Decemberland

Chapter 46: Dimensionally Transcendent

The sky darkened three shades before she knew it, taking on a neon-purple, twilight tinge. Stars shone but the color still burned bright as if the sun were still out. Something resembling what Nico recognized as the moon peaked over the top of the walls the two of them had been walking alongside of, but there was a slight, undistinguishable difference about it that told her it wasn’t the moon she knew. Elliot did say, after all, that this place was separate from the world was familiar with. The thickness of the air as it rushed through her lungs, the feel of the earth beneath her tattering boots, the sense of time consistently displacing itself...

“Is it dusk already?” Nico asked, staring up at the sky above the walls.

“It’s been dusk for the past five hours,” Elliot replied without looking back at her, “I don’t know if you figured it out already or not, but time doesn’t exactly follow the same rules here as it did in the valley.”

“I guessed as much, but in case you don’t remember this is the first time I’ve been here, Mr. Master of the Universe.”

“Alright, smart aleck, you just be sure you stick by me and don’t get lost. The last thing you want to do in this place is lose me when we’re turning a corner because you can’t mentally adjust yourself to this place, because there’s a lot more you have to worry about here than the estranged passage of ti-”

It took Nico a moment to realize that the inside of the walls suddenly became dark. Elliot immediately became alert, jolting his head at the sudden wave of shade. Nico looked up with him, but only for a moment before Elliot tackled her into the side of the wall and covered her mouth.

“Stay quiet,” he whispered. Nico looked up to see that the sky wasn’t what turned dark. The silhouette of a mammoth figure blocked out the light from above, casting a shadow down onto the two of them. It lowered itself down to the tops of the walls until one giant red eye-ball with a black-dot pupil center stared down into the corridor of the maze they stood in.

“Damn shadow,” it growled, “I can’t see a thing.”

Nico’s body shook involuntarily. She knew that gruff tone. Trust had been creeping over the walls of the maze to find her.

“I know you’re around here somewhere. I sensed you at the first plaza.”

Elliot nudged her for attention. He put a finger to his mouth and then pointed in the direction they had been going. Nico nodded, and gripped her arm tightly to stop herself from shaking. He took the lead and she followed, tip-toeing to the next turn. Except instead of turning around the corner, Elliot silently gestured her to the face of the wall.

“You couldn’t have gone that far yet… I’ll find you eventually.”

Elliot pressed his hand against the wall very slightly, and as if an invisible blade were cutting through the wall, the shape of a door outlined and depressed itself into the wall until it disappeared from view. Trust had notably crawled further away from them by the time the hidden passageway revealed itself.

“I’m pretty sure he’s gone,” Elliot said in a low tone, “Follow me.”

He ducked his head and carefully treaded into the dark hole. Nico examined every inch of the doorway and stared down into the darkness in utter disbelief.

“Shouldn’t there be another side to this wall?”

“Do yourself a favor and suspend your disbelief of logic in general while you’re here. Otherwise you’re going to get a headache.”

“Great advice. How did you even know this was here?”

“Master of the Universe, remember?”