Telluric

Chapter XXV: Queen of Roaches

XXV

Everyone was standing in a stretch of hall waiting for him; Diego gasped happily, Mayla sighed in relief, Clary grunted in a make-shift sign of appreciation, Ginger wagged her tail appreciatively, and the glowing person who was floating just stared at him. To be honest, Noah expected nothing less than a floating and glowing person at this point.

"Noah!" Diego hugged Noah tightly, and Noah embraced back. "Where were you? We've been waiting for an hour for you to catch up! Thank god you're okay..." Noah felt both confused and guilty at the same time. How long had he been in that abyss of white, surrounded with Escher-like stairs that led to nowhere, saved only by Death himself.

"An hour..." Noah mumbled. "Are you sure it's been only an hour?" The others looked at him in a confused manner, the glowing person smiled darkly at the mention. "It felt like... much longer." Noah's eyes watered a bit, but he willed the tears away.

"Time is different in this realm..." The glowing person cooed malevolently, their voice whispering like a dark wind. "You could have been here for days, years, or seconds; you wouldn't know."

"Great..." Clary mumbled. "Thanks for lifting our spirits MUSE..."

MUSE only shrugged and smiled maliciously, as if nothing that was going on affected their intents at all. Sighing, Noah began to look around the hall. It was made of dark bricks, with white cement in between. Luckily, it wasn't as dark as the other halls however, as it was illuminated by green flames that seemed to crackle endlessly on the walls. There were archways over top of them, and on the walls there were mirrors.

They all slowly began to walk through the hall (MUSE floated of course, as walking was totally beneath her... sorry for the pun). Suddenly, the flames began to die out behind them, darkening the hallway. Diego gasped and began pulling Mayla (who picked up Ginger) and Noah, while Noah pulled Clary and Clary pulled MUSE.

The group ran away from the darkness, heading toward the unforeseeable end in the distance. Their interlocking hands grasped tightly around each other, everyone panting heavily as the ominous darkness chased after them. Suddenly, a large door came into view; it seemed to be placed in front of another expanse of hallway behind it, so that it didn't seem to possibly lead to anything.

But it was their only chance.

"I really hope it's not locked!" Mayla yelled as they ran toward it. Diego manipulated his shadows in order to open the door, and it led to a room full of light. The group barely made it before the darkness, caught up to the door, slamming it shut.

The light seemed to be resonating from a green hearth in the center of the dome-shaped room. On the sides of the room were more hunting trophies, though these ones seemed... alive. They glared at the group when they passed into the room, seemingly turning their heads, though it could have been a trick of the green hearth in the center of the room. There were lions, and tigers, and bears.

"Oh my..." Noah muttered.

Tending the hearth was some decrepit humanoid in a muddled black robe and hood. She poked at the flames as if she were defusing a bomb, carefully examining each individual flame. Something seemed off about her... something Noah couldn't quite put his finger on.

While whispering into Clary's ear, MUSE spoke about the figure that was squatting next to the fire. Darkness seemed to resonate about the figure's embodiment, washed away by the green flames. It was Clary who took the initiative, walking forward to talk to the figure. Everyone else (except MUSE) stood together while holding hands. Looking to Diego's crimson eyes for comfort, Noah grasped his hand firmly.