The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 34 🔻 The Call of the Void

With voracious monsters snapping at our heels, Vale throttled her ride's engine. I slumped against her back and Webb wrapped his arms around me. Nannāru and all the other surviving crows flapped above us. The engine roared, and red luxlight fired from the exhaust like it was a portal to Hell itself as we took off at a breakneck speed. I thought of our first ride through the Dark shortly after Vale had rescued me from the clutches of monsters. The shadows had no chance of catching up to us as we sped through the wasteland back then. But now, however, when I twisted around in my seat to take stock of our pursuers, a knot coiled somewhere within the depths inside me. The damage endured from careening from the wall of After and our journey in the Dark finally took its toll on our ride. The revived shadows kept pace with us as we sped through Aḫ-ḫur.

Every so often, one would sink its claws into the metal chassis, and the bike would falter ever so slightly. Vale maneuvered the motorcycle, whipping it from side to side to shake them off, but evasion was impossible. Webb kept having to release me to slash at shadows with his sword. I lacked the energy to find my spear and assist him, so instead, I kept waiting for the cold that enveloped me to ease its icy hold, but it never did. The hissing never died down either.

But then another sound drowned out the roar of the struggling engine and the demonic howling of monsters. There came a rumble. It sounded like the muffled thunder that heralded an approaching storm, except it originated from the sand below us and not the star-speckled sky above. I thought my fading mind must've been hearing things again, until another rumble shook the ground again, much louder and more forceful this time. The mass of it reverberated from the ruins around us, shaking them and making the black sand shift and spill.

Vale was too preoccupied with screaming at monsters and revving the engine, and Webb continued to just barely keep teeth and claws at bay. My vision fading, I chanced another glance behind us, afraid of what I would see. Between the windswept locks of my hair and the legs of shadows, I witnessed a crack split the quaking ground. Another rumble, and then white light rose forth from the newly opened crevice. I reached a hand back toward it, the prickling scars covering it almost glowing in the blinding luminescence. Everything grew blurry. The brightness was all I could focus on, and I could feel it calling out to me, reaching for my heart as strong as ever.

And beneath my skin snaked coiling ribbons of red luxlight.

"Vale," I whispered, my eyelids drooping.

Vale peeked over her shoulder at me. "Still with me, back there?"

The white Light glinted off of Webb's blade as he defended us from the shadows. His efforts weren't enough. More and more shadows snagged onto the bike's back end, pulling us to a stop. Not even the threat of the Light that spider-wedded through the dust at their feet was enough to deter them from their prey. These shadows had been asleep for so long. And now they were starved.

"Vale, I'm glad I met you," I continued to whisper in between shivers. "And Webb, too."

"What are you saying?" Webb hissed in my ear. His free arm wrapped around me even tighter. The spattered blood of shadows stained his snarling face.

I kept staring at the Light that now snaked alongside us, its pace matching ours as it continued to part the sands. "You two save After for me, okay? And Crow. I'm not going to make it."

"Keep driving!" Webb cried to Vale. "She's bleeding out, and those shadows are gaining on us! Don't you dare stop, Vale!"

She didn't stop the bike, but she did twist around to glance at me, her braids thrashing in the wind. "Skye, don't you fucking think about doing whatever stupid thing you're thinking!"

I wondered if Crow had already met his end. I wondered if the shadows had already breached After's wall again. But, at least, I knew it wasn't too late for my friends. I couldn't have the ashes of anyone else on my hands.