Part IV: A World Within a World

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Wynter had never run as fast in her life.

Eiran was swift and quiet, he moved with a certain grace like that of a dancer. They were downstairs again and all around them the walls pulsed with life, that familiar red mist was beginning to rise in the air. Eiran led the way into one of the back rooms and let Wynter's hand fall as he crouched down. He whispered something in an unfamiliar language and as he did so a strange blue symbol came to life upon the dirtied floorboards. Eiran pressed his fingers down against the symbol and with a click, the floorboards beneath sprung aside to reveal a small set of stairs.

"Now," he said rising. "After you."

Wynter didn't hesitate before scrambling down the steps and into the darkness. Eiran followed closely behind, sealing the entrance as he went. The small circular room beneath was cold and Wynter fumbled in the darkness for a light.

"Here," came the husky voice of Eiran from behind. Wynter turned to him and thought for a second that she saw a flame spark between his hands. Suddenly the dim flickering of candle light filled the tiny space. As Eiran moved passed her and began to walk about the room, Wynter sat down upon the bottom step of the stairs while pulling her cloak tighter around her body for warmth. Her head spun with confusion and fear.

And not to mention exhaustion.

Wynter squeezed her tired eyes shut as her head rested against the stone wall beside her. She fought to stay awake and instead listened intently for any sound above them. All was silent. Wynter yawned widely into her hand.
Eiran watched as she fell asleep. She deserved the rest. The Guards were blind to his magic and they would be safe for now. He breathed deeply.

The worst was yet to come.

*

Sometime later Wynter awoke with a start. Eiran's hand was upon her shoulder shaking her lightly. She looked around, confused.

"Where are we?" she mumbled.

Eiran smiled, though she could see there was no real joy in it.

"We are in the town," he whispered. "If you are ready we will begin with the plan."

Wynter froze. "We're back in Journeys End?" she whispered angrily knocking his hand aside. "Why did I go all that way just to be brought back?"

Eiran shook his head lightly as Wynter's voice began to rise. He pressed a finger to his lips.

"We came through the tunnels," he explained quietly. Wynter's face showed evident confusion and so he explained further.

"The tunnels are a secret. Nobody in Journeys End knows about them, only I do. They run through the mountain and down to the back of the town, which is where we are now. I let you go up the mountains because I hoped you would be seen, that way it would look as though you had left Journeys End for good. The Guards are not likely to walk these streets tonight, they will be too busy looking for you upon the mountains."

"I could have died!"

Eiran's mouth pulled at the corner into a real smile as she spoke.

"But you didn't," he said. "Let us walk."

Wynter knew this place. It was the old boarded-up restricted area behind the church, a 'danger-zone' as the adults had put it whenever children strayed too close.

Yet it wasn't Journeys End as she knew it to be.

"What time is it?" Wynter asked though she was already sure of the answer.

"Just after midnight," Eiran murmured back.

The world was red again, though it had changed since Wynter was last here. No crows circled above their heads, no whispers crept through the air and there was no other shadow to be seen but for those cast by Wynter and Eiran. The street was lit by the silver moon that held a scarlet tint, not a single cloud caressed the still sky devoid of colour. They walked on.

"We must find the rift between our world and the other-world," Eiran revealed as they moved toward the train station. "And we must go through it."

Wynter stopped dead in her tracks.

"What?" she spluttered.

"Well, you must go through it."

She glared at Eiran causing him to stop walking too.

"Wynter, please," he urged, "this is the part you must play. We can stop this, all of this if the plan works. Don't you see? You must-"

"What even is this plan of yours?" Wynter interjected. "You have barely told me anything and you expect me to risk my life? For what?"

Eiran held up his hands.

"For freedom and survival," he said steadily.

Wynter sighed. She heard the crashing of waves by the fence only a few feet away from where they stood now and turned to look out at the sea. It shimmered beneath the sky above, pale and cold. She breathed in its scent, familiar even if the world she now stood in was not.

"Tell me about the plan," she said finally.

Eiran too turned to watch the sea as he spoke.

"You're brave, Wynter," he started. "Braver than most. You have lived here your whole life and so you know the town very well. I do not." He turned to face her, Wynter's eyes met his.

"As I told you, the other-world was made in the likeness of this one, here at midnight we see a small glimpse of what that world is like, but only when we are outside. The indoors however remain the same, humans still fill the houses we passed while we walked here, that does not change. When one passes through into the other-world however, it changes completely."

Wynter watched him as he spoke trying to process the information.

"The streets there will look much the same as they do here," he went on, "only there are no humans. There are monsters, demons, the souls of the damned. And of course, the Midnight Guards. I need you to go there, go to the building made to look like your orphanage and find something as quickly as you can."

"You want me to go through there with all those monsters?" she asked incredulously. "They'll kill me!"

"Not as long as you remain hidden," Eiran interrupted holding out a hand. "Come here."

Wynter moved forward cautiously.

"I don't know," she fretted. Eiran smiled.

"Please trust me."

She took his hand.

A surge of warmth flooded through her body from their joined hands. She closed her eyes as the warmth spread to touch her heart.

"Now," came Eiran's voice. It was muffled and distant as though he stood far away. Wynter's hands flew up to her ears in panic.

"Don't worry," he said reassuringly, prising her hands away. "You're okay, it's just part of the spell."

Slowly her hearing returned to normal and Wynter relaxed.

"What did you do?" she gasped.

"Your soul is pure, it would shine in the other-world like a beacon in the darkness. I just concealed it. Now you will appear just like any other damned soul there." Eiran began to move again, beckoning her to follow.

"Did you notice the blue symbol on the floor of the ruin?" he inquired.

"Yes."

"Do you remember what it looks like?" He pulled at the sleeve of his cloak to reveal the pale flesh of his forearm. There, Wynter could just make out the thin outline of a scar-like image. It was that same symbol.

"This," he said indicating toward the outline. "This is the symbol, will you recognise it?"

Wynter nodded.

"Good," Eiran breathed. "That is what you are looking for in the orphanage. It will be hidden away I assume, but it shouldn't be too hard to miss. It is a symbol for hope in a world of darkness."

"Where will I look first?" Wynter asked.

"Well, the spell won't last all night," he said with a furrowed brow. "If there was an office or a room off-limits in your orphanage I would go there."

Wynter fell silent and thought.

"There is a room on the top floor," she murmured, "No one has ever been allowed inside, I don't think Mrs. Archer even knew where the key for it was to be honest."

Eiran gave no answer but he had come to a halt.

"Do you see it?" he questioned softly.

Wynter looked, really looked around where they stood. They were beside the very bench she had sat upon the night before.

And there it was.

The air rippled as she moved, she kept her eyes focused on the space beside the bench. It appeared to be singed, smoking in a jagged shape that drifted in nothingness.

The rift.

"You will appear at this very spot in the other-world once you pass through," Eiran described. "Go straight to the orphanage, the symbol will be blue and it will be bright. You'll know when you're near it."

Wynter traced the air around the rift with a finger. She could feel its pull.

"I'll be here," Eiran said. "Be quick and stay safe."

Wynter took a deep breath.

"Promise me I'll be okay," she whispered, looking at Eiran's pale face.

Eiran paused a moment before answering.

"I promise."

She passed through.

The air throbbed around her. Light flashed as the ground rushed to meet her feet and suddenly the other-world appeared before her eyes.

She landed hard.

Wynter got to her feet and rubbed at the stinging pain that arose in her knee from the impact. She looked around.

It was Journeys End and yet it was, as Eiran had said, all wrong.

Ash rained from the blood-red sky above, the air was electric and alive. She could see it, could feel it. The street was twisted, broken. Parts of the pavement hung ominously in the air and drifted with the wind. Wynter looked down at herself and gasped. Her body was grey, dull and lifeless. She blended into the world, her skin like camouflage. And then Wynter understood. It wasn't the air that was alive, they were souls that moved around her. Wynter shuddered.
She began to walk with a feeling of trepidation.

Each footstep was silent, her body felt weightless and yet each breath she took rattled and echoed like that of a dying person, or a ghost. The street was crowded with souls and the collective sound of their breathing as they moved in all directions. Wynter hid among the crowds, she would take no chances. Soon the orphanage loomed above her. It was a building in a sorry state of decay. The garden was overgrown with dead flowers that spiralled into the sky and entwined themselves around the structure walls. She pushed the iron gate aside and drifted towards the doors. Voices seeped through the walls encumbered with weeds and Wynter listened to them, though she could not make out what they spoke of. The doors were locked and stubbornly resisted her pulling and pushing. Wynter backed off and looked around desperately.

There.

The window that was her own in the real world was open. Wynter clutched at the thick rope-like vines and pulled. She hoped they would support her. Wynter hoisted herself upwards and climbed. The vines were strong but beneath her feet the building began to disintegrate. She moved quickly, panting with the effort. With a hold finally on the windowsill Wynter pushed herself inside just before the ledge collapsed and fell to the ground. She had expected it to be silent, just as she was.

She was horribly mistaken.

As the rotten ledge hit the ground outside it crashed and shattered into fragments that jumped to hang in the air just like the pavement pieces. The cries of startled souls along the street made Wynter jump. Above them an eerie hair-raising sound thundered throughout the building and Wynter crouched in a darkened corner of the room, her heart racing. She had interrupted the silence of the other-world and now the whispers were growing louder, becoming clearer.

Then she heard a voice.

"Who... is... there...?"

The Guards.

A chill ran down Wynter's spine as the red light outside became even more intense. They were alert, on the look-out. The commotion was outside for now however, not here with her. She had to move now before she was discovered. Wynter moved gingerly toward the door and pulled it open. Its rusty hinges groaned and Wynter clenched her teeth willing it to be silent. Out in the corridor was a throbbing glow that came from the ceiling. Wynter could feel the pull of the symbol, she knew she would find it upstairs. All along the hall were closed doors but for the one she had just come through. Wynter moved toward the stairs.

The top floor was smaller than the rest. It had two doors; one would have been Mrs. Archer's office, and the other - in this world and her own - was a heavily padlocked mystery. She touched the locks curiously.

What now?

Wynter sighed in frustration. She tried the other door too. It was locked.

Suddenly Wynter felt a wave of dizziness. She leaned against the wall breathing heavily. Her chest felt sore, uncomfortable. Wynter looked down and realised with a shock that she was beginning to glow. The spell was wearing off already. She returned to the door with a feeling of dread and pulled at the heavy locks. She was growing brighter as the seconds passed.

The hallway grew abruptly colder as she tugged hopelessly at the chains. Wynter became motionless as the whispers snaked up the stairs behind her.

Something was coming.

She turned to face the stairs and pushed against the door with her back. Whatever it was seemed to suck the very life from the hall, the shadows were pulling her in. Wynter was becoming more human, her movements were louder, she no longer felt weightless, and then from the darkness came a figure shrouded in shadows.

It cried a piercing scream when it seen her.

Wynter threw up her arms to shield her face, her eyes. The creature was frightening to look at. It collided with her in a gust of cold air and seemed to vanish as Wynter fell backwards into the locked room. A heavenly blue light exploded before her eyes as she hit the floor. Wynter lay panting for a split-second before scrambling to her feet. The creature was really gone.

How?

The room was packed with old books and faded letters that had never been finished. The light was coming from a bookshelf in the corner of the room. Wynter ran to it. She pulled from the dust-covered ledge a heavy wooden box covered in beautiful silvery lettering. The symbol that Eiran had spoken of shone on its lid almost as bright as Wynter.

Somewhere in the distance the shrill shrieking of crows filled the other-world. She had been found. Wynter burst down the stairs and out the now open front doors. A wave of souls crowded to meet her. She shone among them as she ran with the box in her hands. The light seemed to repel the souls who reached out to her, it made her invisible, but very noticeable. The rift came into view again as Wynter raced toward it, but something stood beside it.

A Guard.

She couldn't stop now. The giant shadowed figure towered above her and still Wynter sprinted onward. Something caught her eye from beyond, a hand reaching through the crack.

Eiran.

Wynter jumped as the Guard swung for her. A burst of white light blinded her as she lunged through the air. The swarm of souls were hot on her heels, Wynter could feel them crushing her, the crows too were biting and snapping in a great flurry of heavy wings. Something caught her arm and yanked her up, she heard her name echo in the light but could not see from where it came. A searing pain like flames wound its way around her body and Wynter cried out.
Then there was silence, and the darkness overcame her.

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