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Pearl snuck into the hideout and came face to face with the pit. The pit that her best friend was lying about. Not to her. B didn’t lie to her about it but that’s because they hadn’t talked in days. B was lying to everyone else about it though, including her brother, Grian.
Nothing about the pit, or simply the hole as people were calling it, made sense to Pearl. It was some convoluted trap. It had to be. But at the same time, B wasn’t the biggest fan of traps and tricks like that. It had always been her thing that she dragged him into. And how was it a trap when it was covered up and in a cave in the middle of nowhere? B wasn’t even living there, he was living in a different hole in the ground that, according to Grian, was equally unsettling.
She pulled one of the stones up that hid the pit. Then another and another and another. Until the pit was fully exposed. It wasn’t a massive hole, but it was large. As wide as the cave and plenty deep.
Pearl should have sensed something… someone behind her. It was too late though, the hand was already on her shoulder. It was cold, colder than an alive person’s hand should be. She turned around and came face to face with her best friend. B didn’t look like himself. His often chipper expression forced, smile wide but eyes dull. He was void of life. Not in the way that the undead were, but in the way something not quite living was.
“They want to talk to you, Pearlo.” His voice echoed through the cave, reverberating in her ears.
She tried to get a word out. An apology for intruding. No chance. She was already falling down the hole… the pit. She could see the bottom. She knew she would hit it with a thud. She tried to call for help. She tried forcing her true form out, wings and all. There was no luck. She would be dead on impact. She braced herself, closed her eyes to not see B’s face anymore.
She was falling…
And falling…
And falling…
And falling…
And falling…
And falling…
She finally opened her eyes, surprised she was not dead. The cold rushed over her body, pitch-dark and purple voice surrounded her. Herself a part of it. She was fully herself now. A barely formed shape of a person with wings and no other features. Her skin matched the void, except for the swirls and symbols that danced around as she muttered to herself.
“He sent me home?”
Home . The word sat on her tongue like vanilla extract. She tried not to wince. No one else was here to hear her though so it didn’t matter.
“Pearlescent!” The voice curled around her like a hug… like a chokehold. “Welcome back.”
She turned to see which direction they were coming from. The voice just laughed. “You’ve been around the mortals too long to think you need to see me to hear me.”
“What do you want from me?” She let herself sink back into the void, resting in the darkness. “Have I not done what you asked? I have stood back and watched!”
“Lies!”
“Lies? I am not a liar. My brother is the one who plays games. I just witnessed them. You are the ones that require us to win. Throw hissy-fits when it is not one of your own.”
The voice laughed, “True. But you have not won from watching. When you won you won by escaping. Yes, people feared you, but that is because they fear the unknown.”
“Is that why you are doing this? Because you are afraid people only fear you because you are the unknown. We are Watchers.”
She could the presence of her elder getting closer. They were angry. They were pissed. She was calling into question their behavior. Calling into question the decisions of the elders. Her a measly kid in their eyes. Utter disrespect.
“A good child is seen but not heard.” They whispered in what would be her ear if she was human right now. “We are just holding the strings a little tighter.”
“Like the good puppeteer you are?” Pearl growled. “Don’t you think they’ve had enough? We do not need to feed off their pain like this. Jimmy is terrified of dying over and over, so much so that he is scared of living. Skizz is scared of having blood on his hands. Tango does not want to lose any more than he already has. Scott already has lost everything. You have given them enough to keep you fed for a century, yet you are a glutton.”
“I will not hear this disrespect! You back and make sure they do as we whisper. Hold them by the scruff of their necks if you have to. Get your hands a little dirty for once.”
The light blinded her as she felt the hard, rocky ground against her back. She saw B standing above her, an overly concerned expression on his face.
“Pearlo, you okay?” He knelt down next to her.
She scooted away from him, “Why did you push me down the hole!? Why did you make me talk to them?!”
“What?” He tilted his head. “Talk to who? What hole?”
“That hole!”
She turned around to point at the pit, but it wasn’t there. There weren’t even stones covering it. Just smooth, orange terracotta.
“There is no hole in the mesa.” He said.
She rubbed the clay-like ground, wanting to sink into it. She rubbed her eyes… She had eyes again. B looked at her with feigned confusion. He played innocent for years, what would make him stop today…
Slowly, Pearl got up and walked out into the desert heat. She’d have to talk to her brother about this. She’d have to talk to someone… She couldn’t just let them torture her and her friends. And she sure as hell wasn’t going to be doing the torturing.