Tales from the Outlander Express
The Chosen Path
The cave-like room was filled with a heavy silence, as if it existed deep in the darkness of space or a hollow pocket buried miles below the rocks of the earth. The cracked obsidian walls flickered reflected candlelight back on the nine-foot, slender figure. Still like an eerie statue, it wore sleek, white robes to cover its blue-gray skin. Flesh as craggy as the walls surrounding it, the figure’s finger pointed toward two red candles, recently extinguished. The waxy sticks leaned in their places, slowly melting as if the pair had finally been lit for the first time. Encompassed by many other candles, all still lit, it was these snuffed two that offended the ominous figure so.
Kneeling before a steel brazier, a young woman dressed in priestly robes rose swiftly to her feet. Aware of her master’s calling without hearing a sound.
“The candles…” she said in her hideously gargling voice, never having witnessed them in this state. “What do we do?”
The figure moved its extended finger from the candles to a pedestal at the far end of the small, fully-enclosed cave. The young woman snatched the two candles up and skipped over to the pedestal, elated at the chance to grant her master’s wishes. Her face was unnaturally mangled and her scarecrow hair lay as flat as it could against her back, fraying every which way. Placing both candlesticks on the flat surface, she stood back as they rapidly oozed into a puddle and covered the top of the entire pedestal. The obsidian floor behind her crumbled, revealing a circular portal shining up from the ground. Without hesitation, she stepped into it and fell into a world outside of the tiny cave she so rarely left.
Heavy boots crunched mulch and spurs jingled a foreign tune through the misty jungle. Jake and Adaline stayed close together, marveling at the gently fanning leaves that obscured the sky and the roots that rippled out of the detritus. Jake finished loading and packing his six-shooter and dropped it with precision into his holster.
“I ain’t never seen a place like this,” said Jake.
“Kinda reminds me of a place we passed through, on our way to Willow Rock,” said Adaline, grimacing at the thought of the decimated town they just barely escaped from.
“I only ever knew the desert. Figured my work would take me to new places though.”
“You out here deliverin’ messages, huh?”
Jake turned to her with coy exasperation, cracking a smile after a few seconds. Then, he stopped walking and scoffed aloud, bringing her to a stop as well. Adaline lazily lean against a tree, watching him curiously.
“You know, I don’t think we’ve actually introduced ourselves.”
“I think you’re right, sir.”
“…Texas Longrider. But, everyone just calls me Tex.”
“No it ain’t,” said Adaline, almost before he was finished speaking. “And no they don’t.”
“There’s that rattler again.”
“Even if it were your real name, I ain’t callin’ you Tex. Not when I know your real name’s Jake. Heard someone say so.”
“Jake Lawson,” he said, amused but defeated.
“Mine’s Adaline Masterson.”
“Well, Adaline,” said Jake, starting to walk again, “I do have a message to deliver out here.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes ma’am. First person I see I’m gonna tell ‘em we’re just a couple of regular lost folks, rode here on the inside of a giant skull after killin’ a couple of blood devils…”
“You tell somebody that, we’re likely to get driven out of respectable society,” said Adaline, trying to smile past the images that sprang up on her memory like snakebites.
Jake squeezed a bag bouncing at his side, feeling for the rock-solid orb nestled safely inside of it. The black, perfectly round ball has been vomited out from one of the devils while it died and was there at their feet when they arrived in this strange place.
“I’m sorry…‘bout the folks you lost, durin’ all that back there.”
“It don’t seem real yet. None of this does, really. The letter my father and I received before…” Adaline clenched her teeth together and searched around for something better to say hidden in the dense jungle surrounding them. “Well, that letter feels more real than anything that happened after it. Hurts more, too.”
“Mind if I ask about it’s purpose?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, fighting off weepy eyes, “I shouldn’t of brought it up if I don’t feel much like talkin’ about it.”
Jake nodded silently, leading the way a few steps ahead of her. Pushing aside a few heavy shrubs, he called to Adaline when he figured out what he was looking at up ahead.
“There’s a road, I think.”
“Let me see,” she said, holding up the ends of her ankle-length, pale blue dress as she sprinted over beside him. “Sure is. Just a dirt one, but still. Hey, look there.”
Adaline pointed to a wooden sign pointing two different ways a few times. A short list of towns went left and even shorter list went right. The numbers on the side indicated how far away they were, with Bardekos at forty-eight, Ivory Gardens at twenty-two, and Mogadimo City at one hundred and nine, the two weary travelers were feeling the creeping of despair.
“Look, Wild Paw City, three miles,” said Adaline.
“How’d you know that’s miles? There’s just a three.”
“Don’t matter. It’s the smallest number, so it’s the closest.”
There was a plea in her voice that Jake hadn’t considered. There were a lot of things he realized in that moment he hadn’t thought through and when he glanced at her once again, wringing her hands as she stared at the numbers on the sign, they all became very real to him. He was responsible for getting them somewhere safe, if not back to where they came from. Adaline was clearly counting on him to make decisions with her, she wasn’t leaving on her own and she wasn’t going to boss him around.
“You’re right, let’s get a move on.”
Adaline was pleased with that, but they took no more than a dozen steps before a creature interfered with their haste. It was too big, too ugly, and had too many legs to be anything more than a frightening mirage. The beast looked to Jake like a horse-sized prairie dog that’d lost every bit of its sweetness.
“We ain’t in the desert,” Jake muttered to himself, taking mirage off the table.
“What is that thing?”
A resounding slap burst out from behind them, repeating over and over, drawing the creature’s attention. Jake and Adaline were so startled by it that they didn’t realize it was a young lady loudly clapping until long after the sound drove the beast back into the verdant foliage.
“Thank you,” said Adaline, eyeing the stranger carefully.
“They scare easy,” she said with a shrug. “You two heading to the next town over?”
The young woman wore a tight yet flowing red dress, braided blonde hair, and a wildly exciting look in her eyes. She flashed a friendly grin, revealing the dimples in her cheeks.
“Yes ma’am,” said Jake, smiling like a fool. “Would you like to travel with us? So you ain’t goin’ it alone?”
“I can’t think of anything better right now. I’m Elodie.”
Jake enthusiastically introduced himself and Adaline, the latter only seeming a fraction as excited.
“Where are we?” asked Adaline, bringing Jake back to reality. “What state are we in?”
“Come again?”
“What state? Of the United States?”
“I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean. As far as where we are, we’re in between Ivory Gardens and Wild Paw City. Afraid there won’t be much wildness while we’re there though.”
“Why’s that?” asked Jake.
“It’s Blood Harvest Day. Everyone’s going to be locked away for the most part. Hiding from the blood feeders, or whatever they call them there.”
Jake and Adaline exchanged a glance.
“The blood feeders?”
“You two must be from pretty far away not to know about this.” Elodie stopped talking, observed the two carefully, and then recomposed herself with more reserve. “In any case, we’ll see the city just around this bend here.”
Jake chatted with both ladies the rest of the way to the city, absurdly blowing up tales of his childhood. Surely a young boy could not have accomplished, nor survived, half the stories he was making up. Adaline would’ve been entertained were she not bothered by being the only one concerned with their current state of things. This strange girl could be a thief or some kind of ne’er-do-well. Traveling alone was just something a young lady would not do. Especially in this strange land. Adaline had never heard of any of those cities, let alone the one they were heading to. She couldn’t place Elodie’s accent either. She felt like a bird in the middle of the ocean, stranded out there with another bird who figured they could just fly their way out of the situation. All the while, making conversation with a doe-eyed shark.
The city was indeed just around the bend. It, like the jungle they strolled out from, was nothing like either of them had seen before. The buildings weren’t too unlike the adobe brick houses or log cabins, but the adornments are what gave them pause. Bloody animal skulls, hides, entrails, and paintings done in all manner of gore lined every window and doorway. The excess blood from this horrific display had been poured into a dug out ditch in the dirt, leading up to a trio of men tied, blindfolded, and gagged against a pole, shoulder to should with each other.
“What is this?” asked Jake.
“Sacrifices,” said Elodie somberly. “They are criminals, don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry?” Adaline breathed.
“The blood feeders are distracted long enough to spare that many innocent people, most likely. My apologies, but I have business to attend to here.”
“It was our pleasure to meet you, Elodie,” said Jake, tipping his hat to her.
She smiled in response and then glanced around them in a way that made Adaline uneasy. “I know a secret that you could use, to keep yourselves safe tonight.”
“What’s that?” asked Jake eagerly.
“It’s a phrase that keeps those who have to travel safe enough, though it doesn’t always work.”
“Let’s hear it,” said Adaline, brows furrowed. Jake shot her a strange glance, noticing something was amiss for the first time with Adaline since Elodie began walking with them.
“Hic sum.”
They both repeated her and she smiled wide as if they’d said something funny.
“Was that right?” asked Jake.
“Yes, that was it. Perfect. You say that loudly when one is near and it should frighten and go elsewhere, though you should still run fast after that,” she said, giggling.
“Thank you, that’s incredible.”
“What does it mean?” asked Adaline, arms crossed.
Elodie paused, looking quite surprised. “You know, I’ve never wondered. I was just always so grateful for the help that I never thought to ask.”
A group of five people dressed and covered from neck to toe hurried by, shooting the loitering visitors an irritable look as they passed by. One of them broke off from the others and rushed up to them. Only his face was exposed but most of that was covered in a great, bushy beard. He glared at Jake and Adaline’s modestly exposed skin and then sneered at Elodie, the worst offender by far.
“What are you doing out here?”
“I’m Elodie—”
“I said, what are you doing out here?”
“I’m on my way to meet with Mr. Ansel,” said Elodie, remaining polite as she excused herself. Jake watched her silky dress as she rounded the corner, enjoying the way she looked when she walked.
“And you?”
“We just got here, we were lost in the jungle and—”
“You’re not from here, I can tell. Why are you with that foolish troublemaker?”
“Now that’s harsh, sir,” said Jake.
“She followed us into town, we weren’t with her. Barely knew her name is all.”
The man stared Adaline down, finding approval in her stern face and sullen demeanor. He ushered them away from the criminals tied up in the middle of town and to a nearby building. Cracking open a covered bucket, he pulled out a bloody brush and began hastily painting a few purposeful symbols around the doorway.
“You seem like strange, but decent folk. You lose track of the date?”
“No sir, we ain’t never seen anything like this,” said Jake before he could consider any value in being private about their ignorance.
“I’m sorry it has to be like this for you then,” said the man suspiciously.
“You got a saloon?” Jake asked, refining his search based on the man’s reaction. “An inn or boarding house? Bar? Any place to go to in order to relax or sleep?”
“You are welcome to whatever refuge you wish to seek, travelers.”
“I’m Jake, this is Adaline.”
The man stopped painting, plopped his brush down in the blood, and stood up straight. He wiped his hands clean on his filthy garments and scratched through his dark beard, studying them carefully. A moment later, he opened the door to the building and ushered them inside, shutting the door quickly behind them.
“My name is Orthoel Tailer. Now, I want you two to tell me exactly what is going on here.”
“What’d you mean?” asked Jake.
“Not you,” said the man irritably, “you. Adaline was it? This one’s got a touch of foolishness in him, but you’ve had the look of fear in your eyes since I saw you.”
“I ain’t at liberty to say, sir.”
“Aw hell, Adaline, what does it matter? If those things are coming, here, soon then we should just get it all out there. Can’t get much worse.”
Her shoulders slumped, but she didn’t speak any further on the matter of privacy. Jake squared his shoulders to the man and proceeded to tell the most accurate retelling of the horrors they went through before coming to this place. Nothing like his childhood stories, though she couldn’t imagine how he could manufacture a more outrageous series of events. The man’s tanned face paled the more the story went on and looked as though even a towering man like himself might faint at the end.
“And that’s how we got here, after we resurfaced that is. This black ball was just sittin’ there so I picked it up and we started walkin’.”
“Black ball?”
Jake pulled it out of his satchel and for the first time since he’d started recounting the events, Adaline felt the need to be secretive again. As soon as the man beheld the orb, he frantically made religious symbols across his body and begged Jake to put it away.
“That is the eye of darkness you carry!”
Adaline and Jake glanced at each other, grimacing. Jake put it away, but secured it a little tighter after that.
“You must come to see Ansel, he’s our leader. Please, come with me.”
They darted back outside and made for the same building Elodie had hurried off to shortly before.
“Quickly, the time is almost upon us,” said Orthoel, glancing up at the waning sun.
“That little lady taught us a phrase to say to keep the demons away.”
“Lies, there are no such words.”
Adaline seemed pleased with herself.
“Weren’t normal words,” muttered Jake defensively. “Hic sum, in case you’re wonderin’.”
“Hic sum? Sounds like a foolish girl sold a foolish tale handing it out for free to some…” Orthoel glanced at him.
“Fool, I get it.”
They saw a smile peek out from the beard for the first time just before he pushed open the door to the well-maintained building. It read, Office of the Peacekeeper, on the sign outside and again on the wall just inside, above some chairs and a table with a lone cup sitting forgotten, half full. Orthoel jogged up to the decorated door and rapidly knocked on it. There was a long pause and then the door flung open, revealing a haggard-looking fellow, tore up by stress and the passing of time. He checked his timepiece and then clenched it tightly in his hand as he spoke.
“What are you doing here? Is there a problem with your refuge?”
“No, Ansel, these two travelers have been brought to us by God.”
Ansel and Orthoel continued bickering for a moment until a sweet voice called from inside his office.
“I really must hurry, Mr. Ansel.”
Elodie peered out from the corner of her chair, both her hands on the armrests. There was a seriousness to her that neither of them had detected during their hike into town.
“Be gone, Orthoel. I will speak with you if you survive the night.”
The door slammed in their faces. Their towering guide shook his head with a clenched jaw, then hurried them back outside.
“We really should get out of here,” said Adaline nervously. “Those things could be here any minute.”
“Come to my home, we have plenty of protection there. You can tell me all about what you did to defeat these blood beasts.”
“I don’t think we have time for that,” whispered Adaline, pointing with as small a motion as she could.
Crossing the street to the building they just left, two crimson-robed murderers floated toward the wall of the peacekeeper’s office, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. None of them moved until they were certain they were no longer in sight.
“My home is this way,” breathed Orthoel, preparing to lead them to safety.
Jake broke away from them, almost causing Adaline to cry out to him. He shushed her and whispered his promise to be quick.
“I have to warn them, I’ll find you, don’t worry,” he hissed.
Jake didn’t stop to see what they would decide to do, he just sprinted for the office of the peacekeeper. He came up to a window covered in blood paintings, taking care not to move too carelessly as he peered inside. The glass was almost too dirty to see through, but as he squinted he saw red. Two red figures and two people standing across from them. Desperate to save Elodie, Jake pressed his head against the wall, trying to summon up a good idea. Just when he considered breaking the window to give her a chance to escape, he noticed something distressing about his hand. It had sunk into the wall along with some of his leg and a bit of his elbow. He pressed himself through and marveled at his incredible new ability, momentarily forgetting his deadly audience.
“Elodie, let’s go!” Jake shouted, unable to take his eyes away from the bloody visages. If he had, he might have been able to slip back out of the room quicker.
“He’s the one,” shouted Elodie in a hideously gargling voice.
Jake’s eyes snapped to her, but something wasn’t right. Her face didn’t fit, it wasn’t the same as it was. She was still beautiful, but like a dream that was quickly being forgotten to reality. The creatures rushed passed Ansel and Elodie, arms outstretched for Jake. Instinctively, he pressed his back against the wall, forgetting that he would just slide right on through.
Hitting the ground outside, Jake watched in horror as the two creatures started oozing through the wall. He kicked his legs into gear, scrambling to his feet and running a short distance before being jumped from behind and feeling the weight of both blood devils pushing into his back. Knowing he was dead, he yelled as loud as he could, expecting blood to choke his voice away, but nothing happened. Elodie was outside with them by then, and she was screaming for them to do something in a language that made no sense.
“Hic sum!”
Jake heard a deep voice shout from nearby. Scratching his face against the dirt, he grunted as he turned his head to see who had called out. The blood devils turned as well. Orthoel braced himself, as if he already knew what kind of reaction to expect. He saw Elodie and hadn’t called out the phrase until that moment.
The two frightening monsters pushed away from Jake and the female launched herself fastest toward the tall, bearded man. Elodie viciously barked orders at the male devil, finally breaking through its desire to follow the stranger’s orders. Jake watched in horror as Orthoel drew the female away, around the corner, and out of sight.
Elodie’s frantic pointing accompanied her glass-crunching voice and the male turned to Jake, pushing his bloody hand against his chest. Jake grabbed at the wrist, but his own hand passed right through. However, the blood creature’s hand curled up and squished harmlessly against his chest. It did not pass inside and cause his organs to betray him, drowning him in his own blood like all those others before. Jake looked up at it as it kept clawing and clawing, not being clever enough to try any other tactic. Never having experienced anything other than easy death by touch. Looking at where the face should be, something dark somehow gleamed from behind the waterfall of blood that lightly formed its features.
Elodie ripped a dagger out from under her dress and Jake stopped thinking. He plunged his fist into the creature’s face, wrapping his fingers around a solid, black orb. Jerking the sphere back out, the wraith desperately clawed for it, as if blinded and dying without it. Elodie came at him, but Adaline sprang out from her hiding place. She had gone around the other side of the building and watched Jake melt through the wall before the red killers followed him. Throwing Elodie to the ground, the two wrestled for the long knife, neither having a clear upper hand. Finally, the blood devil melted all of its blood away and disintegrated into a pile of dust, releasing Jake from its grip. He pulled out his revolver with a great deal of struggling, adrenaline shaking him from the inside out, then aimed it at Elodie. Her beauty had completely left her. What remained was a ghoul with dead, withered skin, no nose, beady-black eyes, and a frayed patch of straw where her golden locks should have been. The treacherous girl took an unexpected slash at Adaline, cutting her across her chest and shoulder. She screamed and fell back, away from Elodie and much to everyone’s surprise, Jake took his shot.
The bullet passed through Elodie like he had been shooting a dead old hollow stump. Bits of her flew off in the back like bark. She hit the ground on her back, gasping and in shock. When she saw him holding the black orb, she recoiled, shielding it from her gaze. Writhing on the ground, she tried her best to turn her face and eyes as far from the perfectly dark sphere as she could. He and Adaline shared a glance, both out of breath but ready to summon up the energy they needed to deal with whatever might come from what Jake was about to do.
“Orthoel,” gasped Adaline at the last moment.
“No time,” said Jake, already certain he knew what had happened to the man.
Right on cue, as if summoned by Elodie’s pain, the female blood creature appeared, hooking it right for them.
“Hold this.”
Jake tossed the black orb to Elodie on the ground and much to his amusement, she caught it. Shrieking like a siren, she melted into the ground, leaving a glowing light behind. It poured up from the ground like the rising sun over the horizon. The red lady shrank in its presence, flitting off to find easier victims.
“It’s a passageway,” said Jake, staring into the light.
“I think I see something!”
“Do you want to stay?” Jake asked Adaline, one of his feet already moving toward the light.
She didn’t hesitate, but held his arm as they both leapt inside.
Jake and Adaline fell through heavy, like they’d been lined with lead. The stone cold floor did not help. Adaline squirmed after her fall, the air having been knocked out of her, but Jake jumped to his feet like he’d been zapped.
Elodie wheezed on the floor beside them, only a portion of her still intact. Jake recoiled, but approached her after his pause, sneering in disgust. She cackled at him and reached out what was left of her hand. The candles watched anxiously, flickering with anticipation as their unholy light gleamed off the obsidian walls in the isolated chamber. Jake dragged his boot along the ground and with an echoing clink of his spurs, stomped her head in like a rotted log. A tall, white-robed figure hovered nearby, drifting closer to them with a rising, yowling hiss. Like a mountain lion saying that you’re in the wrong place.
A bright, circular light winked at him from behind the robe. The glow came from deep inside the center of the giant’s being, catching Jake’s attention like it meant to do just that. Swooping in as it neared with unnatural speed, the creature lifted Jake up by his neck and at the touch of the otherworldly being’s hand, he felt the life struggling to leave him. His vision danced with darkness and his thoughts were only on the heat rushing over his face as pressure built up.
Reaching into the satchel at his side, he scrambled with the flaps, regretting securing it as he had. Adaline screamed at the sight of them just as the final latch came loose. Jake yanked the sphere up and nearly dropped it as he pushed it against the giant’s chest. It’s skin parted away from the orb, unwilling to make contact, and it howled a sound so shattering and sickening that Adaline pressed herself against the floor with her ears and eyes clamped shut. Jake could feel his teeth grinding and stopped himself, pulling his hand back and hooking over the creature’s arm. He reached out with his empty hand to touch the light peeking out at him from the creature’s newly hollowed chest. His finger rubbed the smooth surface, but couldn’t grip anything and it was getting hard to control his movement. Everything wanted to shut down and give up.
Jake’s fingers managed to pull the slick, glowing ball in toward his palm and he knew he had it, though it felt like dragging a boulder out from a well of molasses. When he tried to release it, he couldn’t open his fingers. Jake’s hand might as well have been welded to it. The towering figure scratched at Jake’s arm until he started to bleed. Panicking, he started to thrash back and forth, his arm stuck fast within the creature. He felt the orb give, agreeing to come with him after all. Just as he nearly cleared the being’s chest, it lurched, then began to belch black acid.
The acid poured down over Jake’s outstretched arm, the sizzling and his screaming melting into one sound. The smell of burning flesh filled the room and he could hear the faint screams of his name coming from behind him, but it felt like another reality. When he saw his arm, Jake gasped for air like a surfaced fish, feeling nothing and everything all at once. His flesh was gone as was most of the muscle, white bone peering out from underneath. The ghastly figure stopped spewing corrosion and slumped in place before crumbling into chunks of clumpy sand that quickly spread out into grains across the floor.
Jake sat on his knees, trembling and trying to figure out how to touch what was left of his arm. Adaline ran over to him, crying and frantically trying to help him though she couldn’t think of anything to do. Finally, she grabbed him around the shoulders and neck and held him against her, trying to calm him down. She flinched when he pressed against the open wound spread across her chest and shoulder. Everything felt so much heavier in that place, even her own weight. Jake either couldn’t or wouldn’t speak and she wished he would tell her he was alright or what he needed. Anything.
The white orb pulsed a bright light across the room, beating like a disembodied heart without need of a host. Then, as if a harsh breeze blew across the room, all the candles went out in a simultaneous puff. The steady, rhythmic light was all that saved them from pitch black darkness in that obsidian, cave-like tomb. Adaline felt the shortness of breath that comes with knowing you’re about to die. Her palms began to sweat and her eyes searched the room desperately whenever it had light. The only thing that gave her focus was the orb.
“The black one,” she muttered, carefully releasing Jake so he wouldn’t fall.
Adaline picked up the black orb and walked over to the white one. She felt more fear of the white sphere than the other, strangely enough.
“What do I do?” she asked, half hoping Jake would answer.
When she looked at him again, he was sitting in the gently blinking light, staring lifelessly and shivering as if naked in the snow. She thought about what he’d done with that black orb and considered what it could do. Looking down at the glowing orb, she thought she might have an idea of what to do, but stopped herself. Jake did the stupid things that ended up working out. So far anyway, and if she tried the sorts of reckless things he did, everything would most likely get worse. That’s how it always was with her, before all this madness even started. It wouldn’t be any different in that cave and there would be no one to save them from her choice.
The whole room shifted like an earthquake loosed them from the sky and everything started to float, even Jake and Adaline. The ceiling crept closer and closer until she could reach up and push to keep herself away from it. Jake gave no such fight, though he was more aware of his surroundings than moments before. Adaline called to him, but a whooshing sound drowned out all other noise in the room. Her stomach stopped trying to escape her body, but everything started to fall back down almost ten feet to the ground. With a yelp, she hit the rock floor and knew at once her arm was broken. Whimpering, she leaned up to check on Jake. He was laying still on the floor.
There was no more worrying. There was no more observing her surroundings and there was certainly no more thinking. Adaline grabbed the black orb as it started to roll away from her while the room began swinging them around again. Sliding across the floor, she tried to hook her arm around Jake’s body to slow them from hitting the wall that was now beneath them when the source of the pulsing glow started to pass her by. She instinctively tried to reach out with her other arm to grab it, but cried out when the stabbing pain brought her arm back to her chest. Panting heavily, Adaline allowed herself to roughly land against the wall, feeling strain in her knees and ankles, but not so much that she couldn’t push off them and run toward the rolling, white sphere before the room continued its own rotation. She didn’t want to touch it and end up like Jake, or worse. Maybe it’d be as benign as the black orb or maybe it’d melt her hand off. Bringing the black orb up over her head, ripping open the wound on her shoulder that had almost stopped bleeding, she slammed it down on the white one and yelled from the force of it.
The room filled with so much light that it might as well have been complete darkness. Not even closing her eyes shielded her from the brightness of it and she called out in vain over the deafening buzz. The light then dulled, illuminating the room with a dim glow as the conjoined orbs continued to hum much softer. Jake was not moving, there was blood coming from the side of his head, and the room was in such disarray that there was no longer any real way to tell what was the original floor. But, everything was still. The room no longer rolled like they were trapped inside a rocky ball. Then, the walls began to crack in two and open up, the rocks making way for the enchanting beauty of the geode-like world that was on the outside. Both halves of the once enclosed room fell aside, dumping their contents out in this strange, new place made of crystalline clusters and heavy pouring rain.
Every crimson candle melted at a droplet’s touch. The crystals sang a serene melody, conducted by the rain, while Adaline crawled over to Jake’s body, praying he was still alive. She held him close and tried to look around, blinking profusely against the rain.
“We got ‘em, Jake,” she whispered to him, closing her eyes tight. “Wake up.”