Separian - Book 1

Chapter 43

The ground beneath me was a field of black, barricaded on one side by a descending hill and on the other by a house that stood nearly four stories high.

The man who'd brought me to this place was on his knees beside me, his attention not on me but on the pain escaping from his heart. Why was he so sad? Should I ask?

To his left, I saw a woman around his height, a hand on his shoulder and another pulling his head to her chest. Just like the man, her eyes were filling with tears she could not stop. Should I ask her instead?

Behind the pair, I found a small crowd of people, each and every one of them as sad as the pair before me. It must have been something tragic to bring so many people down like this. Maybe I shouldn't ask at all. But what was I supposed to do? Continue to lay here as I have been? And what's more, how did I get on the ground?

The man held in the woman's arms let out a scream as loud as a siren. As I expected him to pull away and put distance between himself and her, his head sank even further and she cradled it with both hands now. Her face lowered until it was against his shoulder. Her own shoulders shook in agony.

You are breaking. I turned to my left, half expecting to find someone next to me, but I found no one. Noah, your mind is tearing itself to pieces as a fail-safe to protect itself. You need to stop.

Noah? Who was she speaking to? Me? I doubted it. I felt perfectly fine. But who was she? Better yet, where was she? Whoever she was, and whoever this Noah person was, it sounded like he was in trouble. But where was he?

None of the faces in the crowd nor the faces of either of the pair beside me on the ground fit the name. I did not know their names, but something about them told me that this "Noah" wasn't among those in my immediate surroundings. I stood from the ground, but nobody seemed to notice. As I did, I felt a tug at my core, pulling me away from them. I could not pinpoint the exact location of this pull, but it was somewhere over the bending hill that bordered this field of grass.

"Noah," I called out, hoping that I would receive a response before I needed to call again. At the sound of his name, not one person behind me in the whimpering crowd seemed unfazed by my words. Was he the cause of all their pain?

"Noah," I called again, this time louder than before. There was no response from him, however, this time I was more expecting a reaction from the crowd of pained individuals. Their cries multiplied exponentially as the words left me and their anguish continued to grow.

Better to leave them be, I thought to myself and headed over the hill until they were all out of sight and their cries drowned out with the breeze passing over my head.

I continued further down the hill, following the tug. It had grown stronger with my first steps and even now as I continued on, it continued to grow. The pull was now a consistent heave from where this hill appeared to meet the valley below.

My vision was clear, but the distance was too great to make anything out but green. There was the occasional blur that caught my attention, but it was gone long before it came into focus.

Noah, you need to stop. Before there is nothing left of you to break or repair. She was back again.

I could tell the voice originated from the same place as this hold on me. The valley below. It wasn't far from me now. I broke into a sprint. It was no longer a desire but a need to get to the center of this calling and save this "Noah" before he hurt himself beyond help. What was I supposed to do? How would I save him? I didn't know. And I didn't care. This woman sounded as if she were ready to give her life to save him from himself, even if he didn't know it, and I wasn't going to let that happen.