*** Hey guys! Just a note: unedited and not really reviewed or edited yet since writing it, but I'll be re-uploading the final edited "more meticulously edited final" version for every chapter anyway, so... For these three parts (since they're so boring) I'm just randomly impulsively uploading, which is probably a bad idea, but eh w/e... if I am ever able to manage to finish this thing in time to enter for the Wattys, it will obviously be cleaned up, so... please forgive any egregious errors! If anything is too glaring or too big of a typo that really bothers you, please drop me a msg so I can fix it and at the very least keep it readable for you guys!!
Again, thank you guys SO much for your patience with this... you know I love YOU!!! <3 ***
"Not the God," Henry said, his brow furrowed. "But a God."
I was more confused than ever. "What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
Henry stayed hunched over to avoid putting his head into the short, mushy ceiling above us. His head was cocked, face concentrated as though straining to listen to something very faint.
"He doesn't know either," Henry said finally. "I think—I think he means there are others... others like me."
Henry's family? Or just other people like him?
"That's great," I said again... but this time I felt optimism.
If Henry could be reunited with his family, then at least SOME good could come out all this craziness.
"Where are they?" I asked hopefully.
Henry paused. "He doesn't know—he's never seen one."
Of course.
"Well how does he know?"
Henry shrugged. "He just always has."
I don't know if it was the abruptness of the let-down—or the fact that my head suddenly bumped into the mushy ceiling and a small river of warm, slimy goo ran started running down my hair and neck—but I started feeling really claustrophobic. I've never had a problem with enclosed spaces before, but here?
This place?
It suddenly felt like the thick, moist walls of this disgusting little pulsating-flesh-bubble were closing in on me, crushing and constricting the air (if that's even what I was really breathing), making it hard to get a full breath. Maybe that's what happened in this gross, weird place—the slimy walls would keep closing in, slowly strangling away all of the air and space, growing and bubbling around us, all the way until we were finally squeezed to death by—
"Let's go," Henry said.
He swung around quickly, revealing the small figure cowering up against the wall, and I suddenly forgot all about claustrophobia.
What the...?
It (he) was the size of a small child, about as tall as my waist. He (it) reminded me of a giant, carnival prize teddy-bear—except instead of soft, cuddly fur, his bare skin was hairless and tan, like a mocha color. I could see pretty big biceps and calves, so it was physically somewhat similar to me and Henry. His eyes were two huge, completely black round orbs. No clothes... no genitals.
That I could see, anyways.
"Ava?"
Henry had already somehow hopped up out of the hole. His hand was extended from above, reaching down to help me up.
I took one last look at the creature—it remained crouched up against the wall, eyes huge and expressionless—before grabbing Henry's hand and ungracefully clamoring my way out of the hovel.
The daylight glowed that bright, ephemeral yellow—I had to squint until my eyes adjusted. Henry was already striding back towards the Civic before I was even up off the soft, comfortable ground.
"Wait, Henry—"
"We have to move quickly," he called out over his shoulder, not slowing down. "We—"
"Henry, STOP!" I shouted.
He stopped.
I strode angrily up to him. "Enough. I was fine with it before, Henry, but you can talk to me now." My eyes suddenly began to burn with the sting of tears. "I can't do this anymore, Henry. I'm so scared, and lost, and I have no idea what's going on. Don't do this to me." My voice cracked. "Please."
My chest suddenly tightened, a sharp pain, then loosened—
And before I knew it, I was in Henry's arms.
"Of course, Ava, I'm so sorry," he whispered, his face lightly touching my hair. "I don't know what's happening to me." He pulled away, my body slipping out of his wonderful arms but holding onto mine. His cheek brushed across mine, and I felt a sudden wetness there that wasn't my own.
"Please, tell me what you need," he said, his beautiful silver eyes slowly turning and glistening.
I took his hand.
"To know," I said. "Everything."
He nodded, squeezing back. His jaw was set, his full lips pursed; his hair hung down over his face, shadowing part of it. "I still can't remember anything... but I learned an incredible amount from the Caretaker."
"The who?"
He pointed over my shoulder.
The creature was standing outside of his hole.
"Him?" I said incredibly. "He's the Caretaker?"
"Yes." Henry nodded. "He takes care of this place."
"Which is?"
"The Junkyard."
I glanced at the Civic, which sat alone in the vast, flat never-ending green plain. "Uh..."
Henry smiled, and I felt the vise that had been around my heart suddenly loosen. It's super-cringy, but just seeing his smile somehow made me feel, like...
I don't know.
That no matter how all this turned out... it would be alright in the end, I guess.
"Every once in a while, they find... things here," Henry said. "Objects. The Junkyard goes on for miles; he doesn't know how far. He travels and collects the things that occasionally appear."
"What the hell kind of things appear here?" I said. Besides Honda Civics?
"Gifts from the Gods," Henry answered.
The creature hesitantly began to approach us. It inched forward, unsure, his large head cocked and giant eyes curious. He didn't really have fingers or toes; his hands were like big mittens that opened and closed.
I guess he was kinda cute.
But eh.
"But what's more important," Henry said, "is that he's seen something like the dark entity."
My heart starting pumping just at the mention of it. "How is that more important?"
"I don't know. But I'm connected to it somehow, Ava. I don't know how, or why, but I can feel it. The answer is there... I know it."
It was so striking to listen to him speak. He was still the same Henry that jumped into my car, the same Henry who had saved my life, but now he was... something more. To actually see him have such conviction in his words was a real trip.
"There's a place... a path..." Henry said, brow furrowed in concentration.
The creature inched closer.
"A path," Henry repeated, "that leads to a place where he saw something like it." He turned to me. "It's far, Ava. Really far. It would take us months."
His words echoed in my head.
Months? How could we even survive that? I had a couple of bottles of water in the Civic, and maybe an old granola bar under passenger seat, but that was it. I looked at Henry—no matter how differently he could speak now, his face was the same one that I'd always known and loved since the very beginning. I saw the same worry, concern; the same puppy dog anxious look he always got... but I also saw—
Belief.
Besides, I've never exactly been known for my great decision making.
I took his hand, unable to resist smiling at his beautiful, unsure face. "Come on."