The Thought Keepers: Ability

Chapter 28: The Voice in His Ear

Lumen was different than I expected. For a prison, it hardly screamed confinement. There were no walls, floors or ceilings to keep us in. Instead, it was almost like we had become a part of the sunset, staring its vastness in the face.

The sky was much closer than it should have been. It was like a bath bomb had exploded and left a mix of purple and orange in its wake. There were wispy clouds all around us, drifting like little ghosts without direction. One came so close that I reached out to touch it, letting the cold vapor slip through my fingers.

It was like being in a painter's dream. I could picture Jake sitting in his room as a child, imagining this colorful scene in the limitless expanse of his mind, and attempting to transfer the image onto a canvas much too small.

"So this is what a psychic prison looks like," I said, settling into a sitting position at the center of a translucent square. The glass was cold beneath me, and it looked like I could fall right through if I moved the wrong way. "It doesn't seem all that bad."

Jake was sitting atop a frosted knight that had fallen over. He scoffed and ran a hand through his mess of faded blonde curls. "Try staying here for months with no food or human interaction, and then say that again."

My eyes carefully mapped out the chessboard's path. The checkered glass just seemed to stretch on forever, winding downwards in an endless spiral. The slope was gradual, evening out on each level so that a person could walk without fear of falling. Giant chess pieces were scattered along the way, as if they had been trying to find out where the path ends. 

Beyond the sides of the chessboard was a clear descent into empty air. Moving too far to the left or right was certain doom, but going forward just seemed like a pointless task. It never ended, and each floor of the game looked the same as before. 

"Welcome to Lumen, the inter-dimensional prison designed to confine and torture Shades," Jake said with wide-open arms and a sarcastic smile. At first glance, I couldn't wrap my head around the endless landscape of sunset colors and glass being a prison of any kind. But looking at the way the game seemed to continue on forever, I started to think differently. 

He noted my interest in the board's infinite loop and added, "I've been walking down for months, trying to find a way out. There isn't one. And when you reach a new level, it just resets so that you're at the top again, like you haven't even moved at all."

If this was the kind of place you were stuck in forever without a hope of leaving or changing, fixed like a piece on a forgotten game board, then I could imagine that would make anyone desperate. Desperate enough to haunt someone's dreams, to even threaten them if necessary, so long as they could escape.

Sighing, I rubbed my face. "Isn't your father the one that created Lumen?"

Before I could brace myself, Jake jumped down from the collapsed knight, landing right in front of me on all fours. Up close, his features were indistinguishable from Carson's. He had the same sharp jawline, thick eyebrows and curly hair. Even his bleached strands were fading at the roots, returning to their natural shade of ebony.

Despite the resemblance, locking eyes with him felt akin to staring down a snake. 

"No, Lumen is much older than my father. Lumen was created in the beginning, right as Unnormals started banding together in response to the witch trials. There was a need for security, protective measures to make sure that no one, human or otherwise, would pose that much of a threat to again. 

He leaned forward slightly as he righted himself, quickly becoming a part of my personal space. I could literally feel his warm breath on my cheek. I wanted to back away, but I felt trapped in this unspoken standoff. I was boxed in by his overbearing presence and my own pride.