Complete and utter nothingness surrounded Jake. It stuck to his skin like quicksand, trying to pull him under with his every little movement. It felt familiar, almost nostalgic. Forcing his way through the endless muck of nothing as it worked endlessly to drown him, he realized he was rudderless. Nothing stood to guide him, no landmark or guiding light broke up the horizon he could aim for. He sat sinking, alone with only the slick sensation of the surrounding nothing for company.
Panic welled up in Jake as he tried to run, yet his every step felt wrong, almost as if the harder he tried to run the slower he moved. Sinking deeper and deeper now, he blinked only to find that the nothing had risen rapidly in a nanosecond, now completely up to his chin. He thrashed violently as he tried to resurface, yet his attempts seemed vain and pointless. He fought valiantly to keep his eyes open, struggled against the tickle of the nothing against his face till at last, it was too much.
He blinked again and when next he opened his eyes, he found himself completely submerged. He opened his mouth in shock, only to allow the passage for the nothing into his body, drowning his lungs and squeezing the air from his throat. Trapped drowning beneath an abyssal sea of dark absence, he realized his body was slowly calming, his mind-numbing. As the life was choked from him he found he could no longer muster the strength to care, the strength to fight…
All at once a blinding light broke through the nothing, enveloping Jake as it gripped him in its warmth. It seemed to soothe the pain from his body, drag the abyssal fluid free of his throat as he sputtered and coughed, reinvigorated to keep fighting. He floated through the light, dazed and confused as sense returned to his body starting from his side just below the ribs. Hard and fast his sense returned, jabbing repeatedly into his dazed body over and over and over…
Jake sat up with a gasp, desperately inhaling as he blinked rapidly, blinded by the sun high overhead. His mind felt hazy the first few seconds he sat awoken, struggling to process his surroundings, yet as he watched the midafternoon sun lazily crest the sky it didn’t take him long to realize that he no longer sat reclined in the jungle. Looking around with a start, his worry quickly subsided as he caught sight of Alice, crouched to the side of him still posed with her finger extended to jab into his side.
“Sorry about that…” she said, plopping back to the grass below, “you were just thrashing about so violently in your sleep I thought it might be best to wake you up.”
“When did I fall asleep?” Jake asked, shaking his head to try and clear his mind of the sleep-addled cobwebs that still infested it. Looking around quickly before refocusing on Alice, they seemed to have landed in a peaceful meadow. He could hear water running nearby and out of the corner of his eyes he could make out bulbous shapes rolling about that he assumed to be living creatures of some kind.
“You don’t remember? Man, you really were out of it, huh?” Alice asked, a smirk stretching across her face. “Late last night, I woke up to find you sitting there like a revenant. You were babbling nonsense, took me forever to get you to calm down enough to fall asleep but after that, nothing seemed to wake you. Had to keep hold of you to make sure you didn’t leave me behind, that didn’t do it. The fall here didn’t wake you either. You must have been out of it man.”
She finished her story, smirking at him while Jake felt his cheeks burn slightly, feeling unfairly embarrassed for no reason. Looking away from her, still feeling her smirk burning the back of his head, Jake jumped up to his feet.
“I’m starving. I want actual food this time, not just berries.” He announced, stalking off toward the rolling blobs a few feet away. He wanted to put a few feet of distance between himself and Alice while his embarrassment lasted. At the same time, he was eager for a chance to distract himself from his dream. Already the details were fading away from him, yet still, the emotions invoked remained.
Alice just watched him go, still smirking a moment or two before her gaze dropped down to the ground, refocusing on her hands. She’d been at work practicing just a few moments ago, stopping only to try and help the sleeping Jake. Now though, it was time to refocus.
Slowly, methodically, she balled and unbaled her fists through the air as she envisioned the strings flowing under her skin, their hidden power coalescing in her hands as pockets of pulsing power shimmered and moved throughout her body. For the first few minutes after she began this exercise, nothing happened. Yet slowly, as she focused inward she felt a slight invisible tug within herself, and gripping tight she was able to grab hold of the strings. Power pulsed into her clutched hand as the knotted bundle of strings crossed in webs throughout her body throbbed and shook. She kept her hand clutched tight in the air as long as she could endure, before at last she was forced to admit defeat, releasing her hand.
Nothing happened with this release, no explosion of power or ethereal effect. Externally everything remained the same. Yet internally, Alice shuddered as the pulsing power coalesced in her hands was rocketed back throughout her body, traveling through every inch of her body as the strings within her strummed and hummed a silent rhythm in response to the power’s vibrations.
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This was not the first time she’d done this today, and she doubted it would be the last. When she’d sat alone next to the sleeping Jake with nothing but her thoughts for company, she found she needed a new distraction, something to stop her from mentally cycling through her time in the corridor. Something new to stop her from reliving the words of the voice again and again, over and over in an endless dance. Sitting there, desperate to distract herself, she’d felt it again.
Within her, somewhere deep and unseen, the call of the curse’s strings rang out. A perfectly inviting distraction. Ever since learning there may be a way to survive the Crumbling that had racked her body her whole life, Alice had found herself borderline obsessed with the strings. In the back of her mind, she always found herself contemplating them, trying to understand their mechanics, trying to find the secret to how they worked. This obsession had only multiplied after the miraculous workings of the strings allowed her and Jake to escape the voice’s clutch.
Gripping hold of the strings, now faintly dancing within her, she felt the power pulsing and growing within her. It was faint as if blocked by the knotted-up bowels of the string's innards, yet still, she could feel it growing in intensity with each passing second she held tight to the intangible source of power, felt her body become more and more charged with energy.
She couldn’t quite recall what had spurred her to let go, whether she had just grown bored, distracted, or excited to see the result of the stockpiled power she couldn’t say, yet when she released the energy gathered tight around her hands, nothing happened. Instead it had all rebounded back upon herself, filling her with an odd sensation as the power flowed freely. It vibrated and bounced and pulsed within her for a long while, far longer than she had sat gathering power, but eventually the last of the strings vibrating with power faded away.
Alice was left confused, unsure what had happened, but something within her felt different. She felt lighter, clearer. Unsure what to do next, Alice sat a while trying to understand what had just happened, yet after a substantial period of time with no clear progress being made she decided to simply try and grip hold of the strings again, regather the power, and experience the odd sensation anew.
This was a desperate thought, one she didn’t expect to work as by now she was well used to failing in her attempts to grip hold of the strings on command. Yet, she had nothing better to do. And so, after only about an hour or so of attempts, Alice would manage to grip hold of the strings again. She was so surprised by this success that she nearly immediately let go, failing to properly collect any amount of useable power. But after this, she found she was able to find and grip hold of the strings faster and faster, each try taking less time than the one before it.
Along with this, the flow of power within her seemed to be improving. Each time she sent coalesced energy rippling out into her body, the next time she would sit and gather energy she could harness power much faster and in much more ample amounts. It felt as if the power forced back into herself forming connections between the knotted, tangled mess that was the strings. Forming highways and byways, clearing knots, and detangling roads so that it could better flow, and more easily pass the next time it was called upon.
A large smile sat on her face as she felt the latest bits of gathered energy pulse and vibrate away from deep within her. She wasn’t sure what she was doing, or how to properly control it yet, but she’d found it. A way to access the curse, possibly a way to refine it too. Each time she did so she could feel her curse pulsing away within her.
She struggled to contain her joy when Jake woke up, struggling to stop herself from throwing the battered and beaten magic book in his lap, demanding he read more for her. Yet she’d controlled herself, stopped when she saw the look in his eyes after waking up. He couldn’t have had an easy sleep, not with how he trashed about all night.
Closing and unclosing her fists again, Alice readied herself to start her practice once more when suddenly she heard a loud shout and managed to look up just in time to see one of the blobs roll over Jake. In truth, the creatures were rather an easy hunt, they seemed to have no sense of self-preservation. Or maybe they had no natural predators? Jake couldn’t be certain which of the two it was as he’d drawn closer to one of the swollen blobs of fat, raised knife in hand. It gave no reaction, simply sitting still staring dumbly into space.
The only appendage attached to the blobs was a round, chubby face. It had large doe eyes, each looking in opposite directions, along with a mouth that took up the majority of its face. It had no nose or ears that Jake could see. Walking closer till he lay in line with the blob, Jake figured it would be an easy hunt. The skinning and meal preparation would likely be harder as he’d never seen a creature quite like this before, but he could worry about that later.
Yet now, standing face to face with it ready for the kill, Jake found himself hesitating. A slight tremble ran through his hand. Glancing toward his hand, Jake’s gaze was drawn to his knife. Blood sat crusted and dried in little flakes on the blade, who’s or what’s he couldn’t say clearly, yet enough remained Jake struggled to take his eyes away as he stood awhile, lost in thought.
So lost in thought was he, that he failed to notice the blob of fat in front of him roll forward, rolling across the ground as its massive mouth hung open ripping large chunks of grass up from the ground. So lost in thought he failed to notice till the very last second that the blob of fat was rolling directly toward him. He tried to move out of the way, tried to throw his knife, but it was too late.
He was flattened as the blob rolled overtop him. The weight of the blob itself wasn’t particularly troubling, despite its larger size it weighed about as much as a large dog, yet the sensation of a large flesh ball rolling across him was deeply disturbing. Sitting upright, sputtering, Jake quickly pulled himself up from the ground, stumbling a bit, just in time to lock eyes with Alice who sat staring at him mouth agape.
“DON’T YOU START NOW!” He shouted, but she paid him little mind as howling shouts of laughter erupted from her throat, as she collapsed backward into the grass behind her, curled up and rolling around as she struggled to contain her joy.
“SHUT IT!” Jake shouted towards Alice, struggling to stop a smile from breaking out across his own face as he chased after the blob that had rolled over him, concerns forgotten, body still and untrembling.
