Fallen Allegiance

Chapter Twenty One

Their faces haunted me in my sleep. Faces I did not recognize, I didn’t know them on Earth, I didn’t know them on Valcriea. An old lady sat in a chair in the corner of a dim lit room. She rocked back and forth slowly, humming gently to herself. I could feel my feet drifting slowly towards her, the creepy old lady, all alone in a dim lit room humming to herself. I should have felt panicked, but surprisingly, I felt calm, like I had planned her to be here, like I was here for a purpose.

My left foot landed on a floorboard and as I slowly shifted my weight to it, a high pitched squealed sounded from my feet. Immediately the old lady’s head snapped up, her wide, red rimmed eyes staring at me as if she was penetrating something inside me. I wanted to run, to hide, to do anything but be here staring back at her, yet my feet kept moving towards her.

“You came,” she hissed at me, her tongue slithering out of her mouth like a snakes. I felt myself nod and stop a meter away from her. The old lady brought her palms together, raising her head slightly, her eyes raking over me. “You are indeed not one from this dimension.” She clicked her fingers and the door to my left swung open violently. A small boy crawled out from the gap, his brown hair matted with sweat and blood, his small beady blue eyes flashing around the room in fear.

“S-Silera… y-you called,” he gulped, bowing his head at the old lady. Silera clicked her fingers again and the boy rose to his feet.

“We have a visitor, Byron, it would do you well to remember you manners,” she snapped, pointing with her long, crooked finger at me. Byron nodded quickly, turning to me and muttering a greeting. “Good, now go fetch some water.” Byron scurried off back through the door murmuring ‘Yes Silera, right away Silera.’

I sat down, despite my best efforts to try to run away, for some reason, my body wasn’t co-operating. Silera glanced at me again, her electrifying green eyes scanning my face.

“I’m assuming you know the reason I am here,” I said, though my voice was different. I sounded like me but my tone was cold and harsh. Silera took no notice of my rude tone, gesturing with her hands in the air.

“I did not think it as possible, one to travel through dimensions again,” she spoke slowly, pronouncing each sound as if it had importance.

“I should not be here,” I spoke again, my tone accusing, “You know of a way back, I have heard.” Silera stopped with her gestures, bringing her hands back onto her lap and beginning to rock back and forth on her chair again. Byron scurried out from the door again, holding two glasses of water, Silera took her, pushing the boy away towards me. I took a glass too, though I could not feel myself holding it. It was if I was just a soul in my body, only watching, unable to do anything. As if someone else was in control.

“Rumours, most of them rumours,” Silera said absent-mindedly. My grip on the glass of water tightened, making my knuckles white.

“You can send me back?” I asked through gritted teeth.

Silera’s mouth slowly curled up into a smile, her eyes locking with mine, “Of course, child, but it comes at a cost… The one you call your mirror if unlikely to live through the change, it’s usually a one-way thing. I’m assuming last time they focused on getting your mirror through, and by a miracle you lived too, that is why you have the markings of the dimensions on your arm. This time, though, there is no hope of your mirror living, you must be aware of that.”

I nodded, “I care not of my mirror.”

Silera laughed, her pitch rising and eyes glinting dangerously, “Then on the next full moon, Earth and Valcriea shall be united once more, and this time, one shall be sacrificed.”