After meandering back to the hotel through a light sprinkling of rain, I proceeded to lock my door, shove a chair in front of it, and then flop down on my bed in pure exhaustion. Although I would have liked to deny my fatigue, I knew that I could not function properly without sleep. I had only caught a couple hours' worth of rest in the alley after Lia's death and a few hours in the hotel. But, I could never fully settle down, and I was constantly on the lookout for Zack, the Blue Girl, or even Lydecker to burst through my door and drag me away. Nevertheless, languor got the better of me, and I pulled off my unneeded glasses and set them on the nightstand next to my bed. Grabbing one of the pillows and tucking it up underneath my arm, I curled into the fetal position and drifted away back into my Manticore world so many years ago.

            "Tell me a story, Ben."

            "About what?" I asked as I rolled over on my stomach so we were side by side, shaven head by shaven head, brother by sister.

            "About the Good Place."

            "Max," I gently teased, "you've heard that story a hundred times."

            "I want to hear it again. I want to know what it'll be like if I ever make it there."

            "Well, it's only for the good soldiers-"

            "Am I a good soldier?"

            "Yes, you are."

            "Are you?" she asked, glancing over at me through those captivating eyes of hers.

            "Yes, I'm a good soldier." As if we both somehow knew the future evils I would commit, neither of us said anything for a moment until I continued, "In the Good Place you never get yelled at because the people always love you."

            "Not like Lydecker."

            "No. Lydecker doesn't love us. She loves us, but he doesn't."

            "She?"

            "The Blue Lady."

            Max smiled, pleased with the thought of someone looking out for us in our childhood hell. "I wish I could meet Her."

            "If we go to the Good Place, She'll be there for us."

            "Really, Ben?"

            "Really…And in the Good Place, no one ever gets punished…No one ever disappears."

            "Like Jack and Eva," she whispered.

            "Like Jack and Eva," I acknowledged solemnly. "But, maybe they made it to the Good Place…maybe the Blue Lady took them there."

            "How did they get there?"

            I paused, considering my answer carefully. "They flew…like angels…"

            "Flew?" she echoed incredulously.

            "Yeah," I replied as I shifted upward so that I was kneeling beside her. "Like this." And, making my hands into a bird formation with my thumbs interlocking, I caused a shadow to fly against the wall. "See, it's flying away from everything." The dark shadow floated over the trio of words that would follow me around for the rest of my life. My bird crested the "m" of "mission" before swooning onward. For a split second, I saw the raven that had been with us the day one of my siblings was murdered. I saw that dark bird bringing death, and I wanted it to fly away. Fly high away. Fly into the sunlight.

            "And in the Good Place, you can stay in bed as long as you want…" Max was saying, but I wasn't listening. I was flying. Like that shadow bird, I was drifting upward into the sunlight where a woman dressed in glittering light came towards me. Expecting my Lady, I cried out with joy as my childhood soul hardened into my adult's. But, when I reached the lady, she was not dressed in blue robes of sapphire or adorned with a crown above her head. Instead, she wore a silken robe like an angel's and smiled at me through rosy lips.

            "Ben…"

            I stopped in my tracks, where the light was so bright even the shadows on my soul could not thrive. Raising my hand to shield my eyes, I winced at the light I was not accustomed to.

            "You're not the Lady," I told the woman in front of me.

            Laughing in spite of herself, she shook her head, which caused lush golden ringlets to tumble down around her face. "I should have known that you would not have recognized me like this."

            "Who are you?" I whispered, feeling a sense of foreboding inside of me.

            In a flash of dazzling light, the woman stood in front of me as a child wearing a powder blue nightgown. Her head was shaved and blue eyes held their position defiantly. "Now do you recognize me, little brother?"

            It took a minute, before I could actually bring myself to choke out, "Eva?"

            "Exactly," she smiled, and again, she reversed back into her adult figure so that our eyes met evenly. We stood for a moment, examining each other in the forms we had not seen before. She was slightly shorter than I was with metallic blue eyes and glistening blonde hair, while wearing a cream colored robe, suited for the angels. I, meanwhile, was wearing my typical pair of black jeans and inky coat; my hair was spiked as it often was, and I knew my eyes were a duller blue than hers were. At last, Eva explained, "She let me grow up here, Ben."

            "She?" I echoed in disbelief, wondering in the back of my mind where exactly "She" was.

            "Yes…your Lady…We're all here Ben. Every one of us that didn't make it down there." Gently, Eva grabbed me by the hand, leading me through her world of the Good Place. "I've watched all of you for so long."

            "All of our unit?"

            "That escaped that night?" she added. "Yes. You, Max, Brin, Jondy, Tinga, Zack, Zane, Krit, and Syl…I know all about you."

            We continued walking together through the light and mist that swirled around us, until I asked, "Is this the Good Place?"

            "Not exactly…" Eva wavered. Then stopping, she pointed a finger off into a direction where the light was so golden and so blazing, I couldn't even force myself to look. "That," she said, "is where the Good Place is."

            "Have you been there?"

            "Yes."

            "Are the others there now?"

            "Yes."

            "Did you leave to greet me?"

            "Yes."

            "Am I dreaming all of this?"

            There was a pause. "Sort of, yes, Ben. You see, your faith in the Lady is so great that you want more than anything to have material proof in your hands that She does believe in you."

            "Yes," I agreed, feeling my heart flutter inside of my chest.

            "Now, I could tell you the truth and pop your beautiful bubble you have built for yourself with truths you are not ready to hear, but I won't. I'll tell you enough to satisfy your cravings for immortal answers. You are seeing the Good Place as you want to see it…not how it truly exists, because you haven't seen it for yourself."

            "And what about you? I've never imagined you to be like this."

            "I can look however you want me to look as an adult, Ben, even if you don't recognize me at first. You've spent enough time in churches, so I look no different than one of your plaster angels."

            "But, I'm not making your words up?"

            "No."

            "Then how is this possible? Me, talking to you?"

            "Sometimes, the greatest things are not born from possibilities. They are created instead by impossibilities of the heart."

            Again, another pause follow during which she grabbed me by my rugged hand, swinging ours back and forth playfully. She was still the jovial Eva I remembered before Lydecker destroyed her wonderful life. After a long moment of wandering together, I stopped so abruptly in my tracks that she was left standing in front of me, our arms balancing in the air. Slowly, I released my hand from hers, recoiling instinctively like I had touched vulgarity, while she moved closer, question in her breathtaking eyes.

            "Ben?" she asked.

            "Eva?" I finally whispered as tears invaded my voice. "There's…There's something I have to ask you."

            "Anything."

            "I-Is…Jack here?"

            "In the Good Place?"

            "No…here…with us. I-I want to see him again. Like how I see you. Not dead or mutilated because of Manticore, but happy and beautiful."

            She smiled almost in a sad fashion. "You can, I suppose, if you want to. But, Ben, you can't cling to us for guidance and protection forever…he told you that-didn't he?"

            "Please, Eva…I miss him," I nearly cried, not liking to admit how weak I was-even to my sister.

            "Very well then," she said, and then with a nod of her head, she vanished, leaving me all alone in the mist and sun.

From behind, there came a voice, calling my name. Turning, I peered through the light, wanting desperately to see my brother alive and jubilant once again. "Jack!" I cried into the fog dancing around me. "Jack! Is that you?"

I ran towards the voice, calling over and over for Jack, and just as I caught of glimpse of a man my age running towards me, I found myself in my hotel room, panting heavily and a cold sweat over my shoulders. As I rolled upward, I patted myself over, making sure that I was still alive and not in the Bad Place by will of the Blue Lady. Trembling, I rose to my feet and padded across the carpeting, gazing down at Manhattan, twinkling in bright lights where rain slapped against the window. Then, as I lifted my eyes to the stars, I heard Eva's voice whispering to me once again, "Sometimes, the greatest things are not born from possibilities. They are created instead by impossibilities of the heart."

And, as one of the stars went flying across the sky, I smiled faintly and whispered, "Thanks, sister."