I woke to darkness in a room that smelled strangely of scorched meat, antiseptic and sickness. The smell was overwhelming, and I began to retch.
I felt strong hands grab my wrists and struggle to hold me to the bed, only increasing my agony. Then I felt a cool touch on my forehead and darkness claimed me again.
I woke over and over like that. Each time, the hands held me down, the agony beyond bearing. Sometimes the cool hand was there to send me back into darkness. Sometimes there was the prick of a needle in my skin that sent me into a twisted darkness.
When the needle sent me back, it came with dreams; twisted, broken pieces of memory. I saw fire. I saw women and children screaming as they roasted alive, their bodies writhing. I saw men with their bodies blown apart by shrapnel. I saw Ri, his face caught in a rictus of pain and grief, blood pouring from his stomach where a jagged piece of metal protruded. Then I saw his hand go lax, and the fire that had always been his ally burning across my body as his shield fell.
I screamed then, my heart breaking for my friend who had tried to shield me even as he gave his life to protect mine.
Suddenly the memories fled and there was only darkness.
???
I don’t know how long I floated in that darkness, but it was darker than the deepest cave I’d ever explored. It had weight and substance, as though darkness were air or stone. It was a coin toss as to whether I floated within it or was buried beneath it.
Desperation flooded me. I could feel my head whipping around in terror, trying to see something, anything.
Finally, a light appeared in the distance. I heard an animal padding closer. A dog, I think? I could hear its claws clicking against the stone, even though I couldn’t feel the earth beneath my feet.
Then I saw pinpricks of light slowly growing closer and a strange calmness rolled over me, grounding me. Three shapes were walking toward me, with two large animals pacing them. As they drew closer, I could tell they were three women, with what appeared to be large dogs or wolves on either side.
The woman on the left couldn’t have been more than twenty, and was clad in jeans, and a golden colored t-shirt witha short waisted leather jacket thrown over her shoulder. Her long raven black hair hung in a braid over her shoulder, and she carried one of the torches in her hand. Gold sandals glinted on her feet.
In the middle walked a middle-aged woman, her hair long and loose around her face, and red as flames. Seeing that color made me shudder, though why, I couldn’t remember. She was dressed like the young girl in jeans but wore a red T-shirt with a black leather vest over it. At her waist hung an old-fashioned keyring with three large skeleton keys. Around her neck hung a silver pendant that I couldn’t see clearly.
The woman on the right had hair as long as the other two, but it was pure white, and pulled up into a messy topknot. In her left hand was the other torch. In her right hand she held what looked like an old-fashioned fold-up street map. The color of her hair made me expect to see age lines and wrinkles on her face, but there was only a hint of some laugh lines around her gold-bespectacled eyes.
As I gazed at her, I realized with a shock that all three had the same stunning blue eyes, brighter than any sapphire, more brilliant than any mountain lake.
“Hello, Helios,” the woman in the middle said.
“Hey Hel,” said the girl on the left.
The old woman on the right just nodded and said, “Helios.”
“Who are you?” I asked cautiously. “Where am I?”
I looked around, and realized that as they had approached, the darkness had faded away and instead of floating in blackness, we now stood in the middle of an intersection somewhere far away from any city.
“We are who We are,” the young girl said with a smile. “But you can call me Kitty.”
“You can call me Kate,” said the middle-aged woman.
“And you can call me Kathryn,” the old woman said.
“Welcome to the Crossroads,” said Kate.
“You are here to make a choice,” said Kathryn.
“Choice? What choice?” I asked. A flicker of the torchlight suddenly reminded me of Ri. Where was my friend?
“Ri.” I said, memory suddenly flooding back. “Where’s Ri?”
The three women gave each other strange glances as I started turning in circles looking for my friend.
“Where is he? Why isn’t he here?” I demanded, desperation flooding me. We were Bonded, weren’t we? I should have been able to find him, to feel him, but I couldn’t seem to recall anything after the bonding ceremony.
Kitty stepped forward and laid her hand on my arm. I started to pull away from her but felt that strange calm returning.
