Human Spines

Trying so Hard Not to Forget-IV

Emmeline

        I am having a hard time keeping up with things. It's the strangest feeling. The only thing I seem to be processing is Dumaine's hand. I know I'm holding it. I can feel its warmth, comforting me. It's the only thing I can feel. I can hear his heart pumping. It is the only thing I can hear. I can't see it though. I can't see anything. But I'm tasting sugar and smelling leather even though I don't think there are any dead Demons around. And I feel like I ate an entire watermelon.

        I should be afraid. I don't know what's going on at all. But I'm not. Instead I'm calm. I feel like a leaf. Or maybe a jellyfish. I hope this is what jellyfish feel like.

        I can feel someone else. Another pulse. It's not a calm pulse though. It's fidgety. I wonder if Hans can tell there's something wrong with me right now. Oh... I'm walking. Okay, I trust Dumaine won't lead me into a wall. But I can hear something. This distant screaming. I hope whoever it is is okay. That they... it's me. I'm the one screaming. My own voice in my own mind. I can't get it to stop, it won't shut up. Someone's blocking one part of my brain from the other. Something's inside me but not possessing me. Something's forcing my legs to run. Something's letting go of Dumaine and plugging my ears to the pulse I hear. Something's finally doing something worse than possessing me.

        And I think it's Dindolcon.

Dumaine

        Think. Think think think think. Only one of these doors is the right door. Which one is it? The first one? No, why would it be the first one? I'm such an idiot.

        I followed Hans away from my rainy street, down a tunnel, and up a flight of uneven stairs to where we are now. A perfectly square room with eight numbered doors. The same doors the Sibling must have chosen incorrectly and disappeared into. At least I figured that out before I barged through the first one I saw.

        Something's wrong with Emmeline. She isn't possessed, but she's acting like it. And Hans's eyes won't look at anything. They move from left to right, as if he's reading a book.

        "Hans? Can you see the way out? What's behind these doors?" I prompt, hoping I'm not on my own here.

        He's shaking his head. "There's too much in my mind right now, my dear. Joeni doesn't even want to see. I'm sorry." His eyes stop reading, and he looks at me. I can feel fear, hiding deeply under layers upon layers of happiness and joy and courage. And I don't understand why.

        Whatever happened back there with the Reaper-Mother must've finally thrown him off. And Emmeline, too. I bet she knows which door to go through.

        "Should I try opening them each? Or is there another way out?" I ask. Hans shakes his head again.

        "Try remembering."

        What am I supposed to remember? The fact we've accomplished nothing and are trying to run away? This is frustrating. I'm not thinking clearly.

        "Dance with me, my dear." Hans has placed his hand in mine. This room is darker than the others, light only streaming in from edges and corners, where darkness usually resides. It casts confusing shadows made from orange light. I follow Hans's lead, letting him spin both Emmeline and me around. I'm still wet. The rain from my street had drenched me and now as Hans convinces me to clumsily swing dance with him, water droplets fly everywhere. I don't understand how my friends managed to stayed dry. My friends. I've only once had a real friend of my own before, and now I have two. Dad'll be so excited when he meets them.