Page 32 of Twins for the Barbarians

“Kharo! Kharo, you need to get to her!” I shout, praying he’s somewhere close by.

Then I glance down and find his head on the black ground, severed from his body. Horror fills my veins with ice, nausea unfurling in the back of my throat as I stare deep into his lifeless, glassy eyes. They look like rubies in this strange light. The light; where is it coming from?

Alicia wails. The sight before me is fucking dreadful.

“This can’t be happening,” I moan, tears pricking my eyes.

The helplessness is too much to bear. I can’t stay here; I can’t keep watching. What did they do to Kharo? What are they doing to Alicia? Why can’t I move? So many questions but no answers…just Alicia’s screams, tearing my heart wide open. I can’t take it anymore.

“Somebody…somebody stop this!”

“Helios!” Alicia’s voice is in my ear, calm and soft.

It doesn’t make sense. I glance ahead. She’s gone. The weird-looking marauders are gone. Kharo’s head is gone, too.

“Helios, I’ve got you, but I need you to walk,” Alicia says.

Something warm has me by one arm. I can feel her fingers. “Alicia?”

“It’s me. I’m here; keep walking.”

“I can’t see you. Where are we?”

“We're still here. The gas…just keep walking, Helios. We’re almost at the gates.”

How are we almost at the gates? I saw them ahead of me before everything vanished. Am I blind? Nothing makes sense, but Alicia’s voice, her breath in my ear, her touch on my arm…these sensations are the only guide I have, and I must follow her lead. If she’s still here, it means none of those horrors I witnessed happened.

My eyes hurt. My mouth feels dry.

“That’s it, we’ll sit here,” she says.

Kharo’s voice comes through. “Kingo’s out cold but alive.”

“What is going on here?” I growl, furiously incapable of coming to terms with my current condition until I blink a few more times…the world comes back slowly, ever so slowly, each movement of my eyelids adding another layer of clarity until it’s in focus again.

The air ripples along the maze’s wall, but we’re far enough away from its reach now. That wretched gas played havoc with my senses. I’m barely conscious. My breath is ragged. My heart is pounding. My throat burns like I swallowed acid, and I’m close to hurling. The bitter taste lingers as I shake myself and try to make sure my eyesight is back and that I’m not still stuck in whatever the fuck that was—a vision, a hallucination.

Or perhaps a promise of what’s to come.

15

Alicia

The gas was a hallucinogen.

Kingo concluded this as soon as we managed to sit down with our backs against the obsidian-coated gates and gradually recover our senses, which were scrambled. I fear we’ve each been scarred for life by the horrible things we saw. That much is obvious from the disturbed looks on everyone’s faces.

“God, you’re even paler than before,” I tell Kingo. “How are you feeling?”

Helios has his arm around my shoulders, and I find comfort in his embrace. Kharo leans in and plants a slow, sweet, soft kiss on my temple. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he whispers.

“I feel like a thousand buggies ran me over,” Kingo mutters, his gaze fixed on the red dirt. “Though it’s nothing compared to what I saw.”

“I think we all saw something awful,” I reply.

“What did you see?” Helios asks me.

I shake my head slowly, still reeling from my vivid nightmare. For a moment, I thought it was real, and thinking it was real damn near broke me beyond repair. My voice trembles as I recount my vision. “I was carrying a Sky Tribe baby. I was giving birth to him, and they were taking him away from me. The pain…I could feel the pain of labor, heat burning through me, and then I was pregnant again. Giving birth again, seeing my child as they took him away from me again, over and over for what felt like an eternity. I carried the child, I delivered it, and then I lost it.”

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