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She couldn’t believe her luck!
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of waiting patiently, it was her turn to shine, to wear her best attire and show to the world who she could really be.
She had been quiet and discreet her whole life but, for this, she needed all the eyes turned towards her. Her main goal was to seduce them into fighting for her, convince them that they were the ones needing her, having to earn her approval. As if it didn’t go both ways, as if her own survival didn’t depend on being chosen too.
She paced her gait, cruising in faked nonchalance towards the proverbial, yet uncertain design.
There they were, astir in their course to the tryst, roused by the stakes of the quest, converging towards her in an addled dash.
The “you are groomed” that chimed in her ears and boomed in her head, easied the dread breeding inside her. She wasn’t alone, everything around her had been conceived and bestowed on her behalf. Each particle of it mimicked her own essence and resonated with her inner world. The universe was on her side.
The swarm gathered around her and paused for a heartbeat, creating an illusion of hovering momentum. Just enough for her to breathe and muster in all her courage. This was her fate, disastrous or glorious, as it had always been meant to be.
She had been primed for this event, but she now knew she would have never been prepared for it, not in a million years.
She recognized the greatness of the occasion she was experiencing bubbling inside her. She could feel the reverberating tingle of every atom within her vibrating. She felt more alive than ever before, as ironic as that could be.
The task proved strenuous, harder to endure than anything could have readied her for. She had been told about the power of letting go of the protective layers to lay vulnerably exposed to the world, about the spell of witnessing the approach of the enticed shoal. But nobody had told her about the piercing strain of being elected or designate herself—she didn’t know anymore—a suitable candidate to take a chance at life with.
Her purpose as an individual was fulfilled now. For better or worse, she would never be herself again. For now, it wasn’t even a she but a they, trying to unravel the mysteries of fussing together into a single integrated being.
Nevertheless, nothing relied completely on them. Not now, not ever. Life was a gamble and the only means of their survival were taking that risk, that chance of living. Everything depended now on the likelihood of being embodied, nestled up in hopes of attaining the summit of that existence and shine out into the next world.
Abby wouldn’t know it before at least one or two more weeks but, inside her, life had just taken it’s rights and a new being—part her, part Marcus—had embarked in an expeditious journey of evolution and growth.