Zephyr held the knife poised but didn’t cut.
“What now?” Amanda asked Cat.
“I’m not sure what happens if we free them. When I was in there I came face to face with a deamweaver. I think the sleepers are helping keep it here. I don’t think it will try to leave until they are free, but when it does, if it can, it will seek out whomever it can find. I think it’s hungry enough that it will just pull someone in, like it did earlier. The witch’s weep seems to be feeding off it though, keeping it weak.”
“That explains the size of the plant,” Amanda replied. “I’ve never seen one so big, I didn’t even think it was possible. Usually they’re dangerous because people don’t notice them until it’s too late, or they use magic to fight them, but that one...” she eyed the dark room, “That one was strong even when we weren’t using magic.”
“How far can they usually travel?” Cat asked her next question.
Amanda shook her head, “A kilometre? It’s not like it’s near... oh. The school. Why has it stayed in the house? One this big, it should have travelled.”
“Kass said there had been a few disappearances lately,” Indi replied.
Amanda looked at all of the cocoons containing bodies. “Did you get an idea of how many of those are kids?”
Cat shook her head, “Not once they’re dead. Point is though, I think the dreamweaver is also keeping the plant here. They’ve trapped each other somewhat, locked in a battle to the death. That’s why it hasn’t grabbed more.”
“And you think cutting the sleepers free is going to change that?” Coal asked.
“I dunno, it may only need one here. So what I’m thinking, is I distract the dreamweaver. I think I can lock it back in the dreamworld, entice it away from here. You guys free everyone at once. As for the plant, the weedkiller seemed to be working well enough for us to get out of the house.”
Amanda shook her head. “Where are you going to push the dreamweaver? There’s a whole bunch more people out there than are in here. Not to mention, even if we get out of this house, if you’re right, and that dreamweaver is keeping the witch’s weep in place then we’ve just set it free. We don’t have enough weed killer to contain a thing that big at full strength.”
“I don’t think we can get them all out without releasing at least one of those creatures.”
“We can’t condemn an entire town for a couple people.”
“There’s a child trapped here!” Cat hissed.
“Then what you’d be doing is no different than what Lily’s father did when he brought her back.”
“It’s not the same at all. What would you do if it were your child?”
“That is my husband in there!” Amanda replied, raising the volume of her voice. Amanda threw her hands in the air. “Look, just give me a second to think. There’s gotta be another way.”
“That kid is dying!”
“You’re the one who told Zeph to stop!”
“Because I have a better plan and because we need to free them at the same time.”
“A better plan that consists of fighting a dreamweaver?” Coal who had been quietly watching with interest, now spoke. It was his soft spoken tone that made them each realise exactly how loud they had both gotten.
Cat hesitated just long enough for Amanda to register that there was yet another flaw in Cat’s plan.
“You can’t fight a dreamweaver,” Amanda replied at more of a normal volume, eyes widening, as she realised that Cat’s plan was essentially a suicide mission.
“I don’t have to,” Cat replied fiercely back. “I just have to distract it long enough that it doesn’t go after anyone else. I’m the only one who can get back out once in.”
Coal answered, “That plant doesn’t move that fast without someone using magic, and there’s no one nearby at the present moment, given the time of day. That is assuming there isn’t a containment spell around the house as is. We don’t know but we do have time to find out. Same for the dreamweaver. Even if it gets out and pulls someone into the dreamworld, it’s not going to kill them fast. We just have to track it. Going into the dreamworld puts you on it’s turf. Now maybe that’s the best way, but there are far better equipped people than you.”
“A good weaver will kill much faster than you think,” Cat countered.
“Well it’s not completely without some risk,” Coal replied calmly.
Amanda turned and started walking towards the room that held Sirius and Kass. “Well, it didn’t have Sirius and Kass before, so it definitely only needs one-”
“They’re bound together stronger when there is more,” Cat called after her.
“Well, we’ll take that chance. We’ll get them out first, then once they’re out of the house we do the girl.”
Coal eyed Cat for a moment, but she didn’t seem like she was going to try anything rash, so he followed Amanda to the plant covered doorway.
“So you’re picking them over a child?” Cat barked after the two of them.
Amanda turned briefly to yell back. “I am picking them first because they’re further from the exit, and harder to carry.”
She didn’t waste another glance on Cat. The decision was made. Cat would obey.
Coal cut away the vines from the doorway and then stepped forward into the room.
Amanda turned one last time before following, and said to the remaining group, “You guys stay there.” Then she disappeared after Coal.
Cat breathed out a long annoyed huff and crossed her arms.
Indi turned to Zeph. “You were really brave before Zeph.”
Cat rolled her eyes but she didn’t comment.
Zephyr looked at Indi with surprise. “Thanks.”
“The way you were all like, ‘I’m not going anywhere.’” Indi stood up with her shoulders straight, pretending to hold an axe, and gave an impression of Zephyr earlier.
Zephyr grinned proudly.
Cat mimed pretending to vomit.
“I thought you’d be way more afraid,” Indi continued, never one to know quite when to stop.
Cat raised an eyebrow at her last remark.
Zephyr ignored the implication. Indi was just trying to be nice. “Yeah, I know it’s a dangerous plant, and I can see what it did to that other guy, but I still just find it hard to be afraid of a plant. It doesn’t really register now that I’ve seen it, even more since we got pulled in. Getting back out hurt, but the initial feeling of the roots was weirdly relaxing.”
“It probably puts out some kind of sedative into you,” Cat remarked, now more curious about his experience with the plant than she was grumpy, although her annoyance at Amanda still stayed there, simmering just beneath the surface.
“Mmm, I suppose, it doesn’t really want it’s prey to struggle too much, or does it? Maybe it likes if we fight back with magic?” Zephyr wondered.
Cat shrugged.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Indi eyed the dark door at the end of the room warily, then looked nervously over towards where Amanda and Coal had gone. How long should it take them? Should they check on them?
Zephyr interrupted her thoughts. “You know I think a lot of things are less scary once you can see them. It’s the ones you can’t see, or can’t name that are the most frightening. Imagination is always way worse than reality.”
Indi wasn’t sure she agreed. The things in her imagination could be fought by other things in her imagination, and she was much better at thinking of nice things than she was at thinking of horrible things. Besides reality always felt, well, a lot more real. That said, her imagination right now, was doing a pretty good job of putting ideas in her head of all the things she didn’t want to happen. Like Cat getting herself killed.
“It’s not logical you know,” she said with a look at Cat.
Zephyr frowned, unsure where Indi was going with this.
“What isn’t?” Cat asked, in a slightly bored tone with a look of warning, like whatever Indi was about to say had better be good.
“To sacrifice yourself. They’ll still just get out, all you’re buying is time.”
Cat fixed her with an intense stare. “Time is everything. Imagine how much you could fix going back in time.”
“And yet you never see sandmen living perfect lives,” Indi objected, referring to witches who could time travel.
“It’s it my choice though isn’t it?”
Indi didn’t answer. Cat could see she wanted to argue but that she also wouldn’t lie. She wouldn’t argue against something she believed in, even if it’s result wasn’t her preferred outcome. Indi liked consistency too much for that. “It’s still not logical,” Indi muttered.
“Not logical huh, tell me, if it guaranteed lives would be saved and all you had to do was sacrifice one, you’re telling me that’s not logical?”
Indi shook her head, “Only if you think the value of a human life is additive.”
“And you don’t?” Cat asked in surprise, a bit taken aback by that argument.
Indi shook her head again. “I prefer first, before all else, in not hurting anyone, even oneself. We should assign ourselves the same value as others after all.” Indi was quiet for a bit, “Would you, if you could save five people by slicing the throat of one, would you do it?”
“Depends on who they were, and who I was saving” Cat replied deciding to answer honestly. “What if there was a vampire hunter and you could save five kids by pushing a simple button to kill the vampire hunter, you telling me you still wouldn’t do any harm?”
“It’s still a person,” Indi replied stubbornly.
Cat scoffed at that. “I don’t believe you wouldn’t push the button if you were actually faced with that situation.”
“We don’t always control what we do when we’re actually in those situations. But I don’t think I could live with having hurt someone.” Indi bit her lip.
Cat gave her a skeptical look just as Amanda walked back in on her own. Cat turned to her. “If you could save five people by slitting the throat of one would you do it?”
“Sure,” Amanda replied without missing a beat. Then she nodded back toward the room. “We need your help to carry them out.“
Behind her Coal carried an unconscious Kass from the room.
Cat followed Amanda back into the room. The place was covered in little wriggling white roots.
“No sign of the plant reacting?” Cat asked.
Amanda shook her head as she crouched next to an unconscious Sirius, recently cut free. “Not yet, and we all seem to still be in this world right?”
Cat shrugged, “As far as I can tell. It might still have a hold on them though, but I can break it once we get them further away.”
Amanda nodded as she stepped back so Cat, who was much stronger, could move Sirius out of the room.
Cat knelt down next to her brother, rolled him on to his stomach, then lifted him to his feet, and ducked under him so she could hoist him on to her shoulders. “You couldn’t carry Kass, while Coal did Sirius?” Cat asked. Amanda may not be able to lift Sirius but Cat didn’t see why they’d chosen to do it this way around.
Amanda didn’t immediately answer.
As they walked out of the room, Cat with Sirius over her shoulders, Cat interrogated her further. “If you’re so ready to sacrifice one for many then why not let me deal with the dreamweaver?”
“Because Indi’s right, all you would be doing is buying time, for possibly no lives saved and at least one life lost.”
“You don’t know that for sure. You know as well as I do that if that thing gets out, the longer it’s out there, the more people are going to die. They aren’t that easy to track.”
“Perhaps, but your life isn’t something I’m willing to gamble with. Besides we need to you to help get us out of this house. Coal took Kass because, he’s going to hand her off to the others, and you can keep moving with Sirius. Get out while Coal and I get the kid.”
“Like hell,” Cat replied. She stopped when she reached the others, noticing that Coal had handed Kass off to Zephyr.
“You lot get out, we’ll give you some time before we detach the girl,” Amanda instructed.
“Assuming leaving is straightforward,” Indi mumbled, fiddling with the sleeves of her jersey.
Zephyr nodded at Amanda in confirmation.
“The teleport device only takes two.” Coal gave a pointed look at Amanda. “That means you out too.”
Amanda crossed her arms. “No way, I’m not leaving until everybody’s out.”
“Well, I’m not leaving if she’s not,” Cat tilted her head in Amanda’s direction. She adjusted Sirius’s weight a little, damn guy was heavy. Not so heavy she couldn’t carry him out though. But she sure as hell wasn’t leaving Amanda here.
“Well, we’re going to get moving,” Zephyr said, as he started off, figuring he wasn’t helping by standing there.
Indi glanced nervously at the others and then followed after Zephyr. She walked a little slower with glances back every now and again, as if torn between staying and going.
Cat gave Amanda a firm stare.
“How are you going to get out?” Coal asked Amanda.
She looked back between Coal and Cat. “Fine,” she replied finally. She started walking, then she paused and turned back to Coal. “That teleporter is still magic, and it’ll take a few seconds to kick in.”
“I’ll mange,” he replied. He waved his shiny sword slightly and gave them a dashing smile, as if he was looking forward to whatever fight might come from the plant.
Amanda took a slow breath in then she looked down at the sleeping girl. “And you get her out.”
Coal smiled again, more softly. “It’s a promise.”
Amanda stood for one moment longer, but unable to think of any other reason to delay she gave a final nod of good luck and continued on her way. As they walked back through the corridors, she glanced back every now and again to make sure Cat was following.
Cat had to drop Sirius in order to get him back through the tight squeeze after the junk room, but she managed it with some help from Amanda.
“Is he just sleeping? Rather than knocked out?” Amanda asked worriedly as Cat hauled Sirius back on to her shoulders.
“I think so,” Cat replied. “I’ll wake him in the car park outside. Coal might be right you know, there might be some boundary spells set up around the house.”
“What does that mean for his teleport spell then?”
Cat was silent for a second. “I dunno. It’s Coal though, not the sort to risk his life if there’s a low chance of survival. Worst case I suppose he can just teleport into the entrance hallway.”
Cat stopped short as she realised where they were again. In front of them lay the flooded corridor. Amanda was standing at the edge. She also paused, then she glanced back at Cat with an uncertain look. She made a quick decision and stepped aside, indicating that Cat should go first. Evidently she was worried about Cat not following her through this bit at all. It was a valid thing to be worried about.
Cat didn’t like water, even water she could touch the bottom in. She especially didn’t like water she couldn’t see through. Amanda knew that, she knew all about Cat’s absolute phobia of water. But with everything else that had happened, both of them had completely forgotten that going back out had meant going back through this corridor.
Cat stood frozen in place, Sirius still on her shoulders. Indi and Zephyr were somewhere up ahead and out of sight. There was no way the tiny Amanda was going to able to carry the much lager Sirius. He was heavy even by Cat’s standards.
She walked forward until she stood at the edge of the steps. The tunnel was dark and Cat could only barely make out the other side. Before her the watery floor looked deceptively solid. But in Cat’s mind danced all the thoughts of things that might lurk beneath.
She stood there, on the threshold for who knew how long before finally Amanda spoke. “Cat, I can’t carry him.”
“Yeah, um, just give me a moment.” Cat’s voice was breathless, and scared. Her throat felt dry. She knew it was not far, knew that the longer she stood there, the more dangerous this area became for them, the more likely it was that Coal would free the child, or that something in the water might get tired of waiting, that the dreamweaver or the witch’s weep might come for them. She wasn’t sure how much difference it made that Sirius, and probably Kass, were still out of it.
She briefly contemplated waking Sirius, wondered if that wouldn’t be better, even if it brought the plant to them. Would it go for them though? Or would it go for those closer? For Coal, and the child. It was that thought that stopped Cat following through with that plan of action. But what else was there? The glistening pool ahead, felt like a hard barrier. Beside her Amanda was waiting. Time was ticking.
Cat was still frozen in place, her shoulders slowly cramping from having to carry all of Sirius’s weight, when up ahead a small light appeared. Light from a torch. Someone was coming towards them.
“Are you guys alright?” Zephyr asked as he exited the sunken corridor.
Cat finally put Sirius down by the wall. There was no way she was going to be able to walk through there with him. She wanted to answer Zephyr but she felt like something was caught in her throat. The words were stuck.
Amanda answered for them both. “Zeph!” The joy and relief in her voice was obvious. “Are Indi and Kass..?”
“They’re both out and...”
Before he could finish, more lights appeared up ahead, along with multiple voices, mostly male voices.
“... you’ll never believe who’s here,” he finished.
It took a few seconds for the face of the first newcomer to be revealed. But when it was, relief was felt by all. Out of the darkness came Falco. He was followed by a couple of other tall fellows, and one woman, all dressed in marine uniforms.
“Need some help?” Falco asked.
“Oh my gosh yes,” Amanda replied, “Can you take Sirius?”
“Righto!” Falco replied. Cat helped him load Sirius on to his shoulders.
Up ahead gunshots fired along with a splash and lots of movement.
“What was that?” Falco called.
“Dunno sir,” the woman called back.
“Some kind of creature, but we got it I think, it might have gone back under.”
“It’s a wendigo,” Amanda told him.
“Alright, move! Move! Move!” Falco barked at them.
They turned around and started moving.
Zephyr offered his back to Cat. She hesitated a moment but then accepted the offer.
“Have we got everyone? Are you guys good?” Falco asked, with a glance back.
Amanda hesitated a split second. Did they go back for Coal and the kid? Coal had the teleporter with him. Sending more people back was risky. She shook her head. “That’s everyone.”