Wings of Paper - Chapter 24

Tunnels and Tears

I’d like to say I remained calm but in reality I screeched at the top of my lungs.

Well that was dignified, Luke responded with a sigh. We’re nearing the end of the tunnels, but there is a wall you must pass through. You will face your worst fears on the way through. 

“This is getting better and better,” I grumbled. “So I just walk through the wall?” 

How am I supposed to know? I’m a hallucination, idiot, I don’t have problems walking through walls. I sighed. If I acted like this it was no wonder no one liked me. 

I took a step forward, pressing my hands outwards. The cold of the wall seeped into my skin. I pressed a little harder and the wall gave way, blasting me with a frigid air and a stench I couldn’t name. 

I took a cautious step forward, followed by another. And another. Luke was leading me along in what was hopefully the right direction, it was like I could sense his presence. Maybe I could. I kept taking steps forward. This wasn’t so bad, now was it. Not at all like I was expecting. 

Of course I spoke too soon. 

I heard something else in the darkness. It wasn’t like the warmth of the trail Luke was leaving for me. It was more like a cold sense. Like ice. 

There was a scraping noise to my left, like metal on metal. 

Then the noises got louder until they were surrounding me. I lost track of where Luke was as the coldness pressed in around me, forming an icy prison. The ceiling and the floor and the walls began to press together. I could almost feel them crushing me. My lungs heaved as I began to hyperventilate. 

I could picture my bones cracking under the pressure. Snapping. 

It was like the air was solid. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. I clawed at the walls in a last attempt to move them. 

Surprisingly, I did have an effect on the metal. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t a good one. 

While I pushed away the walls to the best of my ability, the floor collapsed beneath me. I spiraled downwards, the wind whipping at my hair and my skin like it was trying to push me back into the box. 

Slowly a scene unfolded before; rolling hills and pastures of green. It shifted, becoming grayer and duller until a cityscape literally popped out of the ground. Buildings rose from the streets like they were made of origami. They stretched upwards all around me like columns from the ground as I plummeted to what surely was my death. 

The ground was growing closer. I felt fear rising inside me as I neared the asphalt. Sooner than later there would be a splat. 

I hit the ground hard but instead of breaking into a thousand pieces I sank into the ground and it swallowed me whole. The ground felt like honey - thick and soupy as I sank through it. 

The ground spit me out and I collapsed to the ground. The unrelenting blackness of the shadows had returned with just as much force as before. 

But this time I wasn’t alone - and I wasn’t just counting Luke. Again, it was like I could sense the things around me. There were sounds I couldn’t identify and the scent of … I couldn’t tell what it was. 

And then I recognized the sound. It was like a soft hissing sound but I could make out emotions and so much other stuff through interpretation alone. 

Failure, it called me. Failure. Over and over again. Repeated like knives stabbing into my brain. I winced at every thought. The hissing grew louder and a steam like substance appearing in front of me - glowing a soft yellow color. 

Pictures formed in the mist. Every one of my failures appeared. A bad test grade. Bad attempts at baseball. Tripping. Voices overlayed the pictures. My teacher’s disappointed sigh. My father’s complaints to my mother at night, about how I would never be normal. My classmate’s laughing at me. 

Next came Kip’s disappearance. Hiro’s death. Sammy and Sadie’s infection. The Darkness crept over the pictures, consuming them just as it did everything else in its path. 

The Darkness consumed the light too but for some reason I could still see. It took me a moment to realize that the light was coming from my sword. The blade was glowing from inside its sheath. 

I removed the blade and a bright light pierced through the shadows, sending them squealing in … could shadows feel pain? 

The path was cleared for me. I felt Luke’s presence beside me like a warm ray of sunlight. I ran ahead, my sword in front of me. Faster. Faster. I stumbled and nearly impaled myself - deciding then and there that running with a blade wasn’t worth death. 

Luke was whispering in my ear, leading me in the right direction. I followed him until finally the warmth left. 

I was confused - certainly this couldn’t be the end of the tunnels. It was still dark. 

Without Luke to lead me I could feel the Darkness pressing down on me like a clamp. I waved my sword around me and the Darkness steamed where it came into contact with my sword. 

And then I saw movement. It wasn’t a lot, but it was just in front of me. I stepped closer to the movement, my sword illuminating the shadows. And I saw… 

“Alex?” 

She was shuddering on the ground, curled into a ball. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was curled into a ball. 

“Alex,” I whispered again, my voice quiet. I wasn’t sure if she was experiencing the hallucinations or if the tunnels were refusing to let her pass through. What had Luke said about the impure of heart? 

No, Alex was one our side. She couldn’t be a traitor - she didn’t even know Dee. 

But - no matter how terrible the thought - there was a slight chance Alex could’ve betrayed us. Obviously the tunnels had a reason for leaving her like this. 

I could have woken her up or I could have let her sleep. Both were risky for entirely different reasons. We needed all the help we could get - so leaving her here seemed both heartless and risky. But if I woke her and she was a traitor after all then I would have to fight her right here. 

I used the toe of my shoe to poke her. Alex stirred but she didn’t wake. Her skin was paler than normal, her lips tinged blue almost. My heart picked up pace. 

Was Alex dying? I couldn’t be sure. I tapped her again. Still no sign. 

I thought for a moment. The Darkness fled from my sword, and if the Darkness had somehow worked its way inside of her… 

I pressed the flat of my blade against her forehead. Nothing happened. 

I thought some more, crouching down beside her. I felt her skin with the back of my hand. It was freezing. She shivered at the touch and curled up even tighter. 

Maybe it wasn’t as simple as light versus darkness. Her skin was cold, her lips blue. Maybe the solution was right in front of me the whole time. I decided to take a chance and guess. 

“Luke,” I called out. “I mean, uh, me. I need your help.” 

The warmth came flooding back to me. Apparently Luke hadn’t been far away the whole time. 

What do you need? 

“You’re me and I’m you, right?” Luke gave me a pulse of warmth which I could only assume was a nod. “My imagination isn’t working, but that doesn’t mean yours isn’t. Give me the power to conjure fire - I know you have it because of your warmth.” 

Either Luke understood my reasoning well or he already knew what I was planning because I felt a shift in my fingertips. It was like a switch had been flipped on. I let my instincts take over. Fiery brightness flooded my senses and overwhelmed me for a moment but I focused the energy into my pointer fingers, which I placed on Alex’s temples. 

It felt odd to be so close to a girl like that. But what did embarrassment matter when Alex was on the verge of death? 

Her eyelids fluttered open and her piercing blue eyes met mine. Her lips faded back to normal and color returned to her skin. She rubbed her eyes, sitting up as I took a few steps backwards. 

“Luke,” she murmured like she finally knew who I was. 

“You’re alive,” I stammered, though it wasn’t entirely unbelievable. I realized with a start that Luke had left me alone with Alex. I searched the corridors for his warmth but transferring his fiery energy into me had taken every last bit of him. I could only hope Alex’s guide could still lead us out. 

“I’m alive,” Alex confirmed. “Why did you think I was dead?” In the light of my sword she looked confused. 

I didn’t know how to answer. “Well, the impure of intentions were supposed to get stuck in here. And I was, uh, led to you and when I found you, you wouldn’t wake up.” Did Alex not know what had happened? 

“The spiders,” Alex whispered, her voice soft and broken. She met my eyes again. “Luke, I’m so sorry. I know why the tunnels didn’t want to let me through.” 

I waited for her to elaborate. 

Alex took a sharp breath before explaining. “Ever since we first arrived, I’ve been waiting for you to notice me. I don’t know, at school you always seemed like the interesting kid. Quiet but also … big? I don’t know the word for it, but I could sense this world hidden in your head. I chose you as my partner for the project because, well, I thought you would notice me. That’s why I came here. This whole time my only goal has been for you to notice me. But I guess I’m just like Dee - hungry for attention. It’s fine, I realize now that you don’t want me like that.” She shrugged, turning away. 

I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. Alex had come with me to this world after all. She sacrificed her life just to get me to notice her. In a way it was like Dee - but Alex wasn’t as willing to destroy everything. 

“I, uh,” I didn’t know what to say. 

“Don’t say anything,” Alex said quietly as though reading my thoughts. “Help me up and help me get out of here alive. We can talk when we get back to our world.” 

“If,” I corrected. 

Alex looked at me again, her gaze steely. “When.” And with that she pulled herself to her feet and hobbled off into the tunnels. 

I had to half drag Alex through the tunnels. Her limbs were still weak from whatever she had undergone before I saved her. I think I kind of owed her for it because she led me through the Darkness twice. But it felt good to be needed. 

My sword lit the way and the Darkness hissed at my blade. It cleared the path quite well for us to find our way through the tunnels. 

When we finally began the steep incline I was glad for the light. At first the dying sun was blinding, but eventually my eyes adjusted. Alex and I took a moment to rest, plopping down on a rock at the entrance to the little cave. We were in what appeared to be a village, though long since abandoned. 

Or perhaps never lived in at all because this castle wasn’t supposed to exist. I could make out the spindling towers in the distance. We were growing closer. 

I sheathed my sword, feeling at peace once again. Alex slept, her back against the rock and her arms crossed protectively over her chest. I felt terrible towards her, but I couldn’t apologize now. 

I couldn’t tell what time it was, the whole world had a dusky feel to it now. But about an hour or so after our surfacing, Kenzie emerged from the tunnel. 

Alex was still asleep, so I hadn’t explored the village ruins at all. We were behind what appeared to be an old house. I couldn’t imagine any families living this close to the castle. What would it be like? 

Kenzie seemed surprised that we were already out of the corridors, though she also seemed a bit panicked. I couldn’t blame her. I could only imagine what she had been forced to see. She doubled over and vomited on the ground behind a bush. I turned away until the retching stopped. 

“Are you okay?” I asked, though I was sure I already knew the answer. 

Kenzie met my eyes and didn’t answer my question. Her expression was enough. “Sammy and Sadie,” she managed to whisper. “They’re still in there.” 

“Is it because of the whole impure heart thing?” 

“No. It’s the Darkness. It’s spreading faster now. They don’t have much time left.” 

Alex was still asleep about two hours later and I didn’t want to wake her. Kenzie offered to scout out the village but I nixed the idea. We didn’t need even more separation, especially now that Sammy and Sadie were walking the fine line between life and death. 

“Should I go in and look for them?” I asked. I had already told Kenzie about my sword and the other “me” thing. 

She shook her head. “There’s no way we should go back in there. My guess is that Sammy had another episode of remembering things and Sadie found him and is waiting for him to wake up.” 

“Wait, so how did you know the Darkness is affecting them?” 

“Because I saw them at the very beginning of the journey before the … hallucinations started. Sammy didn’t look so good.” Kenzie seemed really worried and I had to admit that my stomach was churning as my mind ran through all the possibilities of what could have happened. 

None of them prepared me for what emerged from the tunnels. 

I expected Sammy to be dragged by Sadie, but instead it was the opposite. Sammy was dragging the princess’s limp body. Her eyes were closed and her skin was pale with the exception of the dark lines creeping up her neck and down her arms towards her fingers. 

Sammy was crying, his eyes puffy. He gave me an anguished look that I couldn’t respond too. How was I supposed to? 

“It’s the end,” Sammy whispered. “I feel another episode coming on and I … I don’t think I’m going to wake up again.” His voice cracked and I felt a sob rising in my throat. I forced down the emotion, I couldn’t let Sadie and Sammy die. “She’s forgetting,” Sammy explained. “When she wakes, don’t let her panic. Wish us well and stay away.” 

“We can save you,” Kenzie exclaimed, startling Alex awake. “It’s just a little further.” She reached towards Sadie in an attempt to help Sammy carry the burden but he backed away. 

“I don’t want you to be here when we die, we’ll just infect you,” Sammy argued. 

“You’re not going to die,” I promised, but it was empty. I was powerless to stop the Darkness once it had already taken hold. 

“Please, Luke, stop the Darkness. For me. For Sadie. For Hiro,” he begged, his eyes watering. “I never wanted it to come to this but now it seems that our story is at an end. I’m glad I could have this journey with you.” 

“Don’t talk like that,” I pleaded. “I can stop the Darkness and…” 

Sadie stirred on the ground, stopping my sentence. Her eyes were wide when she sat up. For a moment they had a surprising clarity to them. “Luke, I don’t want to die.” 

And then the recognition faded. Sadie’s brow wrinkled. “Who are you again?” she asked, her voice soft. “I’m afraid I don’t know any of you.” 

My heart cracked. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. I thought I could save everyone but clearly I couldn’t. It was Hiro all over again, but this time Sadie didn’t even know what was happening. 

“It’s not the end,” Sammy whispered to me. “Our story isn’t over.” And with that he toppled backwards. Sadie caught him, although she looked a bit confused as to what was going on. But she stroked his forehead anyways, her touch soft and light. She seemed at peace for once. 

Finally, Sadie looked back up at us. “I suppose you all are leaving now.” 

I didn’t know what to say. 

Sadie kept babbling. “I don’t know who you are, but I can tell you have something better to be doing. Don’t worry about us - Sonny and I will be fine.” 

Sonny? Was she referring to Sammy? I wasn’t sure but I couldn’t argue with her. I didn’t want to leave the pair, but I knew Sammy had been right. If we stayed with the elves we risked losing Kenzie. 

“Farewell, mysterious travelers,” Sadie said as we turned away. “Good luck. Oh, and if you happen to find some medicine for stomach pains, could you please give it to me? I’m afraid I’m not feeling well right now.” I turned and watched as she reclined against a tree, Sammy’s head on her lap. 

I held back my tears. I had to believe I could save them. This wasn’t farewell. 

Even I didn’t believe those words. The Darkness had claimed Sammy and Sadie as its own, there was no going back now.