Three

I couldn’t open my eyes for what seemed like forever. As time passed, I realized that they were, in fact, already open. I was suspended in sensationless oblivion. There was no light, nothing to see, nothing to feel, nothing to hear. Am I dreaming? What is this? I wonder if this is what out-of-body experiences feel like? Instantaneous sensation interrupted my thoughts; it felt like a million icy wings were beating against my skin. It made me dizzy and more than a little nauseated.

The darkness faded, shifting into forms around me. An ageless woman with fiery red hair and silver eyes materialized and scowled down at a tangled thread on a spinning wheel. “I cannot stand what this little fool is doing to her life,” she muttered. A pair of silver shears appeared in her hand and she cut the thread, shaking her head.

Cold shot through me as the shears touched the thread and I shuddered. “Stop!”

The redhead didn’t seem to hear my panicked cry. When she pulled the shears away she blinked several times, like she suspected her eyes of lying to her. The shears had failed and the thread refused to separate. “Sisters!” Her voice rang out in that void between worlds, searing everything like a massive lighting strike.

A willowy brunette with golden eyes appeared, her opalescent brow furrowed with confusion. Half a moment later, a bronze-eyed, petite blonde joined them. I felt that each woman held the essence of something far greater than her deceptive human form.

“What is it, Aithne,” the two asked in unison.

She gestured at the thread with disgust. “This silly little Telluvian girl is mucking up her life so badly that I decided it might be best if I cut this knotted mess of a thread. Look, Alyssa, and tell me if my eyes deceive me.”

The brunette glided past her hot-tempered sister and stared down at the thread. “This thread is not so much as frayed, Aithne. Is there something wrong with your shears?”

“Perhaps her thread cannot be severed because her destiny is too strong for your shears?” The blonde clasped her hands and looked down, as if she expected a rebuke from her elder siblings.

Aithne arched a brow at her, but Alyssa held up a hand to quell whatever remark the redhead had been ready to make. “Karita may be right. We should watch over her until we know more.”

“Excuse me! Who are you? What the heck are you talking about?” I was screaming at the top of my lungs, but my voice sounded small and frail, even to me.

It was Alyssa who answered. “We have many forms and have been called by many names. I will try to make this easy for you to understand. We serve a higher power and many know us as the Messengers. I am Alyssa, and these are my sisters, Karita and Aithne.”

“Why am I here?”

“You are here because you refuse to accept yourself and your destiny! You are so busy trying to please everyone else in your life that you are destroying yourself. I’ve a mind to have another go at cutting your thread now and spare us any further frustration over you,” Aithne snapped.

Karita piped up and calm washed through me as her soothing voice whispered over me. “You needn’t be so hard on the girl, Aithne. We all failed to foresee that her thread would become so tangled.”

I couldn’t stop staring at them, my eyes moving from woman to woman at a dizzying pace. “This has to be some kind of weird dream. I don’t understand what you’re talking about! I didn’t even know I had a thread.”

Karita sighed and shook her head. “You are dying, my dear, and souls that have not yet realized their true potential cannot pass away in peace. When I wove your thread, the potential for courage, wisdom and compassion was written on your soul. However, in the life you’ve led thus far, you have not even scratched the surface of the woman that you were supposed to become. The choices you’ve made have tied your life up in knots, and you are not moving forward as you should.”

Aithne scowled down at me. “I thought to end the nonsense by cutting your thread and being done with it. However, I could not break through so much as a strand of it.”

“That is because it is not yet her time to die.” Alyssa fixed her older sister with a stern gaze. “You were being somewhat unfair. You have seen that her thread stretches far beyond these knots she has created. Do not be so eager to end her because her mistakes have caused her life to take an unexpected turn. Humans have free will.”

“That is their greatest downfall.”

“No.” Karita laid a hand on her sister’s shoulder and I saw something like pity in her bronze eyes. “It is their greatest strength.”

I pressed my fingers against my temples and squeezed my eyes shut. “Wait just a minute, okay? I’m dying? How is that possible? Where am I?”

“Not yet.” Karita shot her sisters a cryptic smile. “Your life on Tellus, the planet you know as Earth, has been suspended. We believe that the universe has more in store for you. Therefore, we are offering you a choice.”

Aithne stepped forward, her silver eyes burning my soul. “You have not lived up to the higher power’s expectations for you. You may accept this and move on, if you choose.”

Alyssa made a sweeping motion with her hand and billions of points of light appeared in the distance. “Or, you may take a chance at reclaiming your former life. However, this choice comes with a certain responsibility. You must prove your true worth before you can return home.”

“How can I do that?” I wrung my hands, desperate for any chance at getting my life back.

“There are infinite worlds scattered across the cosmos, many of them in crisis. We have searched the universe and found a world in need of a hero, one who has your innate traits. If you can stop Daraglathia from succumbing to chaos and destruction, then you may return to your former life.”

My mouth dropped open with an indignant snort. “Wait just a minute, what have I not done? What choices knotted up my life?”

Aithne stepped forward with a caustic smile. “Your passive-aggressive refusal to face unpleasant situations and confront people has halted your progress in life. You seem to have no ability to solve your own problems in a satisfactory fashion. Instead, you ignore and avoid them, hoping they will just disappear. You have spent your entire life saying yes when you mean no. You make yourself miserable trying to please everyone around you. A cowardly way to live, is it not?”

“Enough!” Alyssa glared at Aithne, radiating cold disapproval. “There is no reason to insult the girl when she is already in turmoil.”

I stared in silent shock. How can they expect me to save an entire world if I’ve failed to live up to my potential in my own life? I stared down at my hands and chewed on my bottom lip. What if I try and fail? I don’t know how long I waited before I raised my head to face them again. “I’ll do it. I may fail, but I have to make an effort to get my life back.”