Snatchers

Descending - Act 2 | Chapter 26 - Snatchers
Eleven Hours and Eleven Minutes Since Juna Was Found Dead

The loose blood that had been spilled upon the stone ground was no longer in sight. Yet the tinge of copper resided in Theo's mouth. He spat, working the taste out from his throat. It didn't work. He'd seen too much blood already.

“Keep yourself against the wall,” Edgar muttered, arriving by Theo's side with the only source of light through the pitch black tunnel system.

Edgar waved the dim torch around like a flag, holding any remaining Snatcher at bay. Though there was no telling if the fanning of flames did anything. Nothing could be seen around them except for a dim four foot radius.

A firm hand was placed onto Theo's chest, right on top of his pacing heart.

“No poison in your system,” Edgar whispered. “Good.”

The Gritborn leaned forward and placed the handle of the torch in his mouth. He bit down. Secured the flame. Then pried himself from the safety of the wall and into the darkened cave where two bodies lay.

Edgar returned with one of them.

Aurelia's eyes had been peeled to the back of her head. White enough to reflect Edgar's flame in whole. Keeping the torch between his teeth, the Gritborn dragged a hand across the side of Aurelia’s throat.

“Still alive. Not breathing,” he said. Edgar released the torch from his jaw, and as he flared it around the room he spoke,

“Drop the bag. It's too much to carry. We'll follow the wall until we find a crevasse.” Edgar ran his gloved hand along the wall in a crouch. “There should be one nearby.”

Theo hesitated. He gripped the sack's arm strap.

“Drop it?” he finally managed to ask.

“Dead weight,” Edgar replied. Cold. Unwavering.

Theo closed his eyes. Winced at the command. But held firm.

“I can't.”

Edgar glanced Theo's way, looking him in the eyes for the first time since entering The First Layer.

Theo adjusted the strap. Gritting his teeth as his shoulders rubbed raw and his back splintered from the bottom. “I can manage.”

Edgar didn't reply. Instead a swift fist rammed into Theo's gut, unseen until the connection from the dim light. Theo slumped against the wall, curling up into a ball and straining to compress his stomach as he fought to retain air.

“My job is to deliver the living safely,” Edgar said. “Not the dead.”

Before Theo could reply. The sight of Edgar vanished and so too did the flame. Theo fell unconscious to one punch from the man.

Air. A whole gulp of air was swallowed whole and Theo sprung back awake. Breathing, a sensation he wagered he would no longer experience. Though he did, and his body was intact and healthy.

We made it out? Theo thought.

Not exactly. Still he remained trapped in The First Layer, the campfire prickling with life in front of him confirmed that. However, the resting Gritborn threading string through a Stone told Theo that at least now they were safe.

They were safe. The dying body of Aurelia choking for air was not. She had been laid on her back with her arms spread to the side. Not a finger moved except for the occasional jerk for air. Her neck was sliced open vertically, allowing a small incision to be seen.

Theo pulled himself back, slamming himself against the wall he was resting on from the sight. Not from the incision, but the horrifying thing he saw just above it. Moving. Aurelia's eyes were moving. Shaking back and forth, meeting Theo's eyes on occasion, then returning to shaking. Scanning the tunnel in fear with dilated pupils, but with wide animal-like eyes.

“Finally awake?” Edgar asked from across the tunnel. They were about seven feet apart, the campfire right in between them, and Aurelia beside Edgar.

Theo straightened himself to sit against the wall.

“Yeah,” he mumbled.

“Good,” Edgar responded. He pulled a knot tight and then tossed Theo a Stone necklace. “Repellent. Not as potent as something Flavia could make, but it should hold the Snatchers away for a while.”

Theo caught the Stone. A few marks similar to what Flavia had scratched onto her Stone that produced light was also marked onto this one, though a different pattern. Theo raised the Stone to his nose and sniffed.

Gasoline.

“Isn't this from Coloana-Vie?” Theo asked. Pushing the Stone away and turning his head. “If you had something like this then why only bring it out now? If you did then those creatures would have never gone near us.”

“Wrong,” Edgar groaned, sculpting a new Stone with a crooked knife. “That Stone's a fake. The scent isn't from the true thing. Snatchers aren't the brightest abominations in The Chasm, but they're stalking creatures. The fake scent could fool their nostrils for about ten minutes or so, but they stick around too long not to figure it out.”

A chunk of the carved Stone chipped off and clattered at Edgar's boots. He continued to carve.

Theo rotated the false Stone in his hand, hoping the smell would simmer down. “Why use it now if you know it won't work. This seems rather pointless.”

“Nothing that helps you survive down in The Chasm is pointless,” Edgar said. “No matter how insignificant it might seem.” A second chunk clattered from the Stone. “So long as it grants you a second longer to breathe, it's mighty worthwhile.”

Maybe so. But with a twitching body that housed a baseball sized hole through her abdomen lying at Edgar's feet. The second longer of life seemed pointless. Theo rested his head on The Chasm wall. Thinking.

Juna, he thought. I doubt Edgar will tell me which way she is. Though without her, then why—

Theo palmed his face. Even if Edgar wouldn't budge with an answer, Theo still had to try. “What about Flavia and Juna?” he asked.

Edgar halted his chiseling. He stared at the chipped Stone in hand, observing. Then rested the Stone on his thigh and dug into his satchel. A lime-chunked DepthStone necklace came from within and dangled from his raised palm.

“Flavia's here,” Edgar grunted. “The corpse though,” he lowered the DepthStone back into the bag. “You'll have to forget about her.”

Figures Edgar would say that. Time to try something else.

“What about that nonsense you talked about earlier? That dying doesn't really mean someone is dead. That they can still feel pain and hunger of sorts even after they die. Isn't Flavia the same? Isn't she in pain?”

“She is.”

“Then shouldn't we find her.”

Edgar continued his chiseling though he took a deep sigh in the process. “Flavia has already accepted the turmoil of death.”

“What does that mean?”

The knife scraped against the Stone. “Lift, a Corpse Reader's job is to Depart someone when they die inside The Chasm. Assuming a group perishes deep inside a Layer, Then the Corpse Reader will Depart those fallen in haste.” Edger met Theo's eyes. “What happens to the Corpse Reader then?”

Theo didn't respond. He understood Edgar's meaning, though saying what happened wasn't something he could easily slip from his throat.

Edgar said it for him.

“They die. Alone. While everyone else Departs and free themselves of their painful body, the Corpse Reader stays. Only if luck deems them worthy enough, will a deceased Corpse Reader ever be found. The majority of the time they are left to feel the skin rot from their arms and The Chasm mites burrow into their bones.” The final chunk fell. “Forever.”

Edgar stood, brushing the leftover flakes on the Stone. He pulled a black stick of chalk from his side pouch and drew a set of lines on the Stones surface. Once finished, he tossed it to Theo.

“Light. Better than carrying a torch.”

Theo twisted the chiseled Stone in his hand, admiring its bluish hue. Edgar had drawn three charcoal-black diagonal lines stacked on top of one another and fined the Stone's edges into a rectangle.

Theo looked up. He watched over the sputtering campfire flame as Edgar sat back down and began chiseling his own.

“Flavia did something similar,” Theo said.

“Though ours won't have near enough power to light the whole tunnel,” Edgar said. “Go ahead, Tune the Stone.”

Tune the Stone?

“How?” Theo asked.

Edgar lifted a thumb. “Rub the heat of your thumb across the charcoal lines. Body heat stores energy that Tunes Stones.

Following orders, Theo slid his thumb across the Stone. Immediately it ran warm, soothing his palm like a sun bathed rock. Then—light. Bright white light the same as Flavia's. However it lacked in length, only stretching about four feet from the Stone.

“Good,” Edgar said. “You're free to go.”

Theo raised an eyebrow. “Good to go?”

“You want to get that corpse you were totting back, right? Go ahead.” The Gritborn pointed down the left side of the tunnel. “About a twenty minute walk.”

Was he being serious?

Theo looked down towards the pitch blackness. An empty hollow tunnel awaited him.

“And you?” Theo asked.

Edgar nodded to Aurelia. “She doesn't have much longer. The incision I made isn't helping her breathe as much as I hoped.” Edgar finished his carving. Drew a few lines with a charcoal stick and Tuned the Stone. White light the same area of Theo's emerged.

“Bout an hour and a half until we reach Ground One,” Edgar said, grabbing his bag and standing. “Though the Snatchers are still around.” The Gritborn kicked the camp fire, dispersing the flames across the stone ground and checked everything on his person was in its proper place.

Theo knew what the man was doing. He gave Theo a fake option of leaving to find Juna, even so much as telling him where she was. Though in doing so he also confirmed his absence. Without Edgar, nor a weapon, what could Theo do against those creatures.

No, even with a weapon he would be pierced the moment they figured the stench of Coloana-Vie was false. Snatcher poison would drain into his flesh and turn him as pale as everyone else down here. Edgar knew Theo wouldn't venture out himself.

What cruel psychology.

“I'll follow you,” Theo mumbled.

“Good. Stand and carry Aurelia.”

Theo glanced at the body, foam seeping from her mouth and eyes wide, peering into Theo’s own for help. He looked back up at Edgar. The Gritborn didn’t even blink. Doing as told Theo knelt down, mumbled an apology to Aurelia, and lifted her into his arms.

She screamed in a muffled tone. As her body was lifted from the ground it sounded as if she constantly puked in her own throat. Her arms twitched and eyes swarmed around their sockets. And for the second time today—

Theo carried a corpse. One soon to be…at least.