Fan Fiction ❯ Lieffe and Dath ❯ The Room of Secondary Light ( Chapter 4 )

Soowe was failing. She had a look on her face that said simply, "Please. End it now."

It hurt Sheik to look at her like that.

Reepe returned with a box. She sat down outside the circle and opened the box. It contained three sticks of a sweet smelling incense. Reepe cringe at small number.

"I thought we had more…This will just have to do," she said softly. "Okay. We'll have to do this fast," she informed Sheik.

"Do what?" Link asked from the doorway.

"I was just about to ask that myself," Sheik muttered.

"Link, sit down, you're making me nervous. Sheik, you'll see."

Reepe inhaled deeply and Link sat down beside her. Rubbing her palms together, she exhaled. She took a match from her pocket and rubbed it against the side of the box of incense. It lit. She removed a perfumed stick and set the end on fire. She stood the unlighted end straight up on the ground. Taking away her fingers, the stick stayed standing by some unexplainable power and Reepe blew out the small flame. A delicate scent filled the air.

Sheik felt Soowe's tense body relax ever so slightly in his arms. A small sigh emitted from her and her eyes shut. She ceased breathing. Her heart stopped.

"Wh…what the hell did you do? You KILLED her!!" Sheik shouted at Reepe.

"No," she responded calmly, "I'm letting her find her way back."

~*~

Soowe's eyes fluttered open. Everything was dark. The candles were all blown out and the incense had burnt down to a pile of ash.

"Oh…god…They must think I'm dead," Soowe thought to herself.

"No, not yet," a voice said from inside her, "You have to find your way back home."

<A/N: (And I'm having some SERIOUS déjà vu. I know I've done this before.)>

Soowe clenched her eyes shut and clutched her stomach as a searing pain surged through her entire body. She shook off the feeling and stood. An eerie music box tune seemed to be floating through the air.

Something was around Soowe. Not a feeling, but someTHING. She looked up.

Hundreds of strings were attached to the ceiling. Her eyes followed the strings…

Dolls. Hundreds of dolls. Staring at her with those glassy, dead eyes. Peering at her mindlessly. And laughing. She could here the unearthly noise in her mind, but she wasn't sure if it was actually happening.

And now that little voice inside her was screaming.

"RUN!"

Soowe would have gladly obliged, but there was one problem. There was no where to run to. She was surrounded by the dolls.

As if by magick (and probably so), she felt something cold and heavy in her right hand. She glanced down.

A brilliant sword was in her possession. She felt a new power course through her. She gritted her teeth, held up the sword and ran at the dolls.

Soowe felt a candle crush under her foot. That wasn't important now, though. She swung the sword violently, tearing dolls from their suspensions. But the moment they hit the floor, they seemed to become animated. These ones came after her as she continued to run…

And she kept running. The room had extended about 300 feet. For in the distance. Soowe saw the closet.

And the word came back to her.

HOME.

She needed to get to the closet.

But now, her feet felt weighted; she had to throw herself forward with every step. Every swing of her sword took tremendous force.

But she kept fighting. She fought through the seething army of puppets, even as they grabbed for her, latching onto her legs.

Exhaustion was imminent, however. Soowe was so close to that door when one of the creatures still on it's strings, swung down and tore away the sword as two more went for her ankles.

Soowe just wouldn't quit, though. She had to win this fight. She thrust out an arm and grabbed the doorknob, using it as an anchor as she desperately tried to turn it. She heard the sweet, relieving click of the latch and the door swung open. Soowe flew inside and slammed the door shut behind her, ridding herself of the dolls.

But she'd forgotten about the wall. Forgotten that home was hidden by a switch button.

She jumped up, expecting to hit the button, or at least an off section of ceiling, but her fingers grasped only air. Reluctantly, she looked up.

The ceiling was about 10 feet higher than ever. Soowe <A/N: pokepokepokepokepokepoke.> sunk to her knees. She's fought so hard to get this far and now, she would be forced to quit. She flung her arms into the air.

And she hit something.

It wasn't the ceiling, but she'd hit something she couldn't see. Standing up, she kept her and in the same place, touching the invisible object.

She held it tightly and gave it a firm tug. It didn't budge. Soowe felt up higher. Another something met her touch, but once more, not her sight.

A ladder. This was a ladder to the ceiling. There was just one more problem:

Soowe was terrified of ladders. Well, climbing them. Once she was at the top, she was fine. It had been an unnatural fear she'd had since she was a little girl so many years ago picking cherries. <A/N: RUN-ON!>

Soowe cursed loudly. But she knew she had to climb this. She pressed her lips together and grasped the highest invisible rung she could reach. She jerked herself up. Her feet planted themselves securely on a step. She began to climb.

She was only a foot away from being able to touch the switch when her hand missed the next rung. Thinking she had done just that, missed, she swiped blindly again. Nothing. There was NO next rung.

Soowe stretched her arm up as high it could go. She still missed by an easy seven inches. Either Soowe would jump a foot off of the ladder, risk missing the switch on the ceiling and fall about 12 feet to the hard, stone floor, or Soowe would never make it.

She jumped. And she hit the switch. But her glee was ended abruptly by the strange sensation of falling, then THUMP, landing hard on her feet.

Soowe's weight immediately made her knees buckle and she collapsed to the ground once more. She heard a snapping noise as she hit and a sharp, hot pain shot her body. It hurt like Hell, but she had more important things to worry about, now.

The door was open.

Soowe could see Lieffe, now, as beautiful and unblemished as ever.

Hauling herself off of the ground, she outstretched her arms and walked toward the glowing ball of suspended light.

She touched it and a warmth immediately flooded her, along with an inexplicable peace.

Soowe smiled and muttered, "Home."

<A/N: Whoa. I'm very pleased with myself…Okay, seeing as it's 4 AM and I've just listened to Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses" about five billion times. No, no! I'm sane! I swear!

Oh, yeah. Thanks, Allyx. You're reviews brightened my day…'cept that it rained. But that's okay. ^_^

Anyway, I gotta get to sleep, now, `cause my 2 best buds (Lindsay and Stephanie) promised to come by real early tomor…today, and wake me up. I hope `real early' means…like, noon.>