Inky Nebula

Chapter Two

"River? Show me that picture again" "Quilla are you okay?" asked River, as he caught me when I almost fell to the floor, frozen as to what I saw on that image on his phone. "I said show me that photo" feeling dizzy and sick to my stomach, I snatched his phone and zoomed into the picture, "It's him, it's definitely...HIM" I whispered, dropping his phone . "Woah, hey! It's who?" asked River, picking up his 'bestie' "Quilla, you actually know this guy? You need to tell me everything because I'm the only one you can trust" "I need to go River" I finally stood up, "Go where? You're not okay and this is not the time to shut me out, we need to talk about this before it's too late, Quill-" "I'm leaving River! One thing I don't get is HOW and WHY you know about this!? Are you behind it all? Am I going crazy? How in the world are you involved in this hmm? TELL ME!!" I cried, as he pulled my hand when I made my way to the door.

"Look, before you slam that door I just want you to know that you're not safe Quilla, since you came back from that...PLACE, you might have thought that you were finally out of the woods, literally, but really, IT'S ONLY THE BEGINNING of a terrible power coming out to get you at all costs, so you have to trust me" he said. " Firstly River, I want to know how you know about all of this because I'm really not in the mood for some little prank you might be masterminding" I came back into the room. " Ok...you promise not freak out?" he asked, closing his eyes. I shrugged, throwing a 'meh' expression right on his face.

"So, remember two years ago, after my graduation party? I went to the FilmFest by the lake with Zee, then, a few hours later when her curfew was almost over, I dropped her by her house then went back to see if I could score a few chiks there since I was loaded that time, apparently, I found this hottie whom I screwed by the restrooms then after, I left her to go see others by the bar, and that's when I met Nick and Matt, two guys whom I ended up taking shots with, then that's when they told me about themselves; about how they were passing by and were looking for a dude who'd do them a small favor in exchange of a DEAL OF A LIFETIME" "Wait, so you trust people you just met? River that's really stupid of you, and I know you're stupid, but that takes the cup" "Did I say you should interrupt?" he asked, "No but...go on".

"Thank you" he rolled his eyes "Anyways, I couldn't be easily fooled so I asked them what this 'FAVOR' was and they told me they'd come back to the lake in a month and that I'd meet them there, to tell me about everything since it clearly wasn't the right time, that's when we exchanged numbers and shot more beers, that night I pretended to go home when they got in their black Maserati GranTurismo, which I think Nick was the driver of the car, and I was like 'sh** these losers are loaded' so I followed them as I made sure they didn't see me and when they drove past a hill by ThruGate Road near the rosemary field, the most bizarre thing happened...they disappeared"

"They disappeared? Like woosh? Into thin air?" I threw my hands into the air, shaking my head in disbelief "You don't believe me? I knew it, but, tell me something Quillz, how do you not believe people disappearing into thin air when you keep seeing things and have survived a death maze with terrifying creatures? Don't you think I thought I was crazy too!? I thought I was dreaming or maybe it was the alcohol but I knew what I SAW!" he yelled "And you couldn't tell me sooner!? Or yet, give a sh** when I disappeared!? Or wait!...even tell my mom the truth of my whereabouts since you clearly knew and possibly was the one behind me missing!?" I walked up to him, furiously curious of how he had a part to play in this sick game.

"Look Quill, I can explain, I wasn't sure that time if your disappearance was about...The Pismis..." "Huh!?" I jumped "I think that's what they call that PLACE, The Pismis, anyway, please let me finish" "Ok" I patiently sighed. "So that night I couldn't believe what had just happened and I didn't know who to call or ask about people vanishing into thin air, except for the two guys who actually disappeared. But I tried so hard to keep my cool and wait for them until they'd come back in a month, hopefully. And they did, I got a text from them on the 29th of November at 03:31, it read, 'Hey River, meet us by the lake at 05:00, remember the deal of a lifetime? It's waiting for you', and finally after so many weeks waiting for them I had to go, only one problem though, these two were very shady and were sending out huge red flags on them being Satanic or whatever, but hey, a deal with the devil is a deal with the devil, so just in case, I brought my gun, got in my car and drove off in the early hours of late November. I finally got there and this time, there was a silver MacLaren MP4-12C parked by the lake, and Nick and Matt chilled by a bench hitting a 405 joint when they signalled to me, I came over and they passed me one, and I think they noticed I was now crazy chill so we started talking. Matt said I wasn't dreaming that night when I saw them vanish, he said they actually came from a 'negative dimension' adjacent to ours so they were breaking the rules a bit in order to get what was leaked from their world into ours, and that THEY couldn't get 'it' because they weren't from this world, so their 'WIRINGS' were different, so that's when they asked me to get what they so desperately needed in exchange of-"

"The deal of a lifetime! Could you get to the part where this has anything to do with me River!?" I rolled my eyes. "Quill they were looking for a soul that possessed a powerful force that would make the two worlds remain separate because theirs was becoming star dust, as it meant that their power was also becoming nothingness, I think, and I guess that was important to them...I don't know, something like that, it was so confusing and I didn't care, what I wanted was my reward instead, so they asked if I knew a 19 year old girl whose name is Quilla Aurelia, and...I, uh...hesitated okay?" he said, avoiding any eye contact "YOU sold me out to demons!? River!! You threatened my life for some stupid reward!!? Do you have any idea what you've done to me!!?" I cried feeling more alone than I'd ever been and so confused at the same time. " You know what? From now on don't ever call me River, you're DEAD TO ME!" "Quilla wait I'm sorry, but I think I know how to fix all of this, if you can just let me finish" he blocked me from going out the door, "Get out of my way River! You're a sh***y cousin you know? Right now my life's in ruins because of you" I struggled.

He then locked the door and begged me to listen to him if I wanted to survive this. "Quilla I'm really sorry for involving you in all this crap, I was naive and selfish at the time and I wish I could go back and undo what I did to you, but right now, I don't think I can, but what I can do is atleast help you to solve this okay?" "Talk River!" I yelled. "So a few days later, I directed them to your house, and after I asked them what they were gonna do with you, they told me that to make sure that it was you they were looking for, they were gonna put you in a trance where you'd probably feel like taking a walk then walk until you end up in their DEATH MAZE FOREST which they call The Pismis, which is like a gateway between our world and theirs, where you'd have to either survive or die there, and if you survive, the Blue-Painted Shadow would approach you to take your soul to their world where I don't know from there what they'd do with it, but as for the person who died in The Pismis, their soul would be doomed and forced to stay there forever...I think. Then that afternoon, regretful and scared AF, when you came back from your varsity tour with your dad, I wanted to tell you that I might have made a horrible mistake, but I couldn't because I knew you wouldn't have believed me, I wouldn't have believed me either, so I decided to go back home. Later that night outside your house, I saw Nick on top of your bedroom roof, star gazing, so I sent him a text for my reward, and he just looked at his phone then put it back in his pocket, so that's when I realized there was no reward, and that I had sold my cousin to a dark-haired devil, he then disappeared in a strange cloud of shattered glassy little thingies, and that's the last time I ever saw him, so two years passed until I heard you were missing, and I didn't think it had to be about THEM, because a long time had passed plus I was still haunted by the fact that I had done wrong to you" he said, trying to dodge my I'm-going-to-kill-you-after-all-this face every time his story got weirder and more worse.

"Wow I don't know what to say or do" I started to cry and fell to the floor, River gave me a very apologetic hug and he carried on, "Look Quilla, I think they put a group of you guys under a trance so you'd end up in that place, to see who it really was they were looking for, and honestly, I think it was you, because you were the only one who came back" "yeah, I think so too. I know that guy, he was with us, in that place, we were all so lost and confused but we kept on moving through the thick, grey bush, and each and everyday, one of us died...but I never thought...Scott would die and that he was still THERE, and I don't understand how they found his body because when you're in THERE, you can't see even one thing that belongs in your world, whether it be a house, another person or technology, there's NOTHING in there but death, and I was lucky to have escaped, but it haunted me that there were people I had left back in there" I shivered, blowing my nose into a warm tissue, "So the Shadow!?" I lifted my head, "I only know that it comes for you after you've survived The Pismis or when you died in it, I-" "Wait!" I interrupted, "So the Shadow, is the one preying on me, because I survived in The Pismis, it had to come to take me away, but since I escaped, it came to find me, now it's after Mauve because she kept on telling Mom and I about a blue shadow making circles around her, I think it's trying to use her to get to me" I cried again, fearful of how I could stop this, and then, I had an idea. "Do you still have Nick and Matt's number!?" "Yeah, why?...Ohh, but do you think they still using it? I mean it's been a whole two years Quilla, plus I don't think these things work in another dimension" he shrugged, waving his phone.

"So when you had an 'idea' of how to solve this mess you've put me through, what did you think you were gonna do?" I asked, looking at his idiot face "Oh yeah, I thought me telling you about what I've done would make us work together in finding out what to do next about this whole 'situation' " he slapped his forehead, after realizing why I always called him an idiot. "Ok so lemme see those digits, it's time to dial the devil".