A creature.
A dirty, uncaring, mean-spirited, prideful, resentful, malicious thing. I wasn’t naïve—I knew those things were inside me. I was a mine, wasn’t I?
But I’d never seen them under this bright, searching, truth-filled light.
I was used to unraveling illusion.
Nearly all my life, I’d been ripping illusion away.
But now, a different kind of illusion was uncovered.
I was darkness. I was weak. I had seeds of evil in me that were constantly sprouting.
The only way I could survive, the only way I could save my good, was by giving myself completely to the light and asking it to save me.
Rou had once told me you could find God in a single flower and the quiet of a silent hour, but was he also here, in the lowest depths of darkness.
The battle raged. The line in my heart was split between good and evil.
I held out the white flag, surrendered, and good rushed in.
I was swept into its arms. Overcome and consumed.
I was held in the gentle arms of mercy.
Then, the light flared in a blinding, brilliant sunburst that chased away the horror. The good roared, and the horror fled, screaming in terror.
“Are you truth?” I asked, floating in the light.
Yes.
“What happened?” I asked. I looked down at my spirit. The darkness that had floated in me was gone. Jagger’s chains and the bite of his blood was gone. My spirit was light. It glowed brightly.
You’re free, the voice said.
It boomed through me, a thunderous, rumbling sound.
And after the terror of revealing my darkness, I was swept with a peace so deep, a love so infinite, that I realized the reason I’d had to know my darkness was so I could receive the light of truth’s grace.
And then, at that realization, a cosmic, light-filled wind hit me. The gust shoved me through space, and I somersaulted across time until I slammed back into my body.
105
I ricocheted into my body, and the bright light of my spirit burned through me.
The fire was brighter than Finn’s blue fire swords. It was brighter than the sun. It cleansed me and destroyed Jagger’s blood.
The horror crouched over us. It was a tidal wave about to sweep over Justice and Griff and swallow us all.
I’d landed back in myself, right before the horror struck.
“Watch out!” Winnie shouted.
The horror descended.
Finn sliced through the black wave, his fire swords blazing. He tore the horror in half and lunged through the hole.
“Mari—” he shouted.
