━━━ ꧁ད ✶ ཌ꧂ ━━━

CHAPTER 10

━━━ ꧁ད ✶ ཌ꧂ ━━━

The icy wind whipped through my loose hair, tossing it around. I couldn't see anything, but it was better that way.

I dug my fingers into Ashton's hands as his arms held onto my waist firmly. Despite that, I sensed the vertigo of flying over the fair, and when my feet touched the ground, my teeth chattered.

For some reason, the ground beneath us had taken on a grainy appearance, almost like that of a very fine black hourglass.

With trembling hands, I pushed the hair away from my face. Nothing seemed to be coming after us anymore, but things hadn't improved.

At some point, we must have passed through a black hole and ended up in a dark dimension where darkness reigned. Although it wasn't too deep, it made me nervous to the point of seeking Ashton's closeness.

With increasing dread, my gaze roamed over the lifeless silhouettes of the empty rides and establishments. The entire fair looked as if hell had swallowed it and spat it out in an instant. It had a charred appearance, though there was no trace of the fire that should have consumed it in less than five minutes.

It seemed impossible, starting with the fact that the elapsed time was not enough for something like this to happen.

The circus had been reduced to just its structure. In the distance, I spotted part of the stage and the silhouettes of what seemed to be some empty benches. Everything was black, even the synthetic material that still covered part of the tent, which had previously gleamed with colors.

On the other hand, the establishments that I had explored among the crowd hours earlier now looked like skeletons. Depending on how I looked at them, some appeared to be ribs stuck into the ground. If I hadn't seen them before, I wouldn't have known that they were trying to form incomplete walls and roofs. Others, on the other hand, looked like the wings of a bat.

The prizes also seemed to be fragments made of obsidian, but the dolls, in particular, were horrifying. Many of them appeared as sculptures of babies piled up on the shelves.

Finally, there was the Ferris wheel, which resembled a wheel but had baskets of horror.

In the distance, there were countless other structures merging with the darkness, creating a shapeless mass.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make sense of anything. Minutes ago, everything looked normal.

The worst part was when I examined my right. Beyond the exit, the world appeared common and colorful, making it clear that the black-and-white nightmare was confined to the fair.

"What happened?" I asked in a thread of a voice while trying to gather enough courage not to run away.

It was like a bad dream, but it was absolutely part of my reality.

"The world of shadows and the world of the living have just merged in this place," Ashton revealed, taking a few steps away from me to examine his surroundings.

In case something else happened, and due to my incapacitating fear of the darkness, I missed his proximity.

"What do you mean?"

With his cane, he nudged what looked like a garbage can, and with just a slight touch, it crumbled because, like everything else, it was made of sand. I was also surprised that he could touch it. He was not supposed to be able to interact with the world of the living, but it was also true that the fair did not seem to be part of the dimension I knew.

"It's possible that all of this will remain like this," he said, adjusting his hat and calmly turning towards me.

"What are you talking about? My family was inside!" I shouted. As a result, my legs trembled, and my voice failed me.

"Your family is trapped. Time won't move for them. Not until they manage to escape the fair. This abyss," he pointed all around.

"What could have caused this?" The cold was increasing. A wisp of mist escaped my lips with each warm exhalation.

"I'm not sure about that."

"How can you not know? This all started with your manifestation. You should know!" I became agitated by the mix of incongruent emotions inside me.

"There are many things I don't know, even about my own existence."

"Great, just what I needed," I said sarcastically. My voice sounded muffled. "At least they will be able to leave this place, right?"

"That's right." He glanced at me sideways, but it wasn't a look that found a solution, but an answer to my question.

He took my hand, closing the distance between us. My hip collided with his, and my teeth started chattering for the second time.

"What are you doing?" I stammered, confused.

"You're not perceiving everything, Zara," he said with a cold calmness. "In your surroundings, your world and mine have become one in this very spot. If you concentrate, not only will you be able to hear them, but you will also see them."

His fingers traced the outline of my chin, turning it to the side. For a moment, I focused all my effort on each of my senses, but I perceived nothing more than the barking of a dog in the distance.

Over time, I began to hear the circus music, conversations of joy, the functioning of the rides, and even the shouts of excitement from a game won.

Out of the corner of my eye, I also noticed movement and took a greater interest in the silhouettes moving in the darkness. They had a ghostly, blackish appearance, like poorly designed holograms. They didn't seem to notice our presence, and that made it even more chilling.

"Are they dead?" I found myself on the verge of tears, and Ashton shook his head.

"In the world of shadows, the living look like this. It's like a kind of prison. What you see are their souls, but their bodies are somewhere else. The world of the living, the one you know, still exists. It's just hidden under the arch of death," he clarified, and it horrified me.

"Can you slow down?" I asked, moving away from him.

"There are two arches in time that connect, forming a cycle. The first one is the shorter one and belongs to the living. In fact, it's the only one where you can stay in body and soul."

Ashton began to walk around me, studying the area.

"Following this one is the arch of the dead," he continued, "which you only have access to if you leave behind your source, or in other words, your body. Your stay in it can be short or prolonged. If it's the first option, the cycle repeats itself, returning you to the first arch."

"Otherwise?" I asked.

"You will wander in a world inhabited by shadows for eternity. Time in the arch of death stops flowing, and for that reason, the passing years do not affect us. It becomes our purgatory because we cannot continue the cycle. But right now, we are in a glitch, on a thin line that crosses where the first arch ends and the second one begins. It is in this place where both have just overlapped."

He glanced at the shadowy fair, and I followed suit.

From what I understood, there was a dimension of death, and I would be able to find myself on its opposite side just by crossing the exit of the fair. The merging of both dimensions was a glitch, and it was in the place where we were both standing.

"After the arch of life and death merged in this place," he continued, "it created a great imbalance. Their souls are here, trapped in the glitch. And judging by their blackish appearance, their bodies must be trapped in the world of shadows, that is, in the second arch."

The realm of death... Just thinking about it sent shivers down my spine.

"Do you have any idea why all this happened?" I insisted.

For a moment, I thought he would break, but since he clarified that I hadn't lost my family yet, I needed to discover the origin of it all. There had to be something that would bring them back to normal, and minutes earlier, I thought I heard him hint that it was a possibility.

"The puppeteer doesn't seem to have anything to do with this," he stated. "When his dolls came to life, my idea was to get you out of that place, but then something absorbed us, and we ended up here. It was the medallion." He paused to organize his thoughts and pointed at the metallic object still in my hands. "I suppose it's also because of it that you can stay in body and soul in this place, so I advise you not to throw it away or lose sight of it." He sounded annoyed when he said the latter. He must have been aware of the many times I tried to get rid of it.

Carefully, I hung it back around my neck and tucked it under my sweatshirt, which reminded me that I had seen it glow when Ashton took us out of the circus. Apparently, it was also the kind of indirect glow that could not damage it. Moreover, it only lit up in his presence.

"I suspect this is the product of the shadows," he reasoned at last. "In the gym, one of them tried to snatch the medallion from you, but since for some reason it stays with you, they will drag you along with them if they don't get the piece alone."

He was so bleak and somber. I couldn't help but let the fear inside me grow stronger.

"And you?" I asked hesitantly. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm also here for the medallion," he replied simply.

I took a step back automatically.

"Is that why you're sticking around with me?" My mind speculated. What if he just wanted to manipulate me and was the mastermind behind all this? I took another step back. "Are you also planning to take it by force?"

I would have liked to decipher his expression, but it was impossible to do so in the darkness. Besides, his silence lingered for too long for simple concerns.

Something was wrong with him. I should have suspected it after seeing him appear alongside that horse, which, although it didn't have the same appearance as a shadow, was alarming with its bloodshot eyes.

Without thinking too much, suffocating under the inconvenient mix of tormenting feelings and thoughts, my feet began to move hurriedly towards the exit of the dead grounds.

Soon, I found myself moving through the debris of the ghostly fair. And when I looked back, I defined the silhouette with the top hat on his head and the cane in his hand, coming right behind me like a shadow.

The darkness gave him that malicious impression that made my heart race. But before panicking completely, I stumbled upon what seemed to be a cotton candy machine, and I fell to the ground catastrophically, raising sand and choking on it. It was curious that I felt it warm when it was so cold. It also caused a slight itch in all the places it touched.

As the dust cloud dissipated a bit, I not only realized that the machine had turned into nothing, but I also saw the feet of the new figure in front of me.

On my knees and with my hands in pain, I lifted my head to see her fully.

It was Mom. I recognized her because she was wearing her favorite winter jacket, but she was just another soul. She looked around in all directions, as if searching for something or someone. She was supposed to have stayed at home, so why did she suddenly decide to show up?

A sound of pain escaped my lips, and someone leaned down next to me.

Through blurred eyes, I looked at Ashton, and it scared me when he pulled a white handkerchief from inside his sleeve. He brought it close to my face, and I sat down on the ground when I moved away from him.

"Stay still," he said, approaching even closer this time, and with gentleness, the fabric, which also emitted a clear scent of cinnamon incense, brushed against my chin and cheeks as if wiping them.

In the midst of confusion, I looked at my black-stained hands and felt how cold they were.

"It's better to be here than on the other side. The world of shadows is deceptive. It confuses and turns your fears into your own reality," he said. His voice sounded almost like a comforting melody.

My jaw trembled when he took off his tailcoat and placed it over my shoulders, staying in his red waistcoat and white shirt. I shrank under the weight, feeling small and insignificant.

"Can I ask you something?" I whispered with a broken voice as I accepted his support to get up. "Will you be on my side?"

It sounded quite silly and childish when I said it, but I needed his help. I didn't think I could handle everything on my own.

"We're in the same boat now. I won't let them harm you."

The idea that all he wanted from me was actually just the medallion still overwhelmed me.

"How can you be so sure?" It was unsettling how he always appeared so calm and imperial.

"Because it's my duty, and your life is my privilege."

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