As soon as he aligned himself with the entrance, he froze. The windows along the left wall were casting light into that first room. Yet, the figure centered was covered in shadow. He could tell whoever it was was kneeling and facing the entrance, but what they were doing with their arms, he…
"Oh!" a familiar voice spoke, and the head lifted enough to catch some of the light. "It's you, Joseph!"
With the way Ernie lowered his arms, Joseph could see the rifle he had been aiming right at him. "I was wondering when you'd get here."
Ernie sprang up and went to meet Joseph as he stepped inside the cloudy structure.
"And you're in one piece." Joseph said, reaching forward to grasp Ernie's right hand. Now that Ernie had moved from his position on the floor, Joseph saw he had left something behind. Since it lay under shadows, he could only guess it was another rifle because of its shape.
"And Henry?" he asked.
"Funny you should mention being in one piece." Ernie chuckled. "He's the reason everything progressed this far in such a short time."
Joseph started to ask, "What did he…?"
"Oh don't worry." Ernie waved him off. "It's just a little trick of ours. He's okay. I'll go looking for him once this is all over."
"So you know what's happening." Joseph said.
"Oh yeah." Ernie said, nodding past Joseph and out the doorway, "Actually. Henry was the first one to figure it out. It's why he did what he did. The stronghold, it wasn't satisfied."
Joseph had turned to gaze at the back wall of Calarapan's building. He and Ernie watched it vibrate with each collapse from the front. He slanted his eyebrows to Ernie's last statement, "Satisfied?"
"Yeah," Ernie continued, "you know, your girlfriend you thought was trapped inside?"
Joseph whipped his head about. "Eliska?"
"Yeah," Ernie nodded, "Turns out she was inside it."
Joseph stopped himself from turning back toward Calarapan's building, because he remembered the person sitting in the middle of the island.
"So, you saw her?" Joseph asked. "You freed her?"
"You might wanna ask your other girlfriend about the details." Ernie said, nodding toward the center room. "She had to fill me in on some of it."
Looking toward the doorway between this room and the next, Joseph asked, "Was she…was Chantale angry once she found out or…?"
"Oh she looked pretty angry," Ernie answered, "But if you ask me, it's because she's occupied with what this Calarapan guy is doing."
Joseph placed a hand upon Ernie's shoulder as he started for the other room, "I owe you both. Thank you for what you've accomplished. I'm glad I came to you guys."
"It's cool!" Ernie laughed and then assumed his kneeling position again. Bringing his rifle against his shoulder, he aimed the barrel back out the entrance, "We're still in the middle of it! Henry will want me to fill him in! Haha!"
Before Joseph stepped through the shadowed doorway to the center room, he studied the walls of this one. Even the ceiling. The spiritual expression was still ideas and memories placed in an order only he recognized, giving this structure a shape similar to that of its physical world representation. Laced in among them were dark lines, like thick wires.
Or veins, Joseph thought, moving his hand to try and touch one of them but then thinking against it. Pointing his attention through the doorway ahead, he saw a body of light that shouldn't have been there. It was coming from the back of the building, so his assumption of a new opening was correct.
There in the middle of that light was Chantale. She was sitting cross-legged, facing the back of the building. He could only assume she was staring straight through the new doorway.
"He want ya buildin'." She said without turning her head. "I not let'em have it."
Stepping into the room, Joseph didn't observe the doorway he never planned on. He watched Chantale. She was trying to sit still, but every few seconds, he could see her twitch. These movements weren't in sync with Calarapan's collisions. Yet, he thought that since she was fighting, she
should have been facing the other way, toward the intruder.
He stepped over to her side and knelt down, leveling his face with hers. Her focus didn't waver. Finally turning his head toward the back of the building, he shared her gaze through the new doorway.
He had been right. The matured bridge started at the threshold. From this angle, he got a better view of the person in the middle of the island on the other end, but they were still too far away.
But he knew.
"What do you face?" he asked anyway.
"Soon as stronghold uprooted," Chantale answered,
"soon as evil cloud go away, she began buildin'."
"Building what?" Joseph asked.
Chantale hissed and then answered, "Alter. To him."
Was Eliska too far gone? Joseph wondered. Had he lost her completely? That she would aid her captor?
He was shaking his head at these thoughts.
"I no move," Chantale added, "or evil cloud sweep ya building away."
Poor Chantale. Was she having to fight on two fronts? Joseph ached for her. That's why he leaned over and brushed her dredlocks from the side of her face. Hooking them behind her ear, he leaned in further and slowly kissed her on the cheek. She gasped but didn't lose her focus.
Yet to pull away, Joseph whispered against her cheek, "You are beautiful and caring. I will cherish you forever."
She gasped again and blinked. Whenever she opened her eyes, small tears swelled along her lower lids. Joseph placed his hand upon her back. His face still next to hers, he whispered, "I will go and lift your burden. Please hang on for me."
He kissed her cheek again. This time, her blink was slow. In that moment her eyes were closed, her lips parted as though to utter another gasp, but she kept it inside, letting the tears drip down her cheeks.
Joseph stood and glared through the new doorway. Stepping away from Chantale, he crossed the threshold to be bathed in that light.