Believe in Me

The world beyond the crack wasn't a world at all.

It was suggestion. A smear. A half-memory.

Joey tried to blink his eyes into focus, but the more he looked, the less he understood. The ground beneath his sneakers felt solid—dirt maybe, or stone—but when he glanced down it dissolved into mist, as if the idea of ground had forgotten itself. The air tasted thin and metallic, like breathing through a coin. Shadows drifted in the ether—slouched, staggering shapes with the faint outline of limbs—but they melted whenever he tried to make sense of them. People? Ghosts? Or the leftovers of something worse?

Elorae's hand was the only thing anchoring him. He clung to it, hard enough his knuckles ached, because it was warm and real and undeniably alive.

"Stay close," she said softly. "And Joey—listen to me."

Her voice was steady, but he felt the tension vibrating in her fingers. "The ether feeds on doubt. It will pry at you, whisper at you, try to pull the ground out from under your thoughts. You cannot let it in. Not even a little. Do you understand?"

Joey wanted to scoff. To make light of it. "Yeah, I'm not really a doubter."

But she stopped in the haze and turned to him, her pale eyes sharp with urgency. "Promise me."

Something in the way she said it cut through his bravado. He nodded quickly. "I promise."

They pressed on. The world felt both endless and suffocating. At times he thought he saw buildings, outlines of walls rising in the distance—then they crumbled back into fog. The shadow figures loomed closer now, sometimes lifting their heads as though scenting him. One lingered just at the edge of the mist, and Joey's chest tightened at the thought that it had once been human. Was that what happened if you gave in?

"Don't look at them," Elorae murmured, tugging him forward. "They aren't truly there anymore."

But her steps slowed.

Her grip weakened.

"This path…" she whispered, eyes darting into the mist. "I thought I could find it. I thought there would still be a path." She stopped walking, staring at nothing, her face pale with confusion. "But what if I was wrong? What if I never knew? What if the world is gone already, and we're only walking in its shadow?"

The change was instant. The fog shivered, eager, and the ether licked up her arms like grey tongues. It curled around her throat, brushed across her lips. She shivered, her words coming quick, disjointed. "It's all my fault. I gave Vaelith the seed. What if that was the end? What if there's nothing left to save?"

"No—hey. Hey!" Joey grabbed her shoulders, fear clawing hot in his chest. The haze was wrapping her like vines. He could feel her slipping from him, dissolving into the same shadow-figures that wandered the fog.

Panic spiked. He couldn't lose her. Not here. Not like this. She was the only way back home, the only connection he had to his real life. If Elorae was lost, this strange, terrifying world would consume him. He would become one of the shadows, wandering endlessly, part of the ether. He had to do something.

"Um… actually…" The words tumbled out before he thought, raw and ****. He hoped that the same power that lived in him in his own world was alive in this one. "You don't have to doubt at all. I'm with you. You can believe in me. I'm right here. I’m not going anywhere."

It hit like thunder.

Her breath caught. Her eyes widened, and then the fog recoiled from her in a shudder, as if scorched. The ether peeled away, retreating until a clean bubble of air opened around them—five feet across, sharp and solid and blessedly real.

And Elorae—Elorae was transformed.

She looked at him not with hunger or even with relief, but with awe. Worship radiated off her in waves, trembling through every line of her body. Her lips parted as though he were a vision too bright to touch. She pressed her free hand against his chest, fingers splayed, like she needed to feel the proof of him under her palm.

"Joey," she whispered, reverent. His name sounded like a prayer.

Her eyes shone with tears, not of fear but of devotion. He could see it dawning in her—the shift from need to certainty, from companion to believer. He wasn't just a man to her now. He wasn't just the object of her affection, the man she had been built to desire. He was her anchor against the void, the one truth she could never doubt. Her redemption. Her salvation.

He felt her belief wrap around him like armor. It wasn't the same as the way other girls looked at him, the breathless crush or the dizzy need. This was different. Absolute. She looked at him the way people must have looked at prophets, at saints, at messiahs.

And the terrifying thing was—it worked.

The ether didn't just hesitate around her; it obeyed. It bent back, yielding to her conviction in him.

Joey swallowed hard, his own voice shaky. "Thank God that worked. I thought I'd lost you."

"Lost me?" Elorae asked, "How can I be lost when I'm found in you?"

Joey blinked. That was not the response he had expected.

"Are you alright?"

She stepped closer to him, taking both of his hands in her own. "My Joey. My sweet Joey. My Lord." she leaned in and kissed him on the lips. "In your love I am more than alright. I am made whole. Maybe we should take a break so that I can thank you for choosing to save our world." Her left hand let go of his hand and slid down to his groin, rubbing the front of his jeans. "I am longing to taste your Holy Sacrament."

Joey stepped back from her, not far enough to remove himself from her ether-free-bubble, but far enough to prevent himself from allowing his libido from taking over. Elorae was an incredibly beautiful woman, and he had no doubt in her affection, but this was not the time or the place. Things were dangerous here. If he were to let himself be distracted, he would never get home.

"We can do this for other people. The ether can't touch you anymore. If it worked for you, it'll work for them. We can help everyone. Save them."

Elorae stepped up to him again, her hand tightening on his shirt. Her face tilted up, eyes luminous with devotion. "If that is your will, then we must go to the source. To Vaelith. Only then can your Light drive the doubt away."

Her words weren't suggestion. They were vow.

Joey's throat was dry. He had no idea how to carry the weight she'd just placed on him. He didn't feel like a savior. He felt like a terrified kid clutching the only real thing left in a world made of smoke.

But she believed. She believed so fiercely that the ether itself pulled back.

And if she could believe in him like that, maybe he could learn to believe in himself.

"Okay," he said, voice quiet but firm. "Then let's go find him."

The shadow-figures trembled at the edges of their fragile bubble. The fog lapped hungrily against the circle. But Elorae's gaze on him was steady, shining, unshakeable.

And for the first time since stepping into this nightmare, Joey felt something close to steady too.