Looking out, I thought the red sky was as oppressive as a suffocating blanket.
The otherworldly hue came through the window, casting odd shadows throughout my parents' bedroom. I was on the floor after shedding so much tears that some of it had begun to dry on my face. In my chest, the burden of my family's rigid bodies after they had been killed without remorse and Sedlin the Dead's sacrifice in trying to protect them weighed heavy, and as I looked upon their pain-contorted faces, the expressions etched on lifeless husks, it all tortured me.
I had to close my eyes and let the darkness take me, to escape this nightmare that began with a single page in a cursed book. If only I had listened to Miss Penny and not touched the book… how much of everything would have been different? My family would probably still be alive.
Or I would have died with them. I did not want to be alive without them.
Then came the humming—it tore through my thoughts with a deep sound, almost causing me to jump away in fright. It was a deep, bone-rattling sound that I thought was my head until it grew louder, seeping through the walls. Slowly, it struck me that it was not in my head, though the sound pierced through and seemed to exist in my thoughts, like a product of my own mind.
It was out there, in the streets, in the air.
I forced myself to sit up, my body aching as though I had been drained of blood to the point of death. The necklace of five glowing orbs, given to me by the Elves, burned faintly at my neck at first before it began to burn even brighter as the sound grew louder. Each orb except the black one, which gave no light off and remained like a soft, warm light in the choking red gloom shone, and I clutched it because I felt instinctively that it could help me. That it served for good.
I had no clue what it was, but seeing it glow like that was the single thing that kept me from absolute despair and filled me with hope. The Book of a Thousand Curses lay beside me, its pages unopened since I'd thrown it aside in revolt, and I then looked at it, torn between the terror of its power, where it now brought me, and the hope that it could contain answers.
The humming outside narrowed to a chorus of screams—distant but drawing closer.
Forgetting the bodies around me, I crawled to the window, my legs too weak to stand, and peered outside at the city I had known, with its quiet streets and familiar corners. Suddenly, it was now unrecognizable with how the red cloud hung above in the sky. This, however, was not as terrifying as the white tendrils that came from the cloud like strikes of lightning upon the earth. They snaked downward like white veins, and dark shapes moved through the chaos.
I did not need anyone to tell me that it was the Other Five, their hooded forms gliding above the ground, and their cloaks leaving black vapor like smoke where they passed. I could see them herding people like cattle, while they ran helter-skelter in screaming and panic. Men, women, children—some of them faces I thought familiar—ran around like ants driven into a mad frenzy, their faces gray with terror. I saw many of them being caught by those skeletal hands that the Other Five possessed, their shrieks cut off as their bodies withered into dried forms.
I pressed my forehead against the glass, my breath fogging the pane.
"They're taking everyone," I whispered in horror, my voice trembling.
The Other Five were not just looking for me—they were scooping up everyone in my age, my world. The Elves had said they preyed upon souls, but this was more than preying. This was systematic, calculated, like a harvest that involved them reaping the entire city. Why? To debilitate the Elves? To use us as fuel for their power in an army? Or was it just cruelty, as Redlin the Newborn had said, with how they found their joy in suffering and destruction?
There was a sharp crack, and I ducked on instinct, before realising that I was safe and it had come from outside. A car had crashed into a lamppost, the driver slumped over the wheel. It was clear that they had already taken him—the dried body seated behind the wheel was like those I was here in the room with. Suddenly, the humming was at its loudest, and I saw one of the Other Five hovering outside, the eyeless sockets in his head glowing red as it swayed in the direction of my house at top speed, faster than I had ever seen anything go. My heart missed a beat as I fell to the ground with a scream, pressing my palms to my ears and shutting my eyes.
Expecting it to start to draw me in like before, I was surprised when nothing happened, except for the necklace with the five orbs fading on my neck. I jumped to my feet, grabbed the book, and clutched it to my chest, trying to figure out what to do next. It was now clear that my Age was no longer safe, but I did not know whether to die with them or to run away like a coward.
I decided that I could not remain here, surrounded by the frozen bodies of my family, while waiting for the Other Five to find me again. I had to move, to find a way to stay safe until midnight when I could utter the curse and be among the Elves once more, who I hoped would have a solution to save my Age. The next problem that arose was where I could go.
"Follow the necklace like a compass," I heard a voice say, and jumped in horror at the sound. "Follow it and go where it leads you. There you shall be safe until you can escape."
Hastily, I took off the necklace and had a good look at it, now quite sure that it had to have meant something if the Elves gave it to me. I looked at the five orbs, and saw that they were ordered like a compass, with one in the centre, and every other facing North, South, East, and West. Now, the Northern Orb glowed red, and I remembered that that was the same colour that had been on Redlin the Newborn's staff. It had to be him who spoke to me.
I stood, my legs shaking, and held the book by my side before turning in the direction that the Northern Orb showed. I glanced at my family once again, at the dried husks that remained of my father, mother, and little sister who never had a chance at life, and my throat tightened. "I'll come back for you," I whispered, unsure if it was a promise I could keep. If the Elves were right, if I was truly the One they sought, then I would probably find a way to undo everything.
I then looked over at Sedlin the Dead, and saw that his staff was not with him. It had been the one with the black orb. It was also the black orb on my necklace that had not glowed all along, and a teardrop ran down my cheek when it made me realise that Sedlin was well and truly dead.
He had tried to keep my family safe, and died for it.