“What…am I looking at?”
Roland stared up the decrepit stairs of the main entrance to the hotel at the
dark creature. It stood there, almost inviting him to follow it. But the
shadow-like opacity, and what looked like black wind flowing in thin streams
around it kept his feet planted where they were. Taking an extra few seconds to
look this creature over, he could make out a figure within the different shades of grey and black. At this point, Roland could see that those streams of black
wind, and the smoke emanating from the ground around the thing’s feet took the shape
of a dress. And atop her head sat an ornate headdress made of what seemed to be
a goat skull with horns that formed a perfect spiral on either side, decorated
with red jewels and silver chains.
“You must come with me, Roland,” the creature said
raising a hand out, palm up, as if expecting him to take her hand so they could
walk in the long-abandoned hotel together.
“I—I’m not supposed to go anywhere with strangers,”
Roland stammered. Woman had such an alluring voice, but the teenager’s fear
took precedence over all other senses.
The woman made of shadows chuckled a bit, lowering her hand.
Roland thought she might be laughing at him for sounding like a little kid with
his “stranger danger” speech. That idea caused him to blush while wondering why
he should care what she thought of him. ‘Who
even is she?’
“You can deny me all you want…” the woman slowly turned
her back to Roland, bringing her hands together under the wide sleeves of her
shadowy gown. “But you will one day return here, begging for me to show you
what think you need to know. I have already seen it.”
‘Great. So, she can
see the future,’ Roland strangely felt a longing for this woman that he had
only just met and knew nothing about, and she hadn’t even left, yet. But she was leaving. Walking away slowly into
the hotel that, only now, felt familiar in the way that only things worth
reminiscing about can.
“Have I been here before?” the boy asked himself, not
thinking anyone would hear him.
“You have,” the mass of shadows surrounding the woman
shifted to one side, revealing part of the headdress as she spoke. “And when
you are ready to come back, I will be here to welcome you.”
One word flashed through Roland’s mind as he processed
those words: Empress. Not knowing why, he felt that title definitely suited
her. The Shadows’ Empress. Knowing this small detail that made him feel a
little better about everything that was happening at the moment, despite the likely
possibility that it only made sense to him. He didn’t care. Roland needed
something to help him understand the situation before him, even though he didn’t
actually know what that was.
Roland stared up at the center tower of the hotel that
boasted a magnificent clock face on it. He was hoping to tell what time it was;
another piece of information that might make him feel better—or worse—but ultimately
had no real value. However, the hand on the clock were moving at a steady pace.
Backwards.
“Maybe I’m stuck in a world where time doesn’t exist?” he
said, hoping asking questions out loud that weren’t exactly directed at the Empress
would more likely prompt her to give Roland answers than if he asked her
directly. He didn’t hear anything. Roland looked back down toward the cracked
stone path where she was standing. She was gone, and Roland never saw her
leave. Roland walked up the few steps to the are where the path was flat, examining
the walkway. Nothing but broken, grey bricks with weeds growing from underneath
them, black like they had been burned by some kid with a magnifying glass
trying to kill ants.
“Wow. Most villains wait for their victims to ask for
answers and tell them to figure everything out on their own before they leave.”
The ground began to rumble and shake around him. The
stones of the walkway began to crack even more as Roland watched. Then, suddenly,
the ground under the bricks rose, pushing them apart, before swallowing everything
in an ever-growing sink hole, dark with no bottom in sight. Roland tried to
run. He had turned away from the hotel, from the hole in the ground, and started
to run to the forest that was a great distance away.
The
sink hole was opening wider, swallowing even more of the landscape; growing to
fast for the frightened teen to outrun it. The ground under his feet fell away,
causing his body to drop into the sink hole like the pennies he used to throw
into the fountain at the mall when he was younger. ‘Where’s that good luck now?’ he thought as he stared up at the
white sky that got smaller as his vision was eclipsed by the hole he had fallen
into.
Eventually,
everything was dark. The hole he had fallen into looked as if it had closed at
the top. There was no sky. Not anymore. Just darkness, and a boy alone with his
thoughts.
‘Your mother did her best bringing you into
this world. I did my best raising you. The rest is up to you. Good luck, boy.
You might need it someday.’
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