The Bloodstained Parchment

Chapter 7

Some time later, Audrey's body stirred and pushed itself to its feet. The room was now empty and dim, the only traces of anyone else having been there being a bloodstained corner and worn crimson footprints. A thought played in the vessel's vegetable-like brain, that for some reason or another it should want to leave, but for the time being, or possibly longer, it didn't feel, or feel like doing, anything.

/

Audrey's sight returned to reveal nothing but blank whiteness, and she wondered if she was somehow back in the white room, before the colors had been released. However, a large stone doorway came into focus when she propped her exhausted form onto one elbow, discarding all glimpses of familiarity. Spiraling, vine-like designs crept up its sides, and it stood tall and grand as any castle gates, but it seemed to levitate solitarily with no wall in sight.

Audrey shoved herself to her feet and pivoted to look around the rest of the area, and let out a gasp. Opposite the stone doorway that was now behind her was another nearly identical one, but this one stood wide open revealing immediate, breathtaking darkness beyond.

As she stared, it pulled her towards it, hypnotizing her and seeming to breathe her in. Her feet dragged with each shuffling footstep she took towards it. She was all the way to the edge of dark and light by the time she realized what was going on. She stopped with a jolt, abruptly remembering the confusing situation that had brought her here. Who had the man in the corner really been? What did he have to do with the rabbit man? Where am I right now, anyway? she mused as she stared at the dizzyingly still darkness before her.

 She took a glance at the door behind her, and hardly had the time to wonder if it was sealed, when her thoughts were interrupted and wind knocked out of her lungs as she lost her balance and promptly began a stomach-dropping fall into the darkness.  

/

Audrey regained consciousness to pitch blackness. She tried to blink her eyes open, but found them numb. Where am I now? she wondered. And why can't I feel the ground beneath me?

She soon came to the startling conclusion that she couldn't feel anything, and gave an echoing cry of surprise.

"Oh, good, you're awake," said another equally as echoey voice. It sounded male.

She would have jumped out of her skin, if she could have felt it. "Maybe I am," she said weakly, "but I can't seem to open my eyes."

The voice chuckled sympathetically. "You don't have eyes."

"Excuse me?"

"Erm, never mind. We need to get go-"

"Would you mind telling me where I am?" interrupted Audrey firmly.

"Oh! I thought you'd at least know that much, having got mixed up enough in this for your soul to be sucked in and all. All the same, welcome to the Ampidise."

"The what? And did you just say my soul?"

"About that. . ."

"You mean to tell me-"

"Listen, this will all be explained to you quite shortly, so if you'd just-"

"No, you listen. I want answers, and I want you to give them to me."

"I can only grant you half of that wish. You see-"

"No, I can't."

"... Here's the deal. I have to check you in with Glortin, and he'll tell you everything. Well, everything that you need to know, at least. For now."

"Who's going to what-now?"

"Just follow me."

"I don't think I can."

"Oh, right. I meant that you ought to know that I am taking you somewhere. It's proper etiquette to tell someone that if they can't see or feel anything that they're doing, I suppose. Ah yes, pardon me, it's also proper etiquette to tell someone their name when you meet them. Mine's Parker."

"What?" asked Audrey absently, trying to sort out Parker's fast thread of speech. "Oh, it's Audrey. Audrey Jamenskid."

Parker breath caught and he paused for a lengthy moment before he said, almost forcefully, "Nice to meet you, Audrey! I'm taking you to check in with Glortin."

"You already said that."

"Oh, did I? Sorry, it's been awhile since I've had anyone to talk to..."

"Wait a second, can you see?"

"Of course! I was granted that... a long time ago. Oh good, we're here."

"Where?"

For the first time, Parker didn't respond. Audrey frowned- or would have, anyway. Right before she was about to repeat her question, she heard the sound of doors being swooshed open, then the hollow thud of them hitting walls. A booming yet tenor voice declared, "Oh good, you've brought the girl."

Audrey withheld a gasp. It was the voice of the pale man.