Destined: 2 Be Continued

34. The Sobbing Sound

Jeremiah was in the palace that Opal always trained him in. This was normal; but not exactly. Jeremiah didn't like it at all.

It seemed like some of the furniture was a smidgen too far to the left, and the lights were just a little darker than they would normally be, and the double doors at the top of the stairs were open. It wasn't downright scary, it just wasn't right. "Opal?" Jeremiah called out. His voice echoed across the room, a surefire way for one to know that they were alone. Jeremiah was unsure whether or not he established it yet, but something about this dream most definitely, even if it was just through slight changes, was not right.

"Opal?" Jeremiah called out again, walking towards the stairs. He had never been in any other room of the palace but the entrance; he had never needed to, and Opal never said he could. However, this time warranted a search upstairs. He continued to call out Opal's name as he stepped into the hallway and heard a light sobbing. He was unsure about where it came from, but it seemed to be coming from his right, so he took a right turn at the next cross. The sobbing 's volume only increased, so he went against every wish of a normal person and followed the sound.

"Who's there?" Jeremiah asked, speeding up a little towards the sound of the sobbing. Whoever was sobbing didn't answer, but instead continued their lament. Jeremiah sped up towards the sobbing, every hair on his body raising and a shiver passing through his body every second. The hall was dark, seeming to have no lights at all, and it was filled with doors. Every ten feet, there were two doors: One on each side. These doors could lead to endless possibilities, but none of them, as far as Jeremiah could hear, housed the Sobbing Sound.

The Sobbing Sound never ceased to grow louder, most likely because Jeremiah never ceased to run towards it. As he drew near what seemed to be the end of the hall, there was a single set of double doors, just like the ones at the top of the marble staircase. Jeremiah listened closely as he ran in those doors' directions, and he confirmed that the Sobbing Sound was definitely coming from over there. He had to keep running, no mater what his human instinct cried out loudly to him; whoever was sobbing had been sobbing this whole time that he ran.

Finally, Jeremiah reached the doors. He put one hand on each handle and opened the set wide. Inside the room that came from the doors was something that Jeremiah had to admit he hadn't expected: a black form sitting down in the middle. The room was blank aside from the form, covered in white canvas and wood. The form kept on sobbing; now Jeremiah could tell that it was female. He stepped towards it, tempted to ask what it was doing, why it was here, or how it had gotten into the palace. Instead, he asked:

"Hello? What is your name?" The form turned slowly around, revealing a white mask, shaped to be like a sobbing face. Carved tears ran down its cheeks, and its eyes, though black and lifeless, showed true misery. "My name...is Despair," Despair muttered, stopping her sobbing. She stood up, her full height something like three times taller taller than Jeremiah's, which was a difficult thing to achieve. She was some sort of slender thing, covered in a black robe and armored in white. She revealed her hands, which were white, skeleton-like appendages, almost like elongated sewing needles. 

"What are you doing here?" Jeremiah asked, his arms threatening to fall off from all his shivering.

"I've been waiting for the master of hope," Despair responded. Her voice seemed to be like a thousand voices crying in unison to form words and sounds, but at the same time, it just sounded like one sad voice, that of a young girl. She definitely creeped him out, but she would have been more creepy if she had been happy and smiling. "I'm the master of hope," Jeremiah supplied. Despair seemed mildly surprised at the fact. "You? A master of hope? I guess I should have...expected. You radiate...the light. It...it blinds me."

Despair stepped closer to Jeremiah, and Jeremiah's knees nearly buckled. Her being three times as tall as him was fine; there were a lot of monsters and creatures that size. Her being upset was fine; her name was Despair, after all. But why, oh why, did she have to be so creepy? She was almost a combination of a little girl and some sort of evil demon--like a creature had taken a little girl's soul and used her voice as its own. Now that that idea came to Jeremiah, that sounded exactly like the aura he got from Despair.

"I will...still be waiting," Despair continued, "when you awake. I must give you a hint, but I...believe I have...already. You're...the master...of hope. You can...figure it out yourself." Despair stepped again towards Jeremiah. Her long, slender, bone-like hand reached out and brushed across his shoulder. a shock ran down his spine, not from Despair, but from his own fear. He looked up at the sobbing masked face, which seemed to be his biggest mistake yet. This time, his knees did buckle, and he fell to the ground.

"Boy, you are afraid," Despair observed. "Why? I am...only a...guardian." That's right! Jeremiah thought. That's why she needed to give me a hint! "Well, miss, you are a giant, slender apparition with a voice made from the souls of crying children, but otherwise, I don't really have a problem," he answered.

Despair made a small attempt at laughing. It didn't work in the slightest bit. "Now is the time. The sun rises in the Null World. You must...awake soon. Then...you will...gain your true power. I will...see you again. I ask you, child, wake up."

Jeremiah woke up, but something wasn't right. No, there was one problem Jeremiah could name right away.