The Stitcher of Souls - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: To Face a World of Madness

I didn’t know what to say.

Part of me didn’t want think of it – going with her? It’d be suicide – in fact, it almost made me cry harder.

But the other part of me was desperate. She was offering me safety, and I needed safety. I was sick and tired of being scared and feeling like an idiot. If she could offer me clarity, then I’d rip it out of her hands.

And, yes, there was rationality – stay calm and think it through, do what’s wish – bla. Bla. Bla.

Maybe I’m too weak, but I just couldn’t.

So, to make an end to all this whining, to just do something, I nodded violently.

She gave me a quick smile and before I knew it, I was walking through the alleyways, hooded.

I didn’t do anything useful (not that I had done anything of the kind before).

I wasn’t on the look-out for villains.

I didn’t take in my new surroundings.

I didn’t bother to listen to the people around me, to Lullaby who occasionally talked to me.

“The Chakra Dance is quite an overwhelming experience,” she said quietly – I could barely hear her, not that I was listening anyway.

“Actually you’re supposed to be ‘emptied’, but you woke up too soon,” she added something else to it, but it was too unclear to hear.

Woke up too soon? ‘Emptied’? What the hell are you talking about? What is the fucking Chakra Dance? Where are we going? What are we going to do?

Why are you so freakin’ cryptic?

I clenched my fists, internally screaming, wanting to hit something, someone, my stupid self! so badly, but instead I was walking faster.

Too fast, because Lullaby pulled me back. “Calm down, Quinn.

“Look,” she pointed at the big plaza in front of us.

The plaza was filled with people and as expected – the people stood in rows. I remembered that in the afternoon – I think it was the afternoon – I had seen people with the same colored clothing would walk in one row. There were three of them, clearly separated from each other.

Right now I couldn’t see if it was the same – everybody was so tall (no, I wasn’t going to say I was small) (Yay, I’m not as angry as before) that I could barely see the plaza.

I could only see their heads, which were more like black dots anyway.

Lullaby took me by the arm and led me through the crowd.

Though I wasn’t as angry at her as before, I still didn’t like the idea of going with her – why did I say yes, damn it. I would really love to put the blame on her—but rationality: I said yes, therefore it was my fault. Damn my honesty.

“We must be quick – they cannot find us in our shelled state. Or they will wake up too and turn against us.”

Shelled what? Turn against us? What—

“Merge with the crowd,” she whispered and suddenly she was gone.

Yo, yo, yo – wow, hey! Ya abandonin’ me?

Helloooo!

Yeesh – is that a thing for the people here?

First that grumpy guy on his horse, then that dwarf with his talking bird…Hold up a second.

What did that dwarf actually do to me?

The crowded plaza, the alleyways, the red carpet….The heart-formed entrance…Hearts. Heaaaarts. H-E-A-R-T-S. Heeeearts. Heartsssss. Hhhhearts.

Hearts.

It’s on the tip of my tongue…

Ka-DUNK!

Whatever was going on here was about to begin and I still hadn’t merged with the crowd.

No, on the contrary – I was standing between the rows, not in one of them, because stupid, stupid, o so stupid Quinn was too busy saying ‘hearts’ in her head in weird ways.

Way to go, Quinn, way to go.

Ka-DUNKDUNKDUNK!

I get it, I get it! Yeesh – I did panic, though.

I squeezed myself through the rows – didn’t work, ended up between new rows – great, just great!

Squeezed myself through the next row – failed, again.

And Ha ha! I squeezed myself in a row!

…The front row.

So much for not standing out, huh.

Oh, and look at that: I was one, two, three – KADUNKDUNKDUNK!

LET ME COUNT, JESUS!

I clenched my fists. I breathed in and out.

Seven. Six. Or maybe seven. That was the amount of people I was away from the fountain…

Huh – it really was the Big Cocoon fountain (was that its name? I couldn’t remember).

I grimaced. Hmmm…This probably isn’t good.

I took a look at the crowd – circles? No, spirals?

One big spiral.

I looked back at the fountain, thinking about how I was seven people away from it.

O, this really wasn’t good.

KADUNKDUNKDUNK!

And THOSE DRUMS weren’t helping making this any better.

I breathed in and out again. Can’t change what’s done.

Besides, in a way I was merged with the crowd; I had the cloak and a sad, depressing look on my face – not because I wanted to cry again. Or because I was afraid.

Me? Afraid? Never.

Calm down, Quinn, caaaalmth.

Caaa- KADUNKDUNKDUNK!

How can I stay calm when these drums annoy the crap out of me?!
And as if they had heard my complaint, they became even louder, making my ears explode and my heart burst out of my chest.

My seemed to bounce through my head and kept seeing the same things over and over.

Me dying, me being naked, abandoned, the frightening madness of it all.

Questions – so many questions.

What do I do? How do I survive? How do I get home? Can I get home?

The fear again – it nagged at me, no, bit me, went through me like that cold knife and I died I died I died—

Quiet.

It was so quiet that I didn’t dare to freak out, to think.

I became quiet just like everyone else here.

I became fixated on the seven people before the fountain that had appeared out of nowhere.

The Chakra Dance was about to begin.'

The Chakra Dance... I wonder what that'll look like...

Find out yourself in chapter 10!

See you on the next page! <3

[PIC ORIGIN: walldevil.com]