Page 63 of Heir of Ashes

Being helpless with Dr. Dean was bad enough. Being helpless in an unknown hostile environment with him was worse. The silence was oppressive, the cold unnerving. There were no lights on the horizon, no stars in the sky, no activity of nocturnal animals. I couldn’t see farther than twenty feet ahead, and what I could see told me there was nothing.

Nothing but Dr. Dean beside me. He reached into his pocket and flicked on a small penlight, the narrow beam cutting through the darkness ahead.

“We will be moving straight for now.” He gave me a not-so-gentle tug. Every few minutes, he’d check his watch, and sweep the light around. The scuffling of our feet and our breathing were deafening in the silence.

Eventually, faint noises began to emerge from the darkness, growing louder with each step. We were no longer alone. But whatever was making those scuffling noises was purposefully avoiding Dr. Dean’s penlight, never revealing itself. Once, a small shadow flitted near the light’s edge, about the size of a cat, followed by a second one.

What were they? Foxes? Hyenas? A mob of meerkats? Did we even have meerkats in America? Beside me, Dr. Dean seemed oblivious. Ten minutes later, I was certain we were being stalked. The noises continued, but whatever it was stayed far enough from the light, never crossing our path. My eyes strained to see, but they were elusive things, darting away as soon as the beam drew near.

“Don’t mind these little creatures,” Dr. Dean said, catching the direction of my gaze. “They’re fascinating. Although they’re viciously carnivorous with an insatiable appetite, in some ways, they’re as harmless as teacup poodles—provided you’re on the other side of the fence.” He chuckled. “Of course, once you try to pet one of them, that’s where the resemblance ends. Then you’re as good as a bleeding cow in a shark tank.”

Dr. Dean chuckled again, but there was an edge to his voice, a nervousness that betrayed his calm façade. “We learned this the hard way. One of our scientists, Dr. Jenkins—you remember him? No? Well, he thought they were harmless, and tried to study one up close. Didn’t end well for him. All we got from his experiment were some disturbing footage. No other scientists volunteered for the next experiment,” he continued in a monotone, “no matter how much we raised the bonus fee.”

He seemed to have finally realized he was babbling and shut up.

It was startling how much we took white noise for granted. Even in the most remote places, there would always be background noises: rustling leaves, busy insects, babbling brooks, the murmuring of wind. But here, there was nothing. No buzzing of electricity, no faint music, no traffic—nothing. It was as if the world had been swallowed by a void, leaving only Dr. Dean, our stalkers, and me.

Dr. Dean checked the time again, his fear like acid in the air. I could sense it pulsing off him in waves. He was waiting for something, dreading it, and that fear escalated with each passing moment. Maybe that’s how I would kill him: slowly suck the life out of him. Though the idea of draining Dr. Dean’s life was a disgusting concept. Still, I needed to know where I was before I did anything. I kept searching, trying to catch sight of a familiar landmark, anything that would help me identify my location or point me toward the nearest civilization.

Suddenly, Dr. Dean stopped, leaving me to walk a few paces before halting me with a hand on my elbow. “Where are my manners? I bet this is your first trip to the Low Lands.” Then he grabbed both my arms and turned me around.

An involuntary gasp escaped my mouth. What I saw squeezed all the breath from my lungs. My heart pounded, my knees buckled, and blood roared in my ears.

This was not possible. It couldn’t be real. Had they given me a hallucinogen in that spell? Even so, hadn’t it worn off already?

On the horizon, against the dark, starless sky, hung a cluster of planets—planets that didn’t belong in the solar system. They orbited each other, but I couldn’t see a sun. They glowed with an internal light, radiating an eerie, multicolored shine. Some were lit from within, radiant as if filled with liquid fire, while others were shrouded in swirling clouds. Some planets were so distant they were mere pinpricks, while the closest appeared as large as a soccer ball and looked like a rainbow had exploded inside it. The colors were unlike anything I’d ever seen, vibrant hues that I suspected didn’t exist in our spectrum, some so strange that they defined description.

It was surreal, to say the least. It felt like standing on the moon, peering through enhanced goggles into another dimension. The sight was indescribably beautiful, a spectacle that transcended words. In the pit of my stomach, a chilling realization hit: I was in a strange world … trapped with Dr. Dean.

We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

The scuffling around us took on a new meaning, and when one of the creatures ventured just a few feet closer, I reacted on instinct, jerking away. Dr. Dean laughed. “Don’t worry, my dear. Unless you come into physical contact with one, they can’t harm you.” He let me look for a second more, then turned me in the opposite direction, towards the darkness again, still unaware—or uncaring—that I had moved voluntarily. The fact that my shoulders were tense didn’t faze him either. Why would it? I had no idea where I was or how to escape.

We trudged through the barren land for what felt like days before there was a change in the landscape. The beam of Dr. Dean’s miniature penlight illuminated small slopes and black twigs and branches that clung to my pants and scratchedmy skin. My green blouse offered little protection against the biting cold, and each step sent fresh waves of pain through my blistered feet. I was so thirsty and hungry that my stomach kept gurgling pitifully.

As we pressed on, we began seeing more dead branches, until we entered a forest of lifeless trees.

I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to this land. The landscape might have shifted, but the silence around us remained the same, broken only by the scuffling and the scratch of rocks beneath our feet, and the sounds of the creatures behind us.

We stopped at the edge of the forest sometime later, and Dr. Dean checked his watch again.

“… Too long,” he muttered under his breath. He turned to me and said, “You’re awfully quiet. I know the spell wore off a long time ago. You don’t need to pretend. We should talk.” He waved a hand. “Time goes by faster when you have something to do.” He leaned closer, his eyes gleaming. “Unless you have something more productive than talking in mind?”

“Come near me, and this time I’ll kill you with my bare hands,” I threatened, and he laughed.

“My dear, haven’t you noticed there’s nothing here? If you kill me, you lose your only ticket back.”

“Ah, but it would be worth it. Every last breath.” I put on the cold, deranged smile I had practiced many times back in the PSS.

“You know,” he continued in a conversational tone, choosing to ignore my threat as if it were only empty words, “you would have ended up here today anyway.”

That caught my attention. I knew he was baiting me, but I couldn’t resist. “Why? What’s here?”

“A rendezvous point.”

I glanced at the barren land dubiously. “Who are we meeting?”

There was a smile in Dr. Dean’s voice when he answered, “Your new owner.”