ATPnovel Chapter 20: Darkness
Chapter 20: Darkness
Chapter 20: DarknessThe entire world turned dark.
Not the kind of dark after lights go out. Not the kind of dark on a moonless night. It was kind of darkness where light had never existed in the first place.
Yet, I could see Luc. Clearly.
I looked down and there was Bada, still bleeding to death - and I could see my own hands too. They looked pale, and covered in the little girl’s blood.
Scanning around, I saw that Cain and Abe were still there too.
But nothing and no one else was around anymore.
It was as if we were in galactic space with no stars or planets. It felt like the time before the universe existed, or the time after the universe vanished.
Our bodies did not float, but rested on the invisible floor of gravity that spread out from Luc’s feet.
"How-, what is this?"
I asked but Luc did not answer.
Her eyes contained - and emitted - suffocating darkness, yet somehow, I could sense infinite sadness in them as she looked down at me.
"Velin," Luc spoke, addressing the nothingness.
Something stirred in front of her. It was invisible, intangible, but its presence could be felt. Every vein in my body filled with dread. Every cell in my body was rejecting it.
"I need a confirmation."
As Luc requested, the ominous presence moved closer to where Bada laid, hovering over her dying body.
"One minute forty two second," the presence spoke. It was a genderless voice that could equally be a child or the oldest person in history.
"Deal," Luc stated. Firmly.
"Deal." The voice confirmed. With finality.
The presence then drifted away slightly, and Luc commanded again.
"Nabir."
Out of the invisible ground that Luc sustained, Nabir - the man with a muzzle whom I saw in the Offering Room, emerged.
"Yes, Mistress," the tall man, whom I wasn’t even sure anymore if he was a human, responded once he finalized his manifestation.
"You have one minute."
With that, the muzzle over his mouth dropped off. An irrepressible jolt rippled through his body. His fingers extended, nails sharpening into beastly claws. His ears grew pointed, his eyes burned with fire. After one deep flare of his nostrils, Nabir dropped to all fours—then galloped forward with such ferocity he vanished from sight within seconds
"What’s... happening, Luc?"
But her lips were sealed tight. She said nothing.
"One minute twenty second," the presence - the one that Luc called Velin - announced.
I looked down at Bada and she was completely motionless now. Her eyes closed.
I brought my head down and checked for her breath. I could hear none. But when I desperately
Luc did not answer.
In her eyes, all I could see was eternal sadness.