THAT ILLUSION || Chasing the call of the chasm.
Earth is haunted, and they have come to save the earthlings before it's too late.
The Narngon school of magic is the only source of remedy for this silently perishing world. The trio of infamous queens...
Those utterances filled the smoky atmosphere, above and around, with chaos and havoc. Between the teal thorny pines and scarlet frozen dew blooms, swaying their fiery fervour with howling gusts, she ran for survival. Watching her ribs puffing with tiring terrible squalls, she flapped her limbs like a coaxed butterfly caught inflexible in an escape-less spider web.
"Oh, the abode of mercy! Save thee, child." Her panting rose. Her tears and pleas etched her hope of survival. Her moist eyes with a throbbing heart depicted her misery.
She whizzed past the dreary shrouds of sizzling smoke, without looking back. She could feel her watery feeble pulse throbbing to warm her while some spewing sweat beads glid down her thrills. It reminded her that she was alive and alone in turmoil.
"Oh! Serene spirits, hear my plea," she yelled, yet nothing changed except for her diminishing strengths being overused.
If faith was a ray to give her strength, the blood-drenched foot that burnt with every new step told her that she was crumbling. As a last resort, her chaffed lips kept crying for mercy.
Mercy! But from whom? From the gods who had designated her to this fate? From the cripples that were shrieking at her to surrender for the call of her grave? Or from her willpower and morale that was telling her that she would escape? She knew not what was compelling her to move. Yet she did, to escape from this cage.
If fate was a quirky question, she was slowly slaving as the quill and her blood became the unfolding ink. That's how she lost her to the desire of darkness.
She wasn't the only soul to be lost. She was one amongst the other two whose whereabouts were unknown to her. She could neither search nor pray for them.
When people are in a catastrophic maze being selfless is a mere haze, her rummaging heart reminded her while she twitched her lips that were tasting her sweat and tears.
Yet, her thoughts drifted back to her friends whom she should be hunting for. She couldn't bear the pain of the visions and reality.
It's better to focus on the present than concealing in the bitter past. She cut those lines of prick and hurried ahead. Maybe if she was set free they would stand a chance of being together again. All she had to execute was a trick, which wasn't a sturdy burden for her. A simpler smile masked her worries for a moment.
But before she could enact, a raven bundle fell from the smoke-filled skies. She paused and the mists cuffed her lungs tight. She wasn't sure of what it could be. Could she expect a worthy souvenir amidst the hearth of enigma?
With fear crawling on every impulse of her nerves, she moved forth. With each step, she became squeezed. Squeezed with the worst possibilities that she could have wished not to happen. With the petty courage that was peeping from the mere corners of her rhythmic chambers, she knelt near it.
"No! Don't speculate before you see. See-through it," she consoled her heavy self.
She took her trembling arm on the support of the other and turned the package only to see some strands of honey-lilac hair sticking out.
Her ruby eyes widened. Her thunderous thuds and sore sniffs did delay the sequence. She couldn't read her trafficking mind. Words and pleas fought to get slipped, but her mind had already denied them.
Restlessly she did unfold the parcel that was dropped. Her salty tears found their flowing ways to reach for the moist filled grounds, forming ripples with her sweat, forming a timely spring on the surface. She could sense what was inside. To be precise who was inside.
She ripped the covers and looked at the pallid, prickless posture of her comrade, too young to cease breathing. There she lay red-less and rigid, something she could never endure even in her worst nightmares. Her heart thawed. The only respect she could show. She was embracing her in her slipping arms and clenching her teeth while soliciting her heart to be strong.
Before she could settle, one more parcel did find the ground. This time it was unhidden. It was her other friend. Her world halted. Her visions blurred. Pain scrutinised her all over. Ending her tale of togetherness.
"Oh! The abode of mercy! Do you even exist? Aren't us your children? The ones who have professed to serve you. Were you hard-hearted while writing our destiny? Why did you award them a deceiving death? What awaits me? Ain't me your last play?" She screamed in her total pitch of betrayal. After all, she was a woman, absurdly a mortal.
She stopped her informal mourns. She prepared to bid them a proper goodbye for now. After all, she was alive and was able to do this at the least.
She collected the corpses nearer and prepared herself to perform the last rites. She calmed herself and evacuated the choking revolts.
When she was about to begin, an abrupt hit was heard behind her. Who could that be? Could that be something otherwise? Random flicks did ignite her torn and tormented mind.
When she glanced at the happenings in front of her, a smile crept between her wrinkled morganite lips. Can anything hurt you more than the loss of your peers? Her inner voice enquired.
"No! Never." With that assurance, she did turn around. She encountered someone she knew was lying down with jet ruby-raven threads falling in a messy knot over her smooth heart face.
A heavy gulp got trapped in her throat. With the resurfacing mincing pain; the one she was combatting some moments ago, she neared the other her. Her ruby eyes widened in ironic pain, blurring her visions to interpret it right.
With a close look, she knew who it was. Piercing insanity engulfed her. Was she imagining or was that the reality? How could that other she be her own self?
A hurricane of confusion and volcanic turmoil did dine her. She was alive. Yet she was seeing her dead facade there.
"How can this be possible?" This meanest question smacked her. She checked her pulse and breath only to realise that they did exist.
Her thoughts were thrashing her. She was spun and played by the cords of melee and mystery. She craved to overrule their fate and she did try to resist the fall.
Surrendering to misfortune is always a disability and she wasn't ready to accept it. Yet who can change the preordained? When her battles were getting intense with her becoming an unarmed loser, a better question did arise.
"Does this mean that they're alive as well? Is this the reality or just an illusion?" These queries echoed throughout. Yet the conclusion blurred as an insatiable pursuit. She fell on the thick frosted lawns and shrieked brutally. Slowly she gave up her riots and let the curtain fall.
'Let the remorse surround. May the strength of virtue prevail!' -Yaris.
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Greetings everyone! This is my entry to the ONC conducted by OpenNovellaContest profile. This is my first try on the paranormal genre. Hope this did meet your expectations. Do support it all along!
Feel free to spot the errors and let us sculpt it better!