Flash Fiction (13)

Dottie over at Tink's Place have come up with the idea for a Monday Morning Flash Fiction challenge. Each Monday a new picture prompt will be posted and if you choose to participate you post your story on Friday - 350 words, give or take.

I have to thank Blodeuedd at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell for introducing me to this fun meme. I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with every week, but I'll give it a try from time to time.

The Image This Week:

This is part 5!

If you would like to read the first 4 parts of this story, you can go to them:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

By Melissa

It felt like they had been walking for days through these dark tunnels.  John knew it wasn't so, but surely felt like it with the darkness all around them.  The silence was only broken by the wheeling sound the flashlights made and their breathing echoing off the dank stone walls and floor.  John had been trying to keep the flashlight on the ground around Sinn, as she walked in front of him, so she and he could see where they were stepping, but the light played along the flows of her simple gown, accenting her long curves.  John shook his head yet again, thinking maybe he would eventually shake some sense into it. 

Even from the behind Sinn John could see the yellow-green glow of Sheen's goblin eyes as he turned to face them.  The yellow glow of the flashlights and the tricks of the shadows made Sheen's face look cruel as they played on his goblin style features.  Why in the ever hazed gray world did Sheen pick the goblin as his magical link, John wondered.

Sheen waited for Sinn and John to move closer and whispered in these abandoned halls, "There is the end of the tunnels.  Turn off your flashlight as I don't know what we are going to find in the Wilder.  It's been years since I've ventured out of the city."

Sinn broke in with a cool voice reminding John of an autumn breeze, "It's changed.  Things are moving and changing here.  Just be... prepared."

John nodded and turned the knob on his flashlight listening to it whirling slow down the stop along with Sheen's.  He knew things were off here in the Neither when he arrived, but just didn't know how bad, until they walked the short distance following the light at the end of the tunnel and emerging from darkness into the world of the Wilder.

They had stood at the mouth of the tunnel to let there eyes adjust to the brightness.  But it was still a surprise at taking it all in.  It was night time, wasn't it still?  They hadn't been underground that long.

Yes, it was night.  There was the moon, with an eerie yellow cast on the naked land, and lightning constantly flashing it blueish light brightening up the night sky to look like haunting day.  These two color lights blended as they reflected off the haze of the Neither creating the brightness not ever found here and the bareness of no plants just left it echo around the sky. 

But what stunned John the most were the faery folk.  They had a ghostly look to their faces.  So haunted.  No, possessed.  Their beautiful translucent wings were now the things of nightmares, what one would think of as vampires.  Sharp points extended from the ends and dark as the nights sky.  And the horns.  Since when did the faery folk have horns with nobs and sharp points.  They've been changed.

Sinn broke John's revere of the creatures floating around him with an icy cool breezy voice, "Be ready.  They are not our friends now.  They have broken away from Hegemone.  That is why the soil in now barren.  No plant will grow with or for them."

John turned to Sinn and saw a glint of a tear starting in her eye and the pain growing behind, but it was gone with a blink.  John starred at Sinn, wondering if she would be affected of absence of life being a living tree.  She was hiding the pain.  "Let's go, now.  This was your place years ago, Sinn.  Do you know where we need to go to find this... woman?"

John was surprised by the cold winters frigid feel that came from Sinn's words as she turned to walk, "Yes.  Follow me."  And turning to look over her shoulder at the men, "And don't talk to them.  Try to remain as quiet as possible."

The men watched as the woman who was so gentle and warm turned to ice in this dried carcass of land, walk away with a deadly mission on her mind.