KULEDA BATHROOM| LATE EVENING
Lilanee opened her eyes, thinking of her fathers own periwinkle gaze, looking at the mirror with a flutter of something in her aura. It didn’t feel right in here, with that steam clouding the room—
No that wasn’t steam, that was something from the mirror.
Something familiar? No, that couldn’t be right.
Her breath caught, stolen by a bright searing flare of something consuming the space around her. It was the mona, but no. It wasn’t. It was…something so unusual and yet so familiar. Like deja vu. The teenager felt nauseated, and almost weakened by the sensation. She felt as though she was clinging to her field, to keep it steady and sure. Her mouth felt dry and her tongue leaden, and unbidden her hand clung to the edge of the bathtub as a word strained scared from her lips.
“No.”
The trio seemed to slip through the mirror, squeezed through too small an opening and rushing through the space between here and there—wherever there was. Lilanee panted, terrified as buildings and sky and ground and trees wizzed past faster than anything she had seen in her entire life. She reached with her field for Tom, for Ezre, feeling like she’d been pulled apart from them both and yet still entwined tightly. The dark was heavy, the stars in the sky streaks of light. Around them all the mist was thick, thicker than any steam or smoke any of them would have seen before. They moved faster, and faster and faster. So fast the connection to the Kuleda bathroom felt tenuous at best.
And then sharply Lilanee found herself stopped.
She winced at the sudden snap to stillness, surrounded by the thick mist that was escaping the mirror. But she wasn’t in the bathroom. She was in a cloud, a thick cloying cloud of mist that pressed heavy against her field. It pressed so intently, as though trying to find an opening in her aura, and the fear clung to her.
Ezre?! Tom?!
The Hessean shouted, though nothing came from her mouth. The mist was so thick. So heavy. It was so silent, ringing in her ears it was deafeningly so.
A sound. A hiss.
Lilanee looked around, calling for her companions, catching shadows in the corner of her eyes. She looked up.
There! She could see them, like a portal through the mist, so far far away. Tom was there, facing away from her, his hand wrapped around the Hoxian’s ankle.
Tom would find himself there too, lost in the mist, a hand around the Hexx’s ankle even if it was but a manifestation of their bodies (right?). He would feel the press of the mist, like it wanted him for itself, though it was confused by him. What was he? It writhed against his aura, searching for the cracks with smoky tendrils. Sounds would come to him, in the mist. Hisses, and shadows just beyond sight. The mist pushed at his grasp on Ezre, seeking to remove it, searching for a weak spot. If he looked up, Tom would see Ezre stretched up from him, stretched too far and to thin like fabric pulled to much.
Further still, Ezre would find he was still travelling, still moving forwards across the dark word of Vita. He was stretched, field feeling like it was being pulled away, sucked upwards. He would slow though, eventually, and find himself surrounded in the same mist and the same hisses and the same shadows. He would be lost in mist, only there was no opening above him like the others. Instead it was around him, all around him. Close. So close. So familiar. So heavy.
So hurt.
There was a sense of deep, deep sadness there. Hanging all around him, filling his mouth with the dank taste of old damp soil and musty rot. It was heavy. A needful thing that wanted him, wanted his company.
A faint, tinny voice sounded in the misty surrounds, somewhere far and yet close. The needful feeling shifted, turned, listening whilst Ezre listened. Looked whilst Ezre looked. The mist would thin, and something would show itself in the haze. Trees, dark and thick evergreens, overgrown and tangled together. A fire, burning low and careful, edged by a stone hearth. A hide tent, low to the ground, covered loosely in brush.
Around Tom and Lilanee, the shadows in the mist moved, stalking around them. Watching. Waiting.