MCSM: Shattered Souls [COMPLETED]

20- In Which Silence Really Is Golden

My boots made a slight crunching noise as I stepped onto the white ground, but nothing else happened. Perfect, chilly, silence hung in the air, filling my head and sending my nerves on edge.

I took a few more steps, waiting to see if anything would change. Nothing did. Not yet.

Jaq and Justin followed me, both looking warily around. The area could really only be called 'desolate', nothing near but the cold snow underfoot, and a frozen river several yards ahead. Luckily, the snow was more packed than powdery, which didn't make it too difficult to walk though.

For some reason, it felt like the plain demanded silence. It was perfectly, eerily quiet- not the serene lack of noise during a snowfall, I noticed, but the ominous sort of horror-movie quiet that comes before a terrifying monster devours a side character.

Sometimes I really hate my imagination.

"What d'you think we have to do?" Jaq ask softly. I nearly jumped out of my skin, whirling around to face her and almost tripping over my own feet.

She raised an eyebrow at my reaction. "Skittish much?"

I nodded, trying to swallow down my fear. "I don't think I like how quiet it is."

Jaq just shrugged dismissively, and added, "Aren't snow biomes usually pretty noiseless?"

Yeah, but not like this. I thought.

Justin had gone a few feet ahead, and had his hand up, shielding his eyes. "I think I see something over that way."

"What kind of something?" I asked warily, my voice hardly more than a murmur. He squinted. "I think it's ice spikes. Makes sense, I suppose."

We started towards the supposed ice spikes without another word, seeing no other likely destination. Jaq's comment about the swamp earlier stuck in my mind, since so far this seemed to be a repeat of that.

Except with less people.

I shook my head slowly, as though the motion could rid me of the morose thoughts circling my head. I couldn't let myself dwell on the deaths, not yet. Not when there was another mystery to solve, another fight to be won. But I knew I could only hold back the sorrow for so long. I've never been good at denying my emotions, and I was starting to feel like a dam about to break.

We crossed the frozen river, stumbling slightly on the slick ice. I could see now that Justin was right; there were ice spikes just a little ways ahead of us. Hopefully our challenge was hidden somewhere in there.

I still felt very on edge, though Jaq didn't seem to share my worries. "I haven't seen snow in years. I forgot how bright it was."

Justin kicked a lump of snow, briefly scattering the white flakes. "Yeah. But at least it's not snowing- then we'd have no way to see where we were going."

I didn't say anything, though I thought Justin's comment was a bit pointless. If Entity 303 had wanted it to snow, it would be snowing. He wanted us to go to the spikes, wanted to give us a clear view of where we were.

I must've looked somewhat anxious, because Jaq glanced over at me and said, "Jesse, you're paranoid. Weren't you the one who was just giving us pep talks?"

I sighed. "Yeah. I just...I don't know what's up with me. I don't like this."

"At least nothing's swooping down to murder us." Justin pointed out.

"At least there's no lava." Jaq added.

"No snakes." Justin returned. He was grinning.

"No reliving terrifying old memories." Jaq said primly.