Prologue - Anthem

The sheets are wet. The air is metallic. The ceiling is spinning. My shirt clings to me, drenched with blood. The room tilts when I blink.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

She’s still trying to get in. The door rattles on its hinges. But the drawer doesn’t move.

I can’t move. My skin is cold. My body is too weak. My breath is shallow and dry. I’m not getting air.

“Alyssa!”

The voice is muffled.

I want to apologize to her. Because I know what she’ll find when she gets in.

A corpse.

I close my eyes, certain that they’ll never open again.

Then, a warmth blooms.

It starts at my toes. It climbs my body, bringing a strange stillness along with it. My skin is burning as it reaches my belly. It coils there and spreads to my arms and my chest.

I feel a faint smile play on my lips as the heat overtakes me entirely.

Then I plummet.

The bed folds around me, and I’m falling through open air.

The dark spins and wind rips at my clothes. I grasp out at nothing and my hair whips into my face.

I can’t open my eyes. I’m not sure I want to.

Is this it?

Death?

The wind shifts, rushing in from one side. My hair moves and I stare into something I can’t understand.

Dark melts into white. Snow. There are specks of glass, glimmering in an unseen light.

Just as fast, the image is gone and I hit something. I hardly feel it, but I squeeze my eyes shut.

Everything has come to a stop.

Salt tickles the back of my tongue, and my eyes fly open.

Blue.

The sky is vast and deep, its blues sinking into a dark horizon.

I’m alone, sitting on something solid and cold. I run my hand along the surface. Ice.

The pain is gone. The wounds on my arms are gone.

I’m alive.

No. Why? That was supposed to be it. It was supposed to be over.

The ice is moving slightly beneath me. It rises and falls like breaths being taken.

I stand on surprisingly steady legs.

It’s a perfect circle. That’s the first detail I notice. A perfect circle of ice, like a twenty-foot dinner plate.

Beyond that is ocean. Endless water rolling over itself.

The wind picks up, lifting my curls off my face. I turn away from it.

I’m wearing nothing, but I’m not cold. I don’t feel anything.

I trail my hand up the curve of my belly, and between my breasts, and finally I pause at my throat. I feel the blood pumping in my veins. My skin is warm, maybe too warm.

I have to be dead.

I close my fingers around my throat, slowly cutting off my breath. I don’t let go until I erupt into a coughing fit.

I have to be dead.

I double over, breathing hard. I take a step, and my foot slides across the surface of the ice.

It isn’t like ice in Michigan; it’s unnaturally smooth.

I stumble for a moment before recovering and straightening up.

I keep my legs close together, letting myself spin slowly across the ice. At the same time, I run my hands through my hair. I pull it into a ponytail before letting it fall on my shoulders.

Everything feels normal. Except for the fact that I’m dead.

I laugh. It’s a strange, dry noise.

Of course, I finally die, and this is what I get. At least it’s ice. Being on ice has always made me happy.

I turn my foot and propel myself off of the momentum, rounding the massive ring. My feet function like flat skates, but somehow they aren’t getting torn apart.

It doesn’t make sense.

I spread my arms and breathe in the salty air as I slide.

The edge looms closer and closer.

I crouch and slow myself, catching the edge with my hand and gazing over the side.

There’s no reflection in the water, just a deep shifting blue.

I stare into the depths for a moment, tightening my grip on the edge.

My foot slips and I fall forward.

I shove at the ice with one hand and propel myself backward, landing on my butt.

I’m breathing hard for some reason. I can’t stop.

Something about the idea of leaving the ice terrifies me.

I draw my legs to my chest, scanning the horizon for any sign of… anything.

But there’s nothing.

I must’ve died.

But where is this?

Is this the afterlife?

I’m starting to consider tossing myself into the water when something catches my eye.

A glow hovering over the water. It seems to bounce in the air as it approaches.

I straighten and track it as it comes into view.

A lantern, rusty and dim.

When it reaches the edge of the ice, the lantern stops.

The ice shifts.

“Hello?” My voice is unfamiliar. I’m almost certain that isn’t how I’m supposed to sound.

The lantern brightens.

A pane of glass forms in the air before me. It’s a neon blue and faintly transparent.

Words appear across it. A letter at a time, as if someone were typing them.

‘This is Sefirot.’

I stare for a moment before the words disappear.

“What’s a Sefirot?” I ask. But more words are already appearing.

‘Show me the result.’

Light blooms from the lantern, washing over everything.

I flinch back, but it’s too fast. It doesn’t burn.

When the light fades, everything moves.