25.
I was not expecting our destination to be anywhere particularly spectacular, but I was also not expecting to walk into a halfway house. Tucked into a dark corner of the street was a small brick building with the printed red words HALFWAYHOUSE squashed together and peeling away as the paint decayed. Disease hung thick in the air like morning fog and sorrow caught in my throat, forcing me to cough in an attempt to loosen the foul taste of dread on my tongue.
Alvar pushes open the door to reveal a place that was heaven to some, a second chance to others and Hell to others. There were no people in the hall. The only sign of life came from the whispers of chatter that came from one room and the groans of agony from another. No officials or careers came to greet us, which allowed us to roam freely around the run down establishment.
"Is it here?" I whispered to Alvar.
"The portal?" I nodded, "Yes, just through here."
He pushed open a rotting brown door to a room that held only the darkest of shadows. Unlike the other portals I had encountered, this one shimmered, the air twisting around the darkness.
"How do we get through?" I asked, examining the foreign material.
"It's a bit different to the other ones you've gone through. To get to the Shadow Plane, you have to be in a dark... state of mind."
"What do you mean?" I furrowed my brows.
"It means I'm about to tell you something you're not going to like, so you can go through." Beast's voice was loud in my ear. "Before, when you asked what happens if you chose to give up your power? Well, to give it up would mean the end of our entire race. Without a heart, The Anima, we cease to exist."
"So I have no choice?" I screamed as my fury curled tightly around my stomach. That meant I would have no choice but to abandon my life and become something I wasn't. I hadn't even begun to understand the strange world, but I was supposed to sacrifice my life, my future, for it?
But before I could scream at Beast, or Lucius, or even Alvar for not telling me sooner, for explaining my life was already over, I was sucked through the darkness; falling up, up, and away to somewhere even darker.
I landed with a heavy thud. My eyes squeezed shut, fists clenched around one of my blades, and my body stiff with tension, I unsteadily rose to my feet. Like ripping off a Band-Aid, my eyes snapped open to reveal the new world.
Ready to face a sky black with clouds and the raging heat. Ready to face monsters unlike any I had already encountered. Ready to face complete darkness, wilted trees, and no signs of beauty or hope. I was ready to face perhaps even nothingness, but I was not prepared for a smile to creep upon my face as soon as the light filtered through my eyelashes.
It was beautiful. Surrounded by plush thorned roses, I stood in a large open clearing where the sun could touch each tiny hair on my skin. It was different to the sun on earth; shining the brightest shade of orange and tiny shards of red down upon the ground. In the sky were clouds fluffy pink, like fairy floss was ribboned into the dark blue sky. Further in the distance, just on the horizon, I could see the tops of lush green trees and the beginnings of civilisation. If there was one thing that was wrong about this world, it was the sound of wildlife: there was none. Not a single bird chirped, not a single rabbit or mouse rustled the bushes.
I could debate on its beauty no longer for Lucius fell up through the earth with a loud sucking sound, body strewn across the ground just as mine had been. Soon after followed Beast, still in human form, and then finally Alvar; the only one of us to land on both feet. Lucius seemed to be the only one who shared my shock and curiosity, his head whirling around as he examined the area. Alvar simply dusted off his cape, back into his normal Fae clothing, and Beast quickly shifted back into his other form.
"This isn't so bad." I muttered to myself, thinking on the whole 'life sacrifice' involved.
"That's because you don't know what's out there." Lucius grumbled, suddenly scratching his arms in his wild anxiety. I raised a brow at him, but turned my attention back to Alvar and Beast.
"So if I give up my power, you both will die?" Suddenly, there was a catch in my throat and a foreign feeling in my chest. I had only felt it once before; when I had finally found Lucas, only to really find a shell of who he once was.
Neither of them spoke, but Beast nodded his Gryphon head and moved forwards to comfort me.
"Don't." I held out a hand and took a step back. Any affection would send me spirally down the road of tears. "You knew this, and you didn't think to tell me?" I was yelling at Alvar now, infuriated that he had allowed me to develop feelings for him if in the end it was all for nothing. But then again, was that his motive? Go make me feel something for him so I wouldn't leave? So I didn't have a choice but to throw my life away?
"You made me feel something for you so I wouldn't leave?" I scoffed, my sudden realisation making more sense than anything had those past few days. Again, he said nothing, but his face said everything. "You bastard." I snarled, stumbling back upon the surge of anger that ran through my heart.
"Lyra, I never wanted to hurt you-"
"Shut up!" I screamed, my fists clenching. My nails duh into the palms of my hands, and suddenly I was not fighting back tears, I was fighting back the urge to kill. I only saw the lies in Alvar's eyes, and that was enough.
"Lyra, don't!" Beast jumped in between us just as I hurtled myself forwards, lips curled into a vicious snarl.
"As much as I'd hate to come between you two, we need to move." It was Lucius who spoke, drawing my hard glare away from Alvar to zero in on what Lucius was staring at. There it was, just in the distance, a growing cloud in of shadows. "Like now. We need to move now!" Lucius screamed.
We ran.
It wasn't long until we were out of breath- until I was out of breath, and we had to stop. Coming to a crashing halt, I landed flat onto my back in the middle of a grass field. Lucius followed suit, and heaved his breaths in as he crouched hands on knees. Alvar looked unfazed, I impressed with our behaviour. Beast was flying overhead, and he too crashed down onto the ground, exhausted.
We were closer to civilisation; the tops of little huts like much the ones in the First Plane, just in the distance. Still, no sound except the huffing of our breaths.
"Where are we even going?" I tried to yell, but my voice only came out in a spluttering whisper.
"The Anima said we have to find your other... half." Alvar responded cautiously, looking anywhere but at me.
Irritation flickered within me as soon as he spoke, the betrayal burning deep in my stomach like a brand. No longer would I trust him, or his words.
"Beast?" I asked, turning swiftly away from Alvar and his perfect curls.
"He— The Anima is right. We do need to find your doppelgänger."
"But where do we start?" I asked, cocking my head.
"This world mirrors the locations of The First Plane, so if she's going to be anywhere, she would be in the palace."
"The palace?" I sighed out loud, knowing what a long trek it would be through the woods back to that place. Would it even look the same? Or would it be totally different? A new world entirely?
"Of course it's the bloody palace." Lucius spoke, clear dread in his voice.
As my lips curved into a smile, I felt Alvar's eyes on me.
"What, you scared?" I questioned Lucius, and he only glared back at me.
My smile dropped when I passed my eyes over to Alvar. I curled my lips into a snarl. He no longer had permission to talk to me.
"We better go." The Gryphon spoke up, and I knew he had said it to each one of us. "We don't want whatever that thing was to catch up to us."
"Agreed." I snapped, turning swiftly on my heel and stomping off after Beast.
We travelled for hours in complete silence, the stomping of our feet over the hard grass and twigs echoing sharply in my ears. Beast and I continued to have small conversations in his mind, a privacy I was just beginning to completely appreciate. Our connection was getting stronger, and it was painful to not hear his voice or feel his closeness for long periods of time. It was like their was a constant itch at the back of my ear, his proximity scratched it and distance mutated it into a headache. He was feeling it too, a strong surge of irritation wafting off of him when we went an entire hour without reaching out with our thoughts or emotions.
Alvar and Lucius had their own quiet banter behind us, but it was a bit one sided. Lucius talked, laughed, and snapped witty comebacks, while Alvar said nothing; nodding every once and a while or grunting. Lucius could have just been talking to himself, he was talking to himself, and he didn't seem to mind.
Every time I wound myself up with the knowledge that I can been let on, tricked into feeling something for Alvar, Beast would calm me down with an army of soothing words and an armoury of different subjects. He had been clueless Alvar's plan, I had even searched his mind to be certain, and insisted he didn't understand why... something about his emotions not quite making sense.
The Shadow Plane got weirder the closer we travelled to the capital. The air was thick with shadows, curling around the tree trunks and licking the surrounding foliage. It was still bright, but there was a darkness that pressed its heavy hands down on my chest. But it wasn't threatening and I did not fear it; it only washed a sweeping wave of sorrow and anguish over us all. Even Beast visibly slumped.
Again, I was reminded of the kind of pain and anger expected in tragedy, not in evil. And that pain was in everything; the kiss of the wind was the suffering breath of a thousand mortal souls. Just when it was beginning to suffocate me, we stumbled upon the first sign of normal civilisation; a cluster of houses. It could have almost looked like a normal village; only these houses were rotten, decayed down to the frames, creaking loudly with each slight temperature change. All the windows looked like that had either been smashed in or blacked out. The street was silent. Dead silent. No children played in their yards, no one hummed as they hung out the washing or whipped up a batch of cookies, no one moaned in pleasure or pain. There was a complete absence of sound except the occasional screech of the rotten houses.
"No one is here..." I said quietly, feeling like my voice would disturb the odd tranquillity of the abandoned village.
"Shh..." It was Beast who spoke into my head, but I both fae men held their forefingers to their lips.
It was only then I realised that the town wasn't the only thing that was still; all my companions had frozen mid step, the leaves undisturbed beneath half raised feet. I slowly reached for the dagger strapped to my waist, clasping it hard between both of my palms.
"Do not be fooled by its appearance, Lyra. There are people here, right now, watching us. Can't you feel it?" Just as Beast spoke, the hairs on the back of my neck stood and shivered like cold soldiers awaiting the battle ahead.
But it wasn't battle that was waiting for us.
It was a young girl.
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xx Charli
(Unedited)