Hello, everyone! Here is the final chapter in A6. As I said in the last part, this bit will be shorter than others. So, here we go.
DISCLAIMER: The 'Amulet' series is created and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi, and published by 'Scholastic'. The author owns any original characters and custom elements included into the story.
Onward!
Caleb tumbled through a golden-yellow pathway. Unlike the previous journey he had taken through a portal, Caleb could not orient himself correctly. Syn's departure had been sudden, the destination unknown. This left Caleb, a far smaller creature than Syn, at the mercy of the path's curves and twists. Any cries or exclamations of pain he gave from colliding with a wall or the "floor" of the path did not make any sound.
Outside the path were, like last time, kaleidoscope pictures of some alien sky. Unlike last time, the walls of Syn's path did not provide good cover from that sky reaching into the path. Caleb's heart leapt into his throat as his body slid across a patch of peeling "floor" without falling through it. A few seconds later, a dark smoke had begun to fill the path from the outside. Caleb held his breath and slid right through the smoke, emerging on the other side unharmed.
The path curved sharply, and then sloped downward in a tight spiral. Caleb slid down, always going faster. He tried his best to breathe and stay still as the outside lights and colors grew closer and brighter. When Caleb inadvertently looked out at the colors, they appeared to be like glowing eyes of various sizes. But Caleb only saw them for a moment, he was going too fast to check any further.
A loud crack rang in Caleb's ears. In far too short a time, Caleb slid up to a large hole in the path's wall and proved unable to reorient himself. He fell out of the path and into the alien sky beyond. A stinging cold enveloped his body immediately as his eyelids began to burn. Crying out, he reached up to cover his eyes from the pain as he felt something sticky pulling on his hands, trying to keep them immobilized.
"Caleb?" A girl's voice spoke to him amidst the agonizing pain and cold. "What's wrong?"
Caleb opened his eyes. He was standing next to a sweating and heavily breathing girl with clean skin and a bright red vascular birthmark over one of her piercing brown eyes. The birthmark went up to her forehead in a lazy rhombus shape. Her golden-blond hair was tied back tight into a ponytail. She wore a completely white outfit: tracksuit, short shorts, and even white running shoes on her feet. Her sweat was no strong enough to soak through her clothing.
Caleb felt the girl's hand press against his shoulder. He then realized he was breathing heavily and sweating like this girl. He saw he was wearing his usual running clothes. His muscles felt strained from what must have been a long, steady run. He stood on a sidewalk; to his left was a wooden fence painted a darker shade of brown; to his right was one side of a two-lane street.
The alien sky had changed into a pre-dawn coloration of gray and orange. The Sun had not yet risen over the horizon, and that horizon was hidden behind rows of single and two-story houses. A whole neighborhood had just materialized around him, bringing him out of that hostile place.
Is this Earth? Am I… home?
"Caleb?" The girl's voice was familiar to Caleb. A name slowly began knitting itself back together in his head. A… M…E… What was the rest of it?
"S-Sorry." Caleb spoke to the girl before the conversation became awkward. "I thought I was… Never mind." He shook his head three times before he felt he could look at the girl again. Her eyes were expressing concern, but also sympathy. She seemed to have a lot on her mind as well.
"Let's keep going," the girl said before she began slowly jogging down the sidewalk. Caleb swiftly inhaled before following behind her.
The girl stopped near a crossroads several blocks later—Caleb did not bother keeping count of how many they passed—and placed a hand on the metal pole beneath a "STOP" sign. The bright red color of that sign magnified any sunlight shone on it, the Sun now beginning to peek into view. Caleb, legs aching but still able to keep pushing forward, stopped at the same pole a few seconds later. He chose to put his hands on his knees instead of touching the same pole.
"Whew," the girl panted as she flipped the end of her ponytail back over her shoulder. "Good run, Caleb. Now let's walk it off before classes."
Caleb just nodded instead of speaking. He was breathing heavy like the girl had before. They had been jogging parallel to each other for a while, and this was their first real stop since Caleb had paused by the fence. Now, it seemed, the "running" part was over.
The two of them lingered, not walking on or wanting to separate just yet. Once they passed this crossroad, they would go to their homes and prepare for the rest of the day. This point in time was something routine to them, but still special as well. It also gave Caleb time to piece together the rest of the girl's name. Pain pulsed in his head when he put each letter in its proper place.
A…M…E…L…
Amelia. That was it; "Amelia" was her name. Why was it so hard to remember that?
"Hey," Amelia said as she took her hand off the pole, "I wanted to ask, why did you slow down near the end? You looked pale, really pale."
"Honest answer?" Caleb asked, and Amelia swiftly nodded. "I thought I was dreaming."
"How so?" she inquired.
"Well, it's pretty early in the morning." He gestured at the pre-dawn sky above them. "There are few other people out here." He waved around at the adjacent houses and their darkened windows. "And, uh, we're doing this alone. People might, think we are, uh, you know. Dating."
Amelia did appear to know what "dating" meant. She quickly stared at Caleb in concern, her birthmark looking redder in the growing sunlight. "We are not doing that," she briskly stated, "and why did you think like that at all? How many times have we done runs like these in the morning?"
"A lot," Caleb answered.
"Yeah, a whole lot of times." Amelia rubbed some sweat off her forehead with the back of her sleeve, the fabric passing over her birthmark. "I cannot have you acting like that for our next meet," she then told Caleb. "Distractions won't help us on the track."
"Hey, it was just a momentary feeling. I'll be ready for the meet." Caleb stood up beside Amelia, standing a few inches taller. Despite this, Amelia had the greater authority with her look, the stare of a team captain and a concerned friend. But when Caleb looked at Amelia again, he saw something off about that face.
Amelia looked like she knew something Caleb did not. Something critical.
"Caleb," Amelia asked in a quieter voice, "are you awake right now?"
Caleb blinked, confused, and then snapped back, "Yes, I'm awake! I'm talking with you, and we were just running together. I don't do that in my sleep!"
"Alright, fine. Then I'm only going to say this once." Amelia took a deep breath and stood as tall as she could, projecting the image of "team captain" very strongly. "You need to focus on what you need, not just what you want in the moment. You are happy here, but this is not what you want to do for the rest of our lives. Do you understand?"
Caleb did not answer straight away. Amelia grabbed his hand in a vice grip, squeezing it hard with her own fingers. "Don't let your dreams stay as dreams. And especially don't let your obsessions control your life. Wake up and live in the real world."
Caleb's mouth hung open. The response he had planned to give stalled inside his head. The real world? Wasn't that where he was right now? Was Amelia lying to him? She never did that; she cracked jokes and got people to laugh, but her honesty was straight as an arrow and just as sharp.
Caleb's wrists began to sting in a familiar way. "This isn't the real world?" he hesitatingly asked Amelia.
She shook her head somberly, as if performing a rehearsed part. "No, Caleb. I'm sorry, but you need to wake up now."
"How is this not…?" Amelia's grip tightened further, digging into his skin and bones. "I don't understand."
Amelia pulled Caleb away from the pole, spinning him around so he was away from the edge of the street. "There's no other way to tell you this. Wake up, Caleb," she insisted, her tone pleading but her face retaining that fiery anger. "Please, you don't want to be here!'
"Let go of me!" Caleb tugged against Amelia's grip. In the corner of his vision, he saw a pair of bright lights approaching, moving fast. A vehicle was coming, and he did not want Amelia or himself to be—
"WAKE UP!" Amelia screamed before shoving Caleb back with her free hand. Her grip on his other hand broke a millisecond later, causing them to fall in opposing directions. Amelia stumbled onto the street, Caleb the sidewalk. Both of them crashed onto their backs and started getting up at the same time.
Caleb was unable to look away from what happened next. It all went by so fast. But some things stuck out to him amidst the chaos.
There was a crash. The fast-moving vehicle rolled over Amelia's body. The driver had not slowed down in time to avoid a collision.
There was a scream. The name, "Amelia!" left Caleb's lips as he futilely tried to will the car off her body. All he could see of her were her legs and one hand. As the car finally stopped, that hand wriggled in a short spasm. Red mixed with the white of her clothes.
Then, there was silence. Caleb fell on the ground, and through the ground, into a shadowy pit. The memory of what he had just seen fell down there with him, never to see the light again.
Except, that was last time. Caleb was older, his brain more able to recognize what he had experienced. Now, the memory of Amelia, his close friend telling him to wake up, and then dying for it, rooted itself deep and did not fade away. It stayed with him as he fell into a maelstrom of light and sound, and then crashed into a roiling sea.
It took Caleb several seconds to recognize where he was. Once he figured out that he was underwater, fear shot through him like a lightning bolt. He was drowning; he needed to breathe, to find dry land.
Caleb swam, thrusting his arms and kicking his legs with wild strength. Pushing against a vast current, he rose to what he thought was a brighter point of light. This proved correct when his head breached the surface of a great ocean, but almost immediately, he was pushed down by a wave crashing over him. Barely able to stop from swallowing water, Caleb exerted his muscles even more to break the surface and stay there.
Through lashing rain and winds, Caleb caught glimpses of the sky, the Sun beginning to rise over the horizon. To his right was a large amalgamation of buildings all resting on a set of metal platforms with legs digging into the water. It reminded Caleb of an offshore oilrig, or even the station Enzo and Rico had stopped at while flying the Luna Moth towards Cielis. Seeing that space as a place to rest and dry off, Caleb seized on the opportunity and began to swim over there.
Breathing rhythmically, Caleb swam in a breaststroke pattern, keeping his head below the water unless it was necessary to breathe. He had not needed to swim at school for over a year, but his muscle memory quickly took over. Pain kept him moving; he was used to feeling pain from running, but swimming was a similar physical activity. The island-rig-thing grew larger as he got closer, until he could tread water just by one of its massive metal "legs".
The large metal platform holding up all the buildings gave some shade for Caleb to rest under. Despite this, Caleb tried to stay awake and focused. Sleeping here would mean drowning. Looking around his immediate area did not show any kind of way up for Caleb to take. He swam over to another of the poles and looked around there. He smiled when he saw the rungs of a makeshift ladder surrounded by a circular metal frame.
Moving slowly despite a strong urge to rush up to dry land, Caleb climbed up the ladder rung by rung. A morning breeze whipped against his soaked body, chilling him through his clothes. Each step was a challenge, but it was beatable. His desire to not fall back into the water urged him to keep climbing. Even with the safety of the metal frame, one slip could prove fatal.
Caleb groaned in relief when he reached the end of the ladder and sprawled out onto a flat, metal surface. Water dripped from his body and pooled around him. The cold remained, but he did feel dryer, so that was a start. Eventually, he peeled himself off the ground and stood upright. His legs proved less capable of quick movements than he expected, and he slumped against a wall while dragging himself forward.
There was a bit of daylight coming into a long, curved hallway. Rags and ribbons lay unattended or hung off small bits of rope. Everything looked broken; broken wooden stalls, broken metal and wooden toys, and broken pieces of bone. Caleb's eyes narrowed as he saw what looked like a human skull on the floor.
Something was wrong here.
Caleb felt a tingling sensation in his eyes as his hand rubbed against the adjacent wall. He looked up where his hand was, his vision slowly focusing away from the skull and its gaping grin. There was a plaque right by his hand, sporting faded letters. The biggest of these words said, "ALGOS ISLAND". Below that were the smaller words "SUPPLY STATION" and a drawing of a palm tree straight out of a tourist brochure for a tropical island.
"Algos…" Caleb muttered that name aloud as he sat against the wall and listened to the storm outside and the storm in his head. The name felt significant, but he had never heard it said before. His head hurt again when he thought about it. Closing his eyes, he felt the pain intensify…
…as the boy's body continued to age, the mark of years growing on his skin in seconds. "Algos," he muttered. "For Trellis. Find Algos Island."
He reached out for something, hands withering and bending. His eyes sank into his skull while his skin began vanishing into dust.
"What?" another voice asked from somewhere out of sight. "What's on that island?"
"Forgive them," the deteriorating boy groaned as he reached for the unseen speaker. "Forgive the people. They do not…"
…but Caleb heard no more, the memory cutting off mid-sentence. Caleb opened his eyes and saw bursts of color dancing in his vision. These were not like Syn's dancing lights, but vibrant, distorting flashes that made every thought translate into pain. Along with this pain came memories, memories of what he had done, where he had been, and why he had gotten here.
The image of Amelia lying dead could not be expelled or hidden. It was hard for Caleb to differentiate the past from the present anymore. In both periods of his life, he experienced death, pain, and loss. Unlike what his father had told him, the second and third times were just as bad as the first.
Thinking of his father made Caleb remember the grief he was inflicting on his family simply by not being on Earth. If what he had seen in his dreams was true, they were grieving his loss. They thought he was dead, but refused to admit it. It had been months in Alledia; it could have been years or days on Earth. Hope could not lost forever.
Amelia. Mom. Dad. Emily. Navin. Karen. Syn. Where are you all? I don't want to do this alone. I want to be with you.
"Too late."
A raspy male voice came from further into the hallway. Caleb raised his head to look that way. A man with a patchy beard, tousled brown hair, and clothes torn and scorched at the edges stood by the unbroken skull on the floor. The man wore a face full of sorrow, his eyes looking straight at Caleb.
"Too late for us." The man sounded tired, every word he spoke requiring effort. "Far too late. No one came when we burned. No one cares anymore."
The man's clothes and body turned into blue fire, bright and hot, changing before Caleb's stunned gaze. Caleb watched as the man slowly burned away until only the hot air from the flames remained. That air shimmered in the hallway and then vanished completely. Caleb turned his head away from the sight and leaned back against the wall.
He smiled, closed his eyes, and began to laugh.
Alright, that is the end of A6. A low point for Caleb, but readers of the series will probably recognize what the place he has ended up in is. The next book, "Firelight" has several elements concerning characters' pasts and darker emotions. This will take me some time to plan out.
As usual, any feedback, comments, and constructive criticism is appreciated.
Draconos is taking off!