Blood and Beasts

Chapter 39

It wasn't stars that Jack was seeing up above, as he originally thought, they were bodies. He stepped out of the red glow of the blood onto solid stone, following the boy who was still walking on ahead of them. Rachel was in his arms and growing heavier as her missing limbs grew back. The thin, wilted legs she now had were not enough to support her, and so Jack continued to hold her.

The blood had come to a stop at the edge of this stone, both the blood and the ceiling of bodies chained together. It was the same black obsidian that had covered most of their journey, but the significant difference was that this time it was completely flat, all the way across the landscape, shimmering at points from some unknown light source.

And it stretched out infinitely before them, just as the ceiling of suffering bodies, and the floor of blood stretched to infinity behind them. They were at the edge now, but of what exactly, Jack lacked the words to say.

The sky above was just as vast, and far darker than the stone. But there were breaks in that black; tiny specks of light moved through the sky, like shooting stars Jack thought. But all were falling downwards.

He tightened his grip on Rachel's fragile form and kept following the young boy leading their way. The boy kept his distance, and kept his steady pace.

"Jack, what is this place?" Rachel asked through blurry eyes. He wished he could say with certainty. He didn't know if his answer was in anyway honest or just desperation.

"I think it's our way home." He glanced around periodically as they walked further and further. To his surprise he saw other people running along the obsidian field, running away from the blood. They ran faster than Jack was moving, and as he watched them, they ran farther and farther, disappearing into the vast darkness.

"I'll try walking now," Rachel said eventually, sounding closer to herself. Jack had been so focused on the surroundings; he hadn't realized that Rachel's body was fully formed again. A look down at her naked figure, the feel of her in his arms, it brought back a flash of that voice running through his head, the desire to hurt her.

He hastily set her down and turned away, his attention solely on the boy.

I will not do that to her. It is this place. I will not fall to it.

"Who is this child?" Rachel asked, breaking his dark thoughts.

"I'm not certain, but there's a chance it might be..." He shook his head. It seemed like a crazy possibility. Or maybe more wishful thinking. Rachel didn't ask anymore. And they continued walking in silence. The time passed in that unknowable way only possible in this dimension. But as they moved along the tiny stars in the sky grew larger. Larger to the point that they no longer resembled stars.

And then Jack saw it, what the stars were and where they were heading. The stars were people, falling through an eternal abyss, falling forever. And the obsidian floor they were crossing didn't go on forever. There was a ledge up ahead, and a chasm that these bodies were falling into. And the people running along that he'd been watching, they were running to the edge too and tumbling off.

The boy had finally stopped, standing at the ledge, now turning back to face them. Jack and Rachel approached cautiously. The chasm seemed to have its own energy, a sound outside of what they could understand. And it was eternally black. There was nothing over this ledge, only inescapable darkness. Jack backed away quickly, taking Rachel's hand and pulling her back, suddenly convinced that the boy had brought them here to push them over the ledge. The boy was still standing by the ledge though, looking at them calmly, a peaceful smile on his face.