I am screaming. I don't think he will hear me: Castiel, my little brother, because he was only just a dream. But I can't stop myself. I am freezing and burning, dying and unable to die. I am fading. The last of my grace is leaving me, because I have broken.
And what is left for a broken angel?
What is left when I have no grace, no wings, no life, no soul?
Shall I just cease to exist?
I cannot remain anywhere.
I don't belong here anymore. Maybe, just maybe...
I don't understand. I still exist. I shouldn't still exist. An angel has no soul past its grace, and my grace has faded into nothingness. Where am I?
There is light, now, light that doesn't come from my burning grace. No, this is natural, yellow, warm. The darkness beyond the blinding light of before is gone, too, leaving in its place a background of shining green leaves and red flowers, illuminated by impossible light. It's sunlight. Wait…
I can't believe it. I'm home. I'm really home. I can tell, somehow, that this is what's truly real. I am back in Heaven.
And this time, I won't run away.
There you are. That's what happened. Sorry that I had labeled it as complete before, but...
For a little while, I intended to end with the previous chapter. Chapter Eight. The "last" chapter. But as you might have noticed, that wasn't exactly...an ending. I really, really wanted to leave it with everything unclear as to what's real. But then I got a suggestion from ArcticHuntress, who said I could do one chapter of each; one, it's real. One, it's not. And still let the reader decide whichever one they wanted to be true, in their own mind. I set out to do that. But then I wrote this. And I didn't want to have two, now. I just wanted this. Thank you for reading all the way to the very, very end. Please, tell me what you thought. I'd truly appreciate it. I love you all. Farewell!