Once our breathing has evened out and we’ve had a few minutes to recover, we get up and take a shower together. We cook dinner together. We eat and talk about Reese’s trip. It all feels normal even though our lives are far from it.
Later, Reese falls asleep beside me on the couch, one arm around my waist while shadows drift lazily across the room.
I watch him for a long time. Listen to his heartbeat.
I think about fate and death. About Ascension. About all the things that probably should’ve changed us more than it did, yet we still ended up here despite it all.
I died. I crossed Pulse Zero and came back with powers. And, somehow, the most important thing I found afterward was love.
Maybe that’s my Ascension.
Not the electricity beneath my skin. Not the things I can donow.
Just this.
Just us.
