The Necklace: The Trial Realm

Chapter Twenty One: Demon Territory

"No." I shake my head hard. "No!" I shout. "They can't be."

"They are." Mark snaps. "You disappear and then everything goes to shit."

My stomach rolls, he's right. He's so right. This is all my fault. I'm the one who abandoned my home and family, I'm the one who got them the coins that got them into trouble. I brought this onto all of these innocent people whose lives were already so depressing. Coming here to live out your days until you die a worthless death was bad enough. Now because of my actions, their lives all got ten thousand times worse while I was living it up in the Hub with the Custodes like I was someone special.

This is all my fault.

"There has to be something I can do." The resilient side of my brain refuses to admit the defeat here. "There has to be, there is no way that they're gone."

"Dead, gone, in jail, wherever they are, they aren't coming back." Mark sighs. "This is the way things are now. So however you managed to disappear before, do it again." He turns and jumps back down into the ditch, the two little girls watching me warily as they huddle behind him.

"Come on, Mali." Oliver pulls but I pull right back.

"No!" I snap at him then look back to Mark. "When did they take them?" I ask and he shrugs.

"Maybe three or four days after you vanished."

Three or four days? They'd only gotten to enjoy having coin for food for three or four days before their lives were ruined all over again? It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. I know life isn't supposed to be fair, but this just seems like too much. All those poor children stuck working now, and no Mags around to throw out bread scraps to those who can't afford it. Gods, who knows what happened to Mr. Mags without Mags here to look after him.

I feel like my whole world is crashing down around me and I'm powerless to make it stop. Powerless to do anything but stand idly by while lives of the ones I love the most are destroyed all for me. I never should have left. It was selfish and stupid of me. I should have stayed. I could have found another way to help take care of everyone. With Tawny, we could figure out anything.

If only she were here now to tell me what to do, but she isn't. She's...

I can't bring myself to say it even in my own head. She can't be. I won't let her be. She's the one who always knows exactly what to do, and to fix this I need her. I need her and Mags and everyone else to be safe. I need to find her. She can't be...I won't let her be.

"They took them to Utopia?" I ask. "You're sure?"

Mark glares up at me. "That's what they said." He bites out. "They arrested them and said they would answer for their crimes in Utopia."

"What crimes?" I sigh. "They didn't do anything wrong."

"Having that much coin around here, they assumed it was stolen somehow. It wasn't right for a couple of Ring dwellers to have that kind of coin here, and they couldn't tell where they got it from, so they took them back. They said they'd get their answers one way or the other."

"Well then you don't know what happened to them once they got there." I point out. "Maybe they're alive, or on trial, or I don't know..."

"Yeah," Mark mocks me. "Maybe they're sipping spring waters and eating cakes with the Worthy right now."

"That's not necessary." Oliver steps in. "You're being needlessly cruel."

Mark throws back his head and laughs. "Needlessly cruel? Me?" He laughs harder. "That's something special coming from you. Who are you anyway? Where have you two been while the rest of us burn? That's what's needlessly cruel. Living like this. Don't like it? Go back to whatever hole you've been hiding in."