Chapter 24: Glass

Chapter 24: Glass

As I followed Remi, the pyramid grew taller in front of us. The weird leaves seemed to part before us as we jogged towards the blocky entrance. Remi's dark figure slipped into the blackness of the rectangular opening. I slipped as my foot hit the first solid surface of brick and down I went on my hands and knees. My tote bag slapped my shoulder and slid down to the floor.

Remi turned around and hauled me to my feet, righting me. My vertigo swam for a moment before my eyes adjusted to the new light.

Remi laced my fingers with his and started us down the main hallways. There was no light source, but the surfaces seemed to reflect light just like the leaves and the bark in the forest outside. It was the oddest sensation. The walls were covered in pictographs, but they were outlined in multiple colors of light. It was beautiful. They weren't Egyptian style, but they were similar in how they told a story. It was almost as if it was a time line as we walked down the hall.

I saw a sword. Many different people held the sword as we walked. Sometimes it was a person outlined in black light, which was strange to see black light. It was not like the UV purple light that they called black light in the clubs. This was inky dark light. Almost like paint, but reflected as light. My physics brain couldn't wrap itself around the concept, and yet here it was right in front of me.

We walked further on. The sword switched from person to person. I swung my eyes to the left side. Something similar was happening on the other wall, but the sword was white. I thought that was a little odd. As I looked back and forth, the color of the sword changed, but the person didn't always. Sometimes the black person held the sword on both sides. Sometimes all the people surround the person with the swords were lying down and sometimes they looked to be busy doing other normal things like talking or waving.

Remi stopped in front of me. I tore my eyes away from the murals. In front of us the hallway opened up into and expansive cavern. A black chasm opened out before us. Below, metal spikes with their own self-reflecting illumination pointed up at us. On the other side of the expanse, lay an open rectangular brick doorway. I assumed that was where we needed to go.

I looked at Remi. "Now what?"

"This is your quest. Not mine."

"Can't you just teleport us over there?"

He shook his head. "I can't teleport around here. There are no shadows so to speak. I'm sort of stuck."

I frowned. I searched around, but there was no rope. The murals did not extend into this room. All the walls were blank. I knelt down to the ground and felt around. The floor beneath was smooth. There was nothing. I crept forward and felt for the edge of the chasm. Maybe there was something on the edge that we could use to climb over. My fingers slid up to the edge, but not over. Instead, they went straight forward as if the floor went over the pit. For a moment, I could see my fingers instead of just black outlines of them.

"I think this is glass," I said. I felt around more, watching my self-illuminated fingers. My hand slipped off and I almost tumbled over the edge. Remi grabbed my shoulder as I lurched back. "Whoa, never mind."

Remi was down next to me, holding my shoulders back away from the chasm. "Be careful. I can't save you in here."

"Noted." I carefully felt again. "I really do think it's like glass. I can't see it, but there is a spot here that is clear. If we're carefully, maybe there is a path across. Oh, wait."

I reached in my tote bag. I couldn't see my hands or my tote, they didn't self-reflect light like the other things in this realm, but just maybe I could use it and the glass would light it up. I wrapped my hands around a bottle and pulled it out. I hoped it was the right bottle.

I pointed the opening at the glass and squeezed. Baby powder shot out and landed on the glass, becoming self-illuminated. Little white specks showed a one meter square area of surface ahead of us.

I looked to Remi's figure. "What do you think?"

"You're the boss. I'm just here for moral support."

"And balance," I added.

"Right, that, too."

I crawled forward. Remi inched in behind me. The glass square seemed to hold. I squirted a tiny bit more baby powered ahead of us. The powered lit up another square piece of glass. I crawled on to that. The next one ahead of us, did not light up. I couldn't even see the powder fall. I tried to the left with no luck, and then to the right. The next square lit up. I looked behind me at Remi. He was self-illuminated now. His normally stoic face looked concerned. I think it was the first time I had ever seen him worried about something.

I focused my eyes back on the next square and crawled across. I went another right and then two more forward. The other side was drawing closer, but was still at least another ten squares away. I tried the powder in each direction but nothing lit up.

"Umm... Remi? I think we have a problem. There's nowhere to go."

"Did we miss a turn? Maybe there are dead ends."

I handed the baby powder to him. He inched back the way we had come and checked. "No. You didn't miss anything."

I looked around. I held out my hand to him and he dropped the baby powder back. The powder wouldn't reach very far, so I dug out a few other items from my purse. I could actually see all the items now that we were lit up. I pulled out a chapstick, a pen, and USB stick. I chucked each one out another square in each direction. The pen and chapstick were never to be seen again, but the USB stick landed another square in front of me.

"That's not good," I whispered. I stood very carefully.My vertigo was wavering and it was taking all my focus just to keep from tripping off the side. Remi steadied me from the back.

"It's okay, you can do this. It's just a little hop," He said in my ear as he massaged my shoulders a little.

"Right. Just a little hop. A three foot hop." My insides squeezed tight. "And if I miss, I'm done for."

"Let me go first," Remi said.

I shook my head. "If you go first then I will have to jump for you. I might pull you off to the side when I flail. It's better if I do this myself.

Remi nodded, but his face was grim.

I handed my bag to him. "Okay, just a hop."

I bent my knees. I could feel my vertigo trying to topple me, but I focused hard on the USB stick. I could this. I gritted my teeth and leapt forward. I landed right in the center and didn't topple to the side, but my foot hit the USB and started to slide. I compensated and leaned back as my foot went forward. the USB skittered off the edge ahead of me and disappeared into the darkness no longer self-lit. I landed squared on my ass. My heart jumped in my throat as I tried not to scramble and flail as my vertigo swam.

"Are you okay?" Remi asked.

I blinked my eyes several times trying to orient my vision. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just give me a sec." I was doing my best not to cry or to rub my aching ass. I was okay. I was still alive. I could do this. I slowly climbed to my feet. "Toss me my bag."

Remi swung it. It landed right at my feet. I breathed a sigh of relief. I pulled out the bottle of powder again and check the left side. I took a step to the left. Remi jumped in behind me, landing gracefully. His lips quirked up on one side in a slight smile before he flattened his expression again. "Keep going."

Again, there were no places to go. I threw another pen out. It landed on the next square to my left. I handed Remi my tote and made the next jump. I landed heavily, but this time I managed to avoid falling on my ass. My vision still swayed, but I was alive. We repeated the same steps. I had to make one more jump into nothingness and they we finally made it to the last square. I stepped on to solid ground once again. My heart pounding in my ears lessened as I breathed out deep breaths trying to find my calm.

"Well, that was nerve wracking," I said.

I couldn't see Remi's expression now that we were no longer lit from the glass, but I assumed he looked as relieved as I felt.

"Let's just move on to the next one. I don't like it here." He said.

"As the queen of vertigo, I second that motion."