Jake woke up to the whistle of the wind blowing through the bushes as the overgrown brambles above his head ruffled in the breeze. Looking around with squinted bleary eyes Jake took in his surroundings. The charred bit of grass and ash beside him marked where their fire had long gone out after he fell asleep and his bag lay next to him, still slightly open allowing some of the sickly-sweet berries to roll out to the floor. Alice lay a few feet away from him on the other side of the extinguished fire pit, still asleep and curled up into a little ball.
Jake let a small yawn before reaching to block the rays of the rising sun shining directly in his eyes. It took a second for Jake to process this sudden bit of information but with a gasp, he blinked the sleep from his eyes, grasped hold of the bag next to him, and dived across the fire pit. Wrapping his hand around the sleeping Alice’s wrist he fell atop her in an ungraceful heap. Her eyes shot open with a start, and she started to let out a cry of indignation, however, her cry was interrupted as Jake and Alice once again found themselves falling.
Alice let out a sudden gasp, the wind knocked out of her. She had just woken up only to find herself falling flat with Jake sprawled out on top of her. Jake hurriedly pushed himself up and reached out a hand to try and help her up, yet Alice remained on the floor wheezing and trying to regain her composure. When she finally did sit up, she spun toward Jake and let out an angry cry, shouting,
“THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!”
“That was way too close…” Jake said a tone of relief in his voice. He looked around where they’d landed. It looked to be a forest of some sort, not thickly packed with trees but just enough so that the sky above did not shine down oppressively but was instead blocked by a nice curtain of leaves. The leaves of the trees above grew in a rich purple and took on an oblong shape. The ground was carpeted in a thick layer of grass and overgrown weeds which also grew dark purplish. It had tickled Jake's hands when he landed and had felt slightly velvety. No immediate signs of life were near the duo. No obvious source of food or water. They were left alone for the time being.
“Sorry…” Jake said, feeling slightly out of breath. The panic of almost leaving alone had gotten to him. “That was just way too close… I almost left without you or the bag, almost stranded you. Sorry to startle you.”
Alice took in his words, calming down now somewhat from the shock of being suddenly awakened and dropped through reality. The purple world around her was a feast for her eyes, hidden wonders previously unknown that distracted her from any sort of anger or annoyance she might have felt beforehand. But as she tried to rise to her feet, she found herself stumbling forward, collapsing back down to her hands and knees. A sudden pulsing pain split through her body, a roaring energy that threatened to rip her apart.
“No… Please…” She said it weakly, but it was no use. A sound like cracking china filled the still air of the purple forest as the cracks cutting through her skin grew deeper, splintering off across her body. A putrid energy began to seep from her body, her horrific curse leaking free once more. Small trickles of blood leaked from her joints causing splotches of dark crimson to appear across her clothes as she let out a violent cough sending a splattering of blood across the purple grass.
Jake stood frozen, watching horrified as Alice sat bent over shaking in pain and bleeding. Unsure how he could help he hurriedly began digging through his unlatched bag, scattering the sickly-sweet berries across the ground. He pulled his blanket and his ruined clothes from its depths before rushing to Alice’s side. It was the only bit of fabric he had currently not in use. If it proved to not be enough, he’d have to start slicing off bits of his clothing till he’d successfully wrapped her injuries.
Kneeling down at her side, Jake raised the blanket and drew one of his knives from his pocket preparing to cut it into strips till Alice let out a pained scream and grabbed hold of both his wrists.
“NO!” She looked at him with desperation in her eyes before continuing, sounding like every word spoken was a war in itself “LEAVE! PLEASE JUST… JUST LEAVE ME…” She couldn’t say any more as another violent cough coursed through her body causing her to fall back in pain. Jake stood next to her with a look of uncertainty on his face before he repocketed the knife.
Setting the ruined clothes to the side he threw the blanket over her, in hopes of making her somewhat more comfortable and backed away into the woods behind, her cries still echoing behind him.
He wasn’t sure what was wrong with her but the look in her eyes made it clear, Jake’s presence was only causing her more distress. She’d seemed somewhat familiar with what was happening to her, at the very least she hadn’t panicked and begged for help like Jake would have if he started randomly bleeding and vomiting blood. Looking over his shoulder, back toward where he could see the faintest outline of the camp Jake tried to reassure himself Alice knew what she was doing. Yet still, his stomach stayed twisted in knots as he moved further through the woods.
Alice lay paralyzed on the ground, floundering in pain yet relief flooded through her as she watched Jake stand and walk away without further argument or complaint. She didn’t want him to see the destructive nature of the curse or the Crumbling of the Broken. Not when he was so kind to her and treated her so normally. She didn’t want to ruin that. By her best guess, she should still have a year or so left to live, so this backlash shouldn’t be too severe. Still, the pain would be severe.
Her skin shattered and crumbled, falling to the ground with a horrid splintering sound where it collected in crackled piles on the floor. Blood mixed with unnatural energy flowed freely, staining the purple grass around her in wild sporadic patterns. Her innards felt as if a hot knife were jabbed through them, repeatedly moving in a circle over and over without rest till all she could do was lay still on the ground twitching and screaming and waiting for the pain to stop.
The Crumbling usually didn’t last long, fifteen to twenty minutes or so, and the bleeding would usually end after the first five minutes leaving only the pain. There was no difference this time in routine, yet Alice found it impossible to keep track of time as the curse's horrid effects tore her body apart inch by inch, molecule by molecule. Slowly, agonizingly, she curled herself up into a small ball draped in the rough blanket provided to her by Jake before his departure.
It did little to help dull the pain, yet it helped ground her wandering consciousness and helped remind her of her freedom. No matter what pain her curse caused her now, she was free. Free of the guards, of the beatings, of the punishments. A small smile took hold of her face as she gritted her teeth and barred the pain of the Crumbling till at last it began to ebb away. It did not graciously leave all at once but instead left slowly, each fraction of pain removing itself from the body ensuring that its mark would remain with her till the next time she started to Crumble.
When at last the pain had dissipated her breath finally began to ease. Uncontrolled tears stung her cheeks, and her throat was coarse and scratchy. Sitting upright, the blanket wrapped around her fell way to the bloody grass below. It made little difference to the condition of the blanket, as being wrapped around her had already ensured the blanket was stained through. She sat for a long while, what could have been seconds or hours, merely breathing in the fresh air around her trying to recenter herself. When she felt she’d managed to compose herself enough she took stock of herself, examining the condition of her limbs after her latest Crumbling.
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She couldn’t accurately see her face or torso, instead having to rely on touch to confirm her suspicions. The cracks had grown deeper and longer, branching out into new pathways that tore through what little unbroken flesh she may have left. Her flesh itself had grown even harder, no hint of warmth or humanity remained within it.
An uncontrolled sigh escaped her as finished examining herself. She was beginning to think that maybe a year had been too kindly an estimate for herself. A few more Crumblings like that and she might find herself immobile, limbs so stiffened she couldn’t move anymore. Leaning back into the bundle of the blanket that fell around her and trying to ignore the grim future that may lay ahead she took in the beauty of the woods around her again.
The hidden beauty of the entirely purple world around her was something she’d never imagined, something unheard of, something she could have never seen normally. A small laugh escaped her as she thought about how close her time was to running out. Looking around, she couldn’t help but think that there were worse ways to die. Worse places, at least.
She sat, unwilling to move for quite a while simply mulling the future over. She only began to move again once Jake returned from the woods. He slowly stepped out of the woods, footing uncertain as he wasn’t sure it was ok for him to be there. Yet when Alice caught sight of him she excitedly waved to him and said,
“Where’d you run off to?”
Jake let out an exasperated sigh, yet it was mixed mostly with relief as he stood straight and walked fully from the woods, slightly blood-stained and carrying what looked to be a rabbit with wings on its back. It was skinned, though done so in a clumsy manner as Jake was uncertain what to do with the wings.
“Managed to catch this for us to eat. I’m not sure why you were so unwell, didn’t know if maybe it was the berries so I figured we’d try something else for dinner.” Alice looked toward the skinned rabbit-like creature, her eyes shining anew.
“I’ve never eaten so much meat before! It wasn’t the berries but I’ll gladly eat that.”
She was practically giddy as if not a few hours ago she wasn’t bent over slowly dying on the floor. Jake sent her a side eye, unsure if he should say anything before shaking his head and handing the meat off to her. She took the skinned creature from him, a look of excitement in her eyes as Jake busied himself collecting materials to start a fire with. As he moved around the wooded space the duo now found themselves in, the blood splattered on the ground did not escape his notice, yet he held his tongue, figuring it would be best to ask about it later.
Only after the fire had been made, the meat set to roast on pikes, and Alice sat leaned over practically drooling did he turn toward her and with a nervous cough ask,
“What happened to you? Are you sure you’re okay?”
Alice looked toward him, thought about lying to him for a moment before noting the genuine concern marring his face and with a sigh looked down toward the floor.
“It’s nothing. I just got caught up in the excitement with so much happening, finally being free to see so many beautiful sights for the first time, it just slipped my mind.” She turned to Jake, the fire casting an ominous shadow across her face. Her voice came out deep and sad. “How old do people live to be where you're from? You mentioned no one was Broken or magic or whatever, but how old do you all normally live?”
“I don’t know, seventy, eighty?” Jake said though he doubted he’d ever get to live that long the way things had been going recently. Alice looked at him, a look of astonishment on her face before laughing. Yet the laughter was cold, joyless. Looking down, not meeting his gaze she continued on.
“You really are from a paradise. Where I’m from, only the richest of the rich could hope to live to seventy. Most die at fifty, and that’s only the Unbroken. The broken, they usually die at twenty. The oldest person I’ve ever heard of who was Broken was twenty-five but the curse barely affected her. Her skin was practically pure, practically Unbroken. Me, I just turned twenty not too long ago. I thought I was still fine, could still hold on for a while longer until…”
Her voice trailed off as her gaze turned upward, pointed toward the stars shining up above. Jake gulped before he asked in a slow voice, unsure if he should keep broaching this subject.
“Then before, that was..”
“I was Crumbling.” Alice interrupted him, gaze still pointed to the sky. “Been Crumbling all my life, every Broken Crumbles. The stronger the curse grips you, the worse it is. Recently, I’ve been Crumbling more and more violently. I thought I had a year left, but now…” She shrugged still gazing at the sky, hiding her face from view.
Jake sat in silence, not sure how to process this information. Every time he tried to speak, nothing would come out of his mouth. His gaze just fell off, gazing toward the floor where it caught sight of the scattered contents of his bag. In particular, it locked onto a book, and a spark of hope began to ignite in his chest. Rushing forward, away from where he sat next to Alice he scooped the book up in his hands.
It had been magically cleaned multiple times, leaving its pages feeling brittle. It had been shoved deep in his bag so long many of its pages now sat dogeared and ruffled, and due to his multitudes of injuries it was bloodstained and some pages bordered on unreadable. But it was still usable, a quick flip through revealed that much. ‘Basics of Magic Control’, lent to him by Lana what felt like ages ago now was still usable. Turning around and rushing toward Alice, she began to speak not meeting his eyes.
“I know you made your whole, promise or whatever a few days ago but you don’t need to worry about me. It doesn’t seem fair to force you to take care of someone who’s just going to…”
Jake interrupted her, forcing the book forward into her hand.
“What is this?” She asked with a start, jumping up a bit from her seat in surprise as the book fell into her lap.
“‘Basics of Magic Control’, borrowed indefinitely from a friend. If the answer to your problem isn’t in there, we’ll find it somewhere else. We have time, plenty of time to search around for a way to keep you alive so don’t give up before it’s too late.”
Alice felt choked up, emotion surging through her as she gripped hold of the ruffled book forced into her lap.
“You’d just.. give me this?”
“Well, I mean, I don’t need it, and I owe you for saving my life. Besides, not like I want you to die.” Jake said his words coming out awkwardly as he hadn’t been expecting the question. Alice sat a moment, touched before she carefully cracked the book open towards its first page. She stared at it a moment, heart full of emotion, before her brow furled in confusion. Turning towards Jake she said,
“This is gibberish.”
“What?” Jake said, coming beside her. Sitting next to her, he found he could read the pages of the textbook perfectly fine, and while he had no understanding of what any of it meant he could still read it. Turning to Alice beside him he asked in a concerned voice,
“Can you read?”
“Course I can read!” She said, sounding insulted before she pointed across the fire pit to Jake's old shirt. It lay covered in blood and abandoned on the ground, yet in the crackling fire the faded text that was once proudly printed across it’s front was lit up and visible to both.
“Een ay Ame ican ot” She said, reading out the faded words of the shirt in mock sarcasm, before turning toward Jake with her eyebrows raised and saying “You wore some interesting clothes back home, huh?”
“It’s ‘Green Day: American Idiot’, it’s just an old shirt…” Jake said, feeling embarrassed as Alice shot him a judgmental look that let him know she did not believe him. “But if you can read that fine, well fine enough, why can’t you read this…” Picking the book back up, Jake turned toward Alice and pointed to the first word printed on the page, ‘The’, and said,
“Write that out in the dirt.”
She looked at him, confused, before complying. Picking up a stick off the ground she wrote the three-letter word out in the mud. For the first two letters, it remained a jumbled mess but as soon as she finished the last letter, Jake blinked and found the word had changed in an instant into ‘The’.
“What is going on…” Jake started to ask before recalling his meeting with Lana and the others. He hadn’t understood a word they said when they first met, not until she pressed her hand to her head and cast some sort of translation magic. Jake hadn’t thought about that in ages, never considered it also allowed him to read their books. With a sigh, Jake took hold of the book and turned toward Alice.
“The important thing right now is, I can understand the book. Till we can find a way to help you understand it, I’ll read it to you. Hopefully, since you have Magic, or curse, in you it’ll mean something to you.”
Alice nodded toward him, not saying a word, and leaned forward a look of eager anticipation on her face. Jake cleared his throat and, feeling slightly embarrassed to have someone so spellbound by him, began to read through the textbook in search of something that could save Alice’s life.