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Trinity
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'What is your plan, Trinity?' The other me asked as I looked at the people that were all floating upside down.
"I am working on that." I tried not to snap at her, but I couldn't help it. In truth, snapping at her was just me snapping at myself. Only a part of me that acted independently and annoyed me just a little bit.
'To be fair, Trinity, you annoy me as well.' The other me just had to have the last word, didn't she? 'Yes, yes I do.' I could hear the smirk that she had to be wearing. It was audible in the smugness that she had in her tone.
"I want to end this fight without any of these soul suffering. If Hekate was telling the truth about them suffering for eternity in the pits of hell, then I need to keep that from ever happening. You told me that they're not bad people. They're just too attached to their lives to move on. Well, it's either that or they were too scared to move on, right?" I was just clarifying things as I watched all of them trying to break free of the bindings that were holding them in place. Several of them were even snapping at me like they were some sort of weird alligators or something. It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen, and I had battled Edmond's monsters.
'Yes, Trinity, that is indeed the way that it is. They are destined for either mediocrity or paradise. But none of them are doomed to hell. Of that I am certain.'
"OK."
I put my hand to my chin as I thought about the possibilities. What could I do? What could I change about this situation? How could I save all of these souls?
My attention was drawn to Franny. Unlike the others, I knew her personally. I knew what she was like. I knew stories from her past. There was a time when I felt closer to her than most of the people in my life. Sadly, that had been a long time ago.
"Franny?" I called out to her as I walked up to her hovering body.
"Destroy the children. I need to destroy them all and take the Goddess the soul she seeks." It was like she was in some sort of crazy trance. I didn't know how to put it, but that was what it felt like.
"I won't let you hurt them, Franny. I won't let any of you hurt those boys." Not surprisingly, I wasn't even alarmed or fazed at all by the intensity with which I said those words. I was a mother, a Luna, a Queen, and a Goddess. It was my job, multiple times over, to protect those that couldn't protect themselves. And right now, that meant that I needed to protect these three little imps that looked so much like my mate.
"I will do as I was instructed. I will take the intruder's soul to the Goddess."
I sighed in exasperation. I don't think that there was anything that I could say or do to change what Franny was thinking. Not yet anyway.
"Franny, what can I do to help you?" I knew that asking was pointless, but I did it anyway.
"Destroy the children. Hand soul over to Goddess." Yup, that was what I thought she was going to say. More or less anyway.
Let's see. Franny was here because she hadn't wanted to retire but her family had made her do so. She had just wanted to go back to work but she died before she could. Considering that, I had to wonder if she died because she wasn't able to work, or if her family knew her health better than she did and knew that she didn't have much time left. Either way, Franny was here because she was dwelling on the past and missing her work.
"I wonder if I can help her move on." I asked myself. "And how can I do that?" I laughed at myself.
Without thinking too much about what I was actually doing, I walked up to Franny and placed my hand on her head. I was moving more on instinct than anything at the moment. I had never done this before and I had a feeling that, after this incident, I would never be doing this again.
The moment that my hand touched Franny's head, I started to see images that were from a long time ago. There was a pretty young woman in an old fashioned dress. She was happily signing a contract while a man held a set of keys out to her. The next image had the woman standing in front of the diner with the sign above it reading 'FRANNY'S KITCHEN'. The woman was obviously Franny and these were images of her life.
I watched the images like they were a movie. The movie that played showed me how Franny had met her husband through her work. He had been a customer and they seemed to have fallen in love through the small exchanges they had when he would come in for breakfast. And dinner. I saw when he proposed to her in the diner. I saw them when they held their wedding reception in the diner. I saw when they took their children to the diner to play while Franny ran the place and her husband happily helped.
I watched all these images as Franny grew older and her family grew. She had so many happy memories that were tied to the diner that it was easy to see why she didn't want to leave it behind. For her, the diner was her happy place, it had been her heaven on Earth and no one would ever want to leave behind the place that had brought them so much joy and happiness.
"Franny?" I was nearly in tears as the images of her life came to an end. When her family demanded that she stop working and take care of herself. Franny had been diagnosed with stomach cancer, an especially aggressive kind. She hadn't been able to make it through her work days without being in pain and vomiting several times. Her family just wanted to make her last days more comfortable, and to give her time to receive treatment.
She didn't last long, though. She passed away within weeks of retiring. Some of Franny's thoughts had been so depressing as she thought about the heaven that she had been forced to give up.
"Franny, don't you think that you will find happiness again if you move on? Your diner has been your heaven on Earth. And you were such a good person when you were alive. You will certainly be rewarded with an eternity in your favorite place. If you want to go inside your restaurant again all you have to do is move on. Let go of the past and move on. You will find your peace and your heaven in the afterlife." I saw that my words had an effect on Franny. Now that she was acknowledging my existence, she was able to hear what I said, and she seemed to like it. With her eyes wide open she smiled and spoke in a soft and sweet voice.
"I can go home if I let go?" She was shocked by the logic of it, but I was certain that it was true.
"Yes, Franny. All you need to do is move on. There is no reason to be stuck here in Limbo. Move on and go home. Go to your happy place."
"Move on?" She sounded confused but she was all smiles. "Move on." She kept repeating those words, but they stopped being a question and were more of a statement. "Move on."
After she had repeated herself several times, I saw a light start to shimmer around her edges. It looked to me like the light had been coming from inside of her. The more intense the light was shining, the harder it was for me to see the old woman.
"Move on." She said the words one last time and that was it. She disappeared completely in that light and the bindings that had been holding her fell to the ground. Franny had done what she had been repeating over and over. She had moved on.. She had left this Limbo and found happiness.