Lying Dormant: Part III - The Echo at the Summit
The Echo at the Summit
There was darkness. Pain as well. The strange fluttering of incoherent voices coming from far away and also very close. A face, blurred, staring at him. Then the shadows took hold once more.
Byron's world reappeared to him. His eyes tried to focus, but it was hard to do right away. He tried to move, but the world spun, and he rolled over onto his stomach convulsed as he emptied what little was there onto the cold stone floor. A hand came to rest on his back, and Byron managed to turn to see who was there.
Rex's face greeted him. Rex smiled and helped Byron into a seated position. Byron himself grimaced as he was shifted, but then a smile also graced his face. It was more from relief, than anything. He couldn't remember much, but he did remember Rex falling to the floor in agony. Byron thought he had lost him, and to see him here, despite it all, gave him a small amount of joy. Something almost unfamiliar to him now, but it all seemed to be coming to an end anyways. Rex jerked his head a few times, gesturing to the other side of the prison, and Byron looked that way. Salah sat huddled in a corner, tied to the wall. His head buried in his hands; he was openly weeping at his predicament. Byron slowly stood, with a little bit of Rex's help. He went to head over to Salah, to thrash him until he could not feel anything, but he found he too was tied to the wall. They were all captives now.
"You fucking bastard!" Byron shouted and spat, his strength not yet back, causing him to stumble back. Rex went to restrain him, but saw no point and relented. Salah peeked up from his hands, angry eyes amidst the tears.
"I am here too! I will die as you! We all become an offering to Kafaketai. I was hoping I could last just a little longer, and become an elder member of the tribe! But it is not to be, I am not worthy of it!" Salah shouted and stood up, wiping his tears.
"I don't give a shit about your insecurities, you asshole. If you’re going to die, it should be by my hands. I came here for this. To end you all, for her." Byron's voice carried like that of a devil. Rex’s mouth was left slightly agape. Never had he seen Byron become so vile, so filled with hate. He scolded himself internally. He should have known. He should have known all along. This wasn't closure. This was for revenge.
Salah had leaned against the stone wall. He tried to match Byron's steely glare, but could not. It did not stop him from provoking, however.
"What would she think of you now? Wishing death upon us all? Would she still love you?" Salah smiled as he waited for the outburst. It never arrived. Byron was stoic, absorbing the anger inside. He had closed his eyes, seeking a memory of Rose. He found something else, something darker.
"She would not love the monster I now am. The man I was could never do anything like this. But who, or what I am now, this is something I can now promise you… you, your tribe, your god, they will all die. And by my hands, your damnation will be my solitude." Byron stood for a moment after speaking, and then slumped against the wall. Rex had nothing he could say. Byron had told him he had died when Rose disappeared. Rex could see how true that was now. The room drew silent as they awaited their fate. It did not take much waiting at all.
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Smoke filled the room. They couldn’t see where the fire was coming from, but within seconds the room was a thick haze of black smoke. Rex fell to the floor coughing, Salah gripped the wall and screamed. Byron began tracing the rope that shackled him to the wall. His eyes and lungs burned, and he fell back, accepting his death. Suddenly, cold liquid was pouring down his throat. He drank in what he could, and gagged and spewed some out as he choked. He felt his body get dragged along the hard floor as he could barely make out dark skinned feet as he slid across the ground. More liquid hit his lips, and he embraced it. He could still smell smoke, but it no longer accosted him. Byron opened his eyes to see several tribesmen standing over him in strange garb. He went to reach out at them, perhaps strangle them if he could get a grip, but the colors around him bled into each other and his mind fell into a dreamlike state.
Byron could not grab onto the moments as they passed. He saw the caves, and then the light of day. He felt drunk unlike ever before. The world itself swayed like a boat in a squall. His head rolled back and forth, the daylight making him squint and look down. To his left, he saw someone familiar. He knew him, the name was…short. Rex. Yes, it was Rex. Rex too stood in the sway that he found himself in. There were other tribesmen around him, dressed very colorfully. They all were looking up at something. Byron’s head bobbed back and forth as he tried to focus where everyone was looking. They were on the volcano, at the very top. He looked down at the valley below and got dizzy, so Byron kept his eyes on the peak. The crater of the mountain had a platform running over it, and there were men at the top. An older man in a white robe, and three men standing near a few large boulders. Someone was on the platform. Despite the fog in his head, Byron could tell who it was. Salah.
Salah stood on the platform as the elder chanted and gestured with a large obsidian blade. The elder held the blade upright in front of his face, chanted loudly, then thrust the blade into the air. The three men near the boulders began to move, they grabbed at poles that were wedged under the rocks, and managed to send a boulder down into the crater of the volcano.
A rope running from the boulder went from slack to tight as Salah's body snapped from the force of the heavy rock. Salah had been tied to it, and was now being pulled into the fiery mouth of the mountain. His body slammed into the craters angled slopes below, the cracking of bones echoing out with surprising volume. The boulder rolled into the pool of hot lava that lay at the bottom of the crater. Salah’s body tumbled more, his head hitting the sides of the volcano. His broken flesh cartwheeled, throwing blood and brains into the air before landing with a wet thud in the lava. Nearly instantly his body sizzled and burst into flames. The corpse sank into the orange-red glow slowly as the tribe cheered from up above.
The elder had gestured and Byron was now led up the hill. He could barely walk straight, and the tribesmen yanked him up violently to the platform. It was then Byron noticed his hands were bound with vines. He giggled to himself, the whole situation still sloshing around in his head. He had seen Salah's fate, and felt something odd about it, but he still could not grab hold of anything mentally but for a fleeting second. He felt a rope being tied around his body, and could see it trail away to another rock where the three tribesmen waited diligently. Byron was shoved out onto the platform, and he tried to stay up as his legs felt almost numb.
He began to chant, and to Byron, in the moment, it sounded wonderful. Such passion, such bravado. Then he heard something. A voice, a scream. He blinked his eyes twice, then he saw something like a flash of light, within it, he saw Rose. Her face, her smile, and he felt her embrace. Rose faded away in his arms, and Byron reached out with his bound hands. The chanting continued, and Byron was startled by Rose as she appeared again. She was screaming, but he could hear no sounds. Her eyes looked worried, fearful, and desperate. Tears fell from his face, and Byron's lip quivered. Then he was blinded by another flash from his vision of Rose. It came from her chest, from the obsidian heart. He then heard Rose's voice as clear as ever.
"Byron! You made a promise!" Her voice cut through the fog. The world suddenly fell into focus. Byron's mind cleared, and he remembered. He did make a promise, and it was time to make good on it. The elder had almost finished, and had the obsidian blade in front of his face. Byron moved quickly, leaping back from the platform to the crest of the crater where the elder was. The elder's eyes were closed as he chanted, but the three by the boulders saw what was happening and jumped into action.
They began trying to push the boulder over the edge as Byron ran behind the elder. He threw his bound hands around the chanting man’s head, catching the vines on the knife. When Byron pulled back the blade sliced cleanly through the vines and pushed the knife into the face of the elder. Quickly, the chanting was replaced with screams.
Byron reached up and roughly pulled the blade from the face of his victim, the force sending the old man down into the crater. As he fell, his blood seeped out of the wounds and painted the trail of his descent. His body landed with a fatal crash, and tumbled a bit, but did not make it to the lava pit. His mangled corpse soaked the soft crater dirt with blood.
Byron did not watch the elder fall. He quickly turned and swung the blade at the rope that attached him to the boulder. With two solid strikes, the rope gave way just as the three managed to get the boulder to roll. They had worked in haste, and two of the tribesmen stumbled over the edge as well, one being immediately crushed by the boulder while the other fell feet first into the crater's slope. His legs broke at painful angles, and his body slid to a halt just a few feet away from the elder's corpse.
Byron had watched the falls, and now slowly looked over his shoulder at the third tribesman, who chose not to engage out of fear. The tribesman turned and ran. It was then Byron took in the chaos on the mountainside. Cries of woe and distress swirled around the peak of Kafaketai. Tribesmen were scrambling to get away from the devil on the top of the mountain. Byron scanned the chaos and locked eyes with one person.
Ulakura.
Ulakura and Pasha had begun to leave, and Byron drank in the fear in Ulakura's eyes as he regarded him. Now Byron stood tall over Ulakura, and he relished it. He watched them retreat back into the mountain, and then Byron saw Rex, still in a haze, swaying back and forth, but standing alone. His guard had abandoned him, and Byron rushed to help his friend.
Byron reached Rex, and he shook him a bit, but Rex looked at him in confusion.
"Forgive me." Byron said quickly as he struck Rex with an open hand slap. Rex fell back into a seated position, but when he looked up again, Byron saw recognition in his eyes.
"Come on, we have to go." Byron said, and Rex nodded.
As the two found their way into the tunnels, the mountain roared. It shook with fury. The two were knocked off balance and then exchanged a glance of intrigue. Kafaketai was angry. Very angry.
STAY TUNED FOR THE FINALE TOMORROW
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