Echoes From the Abyss: Chapter Four
The Series Where YOU Decide What Happens Next
Welcome to Echoes of the Abyss, a new experimental mini-series on the Writer’s Journey where you, the reader, will decide what happens next in the story.
You’ll find a poll at the end of this chapter, with two options. Cast your vote, and check back soon for Chapter 5 to see how the story concludes!
We weren’t related by blood, but Samuel was still my brother.
He was there for me when everyone else left.
Letting that thing take Franklin was a mistake. I don’t make mistakes. Not twice, at least. I wasn’t going to leave Samuel behind.
“Reyna, what are you doing? You need to run!” Samuel shouted.
Samuel screamed as the thing on the back of his neck pulsated like a beating heart. I knelt down behind him and laid the back of my hand on his sweat-soaked forehead.
He’s burning up. It’s now or never.
“I’m not leaving you. Now, I need you to listen. I figured out how to detach her parasites, it’s how I got rid of mine, but it’s not pretty,” I said.
“Just do it,” Samuel said through gritted teeth.
I stood up and looked around the hotel room. I needed fire, and I needed something sharp. I picked up the bottle of whiskey on the floor. Not much left.
“Here, drink this. You’re going to need it,” I said, handing him the glass bottle.
Samuel drank the whiskey and handed me the empty bottle.
“Good, now give me your lighter,” I said.
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small silver lighter. A half-hearted smile crossed his face.
“How’d you know I had it?” he asked.
“You’re not a quitter, so I knew you’d still have it with you. You probably have a pack of smokes in your other pocket, don’t you?”
Samuel laughed through the pain. “Goddamn, I missed you.”
I smashed the bottle against the wall and watched the shards of glass rain down onto the carpet below. I knelt down and found one large enough to hold, but sharp enough to cut through flesh.
Samuel placed both palms on the floor away from the glass and dropped his head down. I stood over him, looking down at the thing on the back of his neck.
Fire first.
When it starts to burn
Cut the cord.
Flames danced from the lighter as I held it down by the base of Samuel’s skull. The flames scorched the surface of his skin. The thing beneath it writhed and slithered. I held the flame closer.
A shriek escaped from beneath his skin. The thing inside panicked. The skin around the back of his neck started to tear. Tiny worm-like tendrils exploded outward in every direction.
Wait for it.
Blood ran down the back of his neck. I pushed the flame toward the tendrils. Toward the body of the thing.
A black tentacle slid out like a tongue. It snapped at the flame, trying to snuff it out.
NOW!
I dropped the lighter and grabbed the black tentacle. An even louder shriek escaped from within the lump on Samuel’s neck. I stabbed it with the shard of glass, gripping it so hard that blood ran down my palm.
I cut into the tentacle with the glass shard over and over as it screamed. Samuel was holding back screams of his own as the black blood of the thing in his neck spilled across his back.
The white tendrils started pulling away from his skin, turning toward my hand as a means of defense.
It’s detaching itself so it can fight me.
It was working. The white tendrils slapped onto my skin with their tiny serrated teeth.
I felt their familiar bite cutting into my flesh, but with every cut I received, Samuel was one step closer to freedom.
Soon, the thing had fully removed itself from Samuel and instead was trying to burrow into my arm. It was weak, bleeding everywhere.
It left a trail of black ichor as I ran to the bathroom. I held it over the sink and began stabbing its bulbous body with the shard of glass.
Its screams echoed across the bathroom walls as its blood mixed with mine in the porcelain sink.
When I felt it letting go again, I dropped it into the sink, ran out of the bathroom, and slammed the door.
I leaned against the door, trying to catch my breath as I looked over to Samuel. He had pulled a sheet off the bed and wrapped it around the back of his neck.
It was already soaked with his blood. He was pale, but alive.
It worked.
“You know, I would have preferred the option where I get years of therapy to undo our Mother’s damage, but this option worked, too,” Samuel said with a half-hearted chuckle.
Always ready with a joke. Same old Samuel.
“We need to get out of here,” I said.
Samuel climbed onto one of the beds, still holding the blood-soaked sheet against his neck.
“Where are we going to go? This place is crawling with hybrids, and now we’ve kicked the hornet’s nest. It’s not like we can just call for help, either.”
Wait a second.
I snapped my fingers and stepped away from the bathroom door.
“We can call for help!” I said, digging the phone relic I brought along out of my coat pocket
“It’s no use, Mother’s already cut off all lines of communication, and you know that hybrids put out a frequency that fucks with phone signals,” Samuel said.
I nodded. “Yeah, but this isn’t an ordinary phone.”
Samuel laughed. “Oh, I see. So, the Wardens are handing out Deus ex machinas now?”
I smiled as I put the phone to my ear. “Shut up, I’ve had this the whole time.”
The phone rang a few times before a familiar voice answered.
“Reyna? What’s going on? Are you okay? I was expecting to hear from you by now.”
“Hey, Michael. I’m here with Samuel. I just removed his parasite, so he’s on our side now. We’re trapped, though, and hybrids are closing in,” I said.
Michael sighed. “Okay, I can be there by nightfall. In the meantime, head to the sheriff’s station. He’s one of us, he’ll be able to keep you safe.”
I thought back to the sheriff I’d met on the beach when I first arrived in Wilmont.
Him? A Warden? Why did the glamour work on him then?
I didn’t have time to question Michael. The sheriff’s station would have to do.
“Okay, we’ll meet you there,” I said.
“Good, and Reyna?”
“Yeah?”
“Stay safe,” Michael said.
“I’ll do my best.”
I put the phone back into my pocket.
“We’ve got friends at the Sheriff’s station, apparently,” I said.
Samuel stood up as I heard a series of rapid knocks on the door to the hotel room.
“Housekeeping!” a voice said through the door.
“We’re good, thank you!” I replied.
“I’m afraid we must INSIST!” the voice replied, much deeper this time.
“Fuck, they’re here!” Samuel shouted.
Something heavy slammed into the door. I heard the wood crack. It wouldn’t hold much longer. I turned and looked back at the sliding glass door. We could make a run for it, but I had to imagine more hybrids were waiting outside.
“We need to give them the slip! It’s the only way we’ll make it to the station in one piece,” Samuel said.
“I agree, but how?” I asked.
“Think of something! You’re way smarter than them. These hybrids are young, they’ve got weak minds,” Samuel said.
Weak minds. That’s it!
I reached into my coat and pulled out one of the other relics I brought along: the makeup kit. As long as I had it on my person, I could fool others into seeing what I wanted.
But would it work on two people?
Only one way to find out.
“Samuel, come here,” I said.
He hobbled over and looked down at the small round makeup kit.
“Let me guess, another MacGuffin from your Warden friends?”
I sighed. “Just trust me, alright? It only works if it’s on your person, so I’ll hold it by my side, and you’ll hold my hand. Got it?”
He nodded, laying his hand onto the relic as I held it beside me.
“I’m opening the door! Please, we need your help!” I shouted, unlatching the lock with my free hand.
I clutched the makeup kit tightly as the door swung open. Mabel, along with two hulking men, pushed through the doorway aggressively. Their eyes were glossy, their actions were not their own.
They squinted at Samuel and me. A painful silence fell across the room.
“Who are you?” Mabel asked, “This isn’t your room!”
I laughed. “You’re right! My husband and I got our room numbers mixed up, and we walked into this one by accident because it was unlocked. The people in here were crazy! They attacked us and then ran off!”
Mabel looked at me, then at Samuel, and back to me again.
“Alright, well, get yourselves to Doc Carter in town. When that’s done, you should leave town. Those fugitives you ran into are dangerous.”
I forced a smile and nodded. “Of course, I hope you find them!”
Mabel turned and nodded to the two men. The three of them walked out and shut the door behind them. I let out the air in my lungs slowly.
“Holy shit, I can’t believe that worked,” Samuel said.
I put the makeup kit back into my coat pocket. “Come on, we need to get to the sheriff’s office.
Samuel and I snuck our way out of the Anchor Inn. Wilmont’s eternal fog was a blessing as we made our way to the sheriff’s station in the center of town.
The streets were mercifully empty. Between the missing townsfolk and the hybrids, Wilmont had become a ghost town.
We entered the sheriff's station and shut the door behind us. The lights inside were off.
“Hello? Sheriff, are you here?” I asked.
A shotgun blast echoed through the air. Samuel and I instinctively ducked behind some chairs in the lobby.
“Don’t get any closer! That was a warning shot! I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you people in this town, but I want nothing to do with it!”
I stood up slowly with my hands in the air. “Sheriff, it’s me, Agent Philips. I have someone with me. We’re not infected, I promise.”
I heard the sheriff fumbling with his gun. “Agent Philips? Oh, thank Christ, what the hell is going on here?”
Samuel and I stood up as the sheriff from the beach emerged from behind the receptionist desk, along the back of the lobby.
“I was hoping you would know. Aren’t you a Warden?” I asked.
The sheriff cocked his head. “A Warden? No, I’m a sheriff. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Something’s not right.
I thought back to my first meeting with the sheriff and how his mind easily fell to the glamour of the makeup kit.
“Wait a second. You said you’re from out of town, is that right?” I asked.
The sheriff nodded.
“What happened to the sheriff of Wilmont?” I asked.
“He disappeared like the others.”
Fuck.
“Okay, can you take us to his office? We can talk there.”
The sheriff nodded. “Sure thing, let me just get my gun.”
The sheriff picked up his shotgun and waved for us to follow. We made our way through the darkened building to a corner office in the back.
I looked at the name on the door as we stepped inside: Victor Paulson. I remembered when he was elected sheriff after the failed ritual all those years ago.
If he’s a Warden, then the election was rigged from the beginning.
We stepped inside the office, and at first glance, it all looked pretty normal. A desk sat near the back wall, and framed certificates and awards graced the walls.
The current sheriff from out of town quickly made himself at home, collapsing into the leather office chair behind the desk.
“Pretty nice office, but nothing spectacular. What are you hoping to find in here?” the sheriff asked.
“Answers,” I replied.
The sheriff sat up, his interest piqued. “About just what the hell is going on here?”
“That’s the plan,” I said, reaching into my coat pocket. I pulled out the monocle and slid it over my eye.”
“Oh, nice monocle!” Samuel said, “And what’s this one do?”
I sighed. “Just let me work, please.”
I looked around the room for any signs that the Mother or her children had been there. They would have left a stain—an essence, a…
Fingerprint.
I spotted the slightest hint of red on the ornate decorative globe on the desk. I walked over to it and slipped the monocle pack into my pocket.
“It’s got something to do with this globe,” I said, bending down to inspect it.
I ran my fingers over the surface, specifically on the portion of North America where Wilmont was approximately located. I felt the texture change. I pushed down and heard a click.
A bookshelf nearby groaned as it swung open, revealing a doorway in the wall. It was an exterior wall, so nothing should be capable of existing beyond it.
Warden’s, however, weren’t bound by such three-dimensional limitations.
“Holy shit! Okay, that’s pretty cool,” Samuel said.
I set down the globe and approached the darkened doorway. I could feel the energy radiating off of it.
It wasn’t just a doorway. It was a portal to somewhere else. That first step would come with a tidal wave of trapped emotions and memories. In short?
This was going to hurt.
I took a deep breath before stepping across the threshold. Images, memories, and emotions all exploded through my mind.
They lied to us!
An eternal watch with no end?
We’re just puppets.
The cracks are too great.
Mother knows best.
She always has.
Father can’t see the truth.
No one can.
No one but her.
Into the labyrinth.
Towards the edge.
The wall must crumble.
The cycle must end.
I took a sharp breath as my consciousness returned to me. I stumbled to the right and felt Samuel’s hands stabilize me before I fell.
“I’m guessing we saw the same thing?” he asked.
I nodded. “The sensitivity never really goes away. If what we saw is true, then…”
“One of the Wardens has betrayed us.”
A new voice came from behind us. We spun around and saw someone new standing in the doorway.
He was dressed in a simple tunic and cloth pants, but he had a symbol burned into the center of his chest that looked like an inverted triquetra.
He brushed his shoulder-length silver hair away from his cold blue eyes and smiled warmly at me.
“Reyna, I’m glad you’re okay,” he said.
“Michael!” I shouted.
I let protocol go the wayside and ran to him. I wrapped my arms around him. He embraced me back before both of us stepped aside and tried to regain our professional composure.
“My apologies. It’s good to see you, Agent Durwood,” I said.
He nodded. “Yes, I’m glad you found Agent Paulson’s Vault. We should be able to find answers here.”
Samuel chuckled. I looked over as he rolled his eyes. “You two can drop the act. We all know you’re dating. It’s not like the sheriff or I here are going to tattle to Warden HR. You can relax.”
My face got hot as I tried to look away and examine the room. Samuel was thoroughly amused.
I walked over to a parchment hanging on the back wall of the small room. The other walls contained all manner of relics and weapons from various time periods, but the parchment seemed particularly interesting.
As I approached, my eyes wandered over the circular map drawn across the center of it. It was wildly intricate, with numbered clusters arranged like synapses in a brain.
At the end of the map, a deeply complex maze bordered the circumference, and beyond that was a thick line marking the true edge.
“This is a map of the Sprawl!” I shouted.
As a recent addition to the Wardens, I wasn’t privy to such information. I knew that the Sprawl consisted of nearly infinite universes connected through Nexus points, but I had never seen it all laid out like that.
More importantly, I had never seen the strange labyrinth that seemed to border the edge of the Sprawl.
The line beyond that, of course, was the Celestial Wall where Wardens stood guard. Beyond that wall was the Abyssal Prison, home of the Exiled Ones.
Mother’s children.
“Michael, when I stepped into this Vault, as you called it, I saw flashes of something the other Warden referred to as a labyrinth. Is that was this is?” I asked, pointing to the maze that bordered the edge of the map.
Michael nodded. “The Infinitum Labyrinthus. Shards of creation, arranged into an infinite maze. It captures wayward children of the Mother so we can find them and return their essence to the Abyssal Prison. Only Wardens can open a doorway to it.”
I looked from the map to him as my mind reeled.
“So that’s what you meant when you said the old sheriff betrayed us?” I asked.
Michael nodded. “He’s working with the Mother. I fear she’s trying to perform her ritual again.”
I shook my head. “But why do it inside an infinite maze?”
“It’s the closest she can get to the wall. The wall that has stood for millions of millennia.”
I looked back at the map.
“Okay, but even so, she would need an incredible amount of willing sacrifices to complete the ritual; her children wouldn’t be enough.”
Samuel walked over to the map and chuckled. “You’re right about that, sister, but I imagine an entire town’s worth of people would do the trick.”
The missing people.
They didn’t walk into the ocean.
They entered the labyrinth.
I looked over to Michael. His eyes were full of fear. I’d never seen him scared before.
“Michael…what do we do?” I asked.
He looked at me and then back at the map again.
The sheriff from out of town raised his hand sheepishly. “I’m completely lost. Anyone want to fill me in on what’s going on?”
Michael pointed to me. “You still have the mobile phone relic?”
I nodded.
“Give it to me.”
I handed it to him. “What are you doing?”
“Calling for backup.”
“We don’t have time for that! We need to go now! You can open a portal to the Labyrinth, right?”
“Yes, but it would be suicide if we went inside without backup. The Mother, all of her children, and the vast majority of this town will be waiting for us in there, to say nothing of the horrors that still wander it who haven’t been exiled yet,” Michael said.
“If we wait, all those people could be killed! We have to go now!” Samuel shouted.
Michael looked down at the phone in his hand. “It’s up to you, Reyna. What do you want to do?”
Everyone looked at me. The room was so quiet that I could hear my own heartbeat.
Time to Decide
Will you head straight into the labyrinth or wait for backup? Remember, both decisions will have significant consequences.
Choose carefully…
Thanks for Reading! Here’s Your Musical Pairing
Listen to this while you contemplate your vote for the poll above.
This was FANTASTIC!
I'm so glad that Samuel was able to be saved 😭
I did not see any of this coming but I'm so excited for the next part!