Author's Notes: This chapter and the next one were written simultaneously, and if possible, I highly recommend reading Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 back to back for the full effect.
These two chapters are basically what I worked months on end to achieve, so I hope you enjoy. AceofIntuition is my beta reader in general, but they especially deserve thanks for these parts.
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"Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt – darkness that can be felt.'" – Exodus 10:21
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They didn't have time for futile feelings, Sammy found as he and the angel began marching once again down the corridors of paper, wood, and ink.
"So we are simply going to keep...wandering like this until he comes?" Incredulous, almost biting. Wasting time-! Was this the best they could do?!
"Yes. He'll come. He always comes when I'm out too long." It's simply a matter of fact, but still spoken so bitterly from a woman cursed to never feel free to leave her shelter, be it the demon, the searchers, or the gang. "Either that or we...find him first."
A pause.
"And her," she added, maybe an assurance more for herself than to him.
"...I don't...expect her to be with him if he does come to greet us," Sammy confessed.
"Me neither. But it's this and hoping we can reach back to where he took her from there...or nothing...well, besides destroying those infernal cutouts. But we're no help to Francine in the puddles if we decide to pick a fight with him."
How ironic, considering they plead with Norman to try to do so only moments before. But having the demon mad at him as they tried to reach Francine would have been far different from having the god become enraged at them.
Having no idea what the projectionist left to do- if his escape was a conscious decision or merely one like overwhelming a nonsentient beast, the angel and prophet united only for love of one unlike them both were helpless but to be vulnerable in hopes that somehow, this would set her free-
A flicker of light from a crossroads a long distance away.
Alice gasped and felt hair hit the side of her face with her jump, and Sammy felt his skin crawl in anticipation.
...
...
Nothing more.
With renewed urgency, a hand reached back for Sammy and lurched him forward as she continued the same way, ensuring he was dragged behind even despite his melting, stressed body and unsureness of faith and what having it was meant to be. Almost as if it existed to heighten her own rising panic, Alice Angel noticed little things in their world getting louder and louder, more and more upset just like she.
The dripping of ink was faster.
The creaks of the floorboards threatened more and more a desire to break beneath them.
Everything was darker, and no shadow stood still.
...Something was not right.
Another noise, another light causing the two to jump once more and skid to a halt. Alice put a finger to her shredded lips, and Sammy's flat eyes searched about in prayer that their lord's inky webbing would crawl over the walls once more.
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A Rock in the River
Fiksi PenggemarI've always asked what there was to live for after I died. My answer was to exist, to try to reach the unfathomable glory of the god whose dark, dripping smile loomed over us. Every waking moment in a life with no rest was filled with prayer- a pray...
