Beyond the Void

Chapter 97, Choices amid these fields of gold

ERIC

Six moons since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

Eric jolted from his thoughts. He tried to focus on his food, but the commotion in the café was bothering him. It was getting on his nerves.

"Damn it, stop tugging on my sleeve Sarah!" He stared long into the woman's face. It felt like a brick hit him square between the eyes. "What the hell? Where are we?"

"We are not home. Come on. I found Jess earlier, she is with Kauri and Mai. Lenna and Robert are out looking for Anna, Becca and Andrew. They should be nearby."

"Nearby? What is this place?" Eric tried to take in what he was seeing. He was in a café. It was not hard to tell. But the sight of it was unreal. Someone had built it out of many different places he had once visited. He remembered the one on Elizabeth Street and the other on Old Windsor road. And many others. Someone had tried to make a collage of cutouts with pieces of the real world.

The sights did not change outside the café. Towering skyscrapers were looking over apartment buildings and small private houses. Each piece of them was from a different part of the world and the buildings overlapped each other.

Eric looked down, and he had to kneel to stop his head from spinning. "There are buildings down there! Roads! Factories. What is this place? What am I standing on?" He could feel the asphalt road underneath his feet, but as he looked around, he realised the road was paper thin and the buildings rose from a bottomless void, many stories high.

"Try to focus on something else. It gets better the more you move around." 

"Our clothes!" Eric exclaimed. Sarah groaned and pulled Eric up by his hand. "We are still wearing these rags. Wait." Eric looked back into the café and saw his dull greenish sword in the umbrella stand. He wandered over. "Would I need this still? As a memory of what we had to go through."

"Eric! We are not home! We failed. Becca failed us! Look!" She conjured a small jet of water at the bar.

"Shut up, Sarah. This once shut up. I wanted to imagine that for a moment everything was all right again." Eric stared at the sword. It had saved his life several times now. But he hated it. It was so damned sharp.

"I told you didn't I?" He added after a moment of silence. He picked up the sword and joined Sarah. She had tears in her eyes.

"We wanted to go home! All of us wanted to believe there was a way. There had to be a way."

"I was right and so was Andrew." Eric said with anger. "Do you think he didn't lie about Sten?"

"I am sure he could show you." Sarah's voice was bitter. She turned away and Eric followed her in silence.

The patchwork world was bizarre to look at, but it did get better to navigate between the distorted landscape of their home world. It did not make it any easier to look at the things Eric desired. There were lemonade stands here and there. Gas stations and French hot-dogs. Soft serve ice-cream shops.

The latest Mercedes-Benz was on display. He might never afford it, but it was one of the best-looking cars ever made. Maybe in twenty years. If he worked hard and saved money, he could get one used if there would still be any left. There was a lump building in his throat.

Eric had to close his eyes when he heard Jess' wailing. A few tears escaped his eyes, and he swiftly wiped them off.
"It's right there! I can see it! I can see my home!" She kept repeating. She was sitting in the middle of the motorway with her arms around her knees. Kauri looked grimmer than Eric had ever seen him.