The Calling of Time

Accidental Sacrifice

Delicate black hands moved slowly over a face filled with elaborate golden designs. The circular frame was dark, polished gold, and a pair of slim pendulums swung slowly back and forth with each tick tock. I stood there breathless, sure this was what I’d been looking for. This had to be the Kronos clock.

I shook myself like a dog with water in its ears, trying to snap out of the trance I’d been in. There wasn’t time to marvel over it. I strode over and was about to snatch it up, when a thought occurred to me, and my hands hovered inches over the golden surface. If this was the portal, would it open as soon as I touched it? What if I was sucked into the veil without the guardians? The idea was terrifying.

While I was still debating, the door flung open with a bang, and I jumped, choking on the breath caught in my throat.

Jai stood in the doorway, and the hulking shape of Horace was behind him, facing away into the hallway, head whipping back and forth. Jai spotted me and his tense expression crumpled. “Oh thank the gods. Kali, you’re alright.”

Horace shoved Jai inside and shut the door, surveying the room from end to end with a quick glance. “We’re alone for the moment. You got away? Where’s Manda?”

His face was blank, but I could hear the tension in his voice.

“She tackled the guard in the women’s room,” I stammered. “I..she said to go…” Terrible guilt surged through me. Why had I left her? I shouldn’t have listened to her when she’d said that. I should have stayed and helped her fight the soldier. Now she was probably hurt or in trouble and Horace was going to be angry with me…

“She’ll be fine.” Jai came to stand beside me, and Horace remained beside the door. “She’ll probably meet us here any minute.” His eyes lit up when he came around a pile of trunks and spotted the pedestal and the clock. “The Kronos clock! You found it!”

Horace jerked in surprise. “So soon? I thought he would have at least hidden it a little better than that. Idiot. He’s clearly grown soft and confident in his little kingdom.”

“Thankfully for us,” Jai agreed. “Now come, all we need to do is take this with us to find Manda and we can be rid of this place, and Thanatos, forever.” And then he looked over at Horace and added. “And maybe find the necklace.”

“We’ll see,” Horace rumbled. “Get the clock and let’s go.”

“Do I just touch it?” I started to hold out my hand again, hovering over the clock. Then darkness hit me like a smack in the face. There was no warning at all. I could see perfectly one second, and the next I was in total blackness, leaning over with my hands on my knees as the images assaulted me.

I’m reaching for the clock, I’m going to touch it. Pick it up and bring it to Manda.

My hand closes around the top of it and suddenly there’s no more floor beneath my feet. I’m falling, shrieking. The clock is ripped out of my fingers. Someone else shouts, a short, sharp sound that cuts off abruptly as I slam into the surface of the earth with incredible force.

I am shattered.

I can’t breath.

I can feel the gritty splintered bones in my arms. The way one leg is bent at an unnatural angle. Every part of me is on fire and the world above me is swimming in dizzy circles.

After a second I realize I’m not breathing anymore. I can’t feel a pulse. My body is…quiet. But I’m still here. Still staring up at the ceiling, which has a splintered, rotting hole in it. The place where I fell through.

There’s a groan beside me, and the memory hits me like a slap in the face. Jai had been standing with me.

The place where WE fell through.

I turn my head slowly and feel the vertebras in my spine scrape together. I feel a stab of horror when I see Jai, but my body doesn’t react the way it used to. There’s no short breath or racing pulse.

There’s nothing.

Jai’s face is splattered scarlet and purple flesh. The back of his head gushes blood onto the floor in an ever widening circle. As I watch, his eyes flutter open and closed. His dark lashes dust his cheeks.

“Jai.” My voice is almost nothing. A whisper with a rattle behind it, and somehow I know that my body is dead. I’m dead, but I’m still here.

Jai stops moving. His eyes flutter shut and stay closed.

“No. Jai…” I struggle with my broken body, fighting it. Trying to move closer to him. The question he has never really answered screams through my brain now…

CAN GUARDIANS DIE?

Soft laughter makes me freeze, ceasing my struggles. A shadow flickers past, and then a man materializes in front of me. He is pale and blonde. His face a study of flat planes and angles. The way he moves reminds me of a shark scenting blood in the water.

Thanatos.

 

Air returned to my lungs in a rush, making me double up further, gasping and coughing.Jai was right there, hands on my shoulders. “Kali?”

The floor, I remembered with a jolt of panic. Any moment now….

I was looking at it now, and I saw something I would have never seen before.  A thin black line of rot crept  over the wooden floor boards. It reminded me of how black the blood had looked on Jai’s face.

Gasping, I spun around and shoved him as hard as I could. “Get back! Jai…”

A sinking feeling in my stomach and then it happened. Just like in my vision. The floor dropped out from underneath me and I plunged downwards into darkness.

It was different this time. This time I knew what was happening. I reacted, tucking myself into a ball, protecting my neck with my hands. But when I felt the impact I still heard something crunch. The pain was shocking. It hit me like a vicious blow. I lay still for a few minutes, breath coming in short, sharp rasps. There were several things that told me I’d changed the future.

There was no groaning beside me. Relief made me weak and I almost laughed, even though the hole in the ceiling above me was revolving slowly, blurring in and out of focus. It didn’t matter. Jai wasn’t dead. I’d saved him from falling.

Every part of me was filled with intense, fiery pain, but Jai was alright. It was worth it.

A deep groan made me stiffen, and I struggled to sit up, moving more easily than I had in my vision. It couldn’t be. I’d changed it, hadn’t I? My head spun, but I could still make out the shape beside me. He was curled up in a ball, like he’d been trying to protect his inner organs, but there was still a wide pool of blood spreading out from underneath him, identical to the one in my vision.

“No,”I panted, dragging myself across the marble floor towards him, knocking rotten pieces of wood out of my way. My right leg wasn’t working properly. It sent an icy wave of intense pain through me each time I moved. I dragged myself forward anyways, using my hands. “No. Jai…”

When I finally reached him I tugged at his army fatigues, rolling him towards me. His head flopped sideways, showing me his face. The square chin and close cropped blonde hair.

Horace.

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