What Lies Between ✔

Those Who are Lost

Kairos: Part 2

There were seat-less rows where theater chairs used to be placed, all set in tiers. The only evidence that chairs used to be placed there were the large holes in the concrete, like lines of dark eyes watching our every movement. I thought of the specter and shivered. "Remember to stay close," Ben reminded without looking back at me.

I moved robotically. My legs felt heavy, like I lacked the strength to move them. My energy seemed to be fleeing from me. I looked down at the Moonstone that dangled from my neck.

Surely it couldn't be hurting me? It represented healing after all. I couldn't be harmed by a divine stone. Unless I was evil.

The lotus. It said you're good, remember? My mind whispered to me in a voice that sounded like Lidia's.

But what if it was wrong? A voice that sounded venomous overlapped the encouragement. Hydra.

I reached out to the peeling wall to steady myself, pressing the heel of my palm against my forehead, as if to push the thoughts back behind my skull where they could stay locked away. I was losing it. It had to be the stone. I had to get it off, no matter what that meant about my soul, continuing to wear it would be a dumb move at that point.

As I dropped my shaky hand to my neck I heard a loud whooshing noise followed then by a deafening thwack. Pain splintered through my skull. Various blues and purples swam across my vision and when they finally all swiveled away I was looking at Ben's feet running toward me.

"Kairos!" His voice sounded like an echo bouncing around in my throbbing head.

What happened?

Then I saw a large slab of loose debris come flying behind Ben, targeted at his head. It was as if my body had leapt into power-drive or something, because one moment I was on the ground, the next I was upright and racing towards Ben, who was already hurrying to me.

He looked shocked when suddenly I was in front of him and opened his mouth in start of a question, but I slammed my hands into his shoulders, causing the question to soundlessly shoot from his mouth as he hit the concrete floor.

I spun and raised a hand to the flying stone. The debris hit an electric looking wall of green, inches from my palm, then simply dropped into a pile of dust at my feet.

My legs buckled. I hit the floor again, feeling the grainy bits of stone dig into my knees. A shudder rippled through me, the sensations of hot and cold taking their turns running up and down my skin. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to fight off the dizziness that was causing the room to dance around me.

Then I heard the patter of feet darting across the theater floor. I opened my eyes, trying to pin-point the sound, but it was hard with all the little blinking lights dotting my vision. Finally I spotted her, crouched in a corner, eyes wide and unblinking. A little girl, about six or seven maybe, with long strawberry blond hair. She wore a dingy-looking blue dress that hung around her knees in tatters.

The whole look of her was one big anachronism, because she clearly did not belong in the world of today. When she seen that I had found her, she jerked upright and immediately began looking around, as if searching for another hiding place.

"Hey!" Ben called from next to me. I turned my head to see him pushing himself up onto his feet. "We're here to help you, you little brat!"

A Ghost. The little girl was a Ghost.

She blinked at Ben, as if deciding whether he could actually see her or not, "Leave me alone," she whispered.

"What the hell?" Ben growled. "You want to be stuck here?"