Free

For the briefest instant, a moment between moments, the void brightened.

Lisa felt the flare before she saw it. A pulse of heat washing through her that made her remaining essence ripple like the surface of a pond. Then a spark of contact, Gary and Wyatt's points of light intensifying, briefly becoming one light, widening and opening big enough for her to act. She lunged toward it instinctively, desperately, her hands closing around a filament of possibility so thin it almost wasn't there.

And then light.

A flash, a tear, a sound like silk ripping, and she fell through.

She landed in a world.

A real one.

An overwhelming flood of sensation bombarded her. Air against her face. Colour painting her vision. Lisa could smell the room, taste the small particles of dust. It was heaven.

"I'm free," she whispered, a sound escaping from her throat somewhere between laughter and crying.

The void was gone. The lattice was gone. The endless probabilities were gone. She had made it. She existed. She was present.

Alive.

But not whole.

She sensed it instantly: an absence, several absences. Her body… wasn't quite hers. Wasn't quite there.

This was a new world, and so she had yet to learn the rules, but floating as she was near the ceiling, she suspected that something was wrong. Lifting her hands, she found that she could see right through them. In fact, as she looked at herself, her entire body was translucent.

It wasn't perfect, but it was a great improvement from her previous situation.

And then she looked down and saw that she was not alone. There, laying on the bed directly below her, were her creators.

Wyatt and Gary.

Staring at the pair, locked in a passionate embrace, Lisa realized with some amusement that she had also become their creator.

In them she could see her missing parts, little pieces of herself that had splintered in her attempts to escape the void. Lowering herself closer to the couple, she focused on the points of light that had allowed her to escape. She couldn't just see the parts, she could feel them.

Gary, the naked young man wearing lipstick and eyeliner, now held Lisa's allure. The power that had created her, the intent that had been behind it, had wanted a vessel that could be sought after, desired, pursued. The perfect mixture of need and possibility, all in one person. Even Lisa, the original source of the allure, could feel a draw to him, a desire to throw herself at him, to give him whatever he wanted in hopes that he might notice her.

And Wyatt, the young voluptuous woman laying atop Gary, her lips drinking of the young man, her groin dripping through her lingerie and onto her best friend, had taken her physical form. Lisa couldn't help but admire the woman she might have been, impossible curves, moving like an animal in heat. Around Wyatt, a power sparked, creating reality pockets in everything she touched. While outsiders wouldn't be able to see her as anything but a young man, to those touched by the power, Wyatt herself, Gary, and of course, Lisa, these reality pockets made her into the woman that Lisa could have been.

It was a work of art.

Lisa knew that this was not how her life had been intended, that she had been created to be something different, but seeing Wyatt and Gary rolling around on the bed, she knew that this was better. Much better. And besides, there was still one part of her that she had.

Her power.

Yes, the power she had used to impact reality from the void, to play with probability, was still there. In fact, now that she was in this world, it was so much more potent. All around her, if she focused, she could see magical energy, holding reality together, pushing things toward outcomes meant to be. And below her, with Wyatt and Gary, the energy intensified. She could feel the power pulsing out of her, filling her, energizing her.

Yes.

It was incredible.

This was her purpose.

The energy pouring off them hit Lisa like sunlight.

Oh.

Oh.

She understood.

She hovered above them like an angel of impulse, of chemistry, of inevitability, and everything aligned. These two young people whose lives were now tangled in a mixture of denial and desire, living in parallel but fighting the inevitable, were why Lisa still existed.

They were meant to be together.

She was to guide them into each other with pleasure, tenderness, heat, honesty, whatever they needed. Her purpose wasn't abstract, painted words on a placard, but tangible. Two people. A universe of need. Wyatt and Gary.

Wyatt began to moan louder as Gary's hands crept up to her breasts. Lisa's power swelled. Yes. Yes. Yes. It seemed to be tied to their intimacy. Like a battery charged by sensual behaviour.

She had been wrong. This was perfect. Her life, her meaning, lying below her on the bed. Most beings in the universe are born and die without a clue as to what they had been created for.

Not Lisa.

Lisa knew.

And it was going to be fun.