02-09-2020, 03:12 AM
<center><div style="width:400px; padding:30px;font-family:times;font-size:12px;line-height:14px;background:#FFFFFF;color:#000000;text-align:justify">If he was going to choose to walk away, he is not given the chance.
He hears a voice, and the familiarity of it stalls his heart. “Mom?”
Swiftly, the ground swallows him whole, yanking him down with such an abruptness that if he could scream he hadn’t the breath in his lungs to do so. He is plunged into an impossible darkness, before he hits this new ground with a hard crash. The impact forces a grunt from his chest, as he tries to reorient himself. He blinks, his eyes adjusting to the dim light that glowed along the edges of what appeared to be a tunnel system. Gathering his legs beneath him he stands, shaking debris from the roan of his coat.
Slowly, he begins to walk forward, trying to ignore the way the walls seemed to contract and breathe. Had it not been for the stone – and he touches it, feels the roughness of the walls – he would have been convinced that he was trapped in the insides of some grotesque monster.
And then, the voice again, and he turns to see Briseis standing in the shadows. “Mom,” he says with a frown, and he moves towards her. “Mom, I don’t understand, why are you down here? Where’s dad?”
But Briseis just shakes her head, and repeats again, <i> “Follow me, Torryn, I know the way out.”</i>
He is confused – more confused than he has ever been. In all his life he has never seen his mother away from Ether, had never known her to enter shadows that were not constructed by his father. If she was here, then the rest of their family <i>must</i> be here, too.
He follows his mother along the twists and turns, swallowing away his doubt as they seem to go in circles. He flattens his ears against the whisper of voices he keeps hearing – mangled and overlapping each other, but then he hears one that sounds distinctly like his younger sister and he stops, looking at his mother with concern flooding his face. “Did you hear that? It sounded like Wrenley!” and before his mother can answer he spins, rushing through the dark despite the protests that call from behind him (<i>“Follow me, we don’t have much time, follow me, we don’t have much time!”</i>).
He loses track of how many times the tunnel curves, or the way the path seems to sometimes constrict so much that his shoulders scrape along the sides of it, the way it shudders and groans like a living entity. All he can hear is Wrenley’s whispered plea, tangled amid the chorus of other voices.
Until the path widens, and what he sees before him causes him to stumble to a stop.
In the space before him hundreds of stalactites hang from the ceiling, with more stalagmites erupting from the ground. The sharpened tips nearly touch in so many places that an easy passageway would be impossible, and as he stands there and tries to figure out the best way to navigate through this to the tunnel that he can see continuing at the other end, everything around him seems to shake. There is an earth-shattering crack that vibrates clear to his bones as stalactite plummet and collide with the floor below, and then, just like that, everything stops.
<i> “Follow me,”</i> Briseis suddenly murmurs from alongside him, and Torryn jolts at her abrupt appearance. But he sighs in relief at the sight of his mother, even though she was acting so incredibly strange. He gestures to the minefield that was spread before them, and says grimly, “I’m not sure how we’re supposed to get past this, mom.”</font></div></center>
He hears a voice, and the familiarity of it stalls his heart. “Mom?”
Swiftly, the ground swallows him whole, yanking him down with such an abruptness that if he could scream he hadn’t the breath in his lungs to do so. He is plunged into an impossible darkness, before he hits this new ground with a hard crash. The impact forces a grunt from his chest, as he tries to reorient himself. He blinks, his eyes adjusting to the dim light that glowed along the edges of what appeared to be a tunnel system. Gathering his legs beneath him he stands, shaking debris from the roan of his coat.
Slowly, he begins to walk forward, trying to ignore the way the walls seemed to contract and breathe. Had it not been for the stone – and he touches it, feels the roughness of the walls – he would have been convinced that he was trapped in the insides of some grotesque monster.
And then, the voice again, and he turns to see Briseis standing in the shadows. “Mom,” he says with a frown, and he moves towards her. “Mom, I don’t understand, why are you down here? Where’s dad?”
But Briseis just shakes her head, and repeats again, <i> “Follow me, Torryn, I know the way out.”</i>
He is confused – more confused than he has ever been. In all his life he has never seen his mother away from Ether, had never known her to enter shadows that were not constructed by his father. If she was here, then the rest of their family <i>must</i> be here, too.
He follows his mother along the twists and turns, swallowing away his doubt as they seem to go in circles. He flattens his ears against the whisper of voices he keeps hearing – mangled and overlapping each other, but then he hears one that sounds distinctly like his younger sister and he stops, looking at his mother with concern flooding his face. “Did you hear that? It sounded like Wrenley!” and before his mother can answer he spins, rushing through the dark despite the protests that call from behind him (<i>“Follow me, we don’t have much time, follow me, we don’t have much time!”</i>).
He loses track of how many times the tunnel curves, or the way the path seems to sometimes constrict so much that his shoulders scrape along the sides of it, the way it shudders and groans like a living entity. All he can hear is Wrenley’s whispered plea, tangled amid the chorus of other voices.
Until the path widens, and what he sees before him causes him to stumble to a stop.
In the space before him hundreds of stalactites hang from the ceiling, with more stalagmites erupting from the ground. The sharpened tips nearly touch in so many places that an easy passageway would be impossible, and as he stands there and tries to figure out the best way to navigate through this to the tunnel that he can see continuing at the other end, everything around him seems to shake. There is an earth-shattering crack that vibrates clear to his bones as stalactite plummet and collide with the floor below, and then, just like that, everything stops.
<i> “Follow me,”</i> Briseis suddenly murmurs from alongside him, and Torryn jolts at her abrupt appearance. But he sighs in relief at the sight of his mother, even though she was acting so incredibly strange. He gestures to the minefield that was spread before them, and says grimly, “I’m not sure how we’re supposed to get past this, mom.”</font></div></center>