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"In Which We Wake"

There was silence for a few moments.

"So… what now?" asked my mother Rose.

"Now you must make a choice," intoned Destiny. "The choice between Life and Death."

"But… I made that choice already!"

"You did not go through either of the doors presented to you in the Sunless Lands. You were granted a reprieve of 20 years - but now you must make your choice."

"Well that's a pretty easy choice - why would I choose death now?"

"Because when you awaken once more to the new Reality, you will not remember anything that transpired in the old Reality," I explained.

She blanched. "What? Why? I could remember everything just fine yesterday, before I went to sleep and dreamed myself here to see all of you! Why would I forget?"

"Because I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to live in two conflicting Realities at once," I told her. "You received but a taste of the confusion that brings, for only a single day; more than that would overwhelm you, and would drive you mad.

You would never be able to fully reconcile your two sets of memories; there would always be difficulty in discerning what is now considered to be real, and what is now considered to be fiction. Even if you managed to develop a system by which you could distinguish the two, you would be required to relearn every bit of knowledge that you once possessed, to find which pieces of information are no longer applicable in the new Reality.

As if this were not enough, there is the emotional component that you would need to consider as well: you would have to ignore every memory of things which no longer happened, and take care never to make mention of them to anyone as long as you lived.

For if you did, you would be looked at as one who was insane - you would find yourself in an institution or an outcast on the streets, much like Mad Hettie.

This is not a fate that I would wish for you, my mother.

So I bid you choose another.

Choose to be with my father, or with the Constantine-that-was…"

"Or both," interjected Desire.

"...in some form of afterlife," I continued, "and thus leave all your memories intact... or choose to wake from this dream, and live on in the new Reality you have helped to create. It is up to you."

Rose looked conflicted, her eyes teary. "I wouldn't remember anything?"

"You might remember some things instinctually, buried in your subconscious, in the back of your mind and just out of reach. But yes, you would have to let your memories of us fade away."

"What would this new Reality be like, if I was to accept it?"

"We cannot say for certain," said Destiny. "But we can tell you of your new past, so that you may make an informed decision as to what you are willing to accept, and may even be able to glean what may lie in your future.

In your new Reality you were born the natural daughter of Miranda and Burt Walker, granddaughter on your mother's side of Unity Kinkaid.

Desire had nothing to do with your conception, or that of your mother; therefore you are not, nor have you ever been, immortal.

Due to the strain of your parent's divorce and the custody battle over you and your younger brother Jed, you took a trip with your friend Rachel to London.

She met a struggling musician named John Constantine, who was not ever a warlock, as magic has never truly existed in this Reality. Meanwhile, you met a director of theater named Paul, a trans woman named Wanda, and the spider-collecting women Zelda and Chantal.

Rachel died of a simple cocaine overdose, and Constantine became smitten with you at her funeral.

Constantine exposed the fact that Paul had a secret male lover in order to convince you to break off your relationship, so that he could pursue you in earnest. You nearly considered doing so, but then you discovered that Constantine had a secret of his own.

He kidnapped the young daughter of his patron, a girl by the name of Astra, in order to save her from abuse at the hands of her father and the members of his club.

Her father, Logue, sent out his goons to recover her.

Constantine fled with the girl, and asked you to come with them.

Wanting no part of his 'Bonnie and Clyde routine', as you put it, you refused.

Instead you returned to your mother's home in California.

Paul, with whom you had not yet broken up, decided to go with you, in the hopes of breaking into Hollywood.

Meanwhile, Constantine and his illegally-adopted daughter lived in a van, amongst the members of what was once known as the Peace Convoy.

Astra asked Constantine to give her a new name, to replace the one her father had given her.

Constantine chose to name her Rose."

The tears that my mother had held back until then sprang forth from her eyes. She wiped them away. "But he's not the Constantine that I knew."

"No. He is not."

"He is EXTREMELY similar, though," insisted Desire. "And he feels exactly the same way about you as the other one did."

"And if I return," Rose reasoned, "I wouldn't remember the Constantine that I actually got to know, and went through all that shit with."

"No. You would not," said Destiny.

"So I probably wouldn't have reason to go find him, then."

"Like I said, Mother, you may remember him on some sort of instinctive level," I said. "But you will have to trust that you will follow those instincts, if you should return."

"But I can choose to be with my Constantine, and my Morpheus, here in The Dreaming."

"Correct," said Death. "And if that's what you decide, then I'll have your body kick the bucket - an aneurism, some kind of Schrodinger's Cat medical condition that nobody knew you had until it was too late… I'll think of something to make sure you never wake up in Reality."

My mother Rose reflected upon that idea.

"Go now to the Sunless Lands with my sister Death and decide your fate," commanded Destiny. He turned in the direction of the others, and in particular his siblings Despair, Delirium and Desire lounging on the couch. "As for the rest of you: return to your posts and your realms, and clothe yourselves in your hard-won positive aspects."

Delirium became her more cheerful self once more. "Bye bye, everybody!" she said, curtsying in her pink dress, blowing kisses to each of us and tossing flowers from her hair for us to catch. "It's been absolutely DELIGHTFUL to see you all, and hear your wonderful stories!" Then she disappeared in a glow of sunshine and rainbows, leaving behind the sound of laughter and song that lingered for many moments after she herself was gone.

Desire changed also - they became like the marble statue of an androgynous, angelic hero, their countenance subtly shifting to be full of noble beauty. Their white suit fell away; liquid, molten gold formed a robe and cape around their body, and a breastplate emblazoned with a bleeding heart motif. "Take care, everyone," they said, in a voice as soft and gentle as feather-down that trembled lightly with concern. "May you all attain your hearts' desires, and never feel it's cruel sting." The discarded white suit reformed into a glowing white unicorn, which Desire, or whatever it was that this new form of them could be called - Love, perhaps - mounted the unicorn and charged gallantly away.

Despair hesitated, and finally she deeply sighed. "I will need some help to get back to my realm, if I take on THAT form."

"Don't worry, Sis," said Death, "I'd be more than glad to help you."

Despair groaned, giving her older sister a hug, and slowly began the process of transformation.

She shrunk, for one thing.

She shrunk to the size of an infant, which is exactly what she became: a babe in the arms of my older sister.

Her tusks and her heavy brows receded, as did her hair.

Her mouth became a small serene smile, her eyes became big and bright, and her hair became short and curly.

And she began to glow with a blue-tinged light.

She was Hope.

Hope was extremely, achingly beautiful, and quite content in the arms of her older sister, whose ashen lips and cheeks had taken on a rosier glow.

"Come with me Rose," said Death, who was also Life. "Let's go to my house."

I walked into the Library with Lucien, to find a slot on the bookshelves that was appropriate for my tome.

I handed him the book, which once was chained to Destiny's wrists, and contained all of the possible stories of the previous Reality within its pages… the Reality that was now Fiction.

He opened the book to peruse its contents and make a determination about where to place it, but his face registered surprise when he saw it:

For on the pages of this book were colorful illustrations, divided up into panels artfully composed across the paper.

"This is a comic book," he said.

"A graphic novel," I mildly corrected him.

He smiled. "Very good, Sire." He placed the book upon the shelf.

I dreamt of my mother Rose, standing before the doors of Life and Death.

"Which will you choose?" asks my sister Death.

"He asked me to live," replies my mother Rose. "I love him too much to refuse."

She grasps the door handle, and opens the door to her new life.

'And then she woke up,' she thinks as she steps into the light, past the white door of Life.

She guesses there are worse endings.

I dreamt of Destiny, walking with his new book in the labyrinthine pathways in the garden of his realm.

The book of your Reality.

That book isn't about Superman, or Batman, or Wonder Woman, or Aquaman, or Green Lantern, or Cyborg, or Flash; none of the heroes that Destiny helped to create.

There aren't any metahumans on the Earth in the version of Reality you live in - no Justice League, no supervillain Rogue's Gallery, and no Doomsday, except in the various media that you enjoy.

Destiny's new book isn't about Destiny, or Death, or Dream, or Destruction, or Desire, or Despair, or Delirium either, though surely they exist somehow, somewhere, in some fashion.

The book of Destiny is about you.

And the potential heroes like you.

Perhaps he sees your face in the brightly-colored 4-toned panels; your action, thoughts and speech contained within the rectangular captions and round and pointed-tailed balloons, as you read about him reading about you.

And maybe, just maybe, he smiles.

Then I

Then you

Then they

Then we all

Then all of us

Then all of us woke

Then all of us woke up