A/N: Wow, I'm an idiot. I started writing this chapter, got about halfway through, and realized that this was the sample chapter I posted in The Carried. *hits self over head* Please review!
Chapter 7
The entire world around me was black, pressing in. I felt like I was suffocating.
There was no air! I clawed in front of me, trying to break through the suffocating darkness. I was shaking, unable to stand the closed in space.
I could see nothing, nothing but the darkness. The air around me was warm, moist, and heavy. It smelled sickeningly fragrant, like rotting fruit. There were no noises. The silence itself was enough to drive me insane.
Slowly I started morphing grizzly, hoping it could take care of whatever dangers lie in the darkness. I wished I could see something, but there was not a single photon of light for me to see by.
Tobias? I called out. Cassie? Jake? Marco? Ax?
No one answered.
Hello? Anybody? I asked, trying not to think of the images I was seeing of myself being buried in the darkness, suffocating, buried alive…
Stop it, I commanded of myself. You won't be buried alive. You're fine.
There's no room! I'm closed in, and the darkness is all around me! I can't get out. I can't get out, the panicking part of myself screamed to the logical part. Buried alive…
And suddenly, I wasn't alone anymore.
There was a rat on the floor in front of me. It almost seemed to be putting off light, just enough so that I could see it clearly.
Hello, Rachel, it said.
I recognized that voice. I would recognize it anywhere. It was David.
About a year into the Yeerk war, a new kid found the blue morphing cube. Visser Three/One found out, and came to get it. David's house was destroyed, and his parents became Controllers. We could either leave him to become a Controller, or make him one of us. We made the wrong choice.
After he got the morphing power, David tried to betray us. First, by almost selling us out to Visser Three/One, later by trying to kill us. We finally got rid of him by trapping him in rat morph and placing him on a small, deserted, rocky island in the middle of the ocean.
David, I hissed. I reared up to my full height, hoping he could see me in the stifling darkness as I could see him. How was he here? He should have been dead…
The rat started to laugh. However, his voice did not seem like his own. It was too loud, too… surrounding.
Who are you? I demanded, afraid to hear the answer I already knew.
You don't recognize me? the rat asked. It started to change, growing, morphing rapidly. Within seconds, it had stopped changing, and my answer was confirmed.
It was Crayak.
I see that you realize who I am, now, he sneered. You should have realized that I could not be David. He's dead. Rats only live for about five years. It's already been three and a half since the war ended. Five and a half years since he became a nothlit as an already adult rat.
What do you want? I asked, demorphing. None of my morphs could so much as scratch him. "And why did you come, instead of sending that pile of dog poop called Drode?"
Me? I want nothing, he answered.
"Then why are you here?"
You were my favorite Animorph, Rachel, Crayak said, ignoring my last comment.
I was annoyed, to say the least. Who was he to think that he could just butt into our lives, manipulate the universe, and torture me like this? I wanted – no, needed – open air, to feel unrestricted. It unnerved me to be like this, in the dark, buried…
The One is gone, and now I can take back my galaxy. I have waited for this day for millennia. Not even that fool Ellimist can stop me now. And, because of that, I no longer must stick to the imbecilic rules of our game. I can directly interfere. And now that is what I am doing. You turned me down, Rachel, the last time we met. And I do not easily forgive such an insult.
I clenched my fists, trying to hold myself back from jumping him, an all-powerful being, as a human. What was this new game he was playing with himself?
Your cousin Jake has insulted me even more, though, Crayak whispered in as silky a tone as he could muster. I want him gone. And as much as I wish it were some other way, Rachel, you are the only one who could possibly help me. You could get rid of him for me, Rachel. I will give you some time to think about it.
With that, he disappeared, and I was left alone in the darkness.
Alone.
There were so many thoughts flying through my head. He wanted me to rid him of Jake. I couldn't do that, though. Not ever. And not even Ellimist could stop Crayak now.
Oh, and David was definitely dead. I shivered. Yes, I had hated David with a passion, but he had only been fourteen when it all happened…
How could I get back to my friends?
Where were my friends, anyway?
Why didn't Crayak just kill Jake himself, if he didn't have to play by the rules of Ellimist anymore?
Why was I asking myself so many rhetorical questions, anyway?
As thoughts continued to race through my head, the darkness pressed in all around me. With each passing moment in the stifling blackness, I became more terrified. I finally simply collapsed into a trembling heap on the ground.