The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 3 🔻 Into the Light

Getting out through the gate had been way easier than I thought it would be. The hollow guards rolled their eyes at me and lifted the gate high enough for me to creep under. To them, I was just another crazy scavenger, off to scrounge the Dark and its monsters—off to face death.

And death surrounded me in the form of humming blackness as the enormous gate slammed shut behind me, a morbid finality in the sound. How long had it been since I had first appeared out here in the Dark? Without a sun, days and nights seemed to be a lost concept in the afterlife. Weeks or even months might've passed for all I knew. Regardless, I was keen on leaving this miserable place. I wanted to go back home—my home—where things made sense. It didn't matter if I couldn't even remember where home was at the moment. I shuffled through sand, the crimson beam of my flashlight illuminating my immediate vicinity. Every few steps I took, something would hiss or squeal from the darkness beyond the reach of my light. I'd aim my flashlight in time to see a shadowy figure slither back into the inky, formless void.

I quickened my pace.

Grains of sand kicked up my wake, and the incessant wind carried them away. I ran through the desert like a wild animal; erratic, instinctual. Some innate compulsion drove me deeper and deeper into the Dark. I glanced over my shoulder at the distant, receding silhouette of After and said my silent goodbyes to Webb and Vale and the other red blade-wielding weirdos of After. It'd been...interesting, but I certainly hoped I'd never see them all again.

Something flapped through the air above me, and I jumped at the sudden cawing of a crow. I froze in my tracks until the unseen crow faded from earshot.

My heartbeat pounded in my ears, drowning out the wind.

I felt so alive.

I shut my eyes and tried to summon that feeling in my chest again when I'd last called for the Light.

Something shrieked a few feet away from me. This time, it wasn't a crow. My muscles tensed. Ice stung my veins. A visceral sensation that I didn't miss, but that was so innately human, swallowed me, threatening to paralyze me.

Fear.

I swiveled my head to aim my light. A flash of eye shine disappeared into the dark with a hiss.

I ran again, succumbing to my fear despite how much I fought against it. I stifled the memory of claws raking flesh and coldness seeping from my body instead of blood. I had to get out of here.

Faster. Faster.

Scurrying footsteps chased me. I willed my legs faster and kept sifting through the void inside me, searching for a spark of Light. It had to be there somewhere...

I cried out when something brushed against me, making me drop my flashlight. I kept on running, blind.

Faster. Faster. Faster!

The sound of hissing reverberated in my skull. I searched my soul like I was a drowning person desperately clawing for the water's surface. In my head, I screamed for the Light, willing it to appear before me. That warmth filled my chest.

Then light filled my vision—beautiful, blinding white Light.

The shadow squealed again. A fingered limb reached from behind me over my shoulder. Its broken fingernails scraped against my face, almost caressing it.

With a scream, I threw myself into the whiteness I'd summoned.

I fell into a hallway.

I stood there in that confined space while my eyes adjusted and my pulse slowed to a stop altogether. Except for the brilliant portal I stepped from, it was dark. Not as dark as...the Dark. Just a comforting dimness. I clicked my flashlight off, hoping to save the lux crystal charging it. With suspended breath, I tip-toed across the floorboards, my booted feet making no sound. The silence I swam in remained unbroken.