The Memory of Bees (Bee Witch Book 2) by Elizabeth A. Reeves

Author:Elizabeth A. Reeves [Reeves, Elizabeth A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Kinley

A door slammed behind me.

It didn’t matter how fast I ran or how many corridors I passed through. All around me, doors open and slammed shut. If I paused, I could see through the doorways. Strange worlds, new places, called to me through those doorways.

But they always warped and shifted. If I watched long enough, I would see the worlds within degrade. Some burst into flame. Some imploded in on themselves. Dust powdered the floor of the hallways, billowing out of the devastated ruins that lay beyond.

If I watched long enough, they all fell into ruin.

I’d stopped watching long ago.

In the beginning, I searched for something. Now I couldn’t remember why or what. If there was an order to this place, I couldn’t find it. The only consistent element was the existence of doors.

I rarely thought to wonder if I was alone. I paused at the distant thudding of what could be the treading of giant feet, but the sound stopped just as I did. Perhaps all that existed of life beyond me was nothing but an echo.

Maybe there were others here, just out of sight. They could be the ones opening the doors around me, only to slam them shut again. Surely the doors could not open themselves.

The dust thickened.

There were footprints ahead of me.

I paused to study them, but they vanished under the increasing blizzard of dust and destruction. I suspected they were my own footprints. It was all that made sense, since I was the only one that existed.

I ran on.

Sometimes my feet sank into the dust. Sometimes I could run lightly over the top of it, like a fictional elf over snow.

I paused, wondering at the image. But as soon as I grasped it, it was gone.

It turned to dust just like everything else.

The lights in the hall grew brighter as I ran. They did not flicker, though part of me believed they ought to. The brilliance made it hard to see. It made even the dust seem to shimmer and take on a sort of glow.

The change was unsettling.

The walls began to glow as well, a cool, bright light that defied the existence of even the memory of shadows. Closing my eyes against the glare did not help. Even behind my eyelids, all I could see was light.

I paused to look behind me, but there was nothing there. I’d known it was a mistake to look back. Something inside of me warned that looking back was always a mistake.

But looking forward hurt too much.

The click and slam of doors opening and shutting grew muffled and faint.

I had passed into a new corridor somehow. There were no doorways here.

Still, the dust congregated around me, building up over my feet. Perhaps I was sinking, but if I was, the entire corridor was as well.

Into what? I wondered. More corridors? More hallways?

The hallway behind me was gone. The hallway ahead of me was too bright for me to tolerate. There were no doors, no branches, no escape for me in any direction.

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