Black Stars - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 1

Chapter 15 - Talk & Travels

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. 

- Leonard Cohen 

Jared was silent as he got out of the car and grabbed the bags from the backseat, moving towards the trees. Leah eyed the bulging packs, watching Jared's muscles strain as he lifted them. He dropped them at the edge of the alcove and turned to look back at her, eyes hooded.

"Are we leaving the car?" Leah asked.

"We can't take it now. Someone would've registered its number plate and everyone will be looking for us after that."

Leah continued to hover. "Well, do we have far to go?"

"Yes," Jared ground out.

Leah's shoulders slumped and she trudged forward, hauling one of the packs onto her shoulders.

"Okay, whatever."

Jared's expression was unreadable as he turned and threw the car keys into the dense trees and grabbed the second bag, walking into the bush. Leah followed without a word. Jared's anger was thick in the air, silencing any protest, and she fixed her eyes on the ground, dry and cracked beneath their feet.

They'd been walking for about an hour when Jared paused, readjusting his shoe. Leah came to a stop beside him. The trees were dense enough that you couldn't see more than a few metres on either side and she wasn't sure how Jared was managing to navigate through it.

"Where are we going exactly?" Leah asked.

Jared glanced up at her. "To Byron Bay, it's about two weeks of walking from here. I know someone there who'll lend us a boat."

Leah tried to mask the despair from her face. "Two weeks?"

Jared's expression hardened and he stood up, towering over her. "We could've driven if you'd just stayed under the radar like I told you to. Now everyone knows you're on the run. They'll be keeping an eye on the highways and bush tracks. The only option we have is to go off road."

She glared and pushed past him, continuing in the direction they'd been travelling. "Two weeks is fine. I wasn't complaining."

"It sure sounded like you were," Jared muttered.

His steps followed hers, crunching against the fallen debris.

"So why do we need a boat?" Leah asked, wanting to change the subject.

Jared looked away, picking up a stick and breaking it off into little pieces. "We need it to get to the whirlpools. If you get sucked down one without dying, you get transported to the live world."

Leah glanced at him. "That sounds unpleasant."

Jared shrugged. "It's meant to be. When people move between the worlds it causes a disturbance. Dead people aren't meant to go back to their bodies."

Leah was silent for a moment, considering this. "That doesn't seem like that much of a deterrent. Surely some people risk it anyway?"

Jared scoffed. "No one sane would. Once you go back, that's it. You're stuck in your rotting body for the rest of eternity, unless someone else kills you again. And as most people get buried or cremated..."

Jared's voice trailed off, letting Leah's imagination do the rest. The myths she'd heard in Narra rose to mind: a world of fire and heat and infinite pain.

"You can't be serious?" she said, horrified.

"If I wasn't, more dead people would be in the live world."