It's dark and the floor is wet.
There are screams coming from the walls, or so it seems. Nothing is real anymore. Everything is so close. Maybe I should retreat, but Ancient tells me to go on.
I wish I could beg for my life. I wish I could run, but my feet stay in a slow, forward motion.
Ancient says it'll forgive me. If I find the right door and open it. If I'm able to. I don't think I'll forgive myself. Ancient feels my hesitancy. It makes me want to do this. I fall to my feet, helpless, as if I'm bowing to the darkness ahead.
There are many ways, Ancient told me. None of them as clear as the Hymn. None of them as pure as the Singer. You must know this, if you'll be forgiven.
I can't move. I feel Ancient is watching. But it is not the one doing this to me.
"Child," Ancient's voice echoes through the corridor. "Get up."
"I cannot." I cry.
"Get up, now. Find me the Hymn." It says, and I can sense it's angry.
I hear a melody come from afar. It's the one I heard in the woods, many years ago. I try to get up - follow it. Ancient tries to help me, but its strength is almost comical in the corridor. The cut in my knee is bleeding, and I still can't move.
"Fetch me the tallest of leaves," I sing, while tears wet my face. "Find me in the silence of the trees / The windows shall open where she sleeps."
"Stop!" Ancient screams. "The corridor will not hear it."
"Tear apart the seeds and streams / For it lies within the monster's creek." I do not stop. Maybe I'll never be forgiven, but I feel my legs move, and I reach for the next door. "The key of doors and endless dreams."
"The lovers will find you if you're near / Demons and strangers, hear my prayer / I don't believe their ghosts are here." I know it's the Singer. I follow her voice.
Ancient is talking to me, but I cannot listen. I open the door.
YOU ARE READING
What is Unsolved and Seldom Strange
FantasyHugo doesn't know happiness, he thinks. He knows the relief of telling his Mum he is a boy, and he knows the comfort of hanging out in the woods. Until he meets COUM, Club of Unsolved Mysteries, a fake-literary club that actually hunts monsters, and...
