Light shines on the far side, pouring from a glowing archway carved from luminous stone. We can see it. We canfeelit. But the pit yawns between us—bottomless, wide, and utterly uncrossable.
“There has to be another way around!” Cassy cries, but there isn’t time.
The shadows surge from behind us, faster now, shrieking like banshees. They claw at the walls, dragging themselves across the stone, their forms unraveling and reforming as they come.
“Climb!” Mariel pants, already pulling at the rock face. “Quick!”
We scramble for handholds. The wall is steep and crumbling, loose gravel biting into my palms. Cassy manages to haul herself onto a narrow ledge no wider than her boots. Mariel tries to lift Vivian after her, but the stone shifts under her feet.
She slips.
Mariel gasps, barely catching Vivian’s wrist as her body sags toward the pit.
I lunge forward and hit the ground hard, skin scraping raw. I twist, thrusting the torch behind me to repel another shadow. The creature shrieks and recoils.
I grab Vivian’s other hand and heave. Mariel strains beside me, teeth bared. Together, we drag Vivian onto the ledge between them.
The relief is fleeting. The ledge cracks.
Stone fractures beneath Cassy’s feet. Pebbles rain down into the darkness below, swallowed without a sound.
“I can’t reach any higher!” Cassy sobs. “There’s nowhere to go!”
The shadows close in, screaming louder now. They stretch into grasping hands, leering faces, snapping jaws. They tear at our clothes and rake at our skin.
The walls begin to move. Stone groans. The chasm seems to breathe.
“We’re not going to make it!” Cassy screams.
My breath comes ragged and fast. The riddle burns through my mind, sharper now, undeniable.
Up is down. Left is right. Hot is cold. Dark is light.
I stagger back, my heel slipping on loose rock—and I look down.
The pit isn’t empty.
Deep in the black, something pulses. A soft, distant glow, like stars submerged beneath water.
My heart stutters.
“Dark is light,” I whisper.
“What?” Cassy cries. “What are you saying?!”
“We’re not supposed to climb out,” I say, louder now. “We’re supposed to fall in.”
They stare at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“No—no, that’s insane!” Cassy sobs.
“This is the last part,” I say, voice shaking but sure. “It’s not about fighting or fleeing. It’s about trust. About surrender.”
“There has to be another way,” Mariel pleads, tightening her grip on Vivian.
I shake my head. “There isn’t.”
Above us, the shadows surge as one—an oncoming wall of teeth and smoke and pain.
