The rumbling grew louder and louder, the ground beginning to undulate under our feet.
Fairies?
I had no idea what that meant, but my heart started pounding—the fear was palpable in the air. The vast rolling plains fanned out across the dull, brown and gray landscape, the dull silvery cloudy sky above beginning to darken.
My hair was blown in my face, the wind suddenly whipping and whirling my hair around as the rumbling quickly turned into a roar.
"Henry!" I shouted over the roaring. "What's happening?!"
He looked at me, his eyes wide and afraid, shaking his head.
The noise was so loud I couldn't hear anything anymore. I dropped to a crouch, my hands over my ears, my hair violently whipping around and stinging my cheeks as the wind slammed against us. Henry knelt down, putting his arms around me tightly and burying his face into the back of my neck as the ground lurched and rolled underneath us.
My eyes peeked out from above Henry's forearm, the wind stinging—
Three pillars were slowly rising up in front of us.
They pulled and tore themselves up from the soft, pliable ground, stretching upwards as they reached for dark sky above, pulling tighter and tighter until the ground itself tore, stretched like taffy until it split apart—
And bled.
The wind and roaring was relentless, an overbearing never-ending chaotic furor that assaulted every sense and only grew more intense. Gleaming sparkles of gold light began to glint through the pulsing, bleeding flesh-like splitting ground.
Everything suddenly exploded into bright light.
Henry and I were knocked over. I couldn't see, hear, or even feel anything—nothing except an overwhelming, cacophonic furious assault of everything that made me human, a horrible nightmare of burning light instead of cold darkness.
I opened my mouth to scream, unable to breathe, my hands clutching for—
Total silence.
Am I... am I still alive?
The wind instantly vanished, and I opened my eyes.
Three giant, figures floated majestically in front of us. They were shaped vaguely like bodies—heads, arms, like us—except they hovered, their lower half like long, emerald robes that draped and dangled in the air. Their consistency was fluid; glowing emerald green lava that poured and swirled and mixed in on itself to keep its shape.
Gold light shone from their eyes.
Each one was adorned with two giant wings rimmed in blazingly bright gold.
Is this what Henry meant by Fairies?
The way they moved and flowed were exactly like—
The dark entity.
Henry slowly stood up, his face in a way I've never seen before—his mouth was wide open, his silver eyes wide and spinning, completely enraptured.
Thunder suddenly erupted—only for me to realize it wasn't thunder—
It was a voice.
Thousand of voices.
"Creatorrrr..." it whispered.
Henry suddenly fell to his knees, holding his head between his hands, his face clenched in agony. The wings of the floating figures began to flap a little faster.
"Whyyyy..." The voices exploded over each other, overlapping, clashing and fighting each other. "...is a Creator... outsiiiide..."
Henry's began to convulse in pain as he lay curled up on the ground, grunted through gritted teeth. Veins began bulging from his head, his eyes squeezed tight—
Blood began to drip out of his ears.
"Stop it!" I shouted. "You're killing him!"
His body instantly slumped, relaxed.
The three figures slowly turned towards me, gently drifting as they hung suspended in the air, glowing gold wings calmly flapping, their eyes smoldering gold.
Thunder crashed across the sky again, and the voices began to whisper, suddenly close to me, right in my ears—thousands and thousands of them, all talking over each other but saying the same thing.
"...Ava of Athenaeum..." the chorus of voices whispered in my ears, spinning around me like a hurricane. "Speakssss..."
What... the...?
Henry moaned.
"Ava of Athenaeum..." the voices moaned—a haunting sound that made my blood run cold. "Whyyyy..."
I dropped to my knees next to Henry.
"Are you okay?" I said, trying to wipe off the blood on the sides of his face and doing nothing more than smearing it.
"Yeah, I think so," he said, his voice hoarse. I helped him to his feet, and we stood in front of the glowing, floating figures in front of us. Their wings flapped calmly and methodically as silver streaks began to sporadically cross against the dark, gray sky above.
"Remember... Creator..." the voices hissed.
Henry's eyes suddenly filled with tears, the silver reflecting beautifully behind the wetness. He looked down sadly, avoiding my gaze.
"My memories," he said sorrowfully. "They're not just forgotten, Ava—they've been destroyed. They're gone forever. My family, my past; there's nothing to remember anymore. No answer I'll ever find to myself, who I am—I'm nothing anymore." The tears began to flow freely down his face. "I have nothing."
"That's not true, Henry," I said, feeling the sting of my own tears coming to my eyes. "You have me."
His back hitched—then he caught himself, stoically biting his lip and nodding his head.
The fairies wings continued to flap slowly, rhythmically.
"Creator..." The voices seemed like they were solidifying—unifying and becoming unfragmented. "We can smell... Brother..."
"What are they talking about?" I said.
"Their brother," he said, turning to look at me with his dark, puffy exhausted eyes. "The dark entity."
Their brother? The dark entity was related to THEM?
"Yessss," they hissed. "Brother is in pain..."
"...paaaiiinnn..." the other voices echoed around us before falling silent again.
Henry was silent for a while—the three, giant angel-like shapes continued peacefully floating.
I had literally no idea what was going on—which is how I had already spent the most of the past few days. Lost, confused, being pulled along—
Not much different than real life.
Henry suddenly looked up, his face set. The tears were still wet on his face, but his eyes were suddenly determined... actually, not just determined—
Angry.
"Nooo..." the voices suddenly whispered.
Then Henry nodded—more to himself, than to me or the three.
"They found something else, Ava," he said quietly.
Oh no. I literally wanted to throw up—whenever Henry said something like that, I knew it wasn't going to be good.
The voices let out a shuddery, creepy sigh that whirled around us like leaves blown by a chilly, autumn wind.
I don't want to hear this.
I steeled myself.
"I was sent to your world, Ava," he said, turning that determined, angry gaze at me. "The dark entity was never hunting me—I'm the one hunting it."