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“All of your kind. Your entire generation. Worthless.”
She turns her back and shuffles to a corner. I watch her, ready to flee at the first sign of violence. I may not have anywhere to go but I can sure not be here. She lifts a bucket from the floor with a grunt. She shuffles back to the table and stops, setting the bucket on the ground beside the table and panting.
“Do you need—”
Her glare cuts me off before I finish the thought and I drop back onto my chair.
She grabs the bucket with both hands, huffs loudly, then lifts it up and sets it on the table. Water sloshes over the edge, splashing on the table, some of it landing in my untouched stew. I’m too scared to move, waiting to see what happens next.
“Come, come.” Caill motions for me to stand up.
She leans over the bucket, and I lean in to look too. It’s full of murky water but all I see is our reflections staring back. Caill puts one finger into the water and moves it slowly counterclockwise.
“What—”
She shushes me and I snap my mouth shut. The water swirls and it’s no longer the reflection of our faces on the surface. I see home. High rises, cars racing down freeways, people rushing up and down a city street. All the people are on their phones and staring at the screen. No one looks up or takes notice of the other people around them. The view shifts to movie theatres with flashing lights and hundreds of staring eyes. Televisions casting flickering light over the enraptured people watching.
The point of view shifts to inside an apartment, watching a family staring at a screen but slowly pulls back. It’s outside the apartment and looking in through a window. The point of view continues pulling back. More windows come into view, all with the same flickering light of televisions.
The water swirls and changes to a silver tree. The one that dominates this land of fairy. The Tree of Life; it must be just like in the story but now its light is gone. The dark shadow that made me ache when I looked at it has laid claim. It hurts me, burning like my veins are filled with lava. I can’t breathe. It’s wrong. So wrong. I gasp and look aways, clenching my eyes tight.
“What is this?” I ask, gritting my teeth as sweat beads on my brow.
“The future.”
“But it’s… awful.”
“What did you expect? Fields of poppies and roses?”
“I don’t know, not this. It’s sad. All those people stuck to their screens.”
“Aye,” Caill says. “Like you.”
“I’m not—”
“Now.”
I open my mouth to protest but can’t. She’s not wrong. I was every bit as bad about keeping up on my phone. Before coming to this time, I don’t remember the last time I took a moment look around. To see other people in real life. How bad is it when we even had to develop a term for it? ‘In real life.’ I swallow hard.
“We’re dying,” Caill says. “It’s on you to save us or to leave us to fade away.”
“What do you mean? How can it be me?”
“Look. Did you not see? Are you still blind from your tiny screens?”
I shake my head and fight the urge to cry. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
“Foolish child,” she huffs and the raven flies to her shoulder. “You are the Destroyer. Which world will you choose? Ours or the one you knew?”
“How am I supposed to choose that? I don’t want to lose my friends. I don’t want to lose my loved ones.” I don’t want to lose Duncan. Alesoun. Robert. Patrick. Chief Johnne. All the MacGregors who have been so nice and welcoming. “Oh my god! The MacGregors. How do I save them? They’re in so much danger. I have to save them. How can I?”
She straightens, rising to her full height for the first time. In her eyes is a wintry storm and her face is cold as ice. She towers over me and the raven spreads its wings to fill the hut.
“You can’t save them. It’s written and done.”
“No. There has to be a way. You want me to save you? Help me save them.”
She motions to the bucket.
