Life After You

[The trial begins.]

Delilah: The points system has been annulled, but they’re still keeping this as a game setting?

Zeph and I share a glance. Aziel also glances at us. Rehan and Mykel are still focused on their work, and Kendric is now making his way to us. Yet, a moment later, the entire building disappears, as if erased from a canvas.

Delilah: The trial?

I look around me. Every other NPC has vanished as well, leaving only Kendric, Aziel, Mykel, Rehan, and Zeph. All except Zeph are exchanging worried glances—Rehan in particular. He bites his lower lip, visibly lost and anxious.

Kendric walks to him.

Kendric: “Hey, I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s not like you, looking all gloomy like that.”

Rehan: “...yeah, I know.”

Mykel: “Somebody explain?”

Zeph shakes his head.

Zeph: “It’s too long a story for this moment.”

As he speaks, he is facing skyward—possibly retaining some of his NPC guide privileges.

Aziel: “Do you know who’s making the announcements? CloverWorks?”

Zeph: “I know only that it is not CloverWorks—not anymore.”

Delilah: “Not anymore?”

Zeph looks at me calmly.

Zeph: “You try to explain that to Kendric and Mykel. Just know that this is not just a game anymore, and because of that...”

He trails off as my eyes widen in shock. Maybe the only reason he doesn’t finish his sentence is that I have already realized what he meant to say, and nobody else needs to fully understand.

But is that true? Is that really true?

Delilah: If this is not a game anymore, that means it doesn’t need a guide anymore. Then, Zeph is not a guide anymore, but he’s not a playable character either. And yet he remains...does that mean he’ll come apart along with the game as this world turns into a real, independent world? Wait, hold on...what does that even mean? Is that possible? If that’s possible, where the hell did I come from? Is my world real, or is this one?

Delilah: “Wait, Zeph!”

I call out to him. He has taken just a single step forward.

Zeph stops, but he does not turn around.

Zeph: “Yeah?”

Delilah: “I don’t get it.”

Zeph: “...”

Delilah: “So uh...you can’t just turn around all cool and leave like that.”

Zeph chuckles.

Zeph: “Pft...you say you don’t get it, but you know to tell me not to ‘leave like that’. Don’t worry, I’ve got more that I want to see—just enough to keep me going.”

I don’t believe it. I believe that there is more that he wants to see, but I don’t believe that alone is enough to give him a will to not sacrifice himself for the others if he has to.

After all, at every trial—every one of the septillion trials that took place when After You was only a game—Zeph was always the first to die. To die by his own power, because he is powerless when it turns against him. He had always walked into each trial knowing what was awaiting him. Because he always knew it was a game, he always knew that his fate had been sealed the moment he was created.

He always knew that he was not real.

Does it mean anything to him now that it is no longer a game?

I don’t know.

But I want it to.

As if on cue, a giant blue crystal descends from the sky—steadily, slowly, malignantly. It shines brightly, not because it carries any sparkle on its own, but because the afternoon sun reflects from its clear surfaces. It turns and turns in the air, just as slowly as it is descending.

Delilah: “Kendric, Mykel.”

The two turn to me expectantly.

Delilah: “You know mobile games?”

I know they do. After You takes place in the future; whatever exists in my world existed in their history.

Mykel: “Sort of?”

Kendric: “I know what they are.”

Delilah: “Great.”

I speak without taking my eyes off of the crystal—but we are all the same. We are all doing the same thing. This was not what “the trial” looked like in the game. All we can do for now is stare.

Delilah: “This world was a game, you were all characters, and I was a player. Apparently, that’s not the case anymore. I don’t know anything else though.”

Kendric & Mykel: “What?!”

Aziel sighs.

Aziel: “That means we might have to fight for our very existence, if we even get that chance.”

Kendric: “Ha! Well, that’s easy enough to understand! But Zeph? What is that thing in the sky?”

Mykel: “I was about to ask!”

Zeph: “...stand back, everyone.”

His voice is in a quiet tone, but everyone immediately obliges—except me. As the crystal descends, a face appears within it. It is the face of a man in his twenties. He has gold-black hair, a pair of mesmerizing amethyst eyes, and lips curled into an unreadable thin smile.

The man’s face appears only for a second, and I do not recognize it. It is clear that his face is not only a mirage, because he blinks once—as if just to prove that he is real—and looks directly at Rehan.

Rehan: “!”

Rehan gasps.

Rehan: “Agh...ah...”

I turn sharply to Rehan, who closes his eyes and staggers backward, holding his head in his hands. I glance back at the crystal. The man’s face is gone, replaced by that of another.

Delilah: “Gilad...?”

There is no mistake. It is Gilad in that crystal, with his eyes closed, his hair flowing behind him rather than in a ponytail, his arms crossed with his hands on his shoulders, like any princess in any fairytale drawing.

Aziel lifts his magnifying glass. I look at him for a second.

Aziel: “He’s the real deal. Your brother, Gilad Eidel, in the flesh.”

Mykel glances at Rehan, who is trying to support his own weight by holding on to a tree. Without a word or even an additional gesture, Mykel lifts his flute and begins to play. His melody flows through the air, easing the tension immediately.

[Best of intentions.]

[Best of luck.]

My intuition tells me it is the man with amethyst eyes that has taken over the announcement system...but who is he?