Chapter 5 - The Anniversary of the End
The explosion didn't look like fire. It looked like light.
A blinding, white flash that consumed the basement, the servers, and the construct. I was thrown back against the wall, the world turning into a cacophony of shattered glass and sparks.
When I opened my eyes, the room was silent.
The basement was a ruin. The servers were melted shells, their blue lights extinguished. The cot in the center of the room was empty.
I sat up, my body bruised, my head throbbing. I looked around the room, expecting to see the construct, or the real Noah, or the ghost.
There was nothing.
I scrambled to the cot. It was empty. The life-support machines were off, their screens dark.
I climbed the stairs, my legs weak, and emerged into the living room. It was dark, the candles long since burned out. The house was quiet—the kind of quiet that meant the inhabitants had all left.
I walked to the front door and opened it.
The rain had stopped. The air was cool and smelled of wet earth and cedar.
I looked at the spot by the bookcase where the ghost had been sitting. It was empty.
I went to the kitchen and sat at the table. I poured myself a glass of water, my hands no longer shaking.
I had lost him. I had lost the man I loved, the man who had been my husband for five years. But I had also been saved from a nightmare I hadn't even known I was living.
I looked at the anniversary dinner—the cold potatoes, the wine, the untouched plates.
I stood up and began to clean.
I didn't cry. I felt a strange, hollow sense of peace. I had seen the dead, and I had seen the future, and I had chosen the present.
I walked to the living room and picked up the keys from the bowl. I felt a small, hard object at the bottom of the ceramic dish.
I reached in and pulled it out.
It was a small, silver locket. I opened it.
Inside was a picture of me and Noah, taken on our wedding day. And behind the picture was a tiny, folded piece of paper.
I unfolded it.
I didn't build a contingency to replace me, Claire. I built it to keep you safe until I could find a way to finish this.
I'm sorry it took so long.
I'll be waiting for you in the rain.
I walked to the door and stepped out onto the porch. The world was still. The streetlights flickered in the distance.
I felt a cold breeze on my neck, a sensation I had felt a thousand times before. I looked to my left.
Standing on the edge of the lawn, beneath the old cedar tree, was a man. He was faint, translucent, and glowing with a soft, warm light.
It was Noah. The real Noah.
He wasn't wearing a hospital gown. He was wearing the navy suit he’d left home in that morning.
He didn't speak. He didn't move. He just stood there, watching me.
I walked down the steps, my feet touching the grass. I stopped a few feet away from him.
I couldn't speak to him. He couldn't speak to me.
But as I reached out my hand, I felt the warmth of his fingers brush against mine—a real, tangible, impossible warmth.
The anniversary was over. The nightmare was gone.
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And for the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of the ghosts.
I was just happy to be home.
