Decemberland

Chapter 40: The Change

The world moved by at a sluggish pace, but the last second always escaped her memory. The concept of memory, remembering… What was she doing again? She held someone’s hand, who she felt very familiar with. The name ‘Trust’ flew into her head. Was that the man who held her hand? The one who’s coat tails brushed her legs as he frantically dragged her around to who knows where?

The walls rose in front of her from the ground up. Rolling seas of grass expanded in front of her forever. Trees sprouted from the ground above her and surrounded her. Time had no presence in her head. Her senses made no sense—smelling sounds, feeling with her eyes, tasting with her feet—The world wouldn’t stop moving even when she did. Then, all too suddenly, everything came back together.

“Clarity,” cooed a gentle, welcoming voice, “We’re here.”

Trust spun around, flashing a vile, creature-like grin across his paler than normal skin, pinning her with sickeningly loving and dilated eyes.

“That gravity disruption inside your brain messed you up a bit, huh?” he chuckled.

“Gravi… wha…?”

“Don’t worry about it. But hey, look around you!” he announced, throwing his hands up in the air, “Look at where we are!”

Clarity suddenly felt the breeze roll across her shoulders. Dizzily, she used her arms to keep her upright body balanced as she looked behind her. The tops of trees spread out miles before her, engulfing the land below in bushels of leaves of all different kinds. Far out in the distance she could see the tops of houses and chimneys from the town smoking away. And even further out stood the massive mountain that she had grown so familiar with for all of her life.

“Can you guess where we are?” he said softly into her ear. “That’s the magnificent, life bringing Mount Killrush. You know it pretty well, don’t you?”

Clarity almost thought she was sitting in the sky. She looked down at her hands and nervously adjusted them. Solid ground. Just ahead of her, however, was a ledge inviting her to a sudden, very long drop.

“Yeah, that’s right. This is the other mountain. Old Nameless, is what everyone down in the Valley calls it, right? No one can climb or conquer this thing, it’s far too steep and its base is unnaturally smooth. But here we are, sitting on it, far above the ground. And we’re not even at the top yet.”

Clarity turned towards his animalistic expression, as he backed away from her closer to the wall, eager for her to see what he had in store.

“This mountain holds a dazzling secret. The minerals inside it can make any ordinary man a king with a single handful of its star-like composition. Stone undiscovered by any race before. It’s fantastic, and this little village is sitting right on top of it without even knowing it. Want me to show you?”

Clarity hesitated. “I…”

“You what? You don’t want to see the inner beauty of this giant, ugly rock?”

“I have to go back to the Valley… back to Nico… I hit her… I have to tell her I didn’t mean it--”

“No.” Before she could figure out how, Trust’s ugly grimace flew into her face just three inches away from butting heads, making her jump out of her skin. His eyes briefly flowed with a dark black as the intimidation of his voice boomed into her ears. “She is the last person you want to go to. It’s because of her that your life is ruined. She sees you just like the rest of them do—a tool.”

Her mind didn’t have to comprehend it as fast as her heart did, because his words instantly stung her heart and weakened her body.

“Why would you say that?” she asked, her voice quivering.