She could still recall the conversation like it was yesterday with Alex’s voice resounding in her ear as she stared at Victoria writhing on the ground with a pained expression as invisible flas burned her.
’With gone and the others in terrible states, I can’t trust anyone else to keep watch. You have to be the one to step up.’
Now, faced with a scenario where one of those she was ant to be watching over could die, Elena found herself unsure on how to proceed.
"Help ." Victoria pleaded as her regeneration was already on its last legs.
Gritting her teeth, Elena decided to take a gamble, testing out of the new techniques she’d been working on since she dropped off Arwen in the Afterlife.
She reached for Victoria and grabbed her before proceeding to glow for a brief mont.
A dull thud echoed as Victoria’s expression relaxed as the burning sensation quickly died down, though not without leaving scars that would take weeks to heal.
Elena glanced at what had fallen to find that it was the egg shaped rock that Victoria had been holding, accompanying it, a severed palm.
She didn’t need to ask to know that Victoria had lost a hand, her right hand to be precise.
"Are you crazy?... You could have died out there." She imdiately scolded Victoria once she ca to.
Closing her eyes, Victoria let out a tired breath. "It’s important that I do this."
"Why?"
"You won’t understand." Victoria intoned while struggling not to think about the foreign gaze lurking sowhere in her subconscious.
She didn’t want to recall it nor did she want to tell others about it as she feared that it could prove infectious, spreading like a plague to those she had co to regard as comrades.
Pursing her lips, Elena let out a sigh. "So what now?... You are a complete ss."
"There’s still one more place I need to go." Victoria replied, causing Elena to raise a brow.
"You are kidding, right?"
Victoria remained silent prompting Elena to remark. "Don’t tell you plan on heading back there."
"No, sowhere else. I already have the destination mapped out." Victoria explained.
"You would die. You’d be dead already if I wasn’t there to save your sorry ass."
"So help and I shall endeavor to help you at your ti of need."
"Damn it, why the hell are all of you so crazy?" Elena had begun to understand why Alex had placed her on watch duty.
Arwen, Nadia, Victoria... These ladies were courting death, one and all!
Victoria struggled to get back to her feet only to fall back down as she realized she was completely exhausted.
Elena let out a deep sigh as she intoned. "Just rest for now at least, once you have recovered sowhat, we can make plans to head over to your destination together."
"Thank you."
Taking a deep breath, Victoria took the ti to inspect their surroundings, realizing it was a peculiar space with a night sky filled with twinkling white spots, reminiscent of the scene within Eternal Night.
The sky was above while they were in what appeared to be a hallway that seed to stretch on to infinity.
Random wooden doors floated about in the sky above, so closer and the others farther.
The hallway was hardly a grand structure, with mundane looking walls and a red carpet on the ground.
Most striking was that there were so doors, five in total, two of which had na tags on them with the nas, Purgatory, Afterlife and Spirit World.
The other two appeared as rooms under construction with yellow tape covering them up.
Furrowing her brows, Victoria felt compelled to ask. "Where are we?"
"It’s a project of mine, a ans to better focus my ability to traverse dinsions. I call it the Dinsional Hallway." Elena replied with a slight smile before inquiring. "What do you think?"
"... It needs a better na."
"Arwen said the sa thing too." Elena said with her head down.
***
After much back and forth, Vissarion and the other ship captains finally decided on a course of action.
They split into two equal teams and began to scour the ship in two different directions with the intention of quickly ending their search.
None found anything of note, rely more signs that there was sothing terribly wrong with the ship.
It was almost like everyone on board had vanished while also doubling as a place that had suffered a monster’s attack though it remained unknown what sort of monster could be so thorough and ticulous.
Unfortunately, the evidence couldn’t settle on any just yet.
Soon, they arrived at the last place they hadn’t checked yet, the captain’s office.
Vissarion stood at the forefront, holding his revolver at the ready as he kicked the door in and stepped back while aiming his gun at the entrance.
There was nothing but the darkness within was enough to keep the golden rays of the Lightbringer at bay.
"Sothing is in there." One of the captains comnted. "I can feel it."
"Everyone be ready."
Lighting on their oil lamps, Vissarion and the captains went in alone only to be t with a neatly arranged office.
But that wasn’t what caught their eyes, neither was it the trophy wall made of the bones of various terrifying sea creatures.
Instead, it was the doll house sitting comfortably on the captain’s desk.
It resembled a castle, an imposing one ant for royalty and radiated with an aura that seed both pervasive and welcoming.
Vissarion took the first step forward just as the captain asked. "What is it?"
"No idea." Was the shared response they all have as they ca within arms length of the strange toy.
Staring hard at it, Vissarion felt compelled to touch and like a child with no sense for danger, reached out and grabbed the dollhouse.
Before the other captains had the chance to panic, a brilliant light flashed and they were engulfed in it.
Reviews
All reviews (0)