Woe’s pebbles brought them to an underground parking garage in a neighborhood that must have seen better days, if only because it couldn’t possibly have seen worse. Woe let the rest of the pebbles slip from her hands and ran in her stocking feet down the winding ramps to the lowest level, Nick tripping at her heels.
“There,” Woe said, pointing at a dark corner. Nick saw, there, laying in front of a door…
“Karrie!” he gasped. He started towards the still, surprisingly small form, but Woe grabbed his sleeve.
“Don’t,” Woe said. “Don’t go to her, don’t check for a pulse… don’t touch her. If we know she’s dead, then she’s dead and we can’t do anything.”
“Damn,” Nick said, looking at his phone. No signal. Of course, they were underground. “I’m going up to call 911. Stay with her.”
“She isn’t here to stay with,” Woe said. “You have to go on.”
“She needs a ambulance…”
“An ambulance can’t help her,” Woe said. “Doctors can’t help… they might wake her body but not her self. You have to find her, and bring her back.”
She reached down in between the waistbands of her skirts and pulled out a ball of yarn the color of bright blood.
“Take one end of this silver thread…” Woe said.
“That’s red,” Nick said.
“Shh,” Woe said. “If I don’t know better, then it’s not a lie. Anyway, I’ve never seen much difference. Take this, and I’ll tie the other end to the body. When you find her, get her to take the thread from you, and it will lead both of you back. If you get lost, you can follow it back, but I think you’ll probably only have one shot at this. That’s how it usually works, anyway.”
“You do this a lot, then?” Nick asked, looking doubtfully at the resolutely un-silver thread.
“Never,” Woe said. “I’m not sure that anybody has.” She opened the door to reveal a dark corridor behind it. “Ready?”
9 Responses
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oooooooooo tension. i love it. Woe thinks like i did when i was a kid o.O
yay first comment!
WOAH.
If I didn’t know it was impossible I’d say tha this is better than MU!
But since I know that it can’t be can it?
So therefore it must be every bit as good just in a slighly different way.
By the way how is it your head dosn’t just explode from the sheer amount of talent crammed in there?
It’s good in a different way. Darker, more suspense and a more knowing kind of confusion (if that makes any sense). The characters in this story aren’t as pure as MU’s. More complex in a darker way. Less pure acceptance.
except for Woe
half expect Karrie to be wearing Woe’s shoes…
Ooohhh,I love the red(ruby)/silver thing.Yay for the books!
Yay for somebody getting it!
The red/silver thing was cool. Made me smile.
the whole “don’t see if she’s dead” dealie reminds me of The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. All particles exist in every state, but observing them can force it to choose a state of existence. They have this thought experiment to explain it. Schrodinger puts his cat in a box with some radioactive material. there is also a geiger counter that is set to break a vial of poison if the radioactive material decays. The experiment lasts for about an hour, long enough so there is about 50/50 chance of the cat’s survival. Because the cat is unobserved, it exists in both states, alive and dead.
Kinda like Nick’s daughter!