The Door

Chapter 17

Adron shoved them out of the open door. Everett gasped. He stumbled backwards. The world spun under his feet. The musty city air danced through the sky. He choked on the polluted air combined with his own disgust. He stared at the world around him. The horror of the Aslyum crept from his memories. He was in Kamere.

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A pain bubbled up inside him. He cried out, his anger blowing from his body.

"Why? Why here?"

The haunting from his past crept past his thoughts every day. He hated Kamere with all of his soul. To many secrets. Nothing was real. It was as if any tangible thought or emotion had been filtered and forced into your head by Adron. He was a pawn, in this game of life. In this game of light verses darkness. And he screamed.

Kaden jerked awake. Everett lay a shaking hand on her shoulder. She looked at him in sadness. She painfully stood up, her knobby joints buckling. She looked around. This was the bridge. The bridge where Everett's life began. She looked to the people beneath her. They gasped in horror and disbelief.

"I told you! These dirt bags came back! There is nothing worth anything in the world outside of these walls. Just pain, darkness, and screaming."

Kaden ignored him, her eyes fixed on the people of Kamere. If you could call them that. Adron ripped Everett off the ground with his claw like hands.

"They have seen what's beyond the wall, and they came crawling back."

Kaden looked wistfully below, staring in silence at all of the empty souls that stood below. Her eyes brimmed with tears.

"Everett!" A hoarse scream cried out from the crowd. Everett pulled himself away from Adron, grabbing onto the edge of the wall. There was a mob pile next to the stairs. Limbs were flying everywhere "Everett!" He caught his glimmering parents' eyes.

"Mom! Dad!" He yelled as loud as he could. A loud shot blew through the grey sky. They screamed in terror and collapsed limp on the ground. "NO!" He almost jumped off the wall, but was pulled back by Kaden. She pulled him into a hug. He wept, staring at the vast sea below. Kaden stroked his head, weeping almost harder. Her heart bled for them.

"I'm so so sorry," She grasped him harder.

His teeth gritted together. He held onto his neckless tighter then he ever had before. His mind suddenly flickered back.

He held his sister, rocking her back and forth. She cried harder than any grown person could.

"You will be alright, I promise." He sobbed with her.

She suddenly stopped crying and looked at him. "Don't be sad for me. I shall live more than I ever have here," She smiled sweetly, red blotched across her cheeks.

They shared a moment of sadness. "I heard there was a song that would take the souls of all the people in Vermillion and make them hopeful again. It can save lives, I bet. He slowly took a breath, and sang a song that would change the world forever. The world quieted, slowing.

The vast oceans and the crashing waves.

The Door and the Whisper of no end.

Life and prosperity, and hope they give.

So that the people can sing again.

As they battle, through the centuries,

The people of Vermillion sleep in peace.

No matter the pain, or hopelessness

The people of Vermillion shall break those chains.

Light verses darkness, who shall win?

So that the people can sing again."

"Who is the Door and the Whisper?" She whispered.

"Brothers, I think. That's how the story goes."

She heaved, coughing. Blood splattered onto her sleeve. She took a shallow breath outward.

"Everett, don't be sad. Please. Let your neckless be your guide. Death is only the beginning," She smiled, sweetly. She went limp, taking her final breath. But not before she slowly lifted a bead neckless from her neck.

Her tiny body filled only a fraction of the coffin. Everett wept bitterly the night Amya Colley died. His dark room seemed darker. More empty and shallower. All that could be heard from his open window, from the peaceful night outside, was the sweetest song ever to reach someone's ears.

"Though the heartaches, on this land, we shall forever live..."