The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 32 🔻 Six Thousand Feet Under

I hit the soft ground with a thud.

I lay still, eyes shut, not moving. Could I even move? Or was I broken? After a few moments of silence, I forced my eyes open. Through the cracked lenses of my mask, I saw...nothing, really. Just sand. I pulled myself up to a sitting position with a groan. So I was still mostly intact. I supposed I was still alive...so to speak.

Hand clasped over where coldness seeped from one of the many gaping gashes in my side, I forced myself to stand. Beside me, the shadow that had thrown herself at me did the same.

Now that our eye contact had been broken, I had free control of my body and I intended to keep it that way. Holding her in my peripheral, I surveyed where we had fallen. We were in a chasm of sand. Weak red light filtered in from the hole at the top of the pit, so very high up. No other shadows haunted the vicinity. Not like above ground..."You saved me?" I asked her.

A hiss and a snap of jaws that almost took off my free arm answered me.

"Okay, no," I said with a gasp. "You didn't save me."

Well, she saved me for herself, that is.

I searched the area. My spear. Where was my spear? All I saw was stupid sand. Oh, there it—the shadow lunged again, fangs at the ready, just as my fingers found the pole of my partially buried spear. "Back off, you ugly—!" I growled, taking a swipe at her.

She hissed and backed away to the corner of our little chamber where she chattered to herself in the darkness. She seemed more hesitant to attack now that she was alone and I wasn't frozen. I took a moment to better gather my bearings on my surroundings. Above us, where we had slipped through the ceiling, sand had already tumbled to fill the opening. I couldn't see the shadows on the surface or my friends. The only way out of this room was through a narrow tunnel to the side, and leaning back on the balls of my feet while still keeping tabs on the cornered shadow, I peered out into it. I gasped.

It felt a lot like I was looking at one of those ant farms that I'd seen in elementary school classrooms, except on a much more grandiose scale. I gazed into a vast, open atrium, all carved from black sand. Endless floors with off-shooting tunnels and chambers arose above me and descended below me in a dark abyss. It was a maze of sand where death lay hidden around every twisting corner.

Apparently, I had fallen farther than I had thought.

I shot a quick glance at the shadow. "Um...Bye," I squeaked. Then I ducked out of the chamber, running as fast as my ailing body could go. I followed along the spiraling path that wound up the vast cavern, hugging the wall and steering clear of the open ledge along the other side. No shadows lurked anywhere. Surely, they were all topside, hopefully not eating my friends. I gripped my spear tighter when my dead heart panged. Some tinge of anguish made the hollowness inside me twist.

There was a squeal behind me. Something nipped at my heels. I jabbed my spear backward and felt something pop at the tip of my blade.

I'd gotten an eyeball.

I tried to rip my blade free, but found it was firmly lodged in her eye socket. When I tugged my spear forward, she came with it. And she was pissed. I screamed when her claws raked my side, and I tried again to yank my spear free.

I'd have to lose it and run. But what if I ran into more shadows unarmed? No, I couldn't do that. I gritted my teeth as I tried pulling my blade free from her seeping socket. My weakening body spasmed from the icy cold air. My wounds couldn't heal themselves fast enough. I continued to grapple with my weapon, screaming uselessly into the void. The speared shadow screamed in return. Her remaining eyes glistened with hatred and her own blood.