I shook my head. “The doctor who administered to me, Dr. Moreno I think, said it was different from the one prescribed under The Commander’s orders.”
“Interesting — Dr. Moreno, even though a part of The High Council, has known to be a kinder soul.” Angeline grabbed a needle and thread and began her stitch work. “His own son was born with a disability.”
I looked across the train car and noticed an industrialized crate.
“Oh, and don’t worry. We grabbed your backpack and violin. The journal’s here too.” Wes beamed. “That’s what you’re looking for, right?”
“What’s in this crate?” I tilted forward to get a better look, placing a hand on the rough metal corners of the box.
MECHA PHASE: PROJECT DARK PHOENIX.
Why wasn’t I surprised? That project looked deadlier the more I saw it.
Kuan-yin tilted her head. “We found several chips and all kinds of scraps used in the cyborg and AI units, but we have no idea what The Regime wants with them.”
“Let me play around with them. Corrupting these could slow The Regime down,” I suggested.
Wes snapped his finger. “That’s a great idea.”
I opened the crate and looked at the developed pieces of tech. One chip fit into the palm of my hand, but to The Regime, my gesture was fatal.
I grabbed a few of the circuits and rearranged them. Wes followed my movements and did the same.
“Stop that! Doing that will cause circuits to crash. The Regime will know they don’t work.” Kuan-yin crossed her arms.
Wes spat on the chip and polished it with his sleeve. “What do you know about tech? You’re The Lady of the Katana!”
I cleared my throat. “You didn’t just want to go to Weisheit for an adventure, did you?”
Kuan-yin sighed. “Ever since I was born, I was expected to be perfect in two things: math and martial arts. Math hasn’t been my thing. It’s why I got so upset when Becky yelled at me. Working in technology—it’s inspired me to be more creative and create a better future. As long as I can work technology and graffiti art, I’ll be happy.”
“Want to help?” I handed her one of the chips.
She grinned ear to ear. “Do grapes grow on vines?”
Wires sizzled as Kuan-yin, Wes, and I rewired the circuits on the chips. Despite this, the whispers of several Dreamers on board caught my attention. Are we going to die? Are we safe? I wonder if my sister’s okay —
I had similar questions that needed to be answered, but even more than those. I carried deeper questions about my family, including our magic, history, and the journal.
We all had something we were anxious about, but sticking together could help Dreamers get through whatever trials we had next.
Our train came to a halt.
TWENTY-THREE
Ambert
“Stop!” Kuan-yin shouted behind me. “You can’t go in there.”
I blinked and faced her. “It’s the only way to Serre.”
“That’s The Cave of Shadows, The Tomb of Nightmares — go in there and we’ll never come out.” she quivered as she clutched her blade.
I glanced at Wes, but he just shrugged. “Not even I’ve heard about this.”
“Some time ago.” Kuan-yin whirled toward the entry point. “Two friends entered this cave. Once they did, a darkness spoke to them. It tried to corrupt them, kill them, snuff out anything hopeful and light they had inside them. One girl sacrificed herself so the other could get away. Even so, the survivor had to go through intense care with my dad to place the evil at bay.”
“Creepy story, Kuan, but it’s our only option.” I shivered.
Wes blew a raspberry. “You actually believe this ghost story?”
“This isn’t a joke, Wes. My father has solid proof this happened.” Kuan-yin folded her arms over her chest.
This cave — was this what Mother was talking about in her journal?
My eyes darted back to Kuan-yin. “What was the name of the girl who survived?”
“I...uh…” Kuan-yin couldn’t bring herself to look at me. “I can’t remember.”
“Let’s go in. Serre’s said to be such a beautiful city. If we do run into this darkness, I’m sure my light can snuff it out.” Angeline held Wes’ hand.
The top of the cave shadowed over our heads. We couldn’t turn back now, only take steps forward into the unknown. Kuan-yin, Wes, Angeline, and I as well as a few other Dreamers entered the cave with pounding hearts and shallow breaths. If something in here was out to kill us — and if it was the same cave my mother visited — there was a struggle ahead.
A few candles and a torch on the wall crackled in the musty air. I reached for the torch before glancing down my path. Dark presences lingered in the bloodstained walls; the fresh blood coating the rock would never be removed. Cobwebs stuck to my fingers like cotton candy.
A sharp scream sounded from a path beside me, and I bolted that direction. Nothing. Nothing was there. Worse yet, no one else followed me. I was alone.
Water droplets dripped down the walls, soaking the cave’s interior. Brushing my hand against the substance, I expected a fluid, thin coating over the rock. Instead, my hand was met by a thick, ink-like liquid — What the heck is this?
“Firebird?” a voice resonated, calm and reassuring in tone.
It couldn’t be…
I jolted my head around to get a look at the figure. The woman wore a black and gray dress, tattered like an animal had clawed it. The black ooze from the walls dripped out her mouth and stained her hands. Her face emitted cracks, filled with pus and decay, pieces of dead skin coming from her shattered face and near her lifeless gray eyes. Mud-brown hair clung to her skin, giving her a horrific depiction, one I never wanted to see.
She couldn’t have been here. “Mother?”
“Surprised to see me?” her disembodied voice muffled out every other sound in the cave.
“You’re… dead.” I bit my lip before I tasted blood on my mouth. Was I that scared? “Mother, you can’t—”
“Still can’t line up the pieces I left?” her face twisted.
“... You’re an illusion here to kill me. Get out of my head,” I shouted.
“If I were going to kill you, you’d be dead.” a laugh followed from her chapped lips. “You have so much potential — yet you waste it. Why do you deny your gifts?”
“I create songs. I play melodies. I don’t reject who I—”
She interrupted, “You know what I’m talking about.”
“... Then you know about it.”
“I sense it. We’re both masters of sound.”
“I want to stop The Regime and Dreamers from fighting each other. You wanted that too, right? That’s why you wrote the journal.”
Mother clenched her fist. “I wrote the journal to teach you what dreams are when left unchecked. I wanted The Regime and Dreamers to crash and burn — for their leaders to hang on every tree to the sound of war drums. I wanted them all dead. Do you even realize what Dreamers wanted to do with you and Enya?”
“This isn’t you. You’re just a whisper—”
“I’m more than that, Firebird.” Mother stretched out her hand and low rumbling of sound lunged forward, cracking the ground below me. Ringing pierced my ears. “Afraid to face your own mother?”
“You’re just a dark remnant of when she came here.” I lowered my head.
Her eyes burned with contempt. “Doesn’t change the fact that you’re going to die here. Everyone always does in some way.”
“Enough!” I attempted to copy her move, only for a smaller sound wave to form.
A scream sounded in the distance, rippling the illusion.
I clenched my jaw. “You’re not hurting my friends, even if I’m on Antiserum.”
By the sounds of the screaming, everyone needed someone to help. I couldn’t let my friends down. Dreamers and The Regime — they couldn’t go int
o a full war. I couldn't allow it!
“You hardly know how to control your gifts—” Black ooze dripped off Mother’s stretched out hand. “I could teach you.”
Our hands reached out, mine so close to hers, but I clenched my fist and drew away. The mother from the journal was gone. This was a shadow of her — someone unreliable. Someone with no concern except to coat humanity in red.
“Not interested.” I cocked an eyebrow and released another sound wave.
A penetrating sound reverberated through the air, triggering an echo that cracked the cave walls and ceiling from the pressure. A beam of light ricocheted off of the cave’s gemstones. I felt as if I’d woken up from a twisted dream when I saw the blood. Her white clothing now stained, Angeline laid at my feet — if you could even identify her distorted face.
The shadow of my mother appeared again beside Angeline’s corpse.
“You say you want to stop the war.” the corrupted smile carved on her face chilled my core. “No force in this world can achieve that. It’s not your nature—”
In a cloud of dark smoke, she shifted across the cave. I scurried after her, tears clouding my vision as I gazed at the corpses of Dreamers we helped the day before. Sprawled out like lifeless dolls, Dreamers who once carried so much life now were crushed by rocks, shattered by gems, and bled out like soldiers.
Footsteps sauntered through the cave archways, signaling someone else was alive. The steps echoed like the ticking of an analog clock, drawing closer and closer. Boots, by the squishing sounds pacing behind me, reminded me of Cal and The Regime’s soldiers. Neither of them needed to be in a place like this.
Flame lit in the hall. Enya — she was my first thought. The orange flames sparked and flickered. I raced after them, determined to see someone I was close to. My breaths quickened as I approached the light…
But I wasn’t expecting it to be someone darker than Mother’s shadow.
A figure emerged, flame framing his face and the background behind him. He looked down at me, his towering height greater than my own. His irises — at least that’s what I assumed they were — burned red like the blood and fire around us. They scorched with hatred, burned with desire — a desire to kill just like anything in this cave, yet those same eyes contained something familiar.
“Like what you’ve done with the place.” he flashed a smile.
Clenching my jaw, I threw a sound wave in his direction. “This is your fault!”
“My fault?” the figure laughed. “You’re the one who created the earthquake. The blood’s spilling from your hands, not mine.”
“Who are you?”
“You don’t remember me from your time under the Dreamshade?”
“Dreamshade?”
“The three hags’ drink. You remember that, right?”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with this!”
“You’re looking into the mirror and questioning everything The Regime has ever done. They aren’t the only ones who made mistakes. You saw the vision. Sealed Destiny, Broken Reality, right?”
“Our reality can be fixed.”
“Your perfect reality is in chaos!”
“I have the journal. It will help me learn to fix it.”
“And you’ll never learn the cost of freedom.”
“Shut up!” I opened my fists and released another blast of sound.
The fire dimmed, leaving me in another shroud of darkness. That figure had to be another shadow from the cave— one that crept into my head to turn me against myself.
I looked out into the horizon to see another person in the dimming light, his blond hair still flopping in the gusts of wind. “Wes… I was beginning to think I was alone here.”
His face looked down, unable to face mine. “Die—”
I dodged his attack.
Kuan-yin rushed to my side. “Thank goodness you’re okay!”
“Get away from me—” my tone was flat.
“So many died from that earthquake. I don’t want to lose Wes or you either!” Kuan-yin drew her blade.
“The earthquake was my fault,” I spat. “If anyone deserves to die, it’s me.”
Kuan-yin’s lip quivered. “How could you say that?”
I took Wes’ attack, feeling one of his sharpened pencils stab my shoulder. He picked up an unlit torch and struck me again. Maybe it was for the best, but the thought of survival empowered me even more. No. It couldn’t end here.
Kuan-yin held her katana in her hands and fended off against Wes’ attack. “Wes, you’ve gotta listen to us!”
He needed to snap out of it. If the whispers were getting to him, he had to be in some sort of illusion.
Wes kicked Kuan-yin to the ground, grabbing her blade and lunging my direction. He cut into my arm, and I winced. I had to do something before Kuan-yin or anyone else got further injuries.
Magic wouldn’t be a great solution. I couldn’t risk causing another earthquake in the cave. Bullets wouldn’t work either. Injuring Wes wasn’t something we wanted to do. That left one other option: a pacifist option.
I walked toward Wes and smiled.
“Ambert, what are you doing?” Kuan-yin asked.
Pain tore into my arm, ripping through muscle and skin; blood spewed from the wound. This time, instead of drawing away from Wes, I squeezed onto him. Wes’ actions paused; his violence corroded away to grasp what I just did.
I embraced Wes tighter and refused to let go. Right now, I was his lifeline — his last grasp at humanity. “Please come back. For Dreamers. For Cal. For Aurelia.”
Wes dropped Kuan-yin’s katana to the ground. “Ambert? Kuan?”
I let go of Wes and clutched my left arm.
“You’re hurt…” his eyes widened.
I tore off a piece of my shirt and tied it around my arm. “I deserve this, Wes. If I hadn’t caused the earthquake…”
“Don’t be so selfless all the time.” Wes embraced me again and patted my back. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“I had no idea you could fight like that.” Kuan-yin crossed her arms and gazed at Wes, still in awe of how he swiped her blade.
“Cal said Wes is a handy fighter.”
“I’m not that amazing at it, okay? Must’ve been the cave that drove me…” Wes scratched his head.
Kuan-yin smiled and placed her katana in its holder. “Let’s get out of this place, boys.”
We wandered through the cave. Wes and Kuan-yin were alive so I couldn’t help but smile. Still, I clutched my arm tighter than before. So many Dreamers in the cave either died because of my decision to enter or from the earthquake. Angeline was distorted from being directly hit. No one deserved for no one to recognize them. I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for her clothes.
I swayed forward, dizziness coursing through my system — just like Enya’s had back in the forest. Placing my hand to my forehead, I checked for a fever. Sweat crawled down my neck, but my temperature didn’t feel feverish.
As I panted, Kuan-yin whipped her hair behind her to look at me. “You okay?”
“Drained. That’s all.” I winced.
The cuts in my arms slashed me all over again. On top of that, hypertension and heaviness ached through my system. I secured the cloth on my arm and eyeballed Angeline’s old stitch-work from the train.
Wes bobbed his head with a smirk. “You look like a pale zombie.”
Even if I didn’t get the reference, I didn’t doubt it for a second.
Kuan-yin snorted. “Good one, Wes! Using magic didn’t help him either!”
The corners of my mouth lifted, even if it ached, and a small chuckle escaped my lips. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“You’d never make it without us — maybe you’d get bored to death.” his eyes blazed with mischief.
“Look!” Kuan-yin smiled and pointed at the light ahead.
Wes’ face lit up. “The entrance out! We’re saved!”
Something inside me was changing. This was a new melody, a new song to replace the screams and sorrows. Ending the sorrows and blood spill was a dream more out of reach than a Regime-less world, but hoping on it filled me with new determination. I wouldn’t give up on that dream so easily.
TWENTY-FOUR
Ambert
Serre blinded my eyes with the color white. Everything was white— the bridges, the buildings, even some roads, possibly to ward off the darkness in the cave. Graffiti music notes lingered on the walls in an array of colors— blue, black, orange, gray, and it all broke the illusion of a clean, organized city.
The white streets stained with brown and ash. I coughed. A smog filled the air from a recent bombing by The Regime. The building beside me crumpled like a brittle gram cracker.
“Get a load of this place— just wow!” Wes’ jaw dropped.
I let out a breath of air and released a puff of smoke. That couldn’t be right. Shards of ice covered several areas: buildings, streets, even people. This city was too far south for snow to fall like in Fortress. Something was up— The Regime was unfolding a plan.
I winced and clutched my arm again. “Ack!”
Kuan-yin gave me a pitiful glance. “I saw a sign for a hospital this way.”
“Need any help?” Wes offered his hand.
I smiled. “That’d be great.”
Kuan-yin, Wes, and I trudged our way to the hospital. They made sure I was okay the entire journey, but I couldn’t bring myself to face them. I was the reason the three of us made it out without the others.
The doors and windows on the outside the hospital were glass. Not great for my sound wielding or The Regime’s bullets.
Kuan-yin dashed to the entrance and approached the front desk. I could still hear her as she pointed at me, but the staff must’ve been overwhelmed with victims from The Regime’s attack.
Splintering Reality (Breaking Order Series Book 2) Page 15