Getting Home

Part 44

The rumbling grew louder and louder, the ground beginning to undulate under our feet.

Fairies?

I had no idea what that meant, but my heart started pounding—the fear was palpable in the air. The vast rolling plains fanned out across the dull, brown and gray landscape, the dull silvery cloudy sky above beginning to darken.

My hair was blown in my face, the wind suddenly whipping and whirling my hair around as the rumbling quickly turned into a roar.

"Henry!" I shouted over the roaring. "What's happening?!"

He looked at me, his eyes wide and afraid, shaking his head.

The noise was so loud I couldn't hear anything anymore. I dropped to a crouch, my hands over my ears, my hair violently whipping around and stinging my cheeks as the wind slammed against us. Henry knelt down, putting his arms around me tightly and burying his face into the back of my neck as the ground lurched and rolled underneath us.

My eyes peeked out from above Henry's forearm, the wind stinging—

Three pillars were slowly rising up in front of us.

They pulled and tore themselves up from the soft, pliable ground, stretching upwards as they reached for dark sky above, pulling tighter and tighter until the ground itself tore, stretched like taffy until it split apart—

And bled.

The wind and roaring was relentless, an overbearing never-ending chaotic furor that assaulted every sense and only grew more intense. Gleaming sparkles of gold light began to glint through the pulsing, bleeding flesh-like splitting ground.

Everything suddenly exploded into bright light.

Henry and I were knocked over. I couldn't see, hear, or even feel anything—nothing except an overwhelming, cacophonic furious assault of everything that made me human, a horrible nightmare of burning light instead of cold darkness.

I opened my mouth to scream, unable to breathe, my hands clutching for—

Total silence.

Am I... am I still alive?

The wind instantly vanished, and I opened my eyes.

Three giant, figures floated majestically in front of us. They were shaped vaguely like bodies—heads, arms, like us—except they hovered, their lower half like long, emerald robes that draped and dangled in the air. Their consistency was fluid; glowing emerald green lava that poured and swirled and mixed in on itself to keep its shape.

Gold light shone from their eyes.

Each one was adorned with two giant wings rimmed in blazingly bright gold.

Is this what Henry meant by Fairies?

The way they moved and flowed were exactly like—

The dark entity.

Henry slowly stood up, his face in a way I've never seen before—his mouth was wide open, his silver eyes wide and spinning, completely enraptured.

Thunder suddenly erupted—only for me to realize it wasn't thunder—

It was a voice.

Thousand of voices.

"Creatorrrr..." it whispered.

Henry suddenly fell to his knees, holding his head between his hands, his face clenched in agony. The wings of the floating figures began to flap a little faster.