The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 26 🔻 Exhumation

"Stop."

Vale slowed the bike to a stop at Crow's sudden command. She scanned our vicinity. "Are there shadows out there?"

"Or, god forbid," muttered Webb. "Another mouse?"

I, too, searched the desert, but all there was to see was the mountain we'd just skirted and more endless dunes.

"No," said Crow. He stepped into the desert. "We are here."

Webb fell out of the trailer in surprise. "Here?" he exclaimed after he'd pulled himself from the sand. "There's nothing here but sand!"

I was chewing on my lip. "Are you sure this is the place?" I asked our guide. "Maybe the crows meant to take us to the other side of that mountain."

But every crow descended from the sky and landed, covering nearly every inch of the valley we found ourselves in. They preened their ruffled feathers and chattered amongst themselves, with no indication of taking wing again.

"No. This is the place. Seems the city is buried now." Crow clucked his tongue. "Shame."

"Buried," Webb repeated, scowling. "So, do you expect us to dig?"

Crow's voice dripped with mock sympathy. "What? You scavengers did not bring your shovels?" Then he linked his fingers together and cracked his knuckles. "Fine. I will do it myself. You three stand out of my way."

Vale put her hands on her hips. "Are you really going to excavate an entire city by yourself?"

"Yes."

The blond hollow crossed his arms and leaned against the bike with a smirk. "This'll be interesting."

Crow wandered a few strides away from us. His birds parted like the Red Sea to clear his path. Then he paused. As if he could see us, Crow turned back to us and lowered his hood. "Ah...What you are about to see..." It sounded like he had a hard time getting the words out. "Please do not be frightened."

My friends and I exchanged nervous glances. Crow shut his eyes and drew in a long, deep breath through his nose. I realized then that the crows had all gone abnormally still, and their chatter had stopped. Every bird stood at attention with its beak pointed toward him.

Then Crow opened his eyes, and they burned like two red-hot lux crystals. A pulse emanated from him and sent ripples through the sand with him as the epicenter.

Every crow took wing and circled the valley, all in the same direction.

Crow remained still as a statue. Ribbons of red light weaved beneath his skin, like light dancing on water's surface. When he finally exhaled, he breathed out a cloud of red embers.

That was when the winds picked up.

It started as a gentle breeze that kissed our faces and tousled our hair. Crow lifted his head to the sky, and he gave the storm power. Gales joined the orbiting crows, until we stood in the heart of a raging, thunderous, black tornado.

I shielded my face from the whips of air, and peeked through my arms with tearing eyes at the black funnel cloud—the eye of the storm—surrounding us, too stunned for words.

I barely heard Vale's cry of, "Look out!" over the screaming winds. She yanked Webb and me out of the way when the sand suddenly sank beneath our feet.

The storm greedily sucked up every grain of grit in the valley. I yelped and had to take a jump backward, finding myself at the edge of a black stone rooftop.

The storm exhumed other buildings around us. Streets and statues too. Vale screamed a swear as her bike sank, falling into a freshly unearthed street below our rooftop.

Crow remained unbothered, even when his storm stole his cloak from him. His red eyes were wide as he fixed them upward to the heavens, and his mouth was parted. His arms remained at his sides, with palms slightly turned up to the eye of the storm.

Beyond him, at the far end of the city miles away, an enormous dune withered away, revealing a tiered pyramid-like structure that was the last building to be unearthed.

The storm dissipated.

Just like that.

My friends and I all gasped as the winds released us, and air filled our lungs again. We collapsed on the rooftop, still clinging to each other.

"H-how did you do that?" Vale managed to stammer at Crow.

God. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. "What did you even do?"

The flock dispersed throughout the city. Crow fell to his hands and knees, gasping. The red glow left his eyes. "I-I am...tired." He could hardly speak.

At that, Webb raced over and helped him up. "We got you, buddy," he told the man who leaned weakly on him.

We all stood at the heart of another city in the afterlife—the remains of an ancient crumbling city of black stone. A place we'd been told did not exist.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"This..." Crow said between slowing gasps, "is Aḫ-ḫur."

I've been digging through the dirt that was left behind
I've been dredging through the mud for it
There's nothing that's alive or dead inside
In you or in this
Oh my God
Is this where the dreamer ends?
Dark where the light had been