Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

The Rejected

"Oh," Kai's were comically wide as he looked, bewildered, at the familiar shattered lantern in front of them. Tulip didn't speak, her mouth wide as she stared. A million concerns and theories raced through her head, and none of them good. She shook her head, trying to clear it. She couldn't help but think of the destroyed lantern as spider-like, with the thin metal twisting out in every direction like legs, and the destroyed base underneath it, with a small fire in the middle, illuminating everything yet burning from nothing.

"Who's lantern is that?" Kai asked out loud, echoing Tulip's own thoughts. "Is it Jolene's? Or Mira's?"

A bead of sweat broke out along Kai's eyebrow. "Was it one of them screaming before...?"

Tulip frowned. The suggestion sent a shiver down her spine, but she forced her creeps away. "That noise didn't sound like either of them," she pointed out. "Besides, maybe this lantern is somebody else's, and it was just left down here."

Kai gulped. It didn't look like he believed that. Tulip shakily stepped forward, kneeling on the ground in front of the light.

"It doesn't really matter," she said. Being as careful as possible, Tulip gathered up select pieces of the lantern, trying to arrange it so that it could be carried without touching the fire. She remembered Kipo before saying something about being able to touch this fire, but she wasn't about to experiment, not with her leg like this, at least. "Now, we have fire, see? And we can use it to navigate around, so you don't need to keep holding onto that wall."

Kai made a noise that suggested he wasn't even aware he was still doing that. "Oh, right, I gue-Oh!"

Tulip startled, turning around quickly at Kai's gasp. She stared at him wide-eyed, while Kai looked from her, to his arm, and back. Tulip followed his gaze, and her eyes widened impossibly bigger. Somehow, it looked like his hand was clipping through the wall.

"Um... uh..." After a second of panic, Kai had the sense to pull his hand back to himself, away from the wall. Tulip stood up, hurrying to his side, where she studied the wall closely. It looked like a normal wall, but... Tulip stuck out her hand. It didn't register the wall at all, passing right through like Kai's hand did.

"A fake wall...?" Tulip wondered out loud.

"I-Is this a trick of our mind, t-too?" Kai asked her, and Tulip rolled her eyes.

"No, I think this is something else," she replied, though she suspected Kai was probably just joking. Tulip's eyes narrowed, as she stepped closer. Kai made a strange wheezing noise.

"You're not going to go IN there-?" he started asking, but Tulip motioned for him to stay quiet. Together, they fell silent, and, as Tulip suspected, they heard the whispers. But these weren't the whispers like before, meant to scare, this was an actual conversation. Kai and Tulip strained to listen.

They couldn't. This conversation was obviously not meant to be overheard, but it wasn't a complete bust. Tulip and Kai exchanged glances when they heard Jolene's distinct voice in there, talking with someone else. Jolene sounded angry, but Tulip couldn't hear why.

Frowning, Tulip spun around to the lantern, picking up the pieces she'd been arranging before and lifting it as a shodden makeshift lantern, terrible but functional. She turned around to see Kai staring at her in horror.

"You can't be planning to go in there!" he groaned. Tulip gave him a strange look.

"Jolene's in there," she pointed out. "We were looking for Jolene."

Kai made a face. "Yeah... but-."

They both suddenly froze, hearing at the same time. It wasn't hard, in fact, it seemed like it was trying to be noticeable: footsteps. Coming from the place they just came, and heading straight for them.