Dripping Away

Chapter 16: Let's End This

    One of the first rules about being a Six was making sure to watch your back at all times. When the Six were made, they were vigilantes that saved what was left of the human race, and in their recent years they ran the world. The first rule still applied. And in that moment where a shadow of a person tried to pin me to the floor yet again, I had that very first rule running around. It was a reminder that, yeah, I should've been a good kid and listened. It was a reminder that no matter how many branches on the tree of life there were, I could never quite complete one, and that was how I ended up here fighting the unknown. Bullshit.
     My electricity shocked the shadow, but it was unfazed by it at all. Of course. A thing with no name and no face surely didn't feel, and that meant I was practically screwed. Well, mostly. I just had to hold it off until I was awoken again. Lekereianale knew that was my plan, so she decided to send a second shadow after me.
     "You're pathetic," Lekereianale grunted. "I was being so nice to you, showing you the path that would lead to a perfect end for humans and Giants, but you just had to change your mind like you always do!"
     "Fuck you, too." The room sparked again, and its arrangement was beginning to look like a memory. Like I already said, a thought room. "You knew I was like this," I grunted, pushing a shadow back into the wall. A picture fell and cracked from the impact. "I have made some of the dumbest decisions, so why pick me for this?"
     "Because I saw the future where you are... I saw the future where you do this and join us like you're supposed to do."
     "Saw the? Look, Lekereianale. I want to understand, but you haven't exactly give... me!" I shoved a shadow into the dusty fireplace. "The reasons to trust that it will work. I didn't even know you could see the future!"
     "Fine!" She snapped her fingers and the black shadows disappeared into the empty grassy field I had always seen. The other Giants stood tall and angrily, and there were more than last time. Nine in total. Wait.
     "I thought we got rid of the other four Giants. This doesn't make any sense," I darkened.
     "What?" Lekereianale started. "If you're just going to tease us, I will send you back into that hell box."
     Then, a wind picked up, and four of the figures disappeared along with it. What, was I really just imagining that?
     "Sit, you insolent thing," Lekereianale demanded. "I'll explain everything to you."
     This would buy me time. A story from her could give the world time, even though her usual sing-song voice sounded brash and spiked. I knew she was upset over her siblings, but I was already dead set on this. There was no way to change my mind. So, I sat in the grass like she instructed, and she stood across from me with the stars in her eyes. Literally. Her pupils were scattered across her eyes, making it look like little stars had taken place.
     "Are you ready?" she asked me. I nodded, and she began her tale. "Ten Giants were made from the particles of a mystery man we don't know the name of."
     "Wait." I tilted my head. "What?"
     "Ugh, hold on. Let me start with the legend. Okay, here." She closed her eyes and took in a breath. "Long ago, before the dawning of this planet, there was a galaxy far beyond our stretches of life. Planets up on planets full of life existed here, and they were all under the rules of the stars. As it turns out, the planets were dying, losing life one-by-one until they became floating rocks of nothingness. One star took the burden upon himself to save these planets by giving them a... counterattack. The hero or the item of interest. He managed to save those planets, but he was kicked out by the other stars. Legend says that the star travels to save planets across the galaxy.
     "Okay." Yeah, that legend I had never heard before. "How does that... explain anything to do with your situation?"
     "When we Giants awoke in the Garden of Lilth, we suspected our creation was forced by that man of stars. Of course, it didn't really come to me until everyone else had died and the blood that came from them was stardust. That's just... a theory of mine," she explained. "But we were made in the Garden of Lilth to control the weather of your planet. All ten of us. Each sibling had their own power, and mine was clairvoyance. I... foresaw this attack, when my siblings would pass, and I... didn't warn them."
     "Why?"
     "A personal choice." She held herself tightly. "I... I saw why we were killed, and we deserved it."
     "Someone killed you?" I asked.
     Another Giant came up, the ten-eyed one. Nakiraguishi. "We were killed by the government before it ultimately shut down, and then the Six cut off the gate forever. The Garden of Lilth can only be accessed through dreams now. Like this."
    Oh. Lekereianale stood up tall and turned her back to me. Every blue and pink spot had black spots in it, which look ed like her eyes. Was she giving up on killing me?
     "Lekereianale," I started.
     "Go back home," she sighed. "There is not a thing left for you in this Garden."
     "What if I let you out of the Garden?"
     She turned back. "That's assuming you find it, to which the Six hid it pretty well. What would be the point? The Weathered-Hands Ceremony only works with the ten of us, and we are five short."
     "It's not about the ceremony." My body disappeared bit by bit. "It's about getting you out."

     I pushed the glass of the tube outwards and immediately stood on my feet. Ikalanig stared at me and gave me the once over before crossing his arm. He knew something was up. Nashirme placed a hand on my shoulder while the others acknowledged my existence, but I was focused on something else. The Garden of Lilth was not a place committed to memory besides the fact it was a place of legend. I just had to get there. I had to-"
     "They told you about the Garden of Lilth." Ikalanig snaked his way through my crowd of    friends.
     I nodded. "The original Six sealed them away."
     "Yes, to which I will now say that breaking the seal on the Garden of Lilth is impossible unless you're the original Six. Which, we aren't, so..."
    "We need to try."
     Abers cleared his throat. "We should be focusing on Ranll's machines. Then, once they're up and running, Ikalanig can show us that door in the basement level."
     "You've seen it?" Ika asked.
     "Of course. Even a tech like me has a curious mind."
     They were right, though. We would turn on the machines, and then we would check out the door in the basement that let to the Garden.
     "Wait. It's in the basement?"