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...
"I step on broken glass, and dream of soft clouds When feelings are heavy they become all we are And we become night time dreamers And street walkers, small talkers When we should be daydreamers And moonwalkers and dream talkers"
-AURORA, "Daydreamer"
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I stood tall beneath the half-sun in the smoldering ruins of After's predecessor, my wounds healed, limbs restored, and my head high.
I was free.
I mourned, of course. A deep, intangible sorrow dwelled in my cavernous soul. I mourned for the life I would've lived back on Earth, a life I'd grieved for even when I was alive. But no longer did my heart pang for the Light—for Dominic. Now it pounded in full force as I scanned the dim horizon of the realm of the dead for my friends. They were long gone, and miles of shadow-infested wasteland separated us. I bunched my hands into fists, imagining the phantom weight of my missing spear. I grasped for my armband, a force of habit, and instead felt the blanched topographical map seared into my skin beneath my thumb, my lux burns. I touched my little lux crystal instead, and a warmth filled me as I did.
I took in a slow, shuddering breath and watched as the luxlight within me faded. My scarred arm stopped itching...Mostly.
Save for the destroyed ziggurat just behind me, there were no landmarks around me I recognized, for this semi-lit world was utterly foreign to me, and yet I knew exactly in which direction After lay. The hundreds of black shadows creeping across the sand all migrated in one direction. I scrambled to hide behind an old leaning wall, one of the few remaining walls of the ziggurat, touching where some poor soul died long ago. I peered over the top into the city. The formerly catatonic shadows slunk against buildings, trying to keep out of the weak sunlight. Every once in a while, I'd hear a shadow screech as it retracted a limb covered in boils out of the light.
How did they awake? My scar prickled at the memory of that aura pulsing from me. I imagined my eyes turning red like Crow's and Blackburne's and I gulped. Had I awoken them?
A shadow hissed at me from above, so close that I felt flying spittle rain down on me. I bolted out of the way just as the creature pounced; escaping through the ruins of the pyramid that had become a maze. The shadow screamed after me. From the sound of it, even more monsters joined the hunt. Panting, I hugged the walls as I ran beneath the night sky, searching desperately for the way out.
There was a tunnel of debris just ahead, like the explosion had exposed an old chamber, and I dashed for it, following the tunnel down into the depths. Shrieks and hisses followed me down into the blackness, growing terrifyingly closer by the second.
That's when I hit a wall. "No!" I yelled, pounding my fists against the dead end in the blackness. I'd cornered myself. I swore the shadows laughed at me.
I whirled around to face their glowing eyes with my back against the wall.
Then a roar like the splitting of the earth sounded from every dark corner of the cavern. A huge shape crashed to the ground between me and the horde of monsters. It rose to its full height and let out another head-splitting roar. The horde charged at the bigger beast. I could hear the clack of their teeth from where I hid, and see the spray of oily blood wetting the sand.
