I just needed to lay back down, I told myself, even though some other part of me was screaming in frenzied opposition. I was so exhausted though. Slowly, I lowered myself to the floor, my cheek touching the cool stone beneath me, my ribs aching. It made me realize how hot I was, burning up, sweat drenching my dirty clothes. I let out a deep breath, disrupting tiny pebbles on the ground. I could feel my hair sticky with blood, matted to my forehead.
“Where are you?” I heard the ghost girl’s voice sing out and the soft scratch of nails on rock in the cavern behind me. That was right. I’d been in a big cavern room with Pollux and then pushed into this tunnel. I could hear the ghost in that big room, searching for where I went.
Where was Pollux though?
My eyes popped back open and I heaved myself up, my head swimming, light pounding behind my eyes despite the complete darkness. My fingers spread out over the floor until I found the flashlight.
“Come out, come out,” the girl said, her voice not echoing even though it should. I pulled out the flashlight’s hand crank and began winding it. Gripping the flashlight meant battling the burning and shaking of my cursed hand. My teeth pressed tight together as the mechanical hiss of the crank filled the otherwise silent area. Slowly a dim light began to flicker on. I stopped cranking for a moment and pulled myself up to my feet. I stumbled, tilting sideways, one hand pressing to my head while it pounded in intense pain.
My shoulder hit the tunnel wall and I leaned heavily against it. A moment later the static left my head, the light was out again, and silence was all around me. The ghost had to be close, my splinter was aching and I felt horrible. She was silent though. Which meant I had no idea where she was.
My breath came out hitched in fear as I gripped the crank and began to wind it again. I was blinded without it, making it impossible to move around. The mechanical reel began to grind out, the noise putting me on edge. It felt like someone was watching me, that the girl ghost might be standing right behind me.
A pathetic part of me stood here hoping that any second now the others would show up and save the day. Pollux would burst into the tunnel, his wide wings out and his red eyes glowing preternaturally. Caspian would rush in looking like a nightmare with teeth that could rip through anything.
In reality, even if they were standing right beside me watching the light flicker brighter as I cranked, I’d be alone against this ghost. They wouldn’t be able to do anything.
I began to move forward. The area I was in gradually thinned, the tunnel becoming tighter. My shoulders brushed the walls as I shuffled forward. Finally, I finished cranking the flashlight and a bright light held steady.
My vision was clouded and dark at the edges. My head was killing me, like someone throwing pounding fists on the inside of my skull. I put a hand on the wall, my eyes dragging shut as I stumbled forward. Smooth round rocks were under my hands as I moved. I opened my eyes and focused on them.
Quickly, I jerked my hand back in shock. It wasn’t round stones, it was skulls, packed into the wall in a macabre display. I swept the flashlight over the walls and saw even more skulls pressed in tight.
I was in a catacomb.
I let out a shaky breath and stumbled forward, looking down at my feet instead of the walls. The ceiling bent down further until I felt like I might need to hunch down. I was tightly packed in with human bones all around me, jeering smiles of skulls trapped in the rock. My eyes could barely focus though and breathing felt difficult. I had to take big, slow breaths and my ribs hurt every time I did.
I wasn’t doing a good job of staying upright. My sense of balance was wrong, my head losing track of my feet. I kept brushing the walls, touching the skeletal remains of long-dead humans.
The hallway spun and warbled until the only thing I could do was drag one leg in front of the other, straining against the burning sensation in my splintered hand.
I stumbled to the ground, breathing far too labored for just a short walk. My hand didn’t burn anymore though so I pressed my back against the wall, taking deep breaths. Cold sweat was on my forehead but when I wiped at it my hand came away marked with crimson.
Stopping wasn’t a good idea but my body was becoming less willing to blindly obey the signals from my brain.
I pulled my legs into my chest and sat there staring at a skull pressed in the wall across me. Its jaw was slightly unhinged, its mouth and eyes laughing at me. I didn’t want to stay here but couldn’t move right now, my muscles burned and my head was spinning. I started to fall asleep then jerked awake. The movement made a deep ache rattle through my head.
Find the climber. Leave the caves.I recalled that mantra as I tried to think.
“Thomas,” I called out, my voice weak and cracking. My head throbbed.
“Are you alone, Ava?” His voice came back smooth and calm. He sounded so close. I looked behind me but saw nothing. No Pollux and no ghost. Iwasalone. Me and the laughing skulls.
“I think so. There’s skeletons,” I mumbled. My tongue was heavy and hard to manage, the words thick in my mouth.
“There’s something in here,” Thomas said.
“I’m coming. Just… in a minute,” I sighed, unsure he could even hear my soft voice.
I swallowed and fished out the thing pressing into my butt uncomfortable. It was the diary Pollux had given me. My legs still felt too weak to carry me anywhere and I needed to stay awake so I cracked it open. The words blurred as I eyed them, only becoming clear when the page was nearly touching the tip of my nose. It was an effort to read but I needed to do it.
I thought I was dreaming when I stumbled through that strange door in the forest. It had a frame made of stacked stones. It must have been part of a structure at some point but that was long gone. It was only a door. When I opened it and went through, I was somewhere else.
It is all so amazingly alien! A new world, similar but strange.
—
I have explored. I have flown. I drank the water and tasted the nectar of their blooms. It has been a great adventure but when does the adventure end? I have looked all around for the door that led me here but it evades me. This is just the thing to happen to me. Everyone always says I get up to too much trouble. We’ll laugh about this when I get home.
