Meg and Vic

Wake left to get water, while Ash followed along behind with her eyes locked on the statue.

Vic walked slowly toward Meg.

“Meg?” Another tear.

“Yes, Vic. It really is good to see you.”

“Can you see me? Can you see me? Are you still in there somewhere, or is … this … ‘you’ now?”

“If you’re asking if I’m still human, I don’t think so. But I don’t know for sure.”

Vic lost his heart a little in that moment. “How did this happen?”

“I’m sorry, I wish I was leaving out some big connection. I don’t have one. I’ve never worked on the Breach. No magic, you know that. I was in my office, and then this.”

Vic sat down on the floor, near where Meg was slowly spinning. “I miss you.” He felt the words come out, though they seemed wholly insufficient. Meg was the first person in a long time to understand him. She hadn’t judged him for trying to work. She hadn’t told him to “let it go” or “just move on” like so many of his old friends. She was comfortable, easy to hang out with. He missed her smile.

“It may have been drawn to my office,” Meg continued. Vic wondered if she’d heard him. “I had a lot of power running there, compared to the rest of the town.”

Vic thought for a moment. “The Sev was the last store open with power for at least a couple miles.”

Meg’s edges buzzed in a way that Vic thought looked like irritation. Then her edges softened. “I miss you, too.”

Vic leaned back against the wall. There was no big heroic save to make. There was no happy ending in sight. If Meg could be brought back, he wasn’t the one to do it. Very few understood anything about the Breach, and he knew less than most.

Vic closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he was listening to the hum of the power grid, or the edges of Meg’s new form. Soothing, I guess, either way, he thought, as he drifted off to sleep, with Meg gently twirling nearby.