Chapter 29 #2
“We’ve definitely had better ones,” I comment as I take in the ominous black glow of the Door. “Mickey… why don’t you stay here?”
“I’m not letting you go alone.”
“Do you really think we’re going to accomplish this?” I ask. “You could just… stay here. Stock up on food, hide here…” And keep Torin company if I die… I don’t mention that last part out loud.
Mickey grabs my hand and pulls me around to face him. “Riley, you’re my best friend. You’re the only living person I’ve ever met who has treated me like a normal person. I’m prepared to go to hell and back with you. So let’s go.”
“Thank you.”
“You owe me so much after this is done, though. I expect you to carry me everywhere we go.”
“Deal,” I say as I step up to the Door, well aware that traveling from here, across an unknown realm, and out the other Door might not be anywhere near as simple as we’re hoping. Mickey squeezes my hand, prepared to hold on while we pass through it.
I step through the Door a second before it cracks and an explosion throws me forward, ripping Mickey’s hand away from mine as I hit the ground. Thankfully, I keep Kit tucked close into me, but as soon as I land on my hands and knees, all of my magic cuts off and I’m immersed in darkness.
“Mickey?” I call anxiously as I press my hand against Kit’s back to reconnect my eyes to hers, but it’s almost like my magic is dead here, unreachable.
The only magic I can feel is the unfamiliar one I still don’t know how to use.
I also notice that the medallion I’d picked up is starting to warm up.
I slip it into my pocket and feel the heat radiating through it even from inside there.
I can’t do this. There’s no possible way I’ll ever find the other Door while blind. I have to go back through. I have to get to Mickey. If I’m forced to be without Kit’s sight, then I need someone to lead me through this realm.
“Kit, where’s the Door?”
She jumps off my shoulder, and I listen to her as she moves forward. With outstretched arms, I take a step after her, and my hand bumps against something hard. I can tell it’s the Door so I reach for the handle, but when I turn it, the handle crumbles beneath my touch.
“No, no, no,” I beg while I feel around the Door, but all I can feel are cracks running across the surface, spreading before I can do anything. “Fuck.” I try to pry the Door open with my nails, but I can’t get it open, and the more I try, the more it crumbles beneath my touch.
Maybe Mickey can reopen it… but do I have time to wait? It’s not like I can do much else when I can’t see anything, though. I’m going to get Kit and myself killed. I’m not going to be able to help Torin. I’ve fucked everything up.
Worry and anger churn inside me, but more than anything, I can feel that magic swirling around me, and I can feel the medallion in my pocket growing hotter and hotter.
I debate throwing it out but there’s something that draws me to it, and when I press my hand against my pocket, I discover that it makes me feel more at ease.
I take a step away from the Door and my foot immediately begins to sink into water. I jerk back as I question if I’m on the edge of a river or a pond. I drop to my hands and knees and reach out, but I feel water everywhere I go around this Door.
And that’s when I hear something splashing in it.
“Kit, here,” I call to her. She rushes over and jumps into my arms before I set her on my shoulder, and her tail anxiously wraps around my neck. I hear something moving in the water, but I also hear the sound of heavy chains with each step.
I turn and face whatever it is, but as soon as I do, it stops moving. I can’t tell whether it’s five feet away or fifteen. I can’t tell whether it’s going to kill me or ignore me. But the foreign magic that’s wrapped around me reaches out for it, like it wants it… or maybe it belongs to it.
I hear another splash of water and the sound of those heavy chains as it starts to move away from me. I slowly take a step toward it, my foot sinking into the water before I realize that it’s only up to my knees.
I shift back to the Door, unsure if I should wait in case Mickey is currently working on repairing it, or if he’s even able to.
The chains stop moving… is it waiting for me?
But why the hell would I follow it? Because this uncontrollable magic that has harmed me as much as it’s helped me wants to follow it?
Carefully, I take another step, well aware that every step I make is leading me farther from the Door I’ll likely never find again without my sight.
But I’m drawn to whatever it is in front of me and find myself moving toward it.
I have no idea if it’s leading me off to the god that resides in this realm or what it’s doing with me.
“What are you?” I ask, but I hear no response, just the way it moves through the fast-flowing water and the clashing of those chains with each step. Kit chitters uneasily, and her ability to see the world around us makes me question whether I’m making the wrong choice, but I keep pushing forward.
I listen for other sounds, but the realm seems quiet around me. No birds, no animals, just water and chains. The water fights against me, the current fast for such a shallow river.
The noise of the chains grows louder and I realize the being I’m following has stepped out of the water, though the current is still fighting against me with every step.
“What is this?” a feminine voice asks, making chills race through me.
“A little lost bird,” a masculine voice answers.
They sound as if they’re on both sides of me, and I question how I’m even going to be able to fight them like this if they choose to attack me.
I freeze, considering my options, before I hear the chains quickly dragging to my left and the woman’s cackle recedes, like she’s being forced back by the chained being.
The clanking chains grow louder while the silent being seems to pick up speed, but though walking with only darkness surrounding me is one thing, running in it is another. Honestly, I feel like I have no choice at all since I now know that others are aware that I’m here.
“He’s going to like this,” the feminine voice says.
“He’s very much going to like this,” the other agrees.
I uneasily question again if I’m being led right to the god. Hell, the god could be watching right now and I’d have no idea.
Kit whines and jumps to my other shoulder while I try my best to ignore the two entities muttering threats as they follow along, close but not close enough for me to feel them. Their voices echo around me, but they seem wary of the being who appears to have chosen to protect me.
“Please… help me,” a woman begs.
My hip slams into something hard and I jerk back, startled.
I feel something brush against my leg, and my skin crawls when I realize that what I feel are fingers.
“Please, let us free.”
I pull away and notice that the sound of chains is getting farther from me. Panic fills me as pleas surround me. Are these humans caught in a cage?
“Who are you?” I ask, torn between following the sound of the chains and dealing with the cries for help.
My hands pat around the metal as I kneel down. “I can’t see; where is the latch?”
“Right there. It’s right there,” a man cries, which isn’t helpful in the slightest. But luck must be on my side because my hand bumps the latch just as the sound of the chains stops. My head snaps to the side, trying to listen for any sign of the being.
Hastily, I slide the latch free, surprised there’s not a lock on it, but when I reach in to help whoever is inside, my hand passes through open air and lands on a small warm orb. I pause and wave my hand inside the cage while I question what happened to the one who’d begged me for help.
“Please,” a woman says. I reach out until my hand smashes into her prison, but when I touch her fingers, they seem to turn into nothing beneath my touch.
I stand up and back away as I wonder what the hell I’d done to them.
Were they just figments of my imagination?
Did I do something to hurt them? Or did I release them from whatever curse they were under?
I feel disoriented, unsure which direction I’d been heading in and which direction the Door I’d come in through is. Kit would know, right? Should I just follow her back? What if Mickey has opened the Door?
But what about Torin? Torin, who has been locked alone with that monster for how long now?
“Where are you?” I ask.
“Who do you want?” the woman who has been following me asks.
“You can come with us. We’ll help you,” the male says. Their voices are almost hypnotizing. And with the confusion I’m feeling, I find myself desiring to follow them. I take a step toward them before I hear the sound of those chains.
It snaps me straight out of the allure they’d drawn me into. I hurry away from them and toward the chains, using my hands to keep from running into anything else, when I suddenly feel the presence of a Door. It’s so close.
I don’t know whether this is the Door to my realm or even the Door to where Torin is, but it’s a Door, and I want out of this hell.
I want out of this world that feels so wrong, despite being unable to see it.
I rush for the Door but halt when I discover that I don’t want to leave.
There’s a pull that I can’t ignore, no matter how much I try.
“Come with me,” I find myself begging the chained being.
It begins to thrash and I can’t tell why until I realize that something is dragging it from me.
The chains sound like they’ve snapped tight, and I hear it hit the ground and flail in distress.
A part of me wants to go help it, but then I hear three words that send fear ripping through me.
“Welcome home, Riley,” the god I have to assume controls the horseman says, and I flee through the Door.
I’m disoriented, but the second I hear the howl of a wolf, I know that I’ve found myself in the right place. I notice that my magic has returned to me, and with a touch to Kit’s forehead, my eyesight comes back.