Compile:Quest

Chapter 19: The Jaspers



?

?

Peppermint's head swam. Spots danced in front of her closed lids. The heart pounding in her chest threatened to explode from its confines. She was incapable of drawing deep enough breaths to supply her throbbing veins with oxygen. Surely she would die? Her body was going to split open from the pressure welling up inside her. Her mind kept count like an organic metronome. She became a gargantuan heart, beating, lub, dub, lub, dub.

Then, silence.

Peppermint's limbs tensed when she opened her eyes to complete darkness. She sat up, but was unable to feel the chair under her anymore. Dizziness and disorientation ran rampant through her mind. The noise that had jarred her from her trance returned — stamp, whisk, stamp.

"Hello?" she called out.

Ello... ello... ello... lo... her distorted voice swept back to her. She shivered and tried to feel the chair under her, but encountered nothing.

"Jasper?"

...asper... asper... sper... her voice returned.

The noise intensified. Stamp, whisk, stamp, whisk... A sense of dread swelled inside her. Why couldn't she see anything? Anything. This place was so dark, so empty.

An orb materialised above her, small and pale. It emanated a faint illumination which revealed a little about her surroundings. She stood on a platform that stretched into oblivion. No boundary, not a wall or a floor was visible. Just a gentle graduation to darkness.

Stamp, whisk, stamp, whisk...

A figure emerged from the gloom. Hairs prickling on her neck made her spin around. Another figure appeared behind her. A third materialised; then more, until she was surrounded. The origin of the noise became apparent. The figures were marching in time toward her, legs lifting and stamping down in unison. As they approached, a vague familiarity sprang up in Peppermint's mind. It was a man, tall, average build, silver hair.

"Jasper?"

Her mind recoiled. She blinked, her vision clouding as she struggled to cling to an evaporating consciousness.

"Jasper..."

Hundreds of expressionless Jaspers marched toward her, each dressed in identical, sterile lab coats.

"Jasper!"

Synchronised, every Jasper lifted his hand, slipped it into his pocket and drew out a syringe. Peppermint's breath caught as light glinted from a hundred thousand needles.

The Jaspers opened their mouths and spoke. "Lily..."

The voice was his, but it issued from a hundred thousand larynxes, formed by two-hundred thousand lips. The voices crashed over her in a sea of noise.

"Lily..." the name became a despairing ululation.

Abruptly the synchronisation disintegrated. The name now came from a hundred thousand mouths in a disjointed mantra.

"Lily—"

"il—"

"Lily—"

"..ly—"

"ily—"

"No!" The sound tore from her throat, expelled in a ferocious wail.

The Jaspers stopped, their syringes held at the ready as they watched her. She drew breath, steeling herself for another protest. In the distance, something snatched a Jasper into the air. It happened so suddenly that Peppermint's scream turned into a gasp. She choked, terror squeezing at her heart.

She heard a rushing sound and spun around, starting as another Jasper, plucked from the crowd, disappeared into the orb. All around her Jaspers were taken. A few at first, and then handfuls at a time, filling the air with the whispering sounds of their departure. The remainder all glanced up at the same time. They too were snatched up, the orb devouring them with a soft suck.

Peppermint felt herself lighten. Her feet left the floor. She whipped around, legs kicking and hands clawing as she tried to steer herself back onto the floor. The orb loomed ahead, a featureless circle of light that drew at her.

"Nooooooooooo..." Peppermint screamed. The word was drawn from her lips, elongating as it left her.

The orb filled her vision. It blinded her. Her flailing hand struck a smooth, slick surface. It slid inside. A kicking foot followed. Then her leg, her other arm. She turned her head away, desperately trying to escape the inevitable consumption.

The darkness inside the orb engulfed her shattered mind.

. . .