I strain my one good eye and take in the light’s shape, gawking with a mixture of fascination and confusion when I realize what it is I am looking at. A white-blue flame, floating a few feet off the ground on its own, like the plentiful lightning bugs back home in Jiaoshan. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. What magic is this? This is no lantern light.
It is awisp.
An entire row of white-blue flames suddenly illuminate the way forward, their fiery tendrils flickering back and forth in the arid breeze. I follow them one step at a time, my curiosity piqued. Could they be trying to help us?
I can’t be sure how far I travel, or for how long. All I know is that my muscles are fatigued and feel moments away from snapping from their joints. Thirst is the only thing on my mind. That, and this seemingly endless trail of white-blue fire. My head pounds. I heave, but there’s nothing to hurl from my stomach.
We’re surrounded by a sea of golden sands, constantly shifting with the winds like waves upon the ocean. It’s endless. How far have we come? How much farther do we have to go? Ahead of me, behind me, and to either side of me—it all looks the same. There are no mountains. No trees. No distant waters to use as markers. We are alone in this barren prison, a great and lonely distance in every direction.
Delirium sets in.
Where are we even going? Have I not passed this stretch of sand before? Is Jyn still there on my back?
Exhaustion. I want to lie down, but I’m already waist-deep in the sand. I sink farther with every step. Before I know it, the grainsare up to my chest. I focus on the remaining wisps ahead. I’m sure they will guide me to safety, if only I could escape this pit…. Perhaps if I try harder, move faster.
I’m up to my chin in sand now. The person I was carrying… Who was it, again? I can no longer sense them with me. Have they been swallowed by the sand, too? Why is it that I can no longer breathe? My nose and mouth are covered. I’m suffocating.
Movement is unthinkable. My good eye strains in the dark. Is that a woman’s hand I see sticking out of the pit, grasping fearfully in search of something to hold on to? Who could it be? How curious that she should have a gray, fraying thread just like—
Jyn.
I come to my senses all too late. My fear of water has now been replaced with a fear of being buried alive. Either way, I’m drowning. Desperate for salvation, I’ve been tricked into taking us to our own graves. There’s nothing more horrifying than the awareness of my final dying moments.
Jyn and I are sinking, sinking, sinking. And just when I think I have met my untimely end—
I land on my back at the bottom of an underground cave.
Fire screams through my bones, a terrible pressure pulsating inside my skull. I wheeze and cough, hacking up fistfuls of sand from my throat. There’s no light, only darkness and cold. Panic grips me by the throat. What is this forsaken place? Have we stumbled our way into Hell?
Somewhere in the darkness, a cough.
“Jyn?” I call out, my vocal cords shredded to bits. Gods, this night couldn’t get any worse.
I fumble about helplessly, doing my best to follow the sound of her voice. When that fails, I instinctively follow my thread. Jyn’s presence has a glow to it, though it’s fading fast. I seek it out,tripping over my own two feet until I find her, curled up on her side. I fall to my knees and pull her into my arms, grazing my fingers over her cheek.
“Jyn? Please, say something!”
“Wisps,” she wheezes. “Little bastards… Tricksters. Their magic… hypnotizes their victims.”
I huff, exasperated. “Yes, well, I know thatnow. How do we get out of here?”
Something in the darkness hisses.
Jyn and I freeze. I hold my breath, fearing that even the faintest of noises will alert whatever beast is lurking in the darkness. Perhaps it will ignore us and move on if we remain perfectly still.
Another wisp suddenly ignites into existence before us, illuminating the dark cave with its soft blue flames.
I grimace. Little bastards, indeed.
But what horrifies me is not that the wisp has given away our position, but the fact that I can now see the creature responsible for the hissing. I have never seen anything more hideous.
A man, except he’s the furthest thing from it. He’s emaciated, with leathery white skin hanging loosely from his bones. His eyes lack any trace of color, his lids pulled back so far it looks as though they might pop right out of their sockets.
His nose is missing, as are his lips. Both have been torn off his face. He twitches, clawlike fingers curled and crusted with dirt and browned blood. He gnashes his yellow teeth, chewing on something wet andfleshy. His meal falls from his mouth and drops to the cave floor.
A nose.
Gods, is ithisnose?
