Skye is dead.
How she perished is a mystery. All she knows is that she is trapped in After, a makeshift city of souls surrounded by infinite darkness and terrifying monsters that tear ghosts apart.
But while all other ghosts accept the eternity of...
As the temperature dropped around us and cold spilled from my body, I reached out to her through the shadows. And she did the same. The smallest of empty spaces separated our fingers.
Was this how Vale had felt, watching Christa fade away in the Light right in front of her?
Then another swath of Light opened up in the ground on my other side. Shadows screeched and scurried away from me. I twisted my head around to stare directly into its blinding essence. Blue eyes stared back. "Dominic!" I mouthed.
He reached out to me again. "Skye," he began. "Come home."
Was vaporizing in the Light a better death than getting ripped apart by shadows? I wanted to fall away from these beasts into the Light with Dominic. And I reached for him.
I heard shadows tearing into Vale. I scrunched my face in anger, teeth bared and ready, like I was a shadow. I was not like Christa. I wouldn't have anyone die for me when I wouldn't do the same. So with a yell, I swatted black sand over the patch of Light. I let him go.
And my heart split in two.
Dominic and the Light gone, I raised my spear. Before the shadows that had been mauling me had a chance to recoup, I swung my blade in a circle, slicing out numerous pairs of eyes. More screeching and sounds of retreating feet followed. I panted. God, I was so freaking cold.
But I wasn't done.
With another feral scream, I leaped into the fray of writhing shadows. I ignored any cold that spilled from me or any claws or fangs that cut through my ghostly flesh. I ignored everything except for Vale's hand that I grabbed and pulled free from the melee. Vale gasped and fell into me.
There was no time to savor our reunion. Vale cried out and brought her machete down hard into the skull of the shadow about to take a bite out of my shoulder. I thrust my spear forward, catching the shadow lunging at her from behind in the throat. Flecks of blood and gore flew into the air as the two of us pivoted in unison so that we were back to back, slashing and stabbing at any reaching limbs and snarling faces. Crows continued their airborne onslaught alongside us, fighting valiantly until the end.
I let out a cry when my entire leg went numb beneath me. A shadow had slashed it, deep. Vale caught me in an embrace before I hit the drenched stone. With a trembling sigh, I nuzzled into her. I didn't care that monsters surrounded us. I only cared that I had her in my arms. She pulled me in tighter. I pulled my mask up, exposing my trembling lips, and she did the same. The temperature dropped with each passing second as our faces drew together in the dark. We could've remained like that forever for all I cared.
But forever was always shorter than you'd think it to be.
One shadow leaped at us. Neither of us bothered to dodge it.
In a flash of red, the blade of a sword cut through its neck, severing its head. Both pieces fell at a nearly dead-looking Webb's feet. "You idiots just gonna stand there and get mauled, or are you going to grow brains and run?"
"Webb..." I breathed.
He was cold. His teeth chattered. His torn apart body was barely standing—was barely held together. Vale and I separated and donned our masks again, our little trio once again together. More shadows slithered up out of the pit like bubbling black oil. The hissing around us then dissolved into chattering. They were communicating with each other.
Hunched over, I bared my teeth and brandished my spear. "What do you want?" I screamed at the amphitheater of monsters. The chattering never stopped. Those human faces...those human mouths moved, and human tongues gnashed, and I hated it. I hated how human they looked. I locked eyes with one shadow that stood motionless amongst the restless sea of contorting black bodies.
Her.
The same shadow I had met before. Something about her disgusting, pensive face held me captive. And I hated that I figured out what these creatures wanted.
They wanted the same thing we hollows wanted. Some piece was missing from within each of us, hollow and shadow alike. We were all human. And yet not human. Something in between.
We all wanted a purpose, some reason to persist in this dark world.
And all we'd found was nothing.
I couldn't move my body when she charged straight at me, ignoring my two companions, quick as a flash of lightning. I couldn't fight or struggle when we both fell back into the pit.
She and I, shadow and hollow, fell into what lay below.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I can hear the lost crying I can hear the truth hiding, hiding Yeah, the shadows are calling us out I see the fear rising Yeah, but my hope is burning The shadows are calling us out We are heroes Heroes in the darkest times When there is no light
