Across Worlds - Chapter 11

A/N: I had to rewrite this chapter a few days ago so the timing set up in last chapter is a bit off. I still have to fix that. Just for the sake of saying so, this chapter takes place immediately after the ending of the last chapter.

Falyn

“I need those answers.” Falyn looked up to see the man walk through the door. He closed it carefully before he continued. “Are you ready to talk?”

She gave him a hard glance, one that she hoped portrayed her annoyance. But his face stayed complacent.

“You can stop trying. I’m never gonna tell.”

The man sneered and flexed his fingers. The pain set in again, piling on top of the aching left from last time.

It felt like her bones were splintering all at once. She could barely move, much less fight back. As time went on, the pain got worse. It spread to her muscles, constricting her movement completely. She fell to the ground, but she couldn’t feel her body hit.

Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, her bones set on fire. They burned every time she flinched. Her lungs filled with smoke as if the fire was outside rather than inside her very bones.

She wanted to give up. The man wanted answers? She’d give them to him. She didn’t know much herself, but she would tell him everything. Anything to get the pain to go away.

She remembered what Akia had said that day before their run in with the Force:

If you want to live, come with us.

She’d gone and she had lived. Now it seemed she was going to die. Akia had gotten her this far. And how did Falyn repay her? By getting captured.

With all the strength she had left, she mumbled the words, “I’ll tell.” Although the words were plain and articulate in her mind, they came out as simple gasps and strangled noises, nothing anywhere close to composed words.

The man relinquished his attack. When the pain stopped, it was sweet bliss just like before. She even calmed herself down enough to realized that there was no real fire, that it was all just in her mind. Her bones were right as before, nothing ruined.

She was still laying face down on the floor, collecting her breath. Dust and dirt surrounded her face, but she didn’t care. She felt as if she was breathing in more dust than oxygen. She sputtered, choking on whatever she’d accidently sucked in from the floor.

The man’s boots pounded against the tile as he walked towards Falyn. She forced her head up in time to see him squat down close to her.

“I don’t know what you said, but I’m sure it wasn’t pretty.”

Falyn hesitated. So he didn’t hear what she had said. She was at an advantage. But she had to be careful and play her cards right.

The anger built up inside of her, threatening to explode. Every ounce of resentment that had been washed out by pure agony had returned.

“I said,” she managed to choke out. “You can go fu—”

“Hey,” Rhys said, chuckling. “Watch your language.” She made a growling noise in the back of her throat which only made Rhys laugh even more. She glowered as he stood and dusted off his clothes.

“Well since you haven’t given me the information, I guess I can’t let you go free.” He turned to walk out the door.

“What do you need to know?” she shouted after him. “You know why we were in the woods. You don’t need more for anything else.”

“Oh, but I do,” he said as he swiveled on his heel to face her again. “Remember how I said you were bait?”

“How can I forget?”

Rhys smirked. “You’re job doesn’t stop there. You are doing a fantastic job being bait. But you also know more than you think you do. I’m going to need those secrets that you’re hiding. Or rather, the powers that you’re hiding.”

Falyn rolled her eyes. “Can’t anyone just give me a straight answer for once? I’m tired of this secrecy.” Rhys narrowed his eyes.

“You want answers? I’ll give you answers.

“You have powers you don’t know about, powers that are beyond your pathetic imagination. Everyone around here thinks the each person in each world is the same. Agithi has the mages. Pollume has – or rather had – the seers. Sedula has the shapeshifters.”

“Sedula? I’ve never heard of that world.”

“That’s because you mages only care about yourselves and your pathetic rivalry with the seers,” he said dismissively. “My point is, each world only has one power. But you—you my dear, have more than one power in you. You’re stronger than you think. And that’s why Lightport is so bent on keeping you safe.”

Falyn stared at him, her mouth agape. She was a mage; her only power was to wield magic. She had been doing magic since she was five. Never was there any indication that she had other powers.

Except…

“You mean—” she hesitated. “You mean, like the time stop?” Rhys’s face changed from smug to surprise quick as lightning. Falyn knew immediately that she shouldn’t have mentioned it. Obviously Rhys didn’t know about it yet.

“Time stop?”

“What are these powers I have?” she asked quickly, hoping he’d glaze over her comment.

But he didn’t.

He reached forward, grabbing her by the collar and pulling her close. The chains tugged back at her arms, sending shooting pain to her shoulders. Rhys didn’t seem to care. He simply glared at her.

“You are going to tell me what the hell you mean by a time stop. That’s not something you can pretend was never said.”

She was terrified, and it showed on her face; she couldn’t help it. Her eyes were wide, rapidly moving between his orange eyes. Something that later would bother her. But at the moment, she could barely breathe and was trying hard to not suck in the awful, onion smell that his breath had.

She waited for his next move. Would he torture her again? Would he kill her then and there? No, he couldn’t kill her. She was at an advantage, again. He didn’t know what the time stop was. He needed information from her.

After a few seconds, he relaxed and let go of her shirt. She backwards, nearly landing on her head.

Rhys’s boots pounded on the floor as he walked out of the room. “I will be back, Falyn. And you will give me answers. I’m not buying this innocent bystander act anymore.”

The door slammed shut and Falyn let out a sigh of relief. He was finally gone. It was all over. Until he came back that is. And she had no doubt that he would return.

She thought about what he said. Was she really that special? Akia had warned her not to take any of this lightly. There was something going on and it seemed like Rhys was the only one giving her answers.

Strange. I figured he’d be one of the first to hide things from me.

She shook the thoughts from her mind and sat up. There was no use worrying about things that may or may not be true. What she did need to worry about was finding a way out of there.

Looking around, she gasped. The walls were on longer there; the wood had disappeared. There was nothing but emptiness that surrounded her. She looked to her right, curious to see what else there was to the building she was in. But there was nothing but empty rooms.

The room to her left, however, was occupied; by Akia. Falyn stared as Akia ran over and slammed her hands against something. She moved her mouth, obviously trying to communicate with her, but no sound came out. Falyn furrowed her brow and turned her head in confusion.

Akia got the message. She slowed down, moving her mouth in slow, deliberate movements.

“No time to…explain,” Falyn muttered to herself, trying to figure out exactly what Akia was saying. “Rhys won’t…give up. Must get out.

“Yeah, no kidding!” She shouted back. Akia rolled her eyes. She seemed to be able to hear Falyn, which only confused her more. There was nothing there, nothing cutting them off from each other. Yet Akia couldn’t get to Falyn and Falyn couldn’t hear what she was saying. It had to be some strange sort of magic.

Just as Akia opened her mouth, the lights flickered off, plunging the rooms into darkness. Falyn looked around frantically until it seemed to register in her brain that the lights were out. All she could do was sit and wait, wondering what was going on.

There was a soft rumbling sound that reached her ears, but she couldn’t determine where it was coming from. It got increasingly louder until it suddenly stopped. Falyn’s heart pounded in anticipation, waiting to figure out what exactly the sound was.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang and the door in front of her exploded. Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest when she heard the noise. Debris from the door whizzed by her. She ducked her head, bracing herself for any contact. Luckily nothing hit her.

Someone tugged at the shackles on her wrists until she was free. Before she could think or speak, she was being yanked to her feet and pulled out of the room. She stumbled along the way, tripping over debris littering the floor.

They stopped suddenly and there was a slight pause. Then came three hard, loud knocks.

“If you don’t want to get flattened by the door, I’d suggest standing back.”

Falyn recognized the deep voice. She yanked her arm out of the person’s grip and took a step back. They didn’t move to grab her or bring her back.

“Zeke? Is that you?”

Zeke let out an aggravated sigh and slammed his hands against the door. “Akia, do you want to die by exploding door? Because that’s what’s gonna end up happening if you don’t move.”

Akia let out a string of curse words. Her voice got progressively quieter. When she couldn’t be heard any more, there was a loud bang and a sudden rush of air. Falyn raised her arms in front of her face to block any debris that might come her way.

“Come on,” Zeke shouted from somewhere in Akia’s room. “We need to get going. Take my hand.”

“I’m taking nothing of yours. I can get myself out.”

“I know my way out.”

“And you think I don’t?” Akia retorted. Her voice was much closer so Falyn took a cautious step forward. Before she knew it, someone yanked her forward and they all took off into the darkness.

There was something discerning about sprinting off into nothingness. Falyn had no idea where she was going or which direction to go in next. All she could do was trust that Akia and Zeke knew where they were going. And that they could quit arguing with each other long enough to work together.

It felt like they were going to run for eternity. There was an empty feeling in her gut as they ran on; like she wasn’t even there. It was as if they had fallen into a dark, never ending abyss.

But then they stopped and someone pushed open a door. They had reached the end of the abyss.

Sunlight rammed into them, sending Falyn stumbling backwards. The light was more than her eyes could handle. She squinted, black dots dancing around in her vision. But she wasn’t able to be shocked for long; Zeke kept pulling her along.

Once they were surrounded on all sides with the sun, it became too much. She couldn’t see in the dark and she couldn’t see in the light either. She stopped, shielding her eyes from the intense heat. She couldn’t go any longer until her eyes adjusted.

“Come on, we can’t stop,” Akia said, grabbing Falyn’s arm and dragging her along. “The woods aren’t that far away now. If we don’t get back there, Rhys will come after us again. And this time he won’t be as kind.”

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For the LMS contest. Word Count: 1,992