Ruxin's head jerked with a sudden intake of breath, like surfacing from a pool her head was forced under. She swallowed the sourness burning up her throat. Dry-heaving on top of all the crap that day, night, whatever... would be highly revolting.
Dark eyes surveyed the surroundings moments later. Gone was the dimly-lit dining room and its strange occupants. (Like, REALLY strange. One girl was taking shovelling food down one's throat to new depths... by literally eating a giant cake with a shovel.) Instead, Ruxin appeared to be on a path made of ice similar to what led her to the plateau with plants. Icy blue walls with red spots floated in the distance, seemingly having no rhyme or reason to their placement.
Once it was ascertained that there was no immediate danger, ruddy lips parted and slender digits massaged her temples. "Care to explain?"
It wasn't that she was dying to step into that accursed portal, but she was dying so she had to step into it. There was no way out the ice room and the idea of encroaching death felt worse than a quick one. But now it seemed like she jumped out a serpent's grip into a crocodile's maw. Who knew when the reptile would snap its mouth shut?
\You don't know?\
The Voice was thick with ridicule and something she could neither put a finger on, nor care enough to.
\... That was a memory.\
Ruxin raised a perfectly trimmed eyebrow. That couldn't possibly be all.
\Belonging to this body.\
"That's it?"
\Senior said to not waste my breath—\
Like you have any.
\—on souls that won't last. What more one that can't even pass this trial.\
"Hmn," a noncommittal sound slipped from her lips. She sought knowledge, not an enemy. No point making the latter in pursuit of the former. Besides, loose lips sink ships. They unwittingly leaked information... even if it wasn't what she sought.
Their unwillingness to provide even the barest of aid suggested that parasi—Placeholders, was it?—were easily replaceable. The Voice probably could also escape on their own should she be unable to find a way out... Perhaps the only saving grace was that they might be the more junior, inexperienced of their kind.
Truly being besieged by foes on all fronts, eh?
However, giving up has never been a part of her repertoire.
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"Speak, who was it?"
Who dared!
Before me laid a lass with hair the colour of lilacs. Her thick braids were dishevelled, their ends disappearing into the blood-filled tub. The old rose eyeliner she favoured so, ran down her cheeks and for the first time in years she looked more like the younger, doe-eyed girl I first met.
The hubbub of the world never ceased for the keen-eared, but at that moment all I could hear was the drop in heartbeat and the blood in her veins slowing to a crawl. I would have denied the looming turn of events had I not been so familiar with its course.
YOU ARE READING
The Placeholder (World Hopping)
Adventure"You heartless bitch!" "Tut tut. Language, my dear. Better heartless than hurt like you, don't you think?" Ruxin thought she would live to the maximum lifespan but who knew a moment of thrill seeking would result in her demise? But the dice of fate...
