The Ending Reader Chapter 5: Chapter 4:The Queen Beneath The Broken Moon

Read chapter 5 of The Ending Reader by Arthur04 on NovelPedia.

The ruined city vanished the moment Vael blinked. Darkness swallowed the windows once more. The train continued screaming through the void as though nothing had happened. But the image remained burned into his mind. The fractured moon. The mountains of corpses. And the silver haired woman standing alone at the center of the apocalypse like the end of humanity itself. Vael slowly looked toward her. She already knew what he had seen. He could tell from the silence. From the way her grip tightened slightly around the black blade. From the exhaustion hidden behind those pale gold eyes. The overhead speakers crackled softly. "Unauthorized future exposure detected." The Conductor stood motionless at the opposite end of the cabin now, head tilted slightly as though observing them with newfound interest. Then, slowly it stepped aside. Yielding the center aisle to her. Vael noticed immediately. The thing feared her. No. Not fear. Recognition. Like prey recognizing a greater predator. The silver-haired woman lowered her weapon slightly but did not relax. "She shouldn't be awake yet," whispered the train. The voice no longer came from the speakers alone. It came from the walls. The floor. The windows. The entire Dead Scene was speaking now. Vael's headache worsened instantly. Fragments flashed violently across his vision again. A hand stained with blood. Someone crying in endless rain. A voice whispering: "Please survive this time." He grabbed the side of his head hard. "What is happening to me?" The woman looked at him quietly. For a moment, something dangerously close to guilt flickered across her face. Then the train lights turned crimson. The Conductor moved again. This time, it bowed. A slow, formal gesture. The rusted train tickets drifting around its body fluttered violently as overlapping voices escaped from beneath the porcelain mask. "The story diverges." The woman's eyes narrowed immediately. "…That's impossible." Vael frowned sharply. "Would someone mind explaining literally anything?" Neither answered him. Instead, the Conductor raised one gloved hand toward Vael. Not threatening. Inviting. And suddenly the cabin changed. The walls dissolved into darkness. The floor vanished beneath his feet. Vael staggered backward instinctively only to realize he was no longer standing inside the train. Rain poured endlessly from a black sky overhead. Cold water splashed around his shoes. Ruined skyscrapers stretched across the horizon beneath a shattered crimson moon. The destroyed city from the window. No. Not a vision. A memory. Bodies covered the streets. Thousands. No. millions. Some human. Some not. Broken weapons and ruined buildings vanished beneath oceans of black water while distant fires illuminated the rain in faint orange glows. Vael's breathing became uneven. "This…" His voice felt small against the endless dead city. Footsteps echoed behind him. He turned sharply. The silver-haired woman stood several meters away beneath the rain, staring silently at the ruined skyline. Except this version of her looked different. Older. More tired. Black fractures spread visibly across her neck and arms like cracks in porcelain. And in her hands she held Vael's corpse. His body looked older too. Blood covered his chest. One arm missing. Dead pale-blue eyes stared upward into the rain. Vael froze completely. The older woman spoke softly without looking at him. "You promised me you'd survive." Her voice sounded broken beyond repair. The corpse in her arms did not answer. The city trembled violently. Then screams erupted across the skyline. Monsters emerged from the darkness between buildings...towering things made from shadow and broken limbs. The older version of the woman slowly lowered Vael's body to the ground. Then she stood. And reality screamed. Black fractures exploded across the sky. The moon shattered completely. Buildings collapsed sideways as gravity distorted around her. The oceans rose upward into the air. Everything began break