The Shifting

Descending - Act 2 | Chapter 27 - The Shifting
Eleven Hours and Thirty-Nine Minutes Since Juna Was Found Dead

Aurelia had stopped breathing not long after Theo lifted her from the ground. Edgar remained forward, treading through The First Layer, not speaking about her condition at all. Though it was obvious from his arched brow that he understood his last comrade deep in The Chasm had slipped from his grasp. Dead. Edgar—the last remaining Gritborn.

Still though, Theo carried her corpse as painful as it was. Edgar knew that Flavia had come to terms with dying. He could seal his desire to save her because of such a commitment. Aurelia, on the other hand, had most likely made no such pledge. She was not close with death, nor a Corpse Reader like Flavia. Edgar knew this, and that was one reason he made Theo carry her deceased body to be Departed.

Theo had a knock on his mind, judging from the group's prior conversation Edgar and Flavia acted as the group's parents, while Aurelia the carefree teen. The two Gritborns gave off a more mature air than Aurelia did. Maybe Edgar and Flavia had already come to terms with their own demise after death, accepting that they both might suffer for all eternity even once their bodies perish. And maybe they both had wanted Aurelia to at least be able to Depart and not suffer such as they.

Though that was only Theo’s judgment. A guess. He had no real way of knowing what ran through Edgar’s head.

The Gritborn in front suddenly stopped. Jerked his head back towards the wall they had just passed before stumbling toward it with a gaping mouth. He ran his fingers across the stone wall’s grooves. Edgar leaned in closer and examined the wall. One eye was pried open. Staring. Understanding.

Edgar backed away.

He placed a hand onto the branched hilt of his Fossil at his side.

“I know this wall,” he mumbled.

Not a second passed from those words being spoken until the ground beneath them rumbled with fury so mighty the ground cracked and splintered, running up the walls.

Theo jerked backwards and watched his feet for any cracks forming below. Though that task was hard, the shaking made everything he saw become tossed around the place in a blur.

“Edgar, is this Coloana-Vie tunneling?" Theo yelled.

“No,” Edgar said. The Gritborn stood completely still, examining the ground beneath him. Calm. Though his voice slightly shaky.

“The Shifting started.”

The wall Edgar had just been pressed against pulled away from its position, leaving a wide gaping abyss in its place. The ceiling split in two and instantly a much rougher stone ceiling replaced it. Everything changed. Unnaturally.

“Don’t move,” Edgar ordered. “During the Shifting it’s best to stay completely still. Don’t want to get caught up and crushed.”

Theo hardened his mind and forced his instincts of running to be put to rest. He obeyed. Waiting the rumbling out as more cracks carved through the solid stone and pulled them away. Both Edgar and Theo’s Stone light only offered them a few feet of sight. There was no telling the severity of the Shifting from where they stood. All they knew was that the walls a few feet away from them were gone.

The abyss behind them then became filled. Multiple times. A long stretch of stone was pulled across like a bullet train, constantly moving across the empty space the previous wall had left. Edgar and Theo both watched as the speed of the racing wall garnered a gust of air blowing at their faces.

The wall slowed. The Shifting gently sputtered to a halt. And the ground below their feet returned to stability. Though now, there was no longer a wall in front of them. Instead, an open section filled with an abundance of orange Stones faced them. The orange tinted light illuminated Edgar’s horror plastered on his aged face.

Eggs. Giant pulsing egg sacs stuck to the open fleshy insides of The Chasm. The white egg sacs were flexible and lined with black veins. Over a dozen were stapled inside the section against the fleshy orange blood-orange wall. And as Edgar and Theo watched, a pair of legs crawled out from the ceiling. Three more pairs followed the creature. Snatchers.

“There's a nest…” Edgar managed to mumble.

Immediately he stepped in front of Theo and drew the weapon at his hip. A sword with an emerald edge almost fitting the style of a machete. As the Gritborn tightened his grip the branched handle grew around his hand, stems and vines slithering across his knuckles until the entirety of his hand was consumed by the Fossil’s foliage.

“Run,” Edgar commanded. His voice was firm. “Take Aurelia and sprint forward.”

That wouldn’t lead Theo out of The First Layer. He knew that. Edgar knew that. The Shifting had changed that.

“Go.”

Theo broke into a sprint. He did not dare look behind him but the cleaving of meat and eventually Edgar’s scream followed him, bouncing off of the Shifting walls and into Theo’s head. He huffed in pain, sprinting with a corpse in tow almost tripled the searing in his lower spine. It felt as though his back would break with each step. How long could he keep this up?

Like Clockwork the scurrying of Snatchers sounding above him. All scampering in hot pursuit. Theo couldn’t outrun them in such a state. Though discarding Aurelia would soil Edgar and Flavia’s dying wish. So Theo searched, scanned the Shifting First Layer with all his mind as fear rotted his brain.

There it was. A small gap that had just been placed by the Shifting in between two natural stone pillars. Theo slammed his shoulder into one of the pillars to stop himself, then knelt down and stuffed the corpse of Aurelia inside. The task was physically demanding, encouraging Theo to apply all the strength he had to completely hide away the body. Eventually, he succeeded. Aurelia hidden.

Eventually, the Snatcher caught up.

Theo spun to escape, his back against the hidden Aurelia, but froze. The Snatchers were there. Looking at him. Watching him. Salivating in the horrendous insect minds as their countless fish eyes stared the soul out of Theo. He scooted back in fear, panting, breathing in unregulated beats until the stone wall was firm against his back. Nowhere else to run.

Theo bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes. If anything, if anything would come of this then Theo only hoped that Juna or Aurelia’s body could be found. No one deserved a state like that. An unconscious, painful state like—

His sister. Kaida. She was still alone. Waiting for him to return and show his surprise in her tremendous progress. How long ago that felt. How long she now would have to live without him. Alone. Waiting for him to never return.

What a cruel world.

…

Theo’s abdomen never became pierced and his blood still ran warm throughout his veins. Alive. Somehow Theo was alive. Prying one trembling eye open Theo looked towards his attackers. The three semi-hidden Snatchers clamped to the ceiling didn’t budge an inch. Stalking? That wasn’t it.

The sight became clear as Theo saw a carved Stone resting ten yards from his feet. Right in front of the Snatchers. Holding them back.

Edgar’s fake!

As informed, the Snatchers were smart creatures. One of them swung with a lightning quick swipe of its appendage and nicked the Stone away, toppling it into the darkness beyond Theo’s reach. The deadly insects crawled forward.

And The First Layer Shifted. Again.

The wall behind Theo groaned as it turned and opened a passage. If not for the three dead bodies and the Snatchers nest ending up right in front of him, he would have believed The Chasm was almost helping him. Almost.

Theo checked that Aurelia was still lodged inside the wedge and hidden from the Snatchers, then he stood with a fury that out burned that searing that boiled his spine. He ran through the now opened passage, sprinting with great effort. The Snatchers followed with a greater hunger.

The Chasm still shifted making a straight sprint near impossible. Tripping over himself would come in due time; it was only a matter of when. For now the walls beside him quickly tore themselves from their position and grinded to their next as new tunnels and routes replaced them.

A large chunk of stone fell from the ceiling and slammed into the ground in front.. Theo was forced to spin on his heel, turning towards a new tunnel.

There was no other passage. His path was blocked on all sides. The skittering of many legs scraped closer and the ground beneath his feet shook along with the Shifting continuing to tear The Chasm apart.

Once more the section Theo stood in Shifted. Beside him now an arms reach away—was an opening. Stone grinded against stone just to Theo’s left. A small wedge revealed itself, though began to close almost as soon as it showed the opening. Theo sprinted towards it. Snatchers right behind.

He slipped into the crack and maneuvered his body through the long wedge. The section was tight enough for his shoulders to graze the stone walls, and it tightened with alarming speed. Theo shot a look back. One Snatcher followed him into the wedge. The abomination turned on its side and crawled through the slim passage sideways faster than Theo could push forward.

The walls crushed him firmly, forcing Theo to turn sideways, letting his chest and back face the walls as he shuffled and huffed though the wedge. The exit came closer, but so too did the Shifting on snapping his bones. The walls pressed against his chest and his shoulder blade, squeezing air from his lungs and leaving no space for it to return.

A foot. A few more feet. A few more daring tears of his body as he fought himself through the closing wedge. Theo turned his head back. The insect was there, being squeezed just the same as him, though the abomination was right at his face. Theo attempted to turn his head back. Couldn’t. Too tight a squeeze.

His shuffling grew weaker as the compression of stone required more and more strength to pull himself out. The Snatcher took panicked swings with its long leg at Theo’s face, barely meeting his right eye. He could feel the wind from such a swing on his cheek. Deadly. Poisonous.

His ribs felt as though they would explode open at any second, but his hand had made it out the wedge. Theo scraped the wall on the outside—prying himself out. He pulled with the escaped hand, shuffled with his swelling feet, and pushed with the pinned hand inside the wedge. Almost. Almost there.

So too was the beast.

The Snatcher's swing dug into Theo’s forehead, passed his right eye, and escaped from his cheek bone tearing precious flesh. A large gash now resided beside his right eye. A burning sensation lit aflame inside his face.

Theo fell down soon after. Free from the wedges grasp and he dared to kiss the ground for comfort. He spun on his back and peered up as the Snatcher's leg swung from the wedge in an attempt to tear another sheet of skin from Theo. As it fought to pull itself free the same as Theo, The Chasm closed the wedge. The Shifting squeezing the Snatcher dry of life until its insides smushed to a slop of mush that drained from its crevice.

A hanging slender leg remained as green blood seeped from the crack to Theo’s legs. A stench of chlorine assaulted his nose, flaring his nostrils. And then his body burned as if he inhaled a whole tub of it. Theo succumbed himself to the ground and rolled on his side, grasping his throat with both hands as the burning rose in intensity.

His cheek scalded from the Snatcher swipe, it felt hot, deadly, itchy and as if someone had poured rancid acid into his jaw. Blood shot from his mouth as he squirmed on the ground. Trying to gain some sense of self Theo lifted a hand from his swelling throat and rummaged through his pockets blindly. He clasped the light producing Stone from inside. What good would that do?

Strength failing, mind swirling, breathing slipping from his might, and his fingers feeling cold, Theo dropped the Stone. The rectangular light bobbled down a slight slope until it landed on a flat surface fifteen yards away before drowning in a pool of blood.

The useless light showed a familiar sight. A familiar place. The body of a pale Corpse Reader lay shriveled on the ground without eyes. Her veins darker than her refined hair. Beside her, a sack the size of a person. Juna’s corpse.

Of all places the Shifting brought Theo here. Back to where everything went wrong. Why? To show Theo his failure? To remind him of the promise he failed to meet? How Juna remained lifeless and he could do nothing? How he too would end up the same in a second’s time. Breathing as if air didn’t exist this far down The Chasm.

His vision shuttered. A second he could see Juna’s sack. A second later nothing. He even thought he saw the sack move. As if Juna was alive.

…

It moved again.

…was she?

Theo watched in painful breaths as the top of the sack nudged from inside. A few bumps pressed against the fabric until the string at the top ripped open, whatever was inside, came out.

The reborn Specks emerged.

The lizard-creature flicked its tongue, examining where it stood. How did it end up in the sack? Did Ilinca place him there? How bizarre. Speck noticed the light producing Stone bathing in the pool of blood first, then it noticed Theo on the ground, shaking. Specks scampered up the slope to meet Theo’s face, staring into his dying eyes with his own beady ones.

How lucky must it feel to be reborn. To live. Specks was granted a second chance. Juna was granted a second chance. His sister, thankfully, was granted a second chance.

Would it be too much for Theo to ask as well?

Too late. Blood filled his eyes. Theo’s vision now a curtain of red. The faces of people he loved blending into the filter of death as the last breath slipped from his gaping mouth.

Diligent. No longer could Theo ever be such a thing.