A Cheat At World's End
Kenan felt horror settle into the pit of his stomach, but even that paled in comparison to what Katherine was feeling. Betrayal, hurt, the exhaustion of her wedding, and humiliation unlike anything she'd experienced before—all while standing in front of their families.
"How could you do this to me?" Her voice cracked. Even as she asked, she already knew the answer better than anyone. She turned, eyes blazing with hatred as she stared at her stepsister. "Why do you hate me so much? You've mocked me, humiliated me, stolen my inheritance, and now you're destroying my marriage!"
Kenan's heart shattered. More than his own humiliation, it was the raw anguish in her voice that broke him. And the guilt—knowing the role he'd played in putting it there. He stepped forward, forcing himself to ignore the images on the screen behind him. Pictures of himself and his bride's stepsister, tangled in silk sheets. Pictures he'd never known were taken, now weaponized to destroy everything.
"Don't touch me!" Katherine stumbled backward, her white gown catching on her heels.
Kenan lunged forward anyway, catching her before she fell. She grabbed a fistful of his suit, tears streaming down her face. "Why? Why did you do this to me?"
He opened his mouth to explain. More than anything, she needed to understand—he wasn't that kind of person. Betrayal wasn't in his nature. He'd had no choice—
BOOM!
The explosion shook the church to its foundations. Katherine went rigid in his arms. Kenan pulled her closer, dragging them both to the ground as a second blast followed, even more powerful than the first. Chunks of ceiling rained down around them. A metallic groan echoed through the chaos as the massive ten-foot cross behind them tore free from the wall.
It fell like the shadow of death itself—a mockery of the salvation it was meant to represent.
A scream pierced the air. Kenan and Katherine turned just in time to see the cross slam into her stepsister with a sickening crunch. Blood and brain matter splattered across the marble floor.
Katherine's scream wasn't grief—it was pure shock and horror. What was happening? An earthquake? But even as the world seemed to tear apart around them, neither let go of the other.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Kenan's words tumbled out in a desperate rush. If the world was ending, he couldn't let the woman he loved die thinking he'd betrayed her. But there was no time for explanations.
Katherine stiffened in his arms, remembering—the photos, the betrayal, the last ten minutes before the apocalypse began. Could she forgive him? Did it even matter now? Her sister lay dead mere feet away, and Kenan, the man who'd cheated on her, still held her tight.
Light bloomed beneath their feet.
Katherine gasped, looking down. Intricate sigils etched themselves into the floor, spreading rapidly into an elaborate spell circle. Then came the pressure—a scent neither recognized, hanging in the air with such power it raised goosebumps across their skin.
Katherine opened her mouth to speak, but only a strangled cry escaped as her insides twisted violently. Kenan gasped in agony beside her.
The light intensified. A pulsing drone filled the air like a countdown. They could only watch as the spell circle blazed brighter, brighter—
Then vanished.
Taking the bride and groom with it.
Flames washed through the church a heartbeat later, reducing everything to rubble and ash. The world was ending, or perhaps transforming. But for the newly married Kenan and Katherine, this end was only a beginning.
>>
Kate woke up choking, coughing violently as she gasped for air. The smell of pine and wet earth filled her nostrils. Nature sounds surrounded them—so different from the air-conditioned church. She realized she'd been lying unconscious on top of Kenan.
Before her mind could process anything else, she rushed to his side, shaking him. "Keys. Kenan, open your eyes. Keys?"
He groaned, eyes fluttering open. The moment he focused on her face, he shot upright and swept her into a hug.
She stiffened, then pulled away, pushing him back as she stood. The rejection tasted like ash on Kenan's tongue. He looked up at her with glistening eyes, but she turned her head sharply away. She wasn't ready to deal with his infidelity. Not now.
"Where are we?" Her voice was cold, clinical. She wrapped her arms around herself against the chill.
Kenan scanned their surroundings. They stood in a small clearing, surrounded by trees unlike any he'd seen before. One moment they'd been in a church—now they were in the middle of a forest? He looked around again, searching for anything familiar. Just him and Kate, alone in an increasingly alien landscape.
Then Kate went rigid.
"Key—Kenan?"
The near-slip of her pet name for him felt like a punch to the gut. She'd caught herself, used his full name instead. It hurt worse because he knew he deserved it. He'd hurt her—he deserved worse than this.
But Kate's attention had shifted to something far more urgent. The trees surrounding them had faces. Living faces with eyes that stared directly at them.
"Kenan, the trees have faces!"
He turned to where she pointed. She was right. The strange green trees had human faces growing from their bark, beast-like faces, all alive and watching them both.
"What the hell?" Kenan stumbled backward. His foot caught on something and he fell—
A screen materialized in front of him.
[Welcome, Hero, to the world of Horta. You have been chosen to cultivate this cursed world into something habitable for the rest of the human race. Failure to comply will result in your deaths—you will join and become one with the symbiotic forest world of Horta, your face among the many failed heroes. If you agree to accept this missive, please give any sign of affirmation.]
"K-Kate, can you see this?" Kenan's voice shook.
Kate's expression had already shifted into sharp focus. She was an intern at a tech firm—she knew how to concentrate when necessary. It was one of the things that had drawn him to her in the first place. She didn't dwell on problems when solutions existed. She attacked them ferociously. Sometimes Kenan thought she was too controlling, but considering how chaotic her life had been, always wanting control over what mattered made sense.
"I can see it." Her voice was flat. "I don't like what this means, Kenan. System apocalypses are fine behind the pages of a book or on a screen. But this? Dealing with this in reality wasn't on my bucket list." She paused. "Neither was getting cheated on."
She stepped closer, examining the screen from the other side. It hovered directly above a stone in the ground—too symmetrical to be natural. A perfect heptagon.
"What do you think? Should we say yes?" She gestured at the trees. "Since we can both see this message, I assume we both have to agree... or we'll end up like them."
It was only on this second look that Kenan realized the trees were literally growing out of each other. No gaps, no spaces to slip through to reach the forest beyond. They were trapped in this small clearing.
He looked back at Kate.
"I don't think we have a choice."
