The Fall Of Imbria (The Fendara Series. Book One)

Chapter Nine: Cassius

I make sure the concerns on my mind never arrive on my face.

Staring out into the darkness. The only light to be seen is reflecting from the granite and cement headstones before me.

It's early morning but somehow the light still never cesses to reach this place.

I turn to glance and my friend.

Friend.

What a funny word. Yet makes such an impact on ones life. I don't believe it's easy to make friends. But I do believe that when someone needs you as much as you need them, in that moment you become that to each other. Exactly what me and Simon are. Maybe even more.

Family.

Simon is dazing again, lost in his thoughts for the hundredth time so it seems. I rarely ask him what it is that draws him so far from reality but I'm not sure it really matters seeing as he will just brush it off with a joke or lie about whatever it actually is.

I can respect that though. I don't know everything about him. His past. But the things that I do, I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Somethings are better kept inside. Buried deep. So deep in hopes it never surfaces again.

But I ask anyways. "You good?"

He blinks. A small sign he is present. "Yeah, just thinking." He tells me.

"Right." I say, turning my head back to the darkness before us.

We head forward, walking right into the Spirit Walker Realm. Each step feels heavy as we descend deeper.

Hours go by of quiet footsteps and hushed conversations.

But with each passing of a headstone the grey and blue cloudy fog swirl around our feet. The view of this place is eerie as if looking through purple tempered glass. My muddled vision might disturb me if not for the lanky wistful hands grasping for my ankles. Shadows encompass all of us as we slowly trudge through, weaving in and out between corpses.

I can't bring myself to let fear in, for there has never been a moment in my life that has ever reached the terror that lurks in my past. The trembling of my hands a distance memory, yet here I am, looking down at them waiting for them to shake again. Waiting for the splattered blood to appear speckling my hands once more with crimson.

Lifting my head from the back of the group I notice Torben- the boy who yesterday Simon saw soil himself in fear- walking a little too close to the edge of our path we've created. Before I can walk close enough to tell him to move inward I watch as a clawed ghostly hand reaches out and touches his foot. Torben stops dead in his tracks and doesn't move.

Making note of how far away I am from Simon, whose at the head of the group, I know I cant alert him without yelling and potentially stirring up every lost soul in this place.

The rest of our people continue on but an older fellow named Erling whose been walking in stride with the boy, turns to Torben at the realization he stopped. "You okay boy?" he asks reaching out a hand in question.

"No wait. Erling. Don't-" I try to raise my voice but I'm too late. Torben's eyes widen and he leaps at him, digging his teeth deep into the crease of Erling's neck.

SHIT.

I run, no longer concerned with any other raging spirit but the one inside the poor boy in front of me.

"Fucking son of a bitch!" he yells out just as Torben pulls his gritted teeth away, along with a chunk of the old mans throat. Blood sprays everywhere, coating both of there leathers. Torben spits out the piece flesh in his mouth before leaping off of Erling making him tumble backward struggling to keep his footing.