He moves fast, yanking the photo free and sliding it into my waiting hand. His fingers are cold. I slip it beneath the glass,sealing the creature inside, then flip the whole thing onto the table with a dull, sickening thud.
We gather around it despite every instinct screaming not to.
Up close, it’s worse.
The substance isn’t solid, not fully liquid either—thick and viscous, like living oil. Nala tilts the glass slightly, and the black massclimbs, stretching itself upward, tapping against the base with a soft, wet sound.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
My skin crawls.
“It’s—” Nala swallows. “It’s moving like it knows we’re here.”
The thing pauses.
Then it spreads thin against the glass, flattening itself as if listening, as though it’s aware of every breath in the room.
“It looks like the same thing that came out of your ears.” I look over at River and Nala, pointing at them, and their faces screw in disgust.
“Eww!Thatwas in my ear!” Nala remarks, digging at her orifice as if the creature still lay inside. I understand her repulsion. It’s thick, black and moist like a snail with no shell, and a slight metallic odour rings off of it. It curls with the shape of the beaker and sticks to the side of the glass. Although it moved before, it now looks dormant, as if it is sleeping.
“Asha, light an orb beside it,” Ryder asks me, cocking an eyebrow in my direction. I do as he says, and the goo shies away from the light and writhes around almost as if it is in pain. “Just like we thought, whatever it is, it doesn’t like the light.”
“I’m no expert, but I’ll bet that the sun dimming has something to do with this…” River pauses for a moment, his face turning to disgust, “…thing!”
He clinks on the glass, and the black sludge vibrates away from the beaker slightly. I stare at it hard. The creature was made up of these freakish slugs; somehow, they are a part of it, even here in this glass, away from its body, it lives.
“At least we know one thing we can use against it,” Nala adds, and River nods his head, but I stare at Ryder. He knows what I am thinking.
“Yeah, but with the sun dimming, our powers are only gonna get weaker. I won’t be able to scare this thing,” I gesture to the glass, “let alone that giant, great sludge monster back there.” I exclaim. The expressions in the room slowly become less hopeful. “And even if, somehow, my powers do work to their fullest ability, we still don’t know how to kill it. The light only seems to startle it.”
“This is some real end of the world type shit.” River leans back on the counter, and Ryder shoots him daggers.
“Save the boy and save the world,” I mutter under my breath as the spirit world comes to the front of my mind.
“What?” River looks over at me, and Nala walks in closer.
“In the Shadow Realm, that’s what the spirits told us. We have to find the crescent gem.”
“What’s that?” Nala asks, and River butts in.
“The crescent gem? We might as well all just let that thing take us.” River points to the window.
“You’ve heard of it?” I question River, and Ryder looks just as surprised as I do.
“My grandfather told me stories about it, said he knew someone who went looking for it and was never seen again.” His brows furrow as he says this, “He was a drunk, always in the tavern and talking with somerealquestionable people. He was convinced it was a fable, but the man he spoke with that day was sure it was real.” He takes a seat on the nearby desk.
“Maybe it was the same person Psy spoke to?” I question, looking over at Ryder.
“No, that man had to have been a Moon; there is no way he would have made it into the shadow realm otherwise.” Ryder shakes his head.
“I did,” I explain, trying to shake the lingering aura of that place off of me.
“But you were with me, trust me, the guy was a Moon.” He responds whilst swirling the beaker in his eyeline. The creature defies his movements and sticks to the glass.
