FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

in the void, they dwell
chapter thirteen

Written by Ghost Capelton

Adair made a snap decision and began walking without input from the others. Quietly, they opted to follow along. They didn't have much choice after all - splitting up would just mean not knowing what truly happened in the end, and would reduce their chances. Staying put would drop their chances to a solid zero. There was a tall maintenance ladder on the other side of the room. She made her way over and gripped the rungs with white knuckles.

“Onwards and upwards,” Florian said, watching as Adair began to ascend. Cassian was quick to follow, then Bruno, then Florian - after a brief moment's hesitation.

“Only choice we have,” Cassian called back down. “If we go back into the hall, we risk running into that… thing again. If we stick around here…”

“We blow up,” Bruno inserts dryly.

“Exactly,” Adair responds. She was quiet for the rest of the long climb, arms aching as she began to think. Who would believe what they had seen?

She moved through the hatch at the top of the ladder, helping the others up behind her one by one. As she stood brushing dust from her jumpsuit, she couldn’t help but squint at the hallway ahead of them. Something was… off. She wasn’t the most knowledgeable on ship interiors, but…

“This is the path to the bridge, right?” Bruno asked. “It… shouldn’t be this long.”

“I was just thinking that,” Adair said, taking slow, careful steps forward into the dark. The others followed close behind, all of them hyperaware of any shadows through which they couldn’t see.

“Did you hear that?” Florian asked from the rear. “That… whispering.”

“No, I didn’t hear...” she stopped, trailing off. A ragged breathing echoed through the passage, and for a moment, she could’ve sworn she heard the scraping of metal on metal. But there was nothing there. Bruno let out a gasp, and Adair turned, but whatever he was looking at… she couldn’t see. “We need to keep moving.”

The hall shifted and warped as they made their way through it, the metal creaking as they walked faster and faster but never got any closer to an exit. Strange visions appeared, tapestries the likes of which had rotted out of museum displays long ago. Some kind of… ostentatious decor from a time long past. Faint orchestral music sounded from somewhere in the station. Cassian looked into the dark and saw a corpse - at first expecting it to be one of the crew, but as he looked closer, it seemed familiar... a man with a gaping hole in his chest, dressed in medieval garments. He blinked, and it was gone. Florian watched the ceiling as strange tendrils - what they thought, impossibly, were organic material, vines in fact - writhed along the length of the hall. Adair locked her eyes to the floor, overwhelmed by it all. She just kept moving, hoping the others were behind her. Eventually, she came into contact with the door.

Quickly, she opened it. The wayfarers found themselves on the bridge. On one side, there was a hatch to an incinerator. On the other side, an airlock. There were a number of terminals - the station controls - on the far end and a massive table for logistics in the center of the massive room, with windows staring out into the cosmos all around them. At the end of the table was Ambrose, fists bloodied and eyes mad. She locked onto Adair, rushing towards the group as they all scrambled to find a way out as quickly as possible. The terminals were the only clear solution now; it must control the doors, but… either would be a dangerous option for dealing with Ambrose.

Art by Sage / HerbalSpeicalTea