The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 17 🔻 No Turning Back

Maybe in my living days, I would've been terrified. I would've been screaming. But now I laughed with tears in my eyes as the wind whipped at us as we fell.

I felt so alive.

"What are you yelling for, Webb?" Vale called over the roar of the engine. I could hear a grin brightening her words. "It's not like you're gonna die!"

I cackled in Vale's ear while Webb swore behind me. "Do a flip!" I yelled to our driver, smiling from ear to ear. Webb cursed even more.

We landed with an unseen explosion of sand. I heard bits and pieces fall off the bike, but Vale's mods still held steadfast—for now, at least—and off into the Dark we sped. I cast one last look behind me at the city we escaped. Some part of me ached as After disappeared into the blackness. From atop the lux-encrusted wall, Blackburne's horde watched us leave. Pinky cupped her hands to her mouth and yelled after us, "You're all going to die out there, Vale! Just like Christa!"

Vale's muscles tensed in my arms, but she said nothing. It was only when the red lights of After faded past the distant horizon that we stopped with masks donned and weapons drawn. The line of crucified scarecrows halted us, pleading in silence for us to not tread a single step further. I scowled at them. What would Blackburne do after our escape attempt? If we returned, would he even bother sending us all to the Pit? Or would he come up with some other new horror? The limp form of an impaled effigy swayed in the wind, ever so slightly.

A hand clapped my shoulder, startling me out of my reverie. I looked up into Vale's red lenses. "We need to get you a motorcycle, Skye. Then we can go racing." She laughed. "What kind of person even were you in life?"

I shrugged at that. "The kind that collected porcelain frog figurines."

Vale shook her head, still chuckling. "God damn," she breathed. "You're so different from every other hollow out there. Most of us just accept the fact that there's nothing. Why can't you?"

I flashed a smile behind my mask, still feeling giddy. "I think I've been hanging around with the biggest idiots in After for too long."

The tall hollow let out another cackle at that. Then she fell silent when she turned to Webb, who stood further away from us. He kept his masked face pointed toward the horizon where our home had disappeared. His arms hung at his side, shoulders limp.

"You don't have to come with us, Webby," Vale said, her voice gentle. "It's okay."

Webb gripped the hilt of his sword tighter as he spun to stare at her. An unspoken conversation passed between them. How long had it just been the two of them before they found me? Before I had come along to ruin everything? I swallowed a lump in my throat.

You were the worst thing we found in the Dark, Skye...

The blond hollow eventually let go of his sword. He kicked an empty can out into the rolling sand. "Nah," he said to Vale and me. I could imagine his expression softening behind his smiling mask. "I'm with you guys. Death wouldn't be worth living without the two of you, anyway. Let's go kill a prince."

Vale and I laughed and wrapped our arms around him. "So, let's see that tablet again, Skye," the tallest ghost said. "Maybe it'll give us a hint at just where the Hell we'll find the prince."

My insides lurched. "Ah. Right. About that..."

I recounted to them about my encounter with Blackburne back on the rooftop, and how the vial was stolen and the tablet now lay in pieces, just more rubble in After.

"Blackburne almost cut you in half!" Webb cried when I finished. "And we don't have any clues?"

"It's okay!" I said. I certainly hoped I sounded convincing. "I don't think we need the tablet, at least. I can take us back to the spot where I found it!" Well. I said that, but when I looked past the line of scarecrows, the sight of the unending and featureless void around that filled me with doubt. "...I think."