I wake in a hospital room. The sound of something beeping beside me. I ache all over, my throat dry and parched. I don’t have my glasses on, so everything is a blur. I can see, sort of, one leg poking out of my hospital gown, the other leg encased in a cast and propped up on a pillow. My right arm is hooked up to an IV. I stare at my hand and try to wiggle my fingers, but I can’t. I tell my left hand to move, but it doesn’t. It lies there, limp.

A sudden rush of panic floods my body. The fear that I will remain here, forever, trapped in my own mind. I open my mouth to scream, and then the hospital room disappears in a flash of blinding light. So brilliant I have to close my eyes. When I struggle to open my eyes again, there are three forms before me. Three figures, I think, though it’s hard to tell with the light. They turn to me, and I’m flooded with the sense of peace. An understanding that they do not wish me harm.

“Chen Jing-xian.” One of the figures calls out my Chinese name. A man’s voice. A teacher’s voice. Speaking in crisp Mandarin, forcing me to feel like I should stand at attention. “Also known as Ruby.”

“Present,” I croak out, and then I’m immediately mortified. All those years of getting drilled in Chinese school, the response automatic.

“You’ve put yourself in harm’s way to protect your family and others around you.” Another voice speaks, this time a woman’s. “Along with Chang Kai-Shen, Sun Xin-di.” Shen, Delia…

“Are they…are they okay?” I ask, even though I’m afraid to know. Where is Delia now? Has she moved on to the afterlife? Was it like what she expected? My heart clenches at the thought. Will I ever see her again?

“You have a choice to make, Ruby,” the woman continues softly. She pronounces my name in a funny way, in two drawn-out syllables, like many of my relatives often do back home. Roo-bee. But what she says next takes away my urge to laugh. “Chang Shu-Ling sacrificed herself to save others, and we will work to make sure that sacrifice is not in vain.”

“Can you save her?” I find myself pleading. She’s lost so much. Taken on a role that nobody should have to fulfill unwillingly, and yet she tried her best to maintain her parents’ legacy. “Can you expel that demon out of her?”

“We can try.” Another man joins the conversation, this voice is younger, warmer. Honey-toned. “And here is where you have a decision to make. An important choice.”

I stay quiet. I don’t know how I can do whatever it is that they will ask of me. I’m just a girl.

“That’s where you are wrong,” the woman says. Like she is able to read my mind. “Everyone is capable of making a choice. Young, old. All that matters is doing something, even when you’re afraid.” They look at each other, like they’re consulting with one another, before the first man speaks again.

“We have asked for an exception from Mazu, the Sacred Mother—a glimpse into what is to come,” he explains. “Juyan’s appearance is only the beginning. There’s been unrest in hell. War looms. We cannot hold it back any longer.”

“But…that has never been the concern of the living,” the honey-voiced man speaks up. “You can go back to your old life. Like the rest of your family. Wake up knowing that there’s been a terrible accident, with spotty memory and the knowledge that something exists out there, always out of reach.”

“What…what’s the other option?” I venture, even as I am scared of what they will say.

“And that is why I had faith in you, Ruby, all along!” the woman exclaims. “This was your trial. I’ve watched your struggle, but when picking between the known and the unknown, you choose to keep going. You have passed beyond our expectations.”

Fate, Delia told me. Too many coincidences for it to be accidental.

“One conduit is no longer enough for the coming war. We ask you to join the others, to become the embodiment of the guardians. We will be Three on earth yet again, to face the coming threat,” the teacher man explains. “Shen is one. Delia is the other. You could be the third.”

“What do you choose?” the honey-voiced man asks.

“Are you willing?” the woman says, eager.

I’m afraid of what comes next. I’ve always been afraid. But I don’t want to sit idle any longer, without a purpose. I don’t know if I can return to my old life, afraid to speak up for myself, happy to go along with whatever direction my parents guide me into, too scared of failure.

I can’t go back.

“Yes,” I whisper, and I’m taken once again by the light.

There’s a heaviness on my thigh. On the leg without the cast. I blink and I see an elbow, a ponytail. Tina. There’s another blurry figure in the distance, looking like she’s reading. I squint.

“Ma?” I manage to call out.

“Ruby!” She rushes to the other side, grabbing my hand. “Ruby…you’re finally awake.”

“Can you…can you get me my glasses?” She grabs them from the side table and slides them on my face, the world slipping into clarity once again. Ma looks tired, heavy bags under her eyes.

“What happened?” I ask, tentative. Not knowing how much she knows.

“There was a gas leak at the mall during the performance,” Ma says, brow furrowing, the way it usually does when she’s angry. “It caused everyone to get sick. Lose consciousness. There was a terrible accident.”

She shakes her head, remembering whatever the guardians must have imprinted in her mind.

“The stage collapsed,” Ma continues, frowning. “When we came to, the ambulance had already taken the injured away, so we didn’t see much of what happened. Part of the metal structure fell on you and broke your leg. Your friends from the bubble tea café? They…dragged you out before the…secondary explosion and saved your life.”

“The…explosion?”

“The gas leak was caused by a broken pipe, in one of the storage rooms underground. Everything burned….” The broken skylight. The bodies. The fire below.

“Wait.” I catch on, my mind still too slow from waking up. “My friends? What happened to them?”

“Yes, that boy who does the paintings, Shen? And Delia, the other girl that works there too. She says she knows you.”

There’s so much I want to tell them. Shen. Delia. And another part of me is simply happy Delia’s alive. That they made the exception, like she said. Mazu’s divine intervention. They must have spoken with the guardians too, if my mother has seen Delia since. Do they know what happened to Shu-Ling? Is Hope alive too?

Ma’s cell phone rings and she answers, standing up. I can hear Baba on the other end, and I’m assuming Denny too, safe at home. I lean back with a sigh, exhausted.

“You’re awake!” Tina is suddenly on top of me, squeezing me so hard that I feel like I might pop from the inside out.

“Hey! Hey!” I’m half protesting, half laughing. “It hurts! You’re hurting me.”

“I’m so sorry, big sis,” Tina says, letting go. She looks up at me, all apology in her eyes. I know what she’s apologizing for. Even she if she doesn’t quite remember. I can see the remorse on her face.

“That’s okay,” I tell her, squeezing her hand tight. My heart is so unbearably full, happy she’s back and here with me. “You didn’t know.”