What the Morning Brings | #NaNoWriMo2018

[ 09 ]

ORI

It was like stumbling blind through a tunnel of malice. The ground sucked greedily at his feet, trying to swallow him up like a black hole.

He reached out in front of him, but there was nothing there, and his fingers clawed at empty air. Already, he could feel the claustrophobia sinking in. His thoughts rushed back to the corn maze, and corn stalks formed from the flower petals, looming tall and sinister on all sides. Crows cawed at him, swooping across his vision and nipping at his skin before dissolving into petals.

He tried to step forward, but the ground refused to release him. An inky vine coiled around his ankle, and he tripped, his arms sinking elbow-deep into the pitch-black petals. With his arms pinned to his sides, there was nothing to cushion his fall. The darkness weighed his limbs down, pulling him closer and closer until he knew that he wouldn't be able to get up again.

"Help!" he shouted, his cry echoing in the nothingness. "Help!" he repeated one last time before his eyes and mouth were submerged. The darkness flooded in before he could press his lips shut, filling him with a desolate numbness.

He was floating, trapped like a fly in honey. His mind grew fuzzy and his thoughts blurred, their edges seeping into each other until they were indistinguishable. His pulse slowed, like his entire body had been frozen. Just as he felt himself fading into unconsciousness, he felt a warm hand pulling him up.

The blackness bucked away from his savior's touch while he gasped for breath like a fish, spitting shadows from his throat. He wiped the black from his eyes, and for a second he thought he saw Blithe, a halo woven of sunlight crowning her head.

But then he blinked, and he saw that it was Woe, her face grim and angry. She pulled him forward until his feet found traction and he was able to stand again. When she let go, he felt the slightest pull on his feet, as if the shadow-flowers were trying to swallow him, and he picked up the pace. Light shone up ahead, marking the end of the whorling tunnel. Woe grabbed his hand again and the tug on his feet disappeared. She yanked him into the light.

Ori blinked dazedly, his vision returning in spots and blurs.

Woe snapped her fingers and the whorling flowers behind them vanished into thin air. She glared at him silently, and he averted his eyes, using the opportunity to scan his surroundings. They were in what must have been her tent. Gauzy curtains draped across the windows, blocking the sun from entering, but a small rose-shaped light illuminated the room from the corner.

"What were you thinking?" she hissed, and he snapped his attention back to her. "Don't you realize how incredibly dangerous and stupid that was?"

Ori said nothing. "Do you even know what that stuff was?" she sighed.

Ori shook his head, feeling like an idiot. He'd done it again, blindly acting without stopping to think about what he was getting himself into. All he had known was that she had answers, and he needed them.

"That was gloom," she said. "A shadow portal." Ori stared at her blankly and she rolled her eyes. "That stuff could've killed you. Worse, it could've ensnared you and kept you there in a coma-like state forever, feeding off of your fears. After they'd been leached away, the gloom would spit you out. You'd be nothing but a shell, devoid of a soul."

"Oh," Ori managed, running a finger through his dark, disheveled hair. "Thank you?"

"You owe me," Woe snapped. "I'm not going to be around to save you next time you pull a stunt like that. If you want to survive in this circus, you have to get your act together. You can't trust anything or anyone. That includes me," she added. She crossed her arms, waiting for him to respond, but his brain had forgotten how to formulate sentences.