SFY page 6

The humid air of the jungle was a comfort as I stepped out of the unforgiving marshlands. I was a complete and utter disaster; I was literally coming apart at the seams.

My shoulder still throbbed horribly, and I had a gaping hole in my chest. I was lucky that none of my organs had gotten ripped out. My scarf was dirty and tattered. My goggles, thankfully, were just a little dirty. It could've been worse. I could be dead.

But I wasn't. I had the mushrooms, miraculously, and now Karma had an actual chance of survival. Doom would be saved too, I guess. In the end I guess everything worked out okay. Maybe everyone else will just end up killing themselves, and I'll finally be able to leave this freaking nightmare. With Karma.

Just as I turned the corner, I spotted Echo standing near the gravesite. I hobbled over to her, grinning a foolish grin. Her back was turned to me. I outstretched my arm and held the mushrooms out in my palm, watching the faint glow dance across my bloodied, dirtied hand.

"Echo." I said softly.

Then she turned towards me. She was not wearing her mask. And there was something horrifying about that. She was actually very pretty, but something was absolutely wrong. My hand shook a little and the mushrooms rolled skittishly around.

"Jeth, I – " She began, voice hushed.

"No, no, see I've got the mushrooms! The Reishi mushrooms. Doom will be fine now!" I said with growing anxiety. The mushrooms bobbed up and down. "And everyone else too, and you, and Karma, she'll be okay!"

Echo only looked at me. Her blue eyes twinkled sadly.

"Echo?" My voice shook with those last two syllables. I turned my head slowly towards the ground.

The graves. There was one more mound of dirt than there had been before I left.

"Jeth, I know – "

"Echo, what is this?" My body froze up. My dead heart seemed to freeze with it. There was only a raw feeling of horror now. "Echo. WHO IS THIS?" I shouted as panic seized me. A mushroom fell out of my palm.

"Listen to me Jeth!" Echo yelled, stepping closer to me and staring at me with those deadly serious eyes. "Please listen to me, this is not…"

But I couldn't listen. I already knew. I already knew who it was under that dirt. I dropped to my knees, letting the all the little blue fungi roll away solemnly.

All that I had cared for. The only thing that I have ever cared for in my life, gone. Why couldn't they just let me keep her? Why not just her?

Because it was Karma who lay under that dirt.

And it was Karma who I would never be able to save. It was Karma who let me live till this moment, only to suffer a pain probably worse than death.

That was all I could take.

I just let go everything.

I stopped feeling.

I just left.