Elysium: Desired by the Cold-hearted Princess [GL]
Chapter 191 191: The past and the future

Seraphina's POV

Electra's voice was loud and trembling with anger, and I stood there silently, letting her vent. I knew she was upset—how could she not be? She had every right to be angry with me, and I wasn't about to argue or defend myself.

I had messed up. I should have told her about overhearing Deena long ago, and I'd kept quiet when I shouldn't have. That was on me.

"You knew," she said, her voice breaking. "You knew, and you said nothing, and now I'm dead, Seraphina. I supposedly had a heart attack or was potentially murdered, but I'll never know which one it was since I'm already dead! Thanks for nothing!"

I swallowed hard, my chest tightening with guilt.

"I actually trusted you, Sera," she continued, her voice cracking slightly as she stopped pacing to glare at me. "And yet, you let me walk right into this mess without saying a damn thing. Did you hate me that much? Did you want this to happen?"

Her words stung, but I didn't flinch. She needed this. She needed to get it all off her chest, so I stayed quiet, waiting for her to finish.

Finally, she stopped, her breathing heavy and uneven, and I let out a long, slow sigh before I spoke.

"Electra," I said gently. "I understand why you're mad, and you have every right to be. I should have told you a long time ago, and I didn't. I made a mistake—a big one, and if you want to be angry at me, go ahead. Yell, scream, and hate me if you need to."

Her eyes narrowed, but I continued before she could cut me off.

"But right now," I said, taking a step closer to her, "we need to focus on figuring out what's going on. You can be mad at me later. Right now, we have bigger problems."

Electra scoffed, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "And how exactly are we supposed to figure out what's going on, Sera?" she snapped. "We don't even know how we ended up here in the first place! This whole thing is insane. First, I see my dead mother in a dream I can't make sense of, and now I wake up to find out that I'm dead too? Clearly, the gods have it out for me!"

Her words made my chest ache. Electra was strong—fiercely so—but even she had her limits, and it was clear that this was pushing her past them.

Then, as her words echoed in my mind, something clicked, and my hands flew to clasp together in front of me.

"Wait," I said, my voice rising slightly with excitement. "What if this is still a dream?"

Electra frowned, her anger momentarily replaced by confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"What if this isn't real?" I said, my mind racing as I pieced the thought together. "Think about it. The dream we had earlier—that was the past, right? and we both saw our mothers. What if that was showing you something that happened before, and this right now… is the future?"

Electra blinked, staring at me like I'd lost my mind. "The future?" she repeated skeptically. "You think this is some kind of vision of what's going to happen?"

"Yes!" I said, the pieces falling into place in my mind. "What if that's why nothing makes sense? Why Deena thinks you're dead and why no one else can see or hear you? What if we're being shown what's going to happen if we don't figure out how to change it?"

She stared at me for a long moment, her brow furrowing as she processed what I was saying. "That's… insane," she said finally, though her voice lacked its usual conviction.

"Is it?" I countered, stepping closer to her. "Think about it, Electra. We've already experienced something impossible—our lives switching. So why not this? Why couldn't this be some kind of warning?"

Her lips pressed into a thin line, and she turned away from me, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides. "If this is the future," she said slowly, "then what the hell am I supposed to do about it, Sera? How am I supposed to stop myself from dying when I don't even know how I ended up dead in the first place? Why is everything so complicated for no reason?"

I let out a long sigh. "There has to be a reason why this is happening," I responded. "It doesn't make any sense otherwise. One minute, we're in a dream about the past, seeing our mothers—who we would've never guessed even knew each other—and the next, we're in a dream where you're…" I trailed off, glancing at Electra, my words catching in my throat.

"Dead," Electra finished flatly.

I nodded reluctantly. "Exactly. There's no way that's just a coincidence. There has to be a connection between that past and this future, and whatever that connection is, we need to find it."

Electra stared at me, her brows furrowing in confusion. "A connection? How are we even supposed to figure that out when we didn't get the chance to hear what they were talking about?"

She had a point. The frustration of being so close to answers but unable to grasp them was maddening. I bit my lip, pacing the room as I tried to think. "I don't know," I admitted finally. "But maybe…"

"Maybe what?" Electra pressed, her tone sharp.

I stopped pacing and turned to her, the beginnings of an idea forming in my mind. "Maybe we should try falling asleep again," I said.

Electra blinked at me, clearly taken aback. "Falling asleep again? You think that's going to help?"

"It might," I said with a shrug. "Think about it. When we woke up from the dream about the past, we ended up here, in this… future. If we fall asleep again, maybe we'll wake up back in the present. Or…"

"Or what?" she asked warily.

"Or we'll go back to the past," I continued, my voice growing more confident. "If we can go back and actually hear the conversations between our mothers, maybe we'll find something that explains all of this—something that ties the past to this future."

Electra crossed her arms, giving me a skeptical look. "And what if we just end up somewhere worse? You know, like me watching my funeral or something equally horrifying?"

I swallowed hard, the thought sending a chill through me, but I pushed it aside. "It's a risk," I admitted. "But what other choice do we have? We need answers, and this might be the only way to get them."

Electra let out a heavy sigh, her skepticism still evident, but after a moment, she nodded. "Fine," she said. "But if this doesn't work, I'm blaming you."

"Fair enough," I said, giving her a small, tired smile.

Without another word, she rushed to the bed, throwing herself on the mattress with a dramatic flop. "Okay, let's do this," she said, patting the space beside her. "Get over here and start sleeping, Sera."

I couldn't help but laugh at her eagerness, and then I climbed into the bed beside her, lying down and staring up at the ceiling.

"So," Electra said after a beat, her voice quieter now. "What do we do? Just close our eyes and hope for the best?"

"Pretty much," I said. "Relax, clear your mind, and let sleep take over."

Electra snorted, rolling on her side. "Relaxing is kind of hard when you're dead, Sera, but I'll try."

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