Jake and Alice stood in stunned silence for a while, listening to the thunderous footsteps of the elves retreat into the dark. In this stunned silence, Alice lost focus of the strings running throughout her body, letting her grasp of the pulsing power flowing to her hand waver, and soon the glow coming from her hand flickered and disappeared. The glow dissipating from her hand seemed to jolt something in the pair and shock them from their stupor. Stepping forward in the moonlight toward the bundle left behind on the shore, Jake turned toward Alice with a smile,

“Let’s see what you got oh blessed one.”

“Don’t call me that…” Alice said, her voice weak a slight quiver in her voice. She hadn’t stepped forward toward the bundled offering with Jake, rather she stepped backward away from the passage. She had no right to touch it with her broken, crumbling hands. She was cursed, the opposite of whatever divinity the elves sought.

“Why?” Jake asked, a smile spreading across her face as he mistook her reaction for embarrassment, “What’s the matter, oh Blessed one? Come on, come claim your prize!”

“STOP IT!” She screamed at Jake, tears stinging her eyes fury evident on her face. Jake was taken aback, stumbling backward at this sudden, unexpected reaction.

“What’s wrong?” Jake asked hurriedly, he’d only been trying to tease her. He hadn’t expected the nickname to elect such a vitriolic response.

“I could handle them… I could handle the elves…” Alice struggled over her words, she seemed almost hysterical with rage, “They don’t know me. But you… you know dam well what I am. They want to waste their time praying to some deformed, cursed, freak let them! But don’t you mock me, insult me by calling me blessed!”

Alice stumbled forward as she yelled, falling to her knees. The moonlight bounced and reflected across her form, catching against the cracks that cut into her crying frame. She knelt there, uncontrollably sobbing into the sand below. She hadn’t meant to scream, hadn't meant to cry. It felt like a surge of emotion she’d long been suppressing was bursting forth all at once. Emotion suppressed deep down since she first heard about magic.

She’d long ago accepted her death, long ago accepted her life as a cursed Broken freak trapped pinning for the world beyond the walls of the city. But now… now she didn’t know what to believe. The worlds she’d been to, the things she’d seen and heard? She wouldn’t trade them for anything. She felt she’d lived more of her life the past few days than she ever had in the past twenty years. Still, the longer she spent free, the more she began to doubt what she was, who she was.

The more she heard about the possibility of magic or blessings now, the more a thought began to grow in her mind. Small at first but it grew more and more with each passing second. Was she truly cursed? She already knew now the curse wasn’t random, it could be controlled even if Alice still struggled with actually controlling it. What else could she and the rest of the Broken have been wrong about? What else could they have been lied to about? She quickly tried to ignore this thought, tried to banish it from her head. She had to be cursed, had to be a deformed freak cursed as punishment.

It was the only thing that possibly began to explain why. Why was she fenced off? Why was she beaten? Why was she insulted? Why was she left to rot? If she wasn’t cursed, why? Her cries grew stronger, her tears falling heavy to the sand below. The question she’d been trying to ignore ran rampant through her mind now. All her life the horrid treatment, while resentful and hated, made some level of sense to her. The Broken were beaten and locked away because of their curse, it was simply a fact of life, a fact of nature. But why? Why? Why? Why? Wh…

“I’m sorry…” Her thoughts were interrupted by the soft sounds of footsteps breaking against the sand drawing near her. She felt a hand softly place itself on her shoulder as Jake sat next to her, “I never thought it would be that big an issue for you, I just never really thought of you as cursed, you know? I mean you saved my life with your 'curse’ so it can’t be all bad, so I guess in my head calling it a blessing made more sense. I didn’t realize it meant that much to you though, so I’m sorry.”

Alice sat a while, sniffling as her tears began to dry head still filled with static. Jake just stayed beside her; hand resting on her shoulder. Eventually, her head began to clear as she sat backward onto her knees. The question of why was impossible to answer now, the pointless cruelty of the Unbroken was a mystery that would haunt her with no clear answer. Had they known the curse to be a lie when they fenced the Broken together, had they designed the lie for that very purpose? None of these mattered anymore, the unknowable cruelty in the world was something she’d have to learn to live with and leave behind to keep moving forward.

A small smile appeared on her face, now puffy and red and stained with tears, as she looked over toward Jake who sat beside her. The boundless cruelty of the Unbroken no longer mattered, why they beat and trapped and hurt her no longer mattered. She was free, she’d forgotten that for a moment she almost let herself be trapped by them again even if only in her mind. Standing upright on slightly shaky legs and smiling toward Jake who stood next to her a worried look on his face she announced,

“What are you standing around for, we have an offering to dig through!”

“What?!” Jake exclaimed, shocked and confused, but he was left standing alone by Alice who bounded forward across the sand toward the bundled offering. He stood there for a while, blinking in confusion struggling to figure out what the hell just happened. Eventually, he had to admit defeat and follow after Alice, still confused but happy to leave the issue behind in the past.

Alice had already unwrapped the bundle by the time Jake arrived next to her and was eagerly digging through its contents. The bundle seemed to contain offerings from every elf who’d come to pray to Alice the night before, which meant it held hundreds of offerings from the collected religious mass. Most were of little value to the pair, pebbles and stones of odd shapes or luster, however, that didn’t mean the bundle was without value.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

For starters, it came wrapped in a weathered old blanket. It was old, crusty, and full of holes, but when fully unfolded it was large enough to wrap both Jake and Alice in together and still have room left over. Along with this blanket, a few fish plucked from the stream were given as offerings along with some gemstones of various luster and size that could pretty easily fit at the bottom of the backpack till the pair had use for them. The most peculiar of the offerings was a flute-like instrument that lay buried amongst the pile of offerings. It seemed to be made of clay and holding it up to the light Jake saw it had only eight holes carved into his side.

“Odd…” Jake said before blinking and registering the purple light rising from the sky above. Pocketing the clay flute, Jake grabbed the backpack and took hold of Alice’s hand, who was currently busy packing the rest of the useful offerings.

The two waited a short while, admiring the sparkling of the early morning light against the flowing streams around them, before all at once the familiar sensation of falling took hold and they found themselves falling. Both landed without issue and looking around they appeared to have landed in a forest. Tall trees grew up on all sides, towering above them. The sky above looked picturesque and perfect and the grass below their feet flowed gently in the breeze.

Both Alice and Jake were immediately on edge. A ticking sound like an old clock filled the air, seeming to emanate from every direction. The trees surrounding the two were perfectly symmetrical and all of them were identical to each other. The sky above was also symmetrical in its cloud formations, the only thing disrupting its perfect symmetry being the sun which rose now as a perfect yellow circle. The grass beneath their feet which flowed gently in the breeze felt fake, all cut to the same height.

No sounds of nature meet their ears, no chirping insects, grazing animals, or flowing water anywhere. Neither felt comfortable where they landed, and so after adjusting the grip on their growing collection of luggage set out marching through the unnatural forest around them. Yet no matter how far they walked the scenery refused to change. They were always met with the same trees, same sky, same grass. Eventually, the pair felt their stomachs begin to rumble, and looking up saw the sun had reached its zenith in the sky. Now the sky above was perfectly symmetrical.

“We should stop, eat something…” Jake said, looking toward Alice, who gave a nod and held up two of the fish they’d been offered with a smile. The two set their luggage to the ground and set off toward one of the perfectly symmetrical trees to gather wood. Running his hand along the surface of the trunk, the tree at least still felt wooden to Jake. Reaching up to grab hold of the lowest branches, he was suddenly interrupted by a laughing sound.

Shrill and high, it cut through the world like the wind. Turning around toward Alice he saw the same look of panicked confusion on her face that let him know she’d heard it too, and worse, the sound hadn’t come from either of them. Both froze on the spot, listening and waiting, till another laugh was heard cutting through the trees sounding closer than before. The two shot forward, grabbing hold of the bags they’d left waiting on the ground and running wildly through the unnatural forest trapping them.

They heard nothing pursuing them, only the swaying of the breeze and rustle of the grass, yet still they ran for as long as they could till both collapsed down again, panting. Looking back, they saw no evidence of anything having pursued them, and after waiting a moment longer the laughter didn’t return. Looking around with a relieved sigh Jake was about to go toward the nearest tree and break a few branches to start a fire with when he froze. Sitting across him was a perfectly symmetrical and unlit fire pit.

That wasn’t the only thing that had changed. The swaying grass was gone, replaced now by cold mulch that felt spongy to walk upon, leaving their footing uneven as they slowly approached the firepit. Looking around for anywhere else to go, they saw a thin wall of mist slowly closing in, cutting off any hope of escape.

“We’re trapped…” Jake muttered. Alice gave a nod after which neither moved. They stood frozen and watched the mist spread out around them for any sign of movement. Yet none came, the only movement came from above as the sun had left its symmetrical perch long ago and was nearly set.

“We should light a fire, don’t want to be stranded here in the dark,” Alice whispered to Jake, uncertain if whatever trapped them was still nearby but wanting to be careful regardless. Jake gave a nod and flipped the backpack open, pulling the sparking stones free to light the fire pit. A perfect fire bloomed forth soon as the first spark struck the gathered sticks, large and symmetrical. No smoke rose in the air, the only thing that proved the fire in front of them was real was its heat, impressive and overwhelming.

With a gulp, Alice took the two fish out of the bundled blanket she’d been carrying and set them at the edge of the fire pit. They had not gutted the fish, nor did they have sticks to use to properly place the fish into the fire, yet at that moment neither was truly thinking about eating dinner. Looking up above they saw the sun moving closer and closer toward the pitch-black of night.

“We just need to wait…” Jake whispered to Alice, glancing around him wildly for any sign of moment or attack, “We just need to act naturally till sunrise, then will be out of here.”

“No! Oh no no no, that just won’t do.” A voice shrill and high blew across the duo with the wind, its tone mocking and cruel. “You can’t leave so soon, not when I finally have guests after so long. Let me help you feel more at home; help you stay right where you are.” A sound like metal scrapping against stone wrung out through the air at an ear bleedingly loud level, causing Jake and Alice to reach up with their hands in desperate hope to block the noise out. Yet soon the noise faded, and all was still yet again.

Confused, Jake and Alice looked around unsure what had happened till they glanced upward. Lumps formed in their throats. The sun now sat back in the center of the sky unmoving, frozen in place. The ticking sound grew faster and louder as if laughing at their shocked misery.

“You see, you have nowhere else to go? Why don’t I let you inside? Help you feel more at home?” The shrill voice returned, voice dripping with malicious intent buttered in mock kindness. The ticking grew louder again. All at once the fire burning bright in front of the pair disappeared without a trace, followed by waves of mist and the forest of symmetrical trees. Jake and Alice stood under the unnatural sky above, struggling to stand on the uneven ground below before that too was taken.

Falling into the dark below, a familiar sensation rose within Jake and Alice. This sensation quickly left the two as the fall continued, lasting several seconds, then several minutes, then potentially hours. Time and space seemed to lose all meaning to the two as they fell into the dark surrounded by the ever-present ticking that mocked their arrival.