Ashfall: City of Shade (UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 22 | Collapse

GRETA

Today I swiped and slashed at many bugs with my sword. It was unusually warm so I remained here. Night finally is coming for the air is cooling and the bugs begin to swarm into my home right through the beaded entryway.

My blanket remains big enough to cover me. I watch the bugs one by one begin to land on my blanket.

They hum horribly, keeping me up into the late hours. My sisters told me to leave a bowl of ripened, rotting, fruit below my bed. It is working to draw the bugs away, but not greatly enough to keep them out.

They are so noisy.

Baloop, baloop! Baloop!

Somehow, the mystical shell still rings louder than the chorus of bugs in here.

Anger makes me stumble out of my cloud as I pick up the cursed device.

"Hello." There's something off about his voice. I go still hearing his chuckle. It's followed by a low whisper that makes me want to hide in the safe puffs of my cloud and never come out, "...I know you're there."

The sharp edges of the shell dig into my palm. I grip it harder, clenching my jaw as I return to my cloud.

"We have returned to shore," he whispers gently like he used to when he tucked me into my noyk. I can almost feel him stroking my back like the times before as I lay on my heavenly bed. Its soft glow gives me great comfort. "The dockyard has been ruined. We are working on reconstruction. Enoch has been very busy. He is building many great projects!"

Silently, I listen as he continues to tell me in detail about his week. I had no idea the dock was destroyed by lava, but it must have happened during the quake.

On a little crate beside my bed, I pick up my fibble from its soaking in soap goop that many bugs lay dead in.

Well, I can just eat them later.

I blow through the loop of my fibble watching the bubbles fly forward.

Free.

In the night, our light does go away. So, I must squint quite a bit to trace their very dark grey shapes. What is most splendid is their glittering shine in the day.

Now, however, they look more like slow-moving rocks...or dull stars.

I don't hear Adler talking anymore. The air is very humid now for it always is in the dead of night. It has made the bugs abandon my room. Sleepily, I close my eyes feeling the humidity wrap its arms around me.

One of the bubbles pops right behind my head. At first, I think it my imagination as my gaze darts to the wall.

A big black mass.

I can see it rising up slowly from my bed behind me in the mirrors. It passes my shoulder, then the shape moves, lurking just over my head. A giant ball silently hovering in place.

Pins and needles hover just a breath away from my heart as I jerk around finding the levitating mass rapidly move back down into the cloudy mass of my bed lighting it up like the sun. My bed warms greatly, and then, strange bursts of light flicker from it with long veins as a horrific crackling sound echos around my chamber along with a hair-raising chorus of screams. Fear fuels me with new energy, I scurry off my bed and squint against the light feeling blood run down my eyes as my bed grows dim.

Tiny little streaks of light still burst from it and it makes a strange dying hum.

"I can hear you crying, my sweet. What's wrong?"