Heart's Desire

Chapter 10

Jesse woke with a start. Sweat would have covered his body if it had not been for the fact that he had no moister to sweat. He had been dreaming. In his dream, he was being chased. There was no way to tell what chased him. The thing in his dream had always kept to the shadows, out of sight. It had just caught up with him. He could feel its thoughts. He knew that it wanted to kill him. It was trying to kill him. He was powerless against it though. Nothing could stop it. It was about to pounce and then he had woken up. He ached all over from head to foot. The pain was not crippling, but it was not fun either. He opened his eyes and looked around. He spotted Lightning still standing in the spot he were he had been when Jesse had fallen asleep. Nothing in the cave was changed according to his eyes, but his body was registering something different. The numbness of the nothing was gone. It was replaced by a dull ach in his bones and heat. The cave had grown unconvertible hot in the night. Or had it been the day? There was no way to tell in this dark place.

Jesse got up and stretched. It took some time but eventually he got his legs to function. The rest had restored some of his lost energy. It had not dulled the burning in his mouth. If anything else it had gotten worse during the night, but it was manageable without the sound of water near by. It also meant that he did not need to relieve himself. That was little solace against his greater problems. He would deal with all of them in time. First though he wanted to know were he was. He looked around the cave for the first time. He had been too tired before to properly make anything out. Now he could see that it was not a cave at all. It was more of a tunnel. Were it lead he could not see since the only light still came from him, but what he could see told him that he was only at the start of something that went farther into a rock surface.

Sat down next to Lightning and debated with himself. He still could use some rest. Lightning was still sound asleep. After all the horse had done for him Jesse felt that the horse deserved to sleep at least until he was fully rested. All the same, they needed water. There had to be some way for life to sustain itself in this place. There had to be water somewhere and they still needed to find it. The prospects of not finding it were not really an option. The argument went back and forth. Find water, rest, continue into the cave, or try his luck back in the nothing. He soon ruled out the nothing, but it was not until Lightning woke up that he made his mind to continue on without trying to rest again.

"Come on boy" he said to Lightning. "We have a ways to go still."

The horse just nodded his agreement. The tow of them set off into the black unknown of the cave.

Light. There was light burning slowly in the distance. It was a narrow red glow that cut across the horizon, but it was light all the same. Jesse felt like running to it, but he knew he did not have the strength. Neither did Lightning. His poor faithful horse was standing over him as patient as ever. Jess could not have asked for a better horse. Jesse was beyond pain now. The nights rest had allowed the Nothing to sink into his bones. It was not quite at his heart yet, but it was making its way there. Besides, Jesse thought, he had made the mistake of expending all his energy to get to the river. What if this was not any different? What if it was another trick? This place was full of them. There was nothing special about the light, but it could hide danger. If this place had any life at all it would probably gather around that light.

Jesse moved slowly carefully through the dark towards the light. The glimmer of red did seem to grow closer. At the same time, he started to be able to see more around him. The trees, yes there were trees, around him were thinning. The ground was becoming rockier. Every step took more effort to keep himself upright. It was sad really. It took a lot more time this way. Working through the rocks as he was. But he never let go of Lightning's reigns. It would be a mistake he told himself. It had been his mistake. The reign was a tether holding him to his rational self. If he let it go again he did not know if he would ever regain his sanity. And he had to look out for Lightning too. The horse needed him as much as he needed the horse in this place.

Jesse stopped and panted. The ground had started to rise. The incline was becoming steeper and steeper as he moved forward. He was on some sort of a mountain. He looked around for the source of the red light. He was bathed in red light. He could not see were it was coming from. Then he looked up to find that it was coming form above him. Strange he thought, the light did not seem to be coming from the sky here. It had to be a trick of this place. The light was not real he tried to tell himself. He shook his head to clear it. Still the light covered his body. He closed his eyes. A faint red glow creped under his eyelids. He opened his eyes. The red light was still there. Even stranger he thought. This was not possible. There was no way this was possible. Something had to be wrong. He kept climbing up the steep slop towards the light until it because to steep to climb anymore form Lightning. The horse was struggling. It was either leave Lightning behind or go back down.

This was not question. He headed back down to were the horse could walk firmly again. The rocks scattered in their path grew until they were large enough to hide Lightning. It was strange, Jesse thought, that such big rocks would be scattered around the base of a mountain. Jesse could not think of a reason for this. The idea was foreign to him. No mountains in Haven had rocks around there base, but no mountains in Haven had red glowing tops either he mused. It was all very strange. This place is getting weirder by the minute Jesse thought.

The light was getting brighter. Everything seemed to be bathed in red. It was a little disconcerting. It made every look like it was covered in blood. Jesse shivered even in the extreme heat. Yes, it had gotten hotter. It was hotter here than it was in the cave. It would seem that the closer he got to the light the hotter the air became.

Suddenly there was a noise in the distance. It was low. Like the hum of a bird. Jesse stopped and listened harder. The sound stopped. Jesse waited. It did not start up again. He wondered if he had just imagined the sound. Then it started up again. A low murmuring in the distance. Then it stopped again. Jesse paused and waited for it to continue. He listened for quite a while. The sound was erratic. It would start and stop at different times. There was no set pattern to it. The only constant thing was that it was a low hum. Jesse decided to check it out. Honestly he thought, what more trouble could I really get myself into? It was a rhetorical question. He felt that he was at the limit of that any person could ender. If this thing did not kill him, then it could not change the way he way already feeling.

Jesse slowly moved forward. He was very cautions. He made sure that Lightning and him made no sound as the crept closer to the noise. It soon became apparent that the source of the noise and the source of the light were the same place. It took a long time to get there. The need to be cautions over ruled his curiosity. As he got closer, he began to make out words in the noise. No, that was not it. It was that the noise was words. At first, they were just gibberish, but with every step, the words became clearer. By the time, he got to the end of the rocks he was making out whole phrases.

"Why me" the sound said.

"Why was I stuck on stupid guard dude," it continued.

Jesse paused again to listen.

"This jobs a joke! It's not like anyone that not supposes to be here ever comes here," it said.

"The boss knows nothing else lives in the forest." The voice trialed off again. He must be muttering to himself Jesse thought. That why there was so many random breaks. Jesse had to stifle his laughter. The poor thing that was making all this noise was quite funny now that Jesse had all the pieces of the puzzle to put together.

"Stupid job" the noise said. He was starting up again. Jesse thought it was a he anyway. A girl's voice would have been higher, sharper even. This voice was lower, but not deep.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid. A total waist of time! No one in their right mind would ever want to come here even if they could find it. They just stuck me here because they wanted to get rid of me. Just plain stupid waste of" then the voice just stopped. It got quite very quickly. Jesse held his breath. He waited for the voice to start up again, but it did not. He was unsure. Should he turn around and go back? What if the voice had heard his laughing? If he did not leave soon he might be discovered. He did not know if he wanted to be discovered. He started to turn slowly so that he could back up. That was when he felt the knife at his back.

"Don't make a single move," said the voice. Jesse began to panic. He managed to stay motionless. The dagger at his back helped with that.

"Maybe this wasn't such a waist of time after all," said the voice. Jesse felt something hard hit the back of his head and everything went black.