The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 10 🔻 Can't Wake Up

In one swift motion, the blade of a halberd cut the shadow's head from its body and sent it flying. The head landed at my feet, splattering black, oily shadow blood all over me. I swallowed and tore my gaze away from the creature's lolling tongue and rolled-back eyes. Ahead of me, Vale blinked as clarity returned to her once blank face.

Between her and me stood Blackburne, looking as noble and immaculate as his statue as his cape billowed around him. A trail of shadow corpses melted behind him. The scarred hollow didn't bother extending a clawed hand to Vale. Instead, he pulled an old rag from beneath his cloak and used it to clean his blade. "Alright there, Vale?" he asked, not looking away from the lux he polished. "It's not like you freeze like that."

I bit my lip. I had frozen too. After all the times Vale came to my aid, why hadn't I been able to do the same for her? I hurried to her side and helped her up.

"It was so weird..." she muttered under her breath, as if talking to herself. "Everything just...went black for a moment."

All three of us looked past the severed head that dissolved into a puddle in the street with a gurgle. The dust cleared. The rest of the shadows had been slain. Hollows that lay motionless in the streets were evaporating, crumbling away like ashes in the wind. Silence weighed heavily on an already oppressive atmosphere.

What had I done?

How did I end up here, in a city full of rising ashes, fighting off monsters? What would the former Skye Rhee, too shy to even raise a hand in class, had thought of that?

Reynard raced up to the scarred king. He appeared fully healed from his battle with the prince, and he narrowed both his eyes as he addressed Blackburne. "Sire!" he cried. "The shadows had torn their way through the wall about a block down!"

Blackburne raised his chin. "Have repairs been made yet?"

"Yes, sir! We've repaired what we can, but we've run out of material."

Blackburne nodded. "Good. Gather the team, and we'll head out to scavenge for more."

The other hollow looked doubtful as he stroked his fingers through the graying goatee on his chin. "Do you really think we'll be able to find enough scraps? It's been slimmer and slimmer pickings out there as of late...Should we increase the scavenging radius around the city-?"

"No," Blackburne barked, making the other hollow jump. "You know the law. No one wanders off too far in the Dark. It's too dangerous. There's nothing out there but shadows. I know that for a fact. We will remain within the border."

Reynard bowed his head and hurried away like a rat returning to its gutter. Meanwhile, a crowd of other hollows gathered around their king. I watched in sick fascination as they reached for him to grasp at his cape like beggars, uttering words of praise and awe, like he was some kind of god. Their king, meanwhile, paid them all no mind as he finished cleaning his blade. He kept his black eyes averted as he left Vale and me, pulling his cloak free and stepping over his praisers and decaying hollows alike, casting none of them a second glance.

I clenched my fists at the sight. I stomped after him. "What about the hollows who died?" I yelled.

Blackburne paused and looked over his shoulder at me with hooded eyes. "What about them?" There was no hint of malice in his voice, only cold indifference.

I was struck dumb. Another body withered into dust between the two of us. The ashen flakes of what had formerly been a human soul rose to the black sky, where they disappeared. "They...died," I said. "People died. Don't you have a service for them? Or a memorial?"

Or at least some shred of respect?

Blackburne stared me down. Surrounded by the dust of our fallen comrades, he said, "What do you propose we do? They've all evaporated already." He waved a dismissive hand to clear the air of ashes as if they were some nuisance. Luxlight gleamed from his gauntlet.