EotWI Interactive Pilot: Alternate Ending
Your choice to follow Adam & Alex makes an impact. Or, does it?
If you haven’t read End of the World Influencer, or started the first test run of my interactive story, you can do that here.
Start the EotWI: Interactive Story Mode
Victor’s grating rant cuts off. Because something cracks inside me. All of the pieces are in place.
A memory, cold and sharp: Thalia’s voice—"Containment. He must be... humbled." Elliot's smooth reply—"A catalyst, dear Wrath..."
Catalyst.
The air around Alex pulses. I feel it like ice down my spine—Thalia's silent, killing intent coalescing, aimed right at Alex’s back.
No.
It’s not a thought, it’s a physical recoil, a tearing sensation deep inside. The universe narrows to that single, lethal point of focus. Mine. The ancient, possessive roar rips through me.
I don’t think, I react. I lunge, shoving Alex sideways with bruising force as a guttural yell tears from my throat—it’s raw, jagged power, pure psychic negation erupting outwards. Thalia’s attack hits it and shreds apart with a sound like static. The backlash throws me to one knee, head splitting, blood suddenly hot and wet under my nose.
"Adam?! What did you—?!" Alex scrambles up, alive, alive, staring from me to Thalia, horror and betrayal warring in her wide eyes. "You—!" she gasps at Thalia.
Thalia’s hand is frozen, her face a mask of absolute fury replacing stunned disbelief. Her precise, elegant plan—shattered by this.
By me.
I push myself up, planting myself between Alex and Thalia, shaking but upright. My gaze locks onto Thalia, the confusion burned away by cold, clear rage. The architect. The betrayer. "Get," I force out, tasting blood, the word scraping like metal, "away from her."
Elliot watches, calculating. Victor looks lost, angry but confused. Selene’s smile is pure, delighted venom. "Well, now," she purrs, savoring it. "This is becoming interesting. It seems Pride's little... attachments... are proving more resilient than anticipated. Perhaps the humbling wasn't as complete as you thought, Thalia dear?"
Thalia’s eyes blaze, locking onto mine, then flicking to Alex—who's still trying to catch her breath beside me, alive only because of my intervention. The fury radiating from Thalia is an incandescent rage of cosmic Vantablack swallowing light.
"No. Clearly not. But easily rectified." She ignores Selene, her focus entirely on me.
Before I can fully process the shift, before Alex can react, Thalia moves. It's not the subtle, invisible spike from before. This is overt. Blatant. Pure, unadulterated Wrath unleashed. Her hand snaps forward, palm open, and a wave of pure power smashes into Alex like a wall of bricks.
I try to react, try to throw up that shield again, but I'm drained.
There’s just enough left in me to lift my head, and watch. But I refuse to look away—to be weak. I stare the consequence of my inadequacy in the face as it deals the killing blow.
Alex gasps, her eyes locking with mine in sudden, horrific understanding. But she doesn't fall. She doesn't bleed. She... fractures. Her image stutters, like a bad stream, flickering between solid and translucent. A choked sound escapes her lips, then she dissolves inwards, collapsing not into death, but into a thousand shimmering fragments that scatter and vanish into nothingness before they even hit the ground. Leaving only empty space, dust, and the faint, lingering scent of cranberries and mint.
I thought death was the end. I thought it was the worst. I couldn’t have been more goddamn wrong.
Death is mercy.
Alex is gone. Erased from this very moment.
The backlash of whatever Thalia did washes over me, cold and final. Silence slams down, heavier, more absolute than any darkness. The world narrows to that empty space beside me, the ghost-scent of Alex, and the chillingly composed figure of Thalia, hand now slowly lowering, watching my reaction with cold, calculating eyes.
My Alex. Gone. Because of her. Because I wasn't strong enough, wasn't awake enough until it was too late.