plane of scorched earth and charcoaled trees as far as the eye could see. The centre of her palm started to sting, and she looked down to see the flower given her transform into a solid crystal mass. Its colour the same burning red as the scenery she now found herself engulfed in. A deep reverberating howl pierced the molten sky and Sophia could only think of one name to cry out for: Lucan.