~In Limbo~Part 2~
Changing Evolution
After he said that I'm in between realms, of Earth and Pyre, I only stood and stared. With a clueless expression stamped on my face. Of course those words made no sense so it took a while until I somewhat came to my senses and followed him back in to the 'house'.
"Where am I?" I finally ask, back in the room with the crate table.
He doesn't say anything at first. His back is toward me with his hands on his hips, looking up. It seems like he's stretching or something which makes me give him a peculiar look.
Instead of answering me he starts walking around the room, pacing in a way. Thinking. But what about? I'd really like to know. Like...really like to know. If I'm 'in between realms' as he says then what am I supposed to do? How can I get back?
If what he's saying is true or just some joke. Yeah, that's it. He's just joking around. I start to go along with that idea. That is until I recall the fire. The only explanation for that would be that...he's a great Illusionist? Maybe? All these thoughts are hurting my head making a low growl come from my throat.
"I have no idea what to do with you, but you can't be here right now." He mumbles more to himself than speaking to me.
"Why not?" I ask him, feeling a bit offended by his words.
He turns towards me with a grave look. A look that's enough for me to worry why he said those words. In silence he takes a deep breath then exhales. One eyebrow raises as the other furrows very deeply.
"Well. Why not?" I repeat, feeling so impatient that I can feel it in the nerves of my muscles.
He let's out a heavy sigh before responding. "This..." he gestures towards me, "is really bad timing. Out of all the times for someone to accidently get here, it had to be today."
..........I'm just going to stop talking and wait for him to tell me.
Everything.
"This kind of stuff happens all the time. People who enter the mountains end up here in between realms. They say they were just wondering around and ended up here. But they came at...more...how would I put it? More convenient times."
I squint my eyes at him, a look meaning there had better be more to his explanation than that. Surely, there is.
"We're in a time of changing." he says in a drawn out tone. The expression upon my face signaling to him that I still don't understand what he's saying. A heavy and exasperated sigh escapes him as he rolls his eyes. "An evolution is accuring right now. When an evolution of a realm, any realm, is accuring that means the portals are sealed shut. They are locked until the evoution is over."
One of my eyebrows raises up high. I try my best to hold in a dry laugh because it might make me sound out of my sanity.
"Well then, I can wait until this 'evolution' is over. No big deal." I shrug my shoulders and head back to the house.
As I approach him his face isn't as light as I'm wishing it were. "Do you have any idea how long an evolution is?"
Tell me, how did I have a feeling there was more to it than that? Nothing can ever be simple, can it? No.
"Okay, so what do I do then? I can't go back to where I belong. From your whole demeanor it seems like I can't stay here either." I gesture around the empty woods and the burned house.
"I never said that." Suddenly the tone in his voice is lighter. The expression on his face is lighter too. I'm confused. "You can come back with me."
I swear my mouth dropped, hit the ground, and then snapped back shut. "Are you crazy! There's no way I'm going far from wherever this portal is. And besides, you said the portals are sealed, locked, or whatever."
"No, that's only between the common world and non-common worlds." he shakes his head with a light chuckle.
I squint my eyes at him. Becoming confused with each word that vibrates through his mouth. More questions bombard my brain that I don't want to be bothered with. Questions like what does he mean common and non-common worlds? And how the heck his moods change from grave to excited? Wondering if he's just making all of this stuff up right now. All these thoughts are really hurting my head making me dizzy. My surroundings start to spin and I hear his voice only barely through my ears.
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"Wakey-wakey~" I hear a voice in a sing-song tone through this darkness. "Come on, we can't stay here. Wake up."
A moment later I manage to pull myself from the darkness and in to a dim light. I frown as my focus clears to see a wide and creepy smile peering down at me. My instinct makes me reach up and push him out of me line of view.
"What did you do that for?" he whines somewhere out of my vision, but I ignore him.
I sit up from the uncomfortable wooden floors and look around. Oh, how I wish this all weren't real. At all. I just want to go back home now. I think I've had enough adventure. Or maybe I didn't want adventure in the first place. That makes me wonder, what did I want adventure for in the first place? As soon as I begin to search answers to this question my head starts pounding.
"Whoa, whoa. Take it easy." he says and comes over to kneel down beside me. I look up through a grimace at his slightly darkened expression. "Are you alright?"
I scoff to myself and slowly shake my head, blinking a few times. "I'd be lying if I said I was."
A short moment of silence.
"We should get going. I was supposed to have returned earlier this morning."
"I'm not going anywhere." I answer as soon as the last syllabol leaves his lips. "I'm staying right here for however long it takes until this evolution of yours is over." He starts to protest but I cut him off. "You don't need to stay here. I'll be fine on my own."
"You will be fine on your own? Here? In a place you know nothing about?" His tone has turned cold. "Get up and let's go. I'm late."
On that, he stands up swiftly and heads to the crate table, stuffing the items in to a torn sack. I stay seated and stare at him as he circles the room throwing what he deems valuable in to the sack. When he finishes he goes to the door then stops, turns and sees me still on the floor.
"Let's go." he says in a final tone of voice then continues out of the doorway.
I sit up straight, cross my legs and arms, and huff. Who does he think he is bossing me around? Maybe I would have gone if he asked me nicely but since he didn't I'll stay right here. All of a sudden it gets oddly quiet. Not a quiet that I'm fond of at all. It's like the silence in the woods of some scary movie. Every sound is amplified making the hairs on the back of my neck prick up.
"Ch-Chanyeol?" I call out quietly knowing that not even the termites in the floorboard could hear me.
Did he really leave? Now I'm wishing that I had just gone along. Me and my independent ways. It's going to get me in to a lot of trouble. I scoff at myself again as I think that it has already gotten me in to much trouble. Already. The sound of a owl hooting in the silence makes my whole body jump. I laugh at my reaction to the harmless creature. A shaky and unsure laugh actually.
"It'll be fine." I begin to try reasure myself. "That's right. I'll be perfectly fine."
These words give me a little strength. Strength enough to stand up to my feet. But as soon as I'm square on my feet I feel a light treble. I frown and keep as still as possible. When I don't feel anything I shrug and start to move towards the crate when I feel the treble much stronger.
"Okay, I know I felt that." I speak out loud to myself. "What was that?"
The next noise scares me to be as still as a thick tree. A thundering sound that vibrates straight through my whole entire body. A sound like what I've been taught a prehistoric animal would make. Now the treble I felt under my feet continues at a steady pace. Seeming to be stronger with each treble. My thoughts race with what it is and what I should do. I've got no idea what to do. I want to run but if I go out then whatever it is will definitely find me. At least inside whatever it is won't see me. That's my thought, but then I remember.
What about Chanyeol?
Even wondering what comes of him isn't enough to make me move. Another loud sound from an animal, not the same thundering one but a screeching one, makes me close my eyes and pray that I'll survive here. A commotion coming from inside the house downstairs snaps my eyes wide open in fear. Someone is inside. Run.
Run!
But my legs won't do as I want. They are planted here. Stomping up the stairs matches the pounding of my heart in my chest. A dark figure appears in the doorway but I'm to frieghtened to make out who it is as it approaches me. The weight of the person removes my feet from the place they were rooted and back against a wall. This sudden movement pulls me back to my senses and I open my mouth to scream but it is covered by a hand.
"Shhh~! Don't. Make. A sound." I hear a low yet familiar voice hiss in to my ear.
Chanyeol?
My eyes stare wide at who I can finally make out to be Chanyeol with a long scratch bloody scratch along the right side of his cheek. The trembling is now strong enough to make the whole house shake unsteadily. Whatever it is must be near. Maybe even right outside. That thought starts my whole body shaking in fear. His hand that was pressed heavily over my mouth slowly drops away as he stares and begins to walk to the only window of this room. I stay up against the wall and fight back the hot tears threatening to fall from my eyes.
Another loud screech makes me squeal and bite my lower lip to keep from yelping out. I don't want to be alone anymore even though he's only a few feet away, so I slowly walk over. When I get to his shoulder he flinches and I notice his skin spark a orange color.
"Be quiet." he whispers to me then continues looking out the window.
I peer past his shoulder out the square window in to the dim lit trees. Nothing. I don't see a thing. Well, except the shuddering of the leaves on the tress from the trembling of the earth. Or whatever this land is called. Right as I'm about to turn away I see one section of the trees shake more violently than the others. I peer in with squinted eyes and wish I had looked away. What I see is a huge and grizzly looking beast. Covered in dark fur with a face something like a grizzly bear but not as friendly looking. As if a grizzly had a friendly face in the first place. The beast opens its muzzle and lets out that same thundering growl that is magnified ten times making me cover my ears. Through my palms I hear the screeching. As if the two were talking to each other.
The growling and screeching stops and I uncover my ears. I stare out at the beast not too far away in shock and fear. It's not close but it's close enough. Much too close for comfort, that's for sure.
"What is that thing?" I manage to whisper through my shaky voice.
"Shh~!" he hisses at me again.
I frown and pinch my lips shut tight. After glaring hard at him for a second I look back out to the beast that now has a figure standing right next to it. A human figure. Human figure? My head turns to the side as I watch this figure walking around the area looking around. Searching for something. What? I look to Chanyeol who has a strong set frown on his face. I was going to ask why he isn't going to this person but his expression shows that would be a stupid question. This time I look back to the beast and the figure I nearly choke. A pair of huge black wings sprout from his back.
"What the hell are they doing here? With those damn things?" he grumbles under his breath through clenched teeth.
From this distance I see the figure open it's mouth and that screeching sound comes from him. From him? My eyes open even wider in disbelief. That screeching was coming from him?
"What is he saying?" he grumbles more.
The screeching happens again but it's not from the figure I see down there. No, his mouth is now shut. The screeching continues but I can't make out where it's coming from. It's too loud to pinpoint where. But it's obvious there is another one around here, somewhere. Through this screeching I can hear the sound of wings flapping. Before I can even try to figure where this sound is coming from a dark figure appears right in front of the window and lets out a deafening screech.
I scream when I realize that this dark figure inside the window is flying and looks...like a evil human creature thing. The glimpse of it only lasts a second when I feel my hand being squeezed tightly and my feet nearly swept from under my feet. In a blur I'm being pulled down the stairs and out the back doors of this building. For some reason as we are running, I feel the urge to turn to see if anything is there. When I do, I regret it. Of course that huge beast is thundering towards us. Up in the sky I see those two figures flying in our direction.
"DON'T LOOK BACK!" I hear through my still ringing ears.
We keep running. Running for so long that after a while the impact of my feet hitting the ground starts to feel like a shock going through my legs. It hurts and is making me slow down. I nearly trip over my own feet but his hand squeezes mine so tightly that it feels like he's going to crunch them, but it keeps me up.
"DO NOT FALL!"
"I'M TRYING!" I shout back.
Just then I hear the wings flapping to clearly and start to turn to see where they are. I let out a scream at how close one is. Right in front of my face. I try to kick up my speed but it's too late. I feel hands grab at me tightly and my feet leave the ground only for a second.
"CHANYEOL!" I scream out and hold on to his hand as tight as I can. "LET ME GO!"
I scream and start to thrash about to loosen it's grip but it doesn't seem to be working. It doesn't stop me though. That doesn't but numerous piercings in my stomach makes me stop. It even makes me let go of Chanyeol's hand to try and pull them out. Bad idea. My feet completely leave the ground as I'm pulled higher and higher up in the sky.
"CHANYEOL!!!" I scream down even louder.
He stops running and looks up in the sky to me, now just a few feet over the trees. I see his mouth open wide but I can't hear anything. Still in this things grip, I continue prying at its hands. I look to my sides and see hands but there are long, sharp claws as its nails. Each time that I tug at them the claws dig even digger. My eyes start to burn as tears fall down.
"Let me go." a small weep escapes my lips, but I keep pulling.
A jerk and the screeching of this creature shocks me. The thing starts to loose some height, slowly descending to the ground. Another screech and jerk makes me turn to try and see what's going on. As I do I see a huge ball of fire headed right in my direction. Eyes open wide at the sight of this fire ball headed right at me. But instead of hitting me it hits this creature that's holding me. The claws start to loose it's strength causing me to slip a bit out of its grip. Somehow it gains back the grip and digs the claws in again.
"DAMMIT!" I shout out in pain. Anger rises in me and I start squirming with all the strength I have left.
"Keep still!" the creature shouts down to me in a sharp tone that would have been enough to make me do as it said if I weren't set on trying to get loose.
The claws start to slip even more with each jerk until they completely let me go. Feeling the air rush past me as I'm heading back to the ground is an exhilerating feeling. But it just now occurs to me that I'm falling to the ground from feets in the sky. Impact from the first branch nearly knocks the wind out of my lungs. My body still continues to make its way down. A few twigs catch my flesh but it's nothing compared to the claws of that thing and the impact my body keeps making with these branches. One last branch hits my back and stops my fall.
I'm in too much shock to move. Only gasping for air and feeling tears sliding down the side of my face in to my ears.
"Laime!" I hear his voice shouting to me.
I stare up in to the sky, still in shock. That flying creature hovers above the trees staring down at me. It looks angry just before rushing down towards me. I'm going to die here. Right here. That's what I think before another ball of fire shoots right past me at the creature. It screeches out in pain as this branch that was holding me gives way. The ground was a lot closer than I thought when I fall all the way down.
"Get up!" Chanyeol yells and starts trying to pull me from the ground.
My whole body is hurting now. It hurts too much to even think about trying to move. Somehow he manages to get me to my feet and drags me along behind him.
"I-I can't...go any...f-farther." I wheeze out through pangs of breath.
"We're almost there! Almost there! Just hang on!" he shouts back to me.
A growl comes from behind us again. We're not going to make it to where he's trying to get us. And what if we do make it? Will we be protected there? I doubt it.
"Just stop. We're n-not going to make it."
"There!" he shouts as his speed picks up.
I look ahead in front of us and see a distortion of the trees a few feet ahead of us. It looks something like a warp. Again his speed picks up until it's right in front of us. A strong pull lifts us off our feet and in to the distortion. The whole wooded area disappears and is replaced with a light smokey haze. It feels like we are being spun around uncontrollably and it's making me sick to my stomach. I start to wish for it to stop just as I feel ground underneath my back.
No longer do I hear the thundering growl and ear splitting screeches or feel the trembling of the ground. It's silent. Just as silent as before those things came. But it's more trees. I'm tired of trees. I start to whine to myself at the sight of them even in this darkness. But then the silence is disrupted by the sound of whimpering. A whimpering nearby.
"Chanyeol?" I call out, wondering if it is him.
"That's not me." he whispers through the dark.
A spark turns my attention to it. The spark then turns in to a small flame in the palm of his hand. It flickers up and illuminates his face. He holds his hand out in front of him and starts searching the grounds.
"Who's there?" I hear him call out in a low voice.
"C-Chanyeol?" I hear a weak female voice call out.
I try to sit up but only wince in pain and lay back on the ground. I look over and see that he has stopped. The light in his hand extended down towards the ground to illuminate a body about ten feet from me. He drops to his knees harshly. I hear hushed tones making me fight to get up. Still no luck so I settle on crawling. I crawl with all my strength towards him. More regret envelopes me for trying to reach them.
"Where were you..." the girls whimpers out to him. "y-you should have been here."
My stomach turns at the sight of her. I retch right in front of myself, unable to take the sight of her with an arm ripped clear off and a wide gash in her side.
"W-why weren't you h-here?" she's almost shouting now.
I look up to Chanyeol who is silent. The shivering of his shoulders is the only thing that shows what he's doing. Crying.
"What happened?" he asks her in a low voice.
"Where were you?!" she shouts up through heavy tears.
"I was coming." he says.
"Coming? You came too late. We're all gone. All of us." she whimpers again.
"W-what?"
"Gone. They came. And killed us all." she continues on in a fading voice. "Valkyrie."
"What? Why?" his voice is coming back stronger.
But he gets no reply. He asks again but still, no reply. She's gone.
"C-Chanyeol?" I call and tug at the hem of his jacket.
Instead of answering me he stands up and closes his hand making the only light disappear. In the silent darkness I hear him. Crying. Moments pass with him crying until it's completely silent again. A flicker and flame appear re-illuminating the surroundings and his fierce expression.
"Get up." he says and comes over to force me to my feet.
My protests of hisses and yelps of pain don't stop him from getting me up. Through my pain, I stumble after him taking care not to catch a glimpse of that girl.
"Where are we going? What's going on?" I ask his back but get no reply. "Hey, what is this? Why aren't you answering me?"
"Just!" he shouts back and stops in his steps. "Just, stop talking. Let me think."
I pinch my lips tight and just follow after him. Maybe about thirty minutes later I long to stop and rest. My whole entire body is racked with pain. I've never experienced such pain in my life before. Spraining an ankle is nothing compared to what I'm feeling now. It feels as if I've broken nearly every bone in my body. The feeling of my shirt rubbing against where the claws dug in to me keep a steady rythmn of stinging on my flesh.
The silence isn't helping me at all. Every pain in my body is being amplified because of the silence. I decide to keep myself occupied by thinking. Running everything that I've witnessed this far in my mind. It's all way too much for me. Too much in such a short amount of time. It only seemed like a few minutes ago everything would be alright. In a split second it all changed. I witnessed more than I think I would ever wish for. A day ago I would have never been able to believe that realms were real. Not realms like this. Maybe a life and death type of realm but not ones where there are different beings. Or...whatever.
Finally, all I can wonder is: how did I get myself in to this?
Chanyeol stops and the only reason I know is because my face hits his back. I rub at my nose and frown. The frown changes from a frown at him to a frown from what I'm seeing. For miles it seems there is nothing but burning houses. Flames rising high. Complete silent chaos. A couple of feet up a mangled body lays in front of us. I turn my head away quickly before I see something I'd rather not.
"Chanyeol? What is this?" the question leaves my lips before I can get a chance to hold them back.
A scoff from him. "They couldn't just stand still." He growls through clenched teeth. Anger and hate filled with each syllabol.
"Huh?"
"Let's go." he grabs at my wrist but something comes over me and I wrench myself loose. "What? You want to stay?"
"What is this?!" I shout and throw my arm up in frustration.
A dry laugh from him. "It's evolution."
I glare at him in disbelief.
"Now, let's go. Unless you'd rather die here."
"Where are we going?" I ask as he grabs a hold of me again, dragging me along. No reply.
We walk through. Bodies laying all over the place. I try my best to keep my eyes from looking to them but there are so many. I end up seeing all of them. Dead. Who could have done this? Why would they have done this? Why? As we walk among them I notice something. All of them have marks. A dark mark in the same shape. But what shape? He's not slowing down enough to give me a chance to see. Without thinking I stop, pulling my arm from him once more. I crouch down, in pain, to get a better look at this shape on a mans shoulder. Right away I know what it is. It's that same figure on his brooch. I lightly touch the mark and retract in shock at how hot his skin is. I look up to Chanyeol who's face turns quickly away from me.
"Are they...you're people?" I ask him lowly. Suddenly I feel a heavy and sharp pain in my chest. Right where my heart should be. "They are, aren't they?"
"Let's go." he says again, reaching for me.
"You can't just go. You can't leave you're people here like this."
"What do you expect me to do?!" he spins and shouts at me.
"Give them a proper burial? Or at least grieve for them." I plead with him.
Anger flares in his face. A complete change from how friendly he at first seemed. For a very grave reason.
"I've got no time for burials and grievings." his tone is as cold as ice, shooting a sharp icecicle through my chest. "What I need to do is none of those things. What I need to do is stop them."
Stop them? Stop who?
"Doing that is my way of grieving them."
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A/N: finally, here is chapter four after like three months ):L i know
a lot *as usual* has been going on but i'm so happy to be back here to continue my story
i know it's probably getting confusing...again...but it's really not too bad
it is getting pretty serious though right???
well...i guess i can explain a few things to you
1~laime has some serious issues to clear up ;)
2~the realm where she has met chanyeol is an in between realm...think of it as a sort of rest stop or how people term in between life and death...
3~this evolution that i'm going on about is a very big deal in ALL realms...including the human realm of earth...which can cause some to get a little crazy, hence these valkyrie
4~the valkyrie in my story are male, instead of women as the real myth states, and are a vicious kinds of creatures who are not too fond of this evolution
that's all i can disclose to you right now...don't want to spoil the story for you :3
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