The Final Ritual

Adea's ears hummed and whirred as she slowly began to regain consciousness. Her eyes struggled to focus; her vision was hazy and disoriented. Her surroundings were pitch dark and quiet, but she could feel the cold breeze against her flesh, telling her that she was outside. As more of her senses returned, she realized that she was lying on a hard but smooth surface of rock and that she had been stripped completely naked. She was still too disoriented to make out her surroundings. She tried to move, but that was when she noticed that her limbs were bound in place. Her arms were spread out on either side and her legs were both pinned straight forward. She began to panic when she turned her head this way and that, only to be met with the frighteningly familiar sight of stone slabs perched upward in a circle, and she was right in the middle of it.

Adea was fully awake now and aware of the reality of the position she was in. She struggled in vain to pull her arms and legs free but to no avail. Her eyes darting around to get a look at her limbs, she noticed that there was nothing even there to hold them in place, no bindings of any kind. Her first thought was some sort of paralysis caused by the dart that had knocked her out, but she soon realized this had to be Lyda's doing, holding her limbs down by some unseen force. That terrified Adea even more. She began to squeal in panic as she continued to try in vain to free herself.

Just then, Adea froze when she heard a soft rustling a few dozen feet away, followed by footsteps as some approached from out of the stifling surroundings of rhododendron clusters. Adea adjusted her head to get a look at who it was but could not make anything out in the darkness. That is until they came to rest on their knees just over her head, and Adea found herself staring up into the eyes of her sister.

Lyda looked the same as she did when she took off from the cottage, but her clothes were dirty and somewhat torn. Adea guessed that after running away from them, she had come straight here, plotting for this very moment.

Lyda ran a gentle hand along her sister's forehead. "Be still," she whispered down at her. "It will all be over soon."

"What are you doing?" Adea said in a flustered voice.

"The ritual, Adi," Lyda muttered. "Don't you remember? The time has come. We started this together. We have to finish it tonight." To Adea's shock, Lyda brandished the knife she used to cut the hearts from her previous sacrifices, holding up in front of her sister's face.

"No, Lyda!" Adea cried. "We always used animals! You would sacrifice animals for this! Why are you doing this to me?!"

Just then, Lyda looked as though she could have shed a tear in spite of what she was doing. "I didn't want to do this. But I finally understand the ritual's demand for a soul. That's why I needed you to be a part of this, dear sister. I didn't know it then, but the souls of animals are not enough. That was when I came to the terrible truth that one of us would have to make the ultimate sacrifice."

"No!" Adea thrashed on the ground, unable to free her limbs.

"Believe me, I tried to find another way when I took Hazel's heart, but the Dark Twin's whispers were adamant about what needed to be done. The ritual must be completed, there's no choice. One of us has to sacrifice. For the other, the Dark Twin promises unlimited power. The power to lead our people into the future. It wasn't a decision I wanted to make, but I want this power far more than you do. Don't you see? It has to be you. It's your soul the Dark Twin wants.

"You're insane!" Adea screamed.

"No, Adea!" Lyda fired back, switching to anger as if on a hair trigger. "I've never seen more clearly in my life! You were always the weak one. Frightened of everything you didn't understand. Too innocent to look beyond what you know to see the greater good! You insufferable priss! You didn't deserve the power I gave you right here! You didn't deserve Eran's love!"

"Listen to yourself! How can you even think about doing something like this?! You killed our parents! You killed Iris! You are not capable of love!"

Lyda let out a hiss as she threw a punch at Adea's face. Her fist struck Adea across the temple. Adea's head banged against the stone with such force that she nearly blacked out. She was struck again before she could even cry out. Her ears buzzed with a high-pitched ringing. Adea groaned in pain as she struggled to regain her focus on her sister leering over her.

"You worthless little parasite!" Lyda growled. "You've spent years feeding off of everything I did for you, you ungrateful bitch! I wasn't going to enjoy doing this, but I think I will now!" Situating the knife in her hands, she slowly lowered the blade until the tip was resting gently over Adea's heart.

Adea's eyes widened and she tensed every muscle in her body as the sharp, stone tip touched her flesh. "No, don't!" Adea cried, hyperventilating as she waited for the knife to tear into her chest. "Please don't! Please don't do it, Lyda! Please! I'm your sister!"

"Shut up!" Lyda screamed at the top of her lungs. She placed a hand firmly over Adea's mouth, barely muffling her screams, and she raised the knife above her head, preparing to drive it into her sister's heart. "Sikar wants your soul!"

Suddenly, a thunderous uproar erupted all around the area, like the sound of a great, deep horn. Adea's heart skipped a beat, causing a terrible pain in her chest that at first she thought was the pain of being stabbed. The sudden, horn-like sound continued to echo ceaselessly. It was so loud that Adea's eyes were almost forced shut in panic. She looked up at Lyda, who was frozen where she knelt. She still held the knife above her head and her hand over Adea's mouth, but her attention was now focused straight ahead at the brush opposite the path that led back out to the spring. She had a look of pure terror of her face that Adea had only seen once before. Her eyes were wide open and she looked as though the breath had been ripped from her body. She stared as though she was looking at somebody, but Adea could not see anything in the darkness.

"No!" Lyda cried out, her voice barely audible over the incessant noise. "I didn't mean to say it! I'm sorry!"

Adea was taken aback by her sudden behavior. Just then, she felt a great relief in her wrists as if somebody had just released a tight grip on them. Whatever force was holding her in place had suddenly vanished. She could move! Acting on instinct, Adea rolled over and threw a punch at Lyda's face. Her awkward position hindered the force behind her punch, but it was enough to take Lyda off guard as she grunted and rolled back onto the ground.

Adea scrambled to her feet. She wanted to make a break for the path leading back to the basin but found her way blocked by her sister as she met her with a furious glance. She whipped around to find another way out but the brush that closed them in was too thick. Just then, her eyes fell upon narrow track cutting through the brush in the direction Lyda had been staring. The mysterious uproar of horns was dissipating. Adea did not know what might be down this way, but she was in such a state of fear-stricken panic that she rushed into the path.

Adea was barely able to fit between the rhododendron bushes that scratched up her body as she pushed them away. She ignored the pain, forcing her way through as fast as she could and panting as she heard Lyda's furious voice screaming at her. Seconds later, branches behind her began to break away as Lyda chased her through the narrow path. The brush was cutting up Adea's face the more she looked desperately around her for a way out.

Suddenly, as the now distant sound of the horns ceased completely, Adea lost her footing and tripped forward. She tumbled into a hole in the ground, falling forward until her body slammed into the wall of the hole. It was a short but heavy fall to the bottom. Adea landed hard on her back. There was a series of loud cracks as she hit the ground as well as a sharp pain in her ankle, but Adea was almost too dazed by impact to take notice.

She groaned as her body was battered by the fall. That was when she took notice of the pain in her ankle, which shot up her leg when she tried to move. She must have sprained it in the fall. She then remembered the cracking sounds and realized that she was lying on top of a nest of something small, narrow and hard. Adea reached underneath her to grab one of the objects. It was almost too dark to see anything, but there was mistaking the rock-like texture of a bone. She was lying in the rotting remains of a Human skeleton.

Adea shivered and let out a squeal of disgust as she jumped to her feet, limping as she was unable to put the full weight of her body on it. That was when she looked around at her surroundings. It did not take long to realize that she had fallen into some sort of cavern, the only light coming from a small opening in the center of the roof where it flowed in like a spotlight. Trembling in fear, Adea lumbered toward the source of the light, hoping that she might find a way out. That was when she saw it.

Her eyes had adjusted enough to see that she come to the mouth of a great hole in the ground, sloping inward like a funnel and lined with the most horrific protrusions of rock that made the chasm look like the maw of a nightmarish monster.

Adea's head shot back in the direction she had fallen when she heard the bones shuffling.

"Little sister," she heard Lyda's voice echo in the cavern. "I can hear your breathing. Come back to me."

Adea's eyes darted around the dark cavern, trying to find a place to hide. With each passing second, Lyda's footsteps grew louder as she neared. Adea could only limp away from the center of the cavern until she bumped into the rocky wall. Running her hands along the wall, she soon noticed an opening near the bottom like an erosion that cut into the rock. Adea gently lowered herself onto the ground and crawled her way into the gap between the wall and the cavern floor. The opening was only just large enough for her to squeeze her entire body into, but she hoped it would be sufficient to hide from her deranged sister.

Adea clapped her hand over her mouth to mask her heavy breathing. Lyda's footsteps drew closer and she continued to call out as if taunting her. Just then, she stopped, and the whole cavern went quiet. Adea waited anxiously for Lyda's hand to snatch her out of the darkness, but nothing happened. She held her breath. The only sound filling her ears was the pounding of her own heart.

Suddenly, Adea shrieked as she was ripped out from underneath the rock. She did not even feel a hand reach under to grab her. It was as if she was pulled out by the same unseen force that had bound her limbs in place. It was all Lyda's doing.

Even in the darkness, she could see Lyda standing before her. Her hand was raised up and Adea was lifted higher into the air, unable to move or resist whatever force was gripping her. Lyda stared up at her with a look of sick pleasure upon her face. She slowly closed her fingers into a fist. Adea felt an immense pressure enveloping her windpipe until she couldn't breathe. She reached up and clutched at her neck in vain as if trying to remove hands that weren't even there. Every fiber of her being was in full panic, and then, as her eyes slowly rolled back, she began to accept that this was how she was going to die.

Just then, everything released at once. Adea gasped for air as she fell to the ground and then screamed as the fall worsened her injury.

"Do you know how I found you?" Lyda spoke up as if teasing her. "Our first ritual did more than just give us control over our dreams. Ever since that night, the worlds of our dreams have been bonded. That's why I was able to fill your innocent little head with the dream that got you back here. And this place," she raised her outstretched hands and glanced around the cavern. "This place is where nightmares live! I can feel the very essence of your dreams like the wind!"

"Stop this, Lyda," Adea sobbed on the ground. "Please stop it. Look what it's doing to you. This isn't who you are!"

Lyda let out a loud growl of frustration as swung her arm around. Adea's body was thrown into the air and over her until she crashed back onto the rock at the edge of the chasm. Adea was stunned by the impact. Her head fell back against the sloping cavern floor and she stared down into the black abyss below. It was darker than the most starless night she had ever seen, and it was emanating an aura of fear that penetrated her very soul.

"The Darkness may want a Human soul," Lyda said in a low, malevolent voice. Adea lifted her head to face her sister. "...but you're going to die like a dog!" She let out a cry of rage and lunged at Adea with her knife raised to kill. Adea screamed as she closed her eyes and, driven by impulse, threw her uninjured leg up as if in defense. Her foot caught Lyda in the stomach. The momentum of both their movements caused Adea to threw her leg forward, heaving her sister with it. Lyda cried out in panic as she was picked off her feet. Adea's eyes remained closed. Lyda's scream was short as it was quickly cut off by the most horrible, flesh-tearing sound Adea had ever heard.

Adea was almost too afraid to open her eyes. Her skin began to crawl as she turned over onto her stomach. Her mouth fell open and her stomach churned in horror when she saw it. Lyda had landed no more than five feet away from her face. Her body was angled parallel to the sloping mouth of the chasm, her back facing the ground and her head pointing up toward Adea. To Adea's horror, she could see the black tip of one of the rocky protrusions sticking out of her chest. Her mere kick had heaved Lyda into the giant hole where she had been skewered through by one of its terrible teeth, and in the middle of it all, she was still alive.

The pointed rock tore a massive hole through Lyda's chest. Any deeper and Adea thought it would have decapitated her. She was unable to breathe, but instead convulsed and coughed up blood with every second her torment endured. Her head fell back and she stared up at her younger sister with weak, bloodshot eyes. Adea's gaze was locked on hers, tears flowing from her eyes as she watched the skewered form of her sister endure the most horrific death she could imagine. Run through the heart. Such an ironic yet fitting end for her heinous sins.

Lyda made a series of sickening sounds, spitting blood up all over her face as Adea thought she was trying to say something to her, but no words were able to come out. Lyda struggled to raise an arm toward Adea, but whatever strength she had left was fading away. Her arm collapsed, and just then, Adea heard the sound of rocks cracking as the elongated protrusion that pierced her sister's heart broke away. There were no screams, just the disturbing sounds of rock and bone colliding against the chasm as Lyda plummeted to the bottom of the abyss.

Adea was frozen where she lied at the mouth of the giant hole. It took a moment for her to regain her senses after the shock of what just happened. Her mind struggled to process the sight of her older sister suffering like that. She had no strength left to cry or even move. Her eyes played back the moment over and over again.

Suddenly, a great gust of wind rose up from the within the chasm. Adea shivered in the cold air, trembling in fear as the strange disturbance was followed by a low growling that rumbled from below. The hairs on the back of Adea's neck stood up as the growling quickly escalated to a roar like a hurricane. Adea felt the ground shaking. She crawled back over the edge of the chasm mouth when the thunderous roaring became nearly too loud to bear. Adea rolled onto her back watched in horror as an enormous black figure rose up from the abyss, towering over her and enveloping her in a shroud of darkness and pure terror. Adea's hair whipped across her face in the wind. The giant, silhouetted monster continued to roar and reached with its enormous hand as if to grab her. Adea was taken over by a state of fear beyond what she could describe, and she lied on the stone and let out a terrible, throat-rupturing scream. And then darkness took her again.

After what seemed like a thousand lifetimes, light crept back into her eyes. Adea woke to find herself lying in the middle of the Crossing before the roots of the Twisted Oak. She was lying on her back and staring up at the crystal blue mid-morning sky. The soft breeze and the spray of the spring made goosebumps on her arms. Her eyes burned with exhaustion and her throat was dry and sore. She groaned as she sat up against the peculiar tree, crossing her arms in front of her when she realized that she was still naked. That was when it all came back to her.

Adea began to shake and tears fell from her eyes when she recalled the events of that night. She tried to convince herself that it was all a terrible dream, but there was no denying it. Her parents were gone, slaughtered and mutilated on their own bed. Her sister, whom she loved more than anything else in this life, now lied at the bottom of a giant underground chasm with a stone spike still piercing her body. And how much of it could have been avoided? How many lives could have been spared if she hadn't done the right thing years ago by telling her parents what the two of them had been doing? Her life, as far as she was concerned, had ended within a single day, and Adea had half a mind to finish it by casting herself over the cliff at the western face of this accursed spring.

As she caught her breath, Adea looked back to the east to see the narrow path through the brush that led out of the Crossing. Climbing onto her trembling legs, Adea headed over to make her way through to freedom, stepping lightly as she limped on her sprained ankle.

The trip through the towering brush seemed a lot quicker than the last time she had been here, but she felt an instant sense of relief as she left the powerful dark aura of that place behind. Once on the other side, Adea looked up when she heard the sound of a horse trotting in the near distance. She followed the commotion, thinking it may have been whatever horse Lyda used to bring her here while she was unconscious.

Just then, to her great surprise, the trotting ceased, and a moment later, Eran appeared out of the trees. He froze when his eyes quickly fell upon her. Adea did not have the strength to speak or even smile. She just stared at him, hoping that he was not a hallucination in her delirious state.

"Adea," Eran muttered as he ran over to her. He pulled her into his arms, embracing her so tight that she almost couldn't breathe. "Oh, thank the Light you're safe!" When he finally released her, he pulled his coat off and draped it over her indecent form. "What the hell happened?"

Adea was in no comprehensive state to speak of the details of that night. She merely looked into his eyes, her own blurred with tears as she uttered the simple words, "She's gone."

Eran's heart stopped. He could not believe what he was hearing, yet somehow, he feared that one way or another, he would lose at least one of his best friends before all this was over. He knew it was far worse for Adea, however. She had lost everything. Everything except for him.

"How did you find me?" Adea asked in a raspy voice.

Eran took a deep breath. "When I noticed you were gone, it didn't take long for me to figure out that Lyda was behind it. I spent all night following her tracks until they led me here. I prayed to the Spirits that you were all alright." He pulled her back into a loving embrace. "Don't worry. It's over now. Let's go home."

Eran took Adea back to his family's cottage where she slept all afternoon and into the night and following morning. He asked her what she chose to dream about. She told him nothing. There were no pleasant dreams the Human mind could conjure to remedy the pain of what she endured. The only thing that could give her a moment of peace was a long, dreamless sleep, and when she awoke, she was more refreshed than she had been in a long time.

Soon after, the Valley sent messengers to inquire about everything that happened. Eran explained on Adea's behalf everything that happened. The messengers offered to take Adea's parents back to the Valley to clean their bodies and give them a standard funeral process, but Adea insisted that they stay with her to be buried by her mother's garden. So the messengers returned to the Valley and had an oracle sent back to her cottage to oversee the funeral rituals, blessing all the souls that had been lost and welcoming them to the plains of the Spirits.

Evening fell as they finished covering the graves of Adea's family. Her parents were buried at the edge of the garden, with gravestones over each one carved with their names and a simple epitaph chosen by Adea. Her father lied on the left, with her mother four feet to the right. In between them, standing about six inches behind their stones, Adea personally erected a third gravestone for the one who was not present, and on it, she carved:

Lyda

Through everything, my beloved sister

May you sleep now with the dreams you always desired

Adea rested her head against her sister's stone, staining the top of it with her tears. She tilted her head to glance back at the Eran, Ellis, and Jay standing before the graves. She could not help but manage a weak smile. Through everything she had been through, it gave her great comfort to know that she still had the love of her friends.

She remained by the graves of her family for hours. The sun had already descended over the horizon. Jay had returned home an hour ago, and Eran just sent his brother back, telling him that they would follow soon. He allowed Adea to sit in silence for a moment before finally interrupting her anguish.

"I think it's time to go now," he said as softly as he could. "Adea. They'll be with you, always. Even your sister, whose spirit is now pure. Come on. Let's go back and rest."

Adea did not say anything. After a moment of unresponsiveness, she finally stood to her feet and faced her closest friend. Her face was still marked by the trails of endless tears she had shed, but now it seemed as though she was done. "Thank the Light for you, Eran. I don't know what I would do without you all." She lumbered over and let him take her in his arms. "And I would like to accept your proposal."

The two laughed to themselves as they turned away from the graves of the past and headed toward the path leading down the hillside. Along the way, Eran tried to diffuse the tension in the atmosphere by telling her about his last hunting trip with his father. Adea was not even listening. Her mind had completely zoned out with the coming night, and she reached up and rubbed at her right eye.