Across the Universe by Raine Winters

stand her up in front of the void, inching her ever closer to the blackness.
                  Dena struggles, but she is too weak to escape. The Aiders push against her back with firm hands and her toes go over the edge of the threshold. She can’t balance against the void’s sucking energy and she tips over into the darkness.
                  She doesn’t just float away into the beyond like I think she will. Instead she becomes part of the darkness, blinking out like a light turned off, and in that moment she is gone as if she never existed at all.
                  Dante slams the door shut, and sound whooshes back into the lobby. I can hear people’s stifled sobs and guilt-ridden whispers. Elli’s breath comes in gurgles, like she is struggling to hold back tears herself. Nim stands beside her, her arms folded and her face as blank as stone. My mentor was always skilled at hiding her emotions.
                  Dante returns to the center of the room and holds up Dena’s universe again. The last of the stars inside the orb die and the swirling universe within fades away, leaving the crystal clear. I’m ready to turn around and leave the horror behind me when I see a dot of black form in the center of the orb and spread outward. Pinpricks of light—stars forming—swirl into existence within.
                  “A new universe born from the old,” Dante announces. “So it is and has always been. Let us honor Dena by watching over this new world with the same reverence we pay all the others.”
                  The members of The House begin to take leave, filtering out of the lobby. I stay frozen in place, watching on as Dante drops the orb back in his pocket and walks down the hall and out of sight.
                  “What happens now?” I ask.
                  “A new Watcher will come into being. One that will be assigned to watch over the new universe,” Nim says.
                  “And Dena?”
                  “Dena’s gone,” Elli replies. When I glance up at her, her expression is hard. I’ve never seen her look so bitter before, and the look fails on her face as much as sadness fails on Nim’s. “She’s lost in the void now, and it’s as if she never was.”
                  I let my gaze fall to the door and think of the enveloping silence, the pull of the void. The memory sends shivers down my spine. Nim and Elli urge me backward and I retreat like all the others, ashamed of the feeling that wells up deep inside my gut.
                  I shouldn’t forget Dena. She was a Watcher, like me. She should be honored. But instead, all I want to do is forget.

Chapter Seven
     
                  After Dena’s funeral, I can’t sleep. Nim tries to comfort me but after a time she gives up, leaving me alone to stare at the ceiling until my limbs begin to feel antsy and I have to get up and move. I travel through the halls of The House, making a pit stop to pick up the orb that holds my universe, and not halting again until I reach the Watch Room.
                  When I enter, I find that I’m not the only Watcher there. Another sits off to the side, about to set the orb that holds his universe in a clear basin just like the one I come to stand in front of. He is young like me, and greets me with a nod and a smile.
                  “If it isn’t Amara, the newest Watcher to grace our ranks!” he says.
                  He knows who I am, but I’ve never seen him before. “I haven’t had the pleasure,” I reply.
                  The man steps away from the bowl, pockets his orb, and strides over to me. “My name’s Oman. I was at your assignment ceremony, but you probably didn’t see me. I stood in the back.”
                  “Were you there when they sent Dena into the void,