Constants and Variables
Only one story can survive. It's your choice.
You are a Warden.
Plucked from the infinite well of souls and chosen to become an eternal guard of the countless realms across the mind of The Dreamer.
Protector of the Sprawl.
Like any dream, some are good, and others are nightmares. And, like any dream, they must come to an end.
Only observation can save them.
Perception is power. With no one to experience it, the dream will fade from the Dreamer’s mind until it is not but atoms scattered by the winds of time.
Two versions of this story are running in parallel to each other in separate universes within the Sprawl.
You only have time to observe one of them.
The other will be permanently erased from existence.
One is a horror story, and the other is a love story. You will not know which one is which until you begin reading.
Which one will you choose?
TIME TO DECIDE…
Only one version of this story will survive. Once you make your choice and begin reading, the other story becomes fiction as opposed to history.
You may choose to go back and read the other path. This is permitted, but it will not matter. Your first decision is final.
Click here to Save Universe A (or scroll down to UNIVERSE A)
Click here to Save Universe B (or scroll down to UNIVERSE B)
UNIVERSE A:
The three-hundred-dollar bottle of scotch sloshed in my hand as I stumbled down the city street. Cars were scattered all around me, parked like they had been tossed onto the road by some uncaring toddler.
All around me, people were raging against the fireball in the sky any way they could. Some were looting, others were drinking like me, and still others were tearing off their clothes and giving in to their most basic instincts.
It was pure chaos.
I looked up at the asteroid slowly punching its way through our atmosphere. It was so close that I could make out the tiny details on its surface—a mixture of grey and black shadows punctuated by craters—the signs of a life lived as it wandered aimlessly through an ocean of stars until it reached its destination.
Its name was Bennu, and it was here to kill us all.
I raised my open bottle of whisky and grinned. “You look parched!” I shouted, “Perhaps you’d like a drink!”
A gunshot echoed through the littered street. A woman’s scream followed right after. I spun toward the sound, my ears ringing.
I saw a man with tattered clothes and curly grey hair pointing a revolver at a woman whose face glistened with tears.
I looked back up at the fireball in the sky. None of this would matter in a few minutes, but fuck it.
It mattered now.
I ran over to the man and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Hey! Leave the lady alone!” I shouted.
The man spun around, clearly drunk like I was. He wobbled in place. The barrel of his gun danced across my vision.
“The fuck you want?” he asked.
“Give me that; you’re drunk,” I said, reaching for the gun.
The man turned the gun up and fired into an awning above us. Shards of glass rained down as I clutched my ears and clenched my jaw. The ringing was so much louder now.
The man shouted something at me as he continued waving his gun around, but the ringing in my ears blocked all of his words. The woman stood frozen behind him, her bloodshot eyes wide in terror.
I didn’t think; I just lunged forward and wrapped my hands around the gun. He pulled, and I pulled back. The gun swung wildly in and out of my vision. I had lost all semblance of where it was pointed.
Then, another gunshot rang out.
I didn’t feel pain. At least, not right away. Instead, I felt warmth spreading across my abdomen. I looked down and watched as blood soaked into my shirt, covering me like a warm hug.
The man dropped his gun, clutched his head, and ran off screaming incoherently. My legs gave out from underneath me, and my vision spun up to the awning above.
The woman with bloodshot eyes appeared above me. She looked worried, which I thought was funny.
There are far more important things to be worried about.
I felt her hands pushing onto my stomach. She was trying to stop the bleeding. I couldn’t help but smile. Beneath all that pain and those tears on her face, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes upon.
“Hey,” I whispered, “It’s okay. Alright? It’s going to be okay.”
The woman frantically pulled off her jacket and pressed it onto the wound. I still couldn’t feel anything.
In fact, the numbness was spreading.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
She paused as confusion spread over her face. “It’s, uh…it’s Sarah.”
I nodded. “Sarah. That’s a pretty name.”
I coughed and suddenly tasted copper.
“Sarah. Can I ask you for a favor?”
She nodded, still trying to stem the bleeding.
“Can you pull me out into the street? I wanna see it.”
Sarah ran behind my shoulders and pulled me gently over to a nearby car. She leaned me against the front, where I could see Bennu’s fiery form perfectly.
“How’s that?” she asked.
“It’s perfect. Can I ask you for one more favor? It’s a big one.”
She knelt down beside me. “Of course, anything.”
“Will you stay with me? Unless, of course, you’ve got somewhere else to be.”
Sarah laughed through fresh tears as she stole a glance at the fireball in the sky.
“I think I can spare a few minutes,” she said, sitting down beside me.
She held my hand in hers as my vision started to fade. I felt like I should have been scared or terrified, really.
After all, this was the end.
I would either bleed out from the gunshot wound, or the asteroid would obliterate me alongside the rest of humanity.
I fought the urge to close my eyes. I wanted to be here at this moment, for as long as I could. There were plenty of worse ways to go. This wasn’t so bad.
I wasn’t sure if this was the end, or if I’d wake up somewhere else. I didn’t care either way.
It all worked out…
Click here or scroll to THE END
UNIVERSE B:
I took a sip of the scotch. The whisky had a vibrant burn that left a trail down my throat and into my empty stomach. It felt like a warm hug from the inside out.
"You know, for how expensive this shit is, you would think it would have something defining about it," I said, examining the glass.
Sarah set her glass down and laid back. We stared at the horizon from the balcony of our neighbor's lake house. In the sky, an equally large fireball descended slowly towards the surface.
NASA designated it 100217 Bennu. It was such a boring name for the asteroid that it would end our entire species.
"Not a bad view, all things considered," I said.
Sarah turned away from me, set down her glass, and tried subtly wiping the tears from her eyes.
I wrapped my arms around her as she fought back sobs.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Other than the obvious, of course.” I asked.
“It just fucking sucks, you know? It felt like things were finally getting better, and then this asteroid came along. It’s just not fair.”
I kissed her on the forehead as she composed herself. She picked up her glass and finished the last of the whisky in it.
She grimaced. “Ugh, I hate the taste of this stuff. You couldn’t have found something better?” she asked.
I laughed as I picked up the three-hundred-dollar bottle from the table to my left. I examined the detailed label and watched the golden liquid sloshing around inside of it.
“This stuff is top shelf! Besides, there wasn’t much left by the time I got there. The looters saw to that.”
Sarah shook her head and extended her empty glass toward me.
“Well, it’ll have to do. Top me off, bartender!”
I poured some into her glass before topping mine off as well. Sarah turned toward the horizon and laid back onto my chest. She rested a hand on my leg.
“You know, when I said we should get drinks a few months ago, this wasn’t what I had in mind,” I said.
Sarah laughed. “I don’t think this is what anyone had in mind. It feels like this damn asteroid came out of nowhere.”
My mind replayed the news stories that had begun playing all hours of the day a few weeks ago. Apparently, NASA kept the asteroid’s existence a secret. They didn’t want to incite panic. They thought they would destroy it or maybe knock it off course.
They thought we would never find out about it.
“Doesn’t matter anymore, I suppose,” I said, taking a sip of my drink.
"Are you okay with this, by the way? Is this how you want to go out?" Sarah asked.
She turned back to look at me. I looked down at those gorgeous eyes and knew I was right where I needed to be.
"I'm good. I feel like I should be panicking, but I'm not. It could be the alcohol talking," I said, stealing a quick kiss on her half-smiling lips.
Sarah turned back to the horizon, nestling herself against me and pulling my arm across her like a blanket.
"I'm good too," she said.
We sat silently for a moment before the inevitable question came up.
"What do you think happens next?" Sarah asked.
"You mean after an asteroid wipes out our entire species? I don't know; I've never died before."
Sarah laughed. "You know, come to think of it, I've never died before either."
My eyes watched as the trees in the distance started to wilt and catch fire. The temperature all around us began rising steadily. Bennu was about to make its big entrance.
“A toast then?” I asked.
I raised my glass, and Sarah picked up hers. We had recently discovered that we both loved cheesy toasts, and this would be one for the history books.
"To our next adventure!" Sarah said.
I nodded. "To our next adventure."
We clinked the glasses together.
"You'll find me wherever we end up, right?" Sarah asked.
"You know it; you're not getting rid of me that easily."
It was impossible to stop the tears at that point. Sarah spun around and wrapped her arms around me. I had never been a religious person. I wasn’t sure if I believed in an afterlife.
In that moment, though, I prayed to every deity I could think of. I Just didn’t want this to be the end.
This can’t be all there is…
I held her tight as the asteroid hit. The sound of the impact shattered my eardrums.
A dull ring filled my ears as the sky caught fire. I shut my eyes tight and held her close as the flames ripped across us, and everything went dark.
To our next adventure…
Click here or scroll to THE END
THE END
You finish reading your story and sit back. The words on the screen are familiar.
Too familiar.
You try to remember how you got there. You try to remember your life before you became a Warden.
Before you died.
The only thing that comes to mind is the story you just read.
A woman’s voice calls your name behind you.
“All done? That third Bennu universe is waiting for us—the one where they destroyed it. We’ll have to go to that one in person,” she says.
“Yeah, all finished here,” you reply, standing up.
It all comes together as you turn around and look into her eyes. This wasn’t just any story.
This was your story.
The woman smiles. You recognize that smile. That’s Sarah’s smile. You smile back.
“Are you okay?” Sarah asks.
You nod. “Yeah.”
As you leave that unassuming room, your mind thinks about the other story. The one you didn’t read. That entire universe, that entire dream, is gone.
Forgotten by the one who dreamt it.
You take comfort in your choice, though. Because, in the end, the only thing that matters is that you ended up together.
The journey is important, yes, but so is the ending.
And this is a good ending.
Thanks for Reading! Here’s a Musical Pairing Based on Your Choice…
Listen to one of these tracks based on the Universe you chose to save.
I chose the second one and I'm literally about to cry, it was so beautiful and peaceful, a truly calm ending in the midst of a storm of chaos. I'm about to go read the first one now, but I loved this!
I missed the CYOA and this one was so powerful!
Ahhhh they were both heartfelt. I love that. I also noticed the tone shift between the two stories as well. A was gritty and dark but shifted after a struggle for life. While the heartfelt tone was very warm in B. If that makes sense! With that being said I think I liked B more. Just for the simple fact that it’s so wholesome. Amazing as always.