Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
I came to stand next to him. As I peered out the window, my arm brushed his, but there was no awkwardness. It was a familiar touch, one born from intimacy and closeness. It shocked me, and I didn’t know how to feel about it. But then my attention went to the world outside the window, and my entire being stilled. It was like no place I’d ever seen. The sky was grey with patches of fiery orange. A vast city lay beyond us, dark stone buildings all huddled together like tiered layers in a cake. There were walkways and endless stairs leading from one level of buildings to the next.
Vasilios and I seemed to be somewhere midway up, and when I looked down, the buildings became more and more plentiful, all squeezed together like sardines. There was barely enough room to contain them. The layers went down, down, down into a place I couldn’t see. My gaze travelled up again, rising to the buildings above. The houses got larger and grander the higher up they went, culminating in a giant castle that sat at the top. The most unusual thing, though, was the blazing orange river that ran through the city. A river of lava. It appeared to be a part of the infrastructure. People used it to travel through on boats or transport goods. How were the boats not burning? What were they made from? I was speechless as I took it all in, and there was no mistaking where I was. There were no cities like that where I came from.
I was in Oreylia.
“Have you ever been up there?” my future self asked as I peered at the castle.
“No,” Vasilios replied solemnly. “Never. The vast majority aren’t allowed past the eighty-seventh sector.”
“It’s so unfair. How can they justify keeping so many down in the mines?”
Vasilios brushed some of my hair over my shoulder, and again, the familiarity was jarring. “I honestly don’t think they care enough to justify it.”
“I hate them.”
“Good. Let that hate fuel you. You’re going to need it for the path that lies ahead.”
I was propelled forward again, moving through time, through events that hadn’t yet come to pass. The next thing I knew, I was standing in a dark, cold place that smelled of sulphur. Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared back at me. Some eyes were yellow, others red, and others purple or pink. I’d never encountered eyes of that kind before. Their faces were covered in soot and dirt, their clothes grubby and worn.
Sven, Vasilios, Ren, and I stood on a podium above the gathered crowd. Ren? What the hell was Ren doing there?
“If you want to be free, come with us now,” Vasilios said, his voice loud and commanding.
“How do we know this isn’t a trap?” A red-eyed man from down below shouted back. He had dark hair and dappled horns similar to Vasilios and Sven’s.
“You know me, Tomin. I toiled here with you for decades. There is no trap,” Vasilios replied.
“He could be working on behalf of the demon overlords. Red Armand might’ve put him up to this so that he can accuse us of betrayal and demand even more free labour,” another man said.
My future self stepped forward. “Vas would never work on behalf of Red Armand. The man indentured him for almost a century. But if you won’t believe him, then please believe me. I come from a world where all of you can be free. Look at me,” I said as I undid the heavy robe before pulling off my jumper until I stood before them in only a plain grey bra. Vasilios shot me a stunned look, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
“Look at my skin,” I said, ignoring him. “I’m half human, half vampire, and yet, I have no scars. If I were from Oreylia, I’d have scars and welts just as you do from labouring in this mine. The accelerated healing that my vampire heritage provides would be no defence against the repeated exposure to the heat and burning endured when mining reylite. That’s why you should believe us when we tell you there’s another world, a world I come from, where you can all be free.”
I turned around, allowing them to look at my unblemished skin. I glanced at Vasilios and found him looking at me, too, though, unlike the miners who stared at my skin in stunned amazement, his eyes held a mixture of frustration and heat.
When they were done looking their fill, I put my clothes back on, much to Vasilios’s relief. The four of us waited while the miners began murmuring amongst themselves. Their voices were too low to hear, but it appeared they were holding some kind of vote. A few minutes later, the man named Tomin stepped forward. He seemed to have been nominated as their spokesperson.