When Forever Ends (Part 1: A Game of Chess)

XX

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T w e n t y

The sound of heavy breathing filled the air when we had been descending for what felt like fifteen minutes.

I could feel Maya staring holes in my back. I couldn't say for sure whether she was angry at me, or offended that I'd dismissed her help, or even more worried about me than before. Probably the latter. What I did know was that she was concerned for me. She wanted to help, but didn't know how. I didn't really need time to think about the visions. I actually wanted to do the exact opposite of that; to not think about them.

What was happening to me? I never kept secrets from Maya. There were a few things I didn't tell Sofie or Will, but Maya was the one I trusted most. I had no need to keep secrets with her.

Just after she had followed me into the stairwell, the door had slammed shut with a clang that reverberated throughout the shaft. She had attempted to get it back open, but she may as well have been trying to move a solid wall. There was no going back. Only going down.

"How... far... this... go?" Will huffed. The alarm had shut off only a few seconds after we had entered the stairwell, so I could hear him, and all his echoes, just fine.

It was as black as pitch and we were finding our way solely by touch. I ran my hand along the handrail of the staircase and strained to see anything in the suffocating blackness. Nothing.

"No... clue," I said in reply to Will's question.

I was beginning to feel the effects of hunger gnawing at my stomach. As if thinking about it had brought it on, a loud gurgle echoed in the dark.

"Need... find... food," Sofie groaned.

"Don'... try... talk. Save... energy." Erin suggested.

I took another step down and my foot hit something that tumbled off the edge of the stairs and fell. I thought nothing of it, or the fact that I didn't hear it land, I just continued. Who knew walking down stairs could be so exhausting?

Without warning, a loud buzzer sounded and the stairs all folded into a smooth slope. Will shouted in alarm as we tumbled down the ramp. I looked around for a place to grab hold, but there was none. I was secretly glad, though, for the fact that we no longer had to walk.

My relief was brief, however, (no rhyme intended) as a few seconds later, the ramp ended abruptly and we went into free fall.

It was strangely silent as I fell. I would have at least expected some of my friends to scream.

The air whipped around me, lashing out at my unprotected face and tearing my shoes from my feet. It stole away any sound I attempted to make and forced its way up my nose and into my lungs.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to ignore the discomfort.

A small, red light zipped upwards past me. It was the only visual indication I'd had so far that I was actually falling.

Again, I tried calling out to my friends, but the wind snatched away the words just as soon as my mouth formed them. I began to panic that there would be no end to the fall. Or that it would end, but I wouldn't survive it.

Suddenly, I was nearly blinded as the space was lit by harsh, white light. As my eyes adjusted, I made out the circular shaft I was falling down, lined with curved, white panels that gave off the light. I saw no bottom to the pit. I looked back up and did not see the top. I also noticed something else.

I fell, alone.

━━━

"This is bad."

"Tell me something I don't know."