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Nothing he'd taught me had prepared me for this.

Coldness ripped into my bare skin as I sprinted through the twisted forest. The howling wind mimicked the sounds of the shadowed creatures once darting through the trees from either side of me. They were gone now. Maybe I'd lost them. I couldn't bring myself to look back over my shoulder to find out.

And I was losing steam.

Determination slammed the gaps in the trees ahead into focus as I surpassed every threshold of energy I had left. The sound of running water made me come to a fast halt, sliding across the wet leafy ground, as I nearly slid down over a dark cliff into a river down below. Picking myself back up, I tried to find coverage fast, hunkering down behind a fallen tree. I clutched my bloody hand against my mouth, gasping for air between suppressed sobs.

I waited. Waited to know if I would finally wake up or die trying to survive this nightmare.

Crawling closer to the fallen trunk felt like knives jabbing into my injured arm. I gazed down at it, biting down on my lip to suppress the pain lodged in my throat. Moonlight shone against the gruesome sight of bone sticking out from places it shouldn't have. Lacerations from claws cut deep into my bicep. They pulsed with unbearable pain that only seemed to worsen. I pressed my hand firmly against the wound to try and slow the bleeding.

I looked up at the sky with glaring eyes, cursing the dusk and the fake stars. I could neither trust the day or the night here.

Here, in this sick, evil place. Time? Time was a lost concept. Time was lost in this world, just like him. And now me.

I thought I had a chance to save Death. How quickly it'd all gone to fucking shit.

Footsteps made themselves known. My whole body stiffened, my breath harsh pants between ice-kissed lips. I couldn't remember the last time I'd even felt warm. Warmth had abandoned me the moment Death's skin went cold beneath my fingertips.

I slowly rolled over to peer over the fallen tree, everything in me rigid, locked with terror. Three deformed creatures prowling toward the center of an open area of dirt and leaves just beyond the fallen tree.

I called them the Three Crawlers.

They growled amongst each other, low words rolling over an eerie, disturbing language that unsettled mortal ears. I wasn't in this place long before they hunted me down. They walked on all fours like dogs, their limbs too long, their mannerisms too sharp and animalistic. Their faces held no expression. How could they, when they had no eyes, no nose, no mouth? Nothing except for their reflective skin, silvery, like the mirror from which I jumped through to get here.

"There is nowhere you can hide," hissed the first crawler, its head swiveling like a snake's.

"Nowhere you can hide," echoed the second in a frighteningly excited voice.

My whole body screamed in protest as I held my injured arm and lifted myself up from behind the fallen tree. I realized something was twisted in my ankle and I sprawled forward, catching myself at the last second with a bloodied palm against the bark.

The Third Crawler, appearing to be unable to speak, but it howled at the sight of me falling, as the frigid wind kicked up around us. It was the biggest and the deadliest of the three, its hunches rippling with reflective muscle and each of its teeth the size of my head. I pictured the way its claws had effortlessly torn into my bicep, and my whole body quaked with trepidation.

I'd come too far to give up.

"Please, I'm just trying to find someone," I said as the Three stood around me like predators eying up their next meal. "Can you tell me where I am?"

"We are the Forsaken," snarled the First. "You have trespassed."

The First grazed my hair with its long finger, and I flinched away.

My heart slammed into overdrive as their terrifying reflective faces came closer, mirroring the horror in my expression in their skin. The Third snapped its hungry jaws at me from behind, grazing the fabric of my torn pants. Deciding this was my chance, I planned on kicking the Third Crawler hard in the muzzle, when it backed away from me with a screech. Suddenly, all three of the crawlers unleashed the same noise, their bodies crippling inward, as if an invisible force were harming them. They backpedaled with anguished noises, retracting toward the darkness of the forest.

And it wasn't my doing.

Movement caught my attention to my right, my eyes widening at the sight of ripple of a portal that had appeared from nowhere. The portal widened as an unfamiliar man emerged with his palms outstretched. He had dark blonde hair cropped just above his ears and wore a silken white robe with intricate gold designs. His eyes glowed as white as the aura outlining his figure, were fixated ahead as he strode forward, corralling the Three Crawlers into the darkness.

Once the Crawlers, apparently named the 'Forsaken,' were long gone, my savior turned toward me.

The white glow to his eyes had vanished, leaving behind dark blue irises. They scrutinized me with a through sweep, before looking sharply away. "I am Caito."

"I am Faith." I tried to think of a clever title for myself, but it'd been a grueling night. "Just Faith."

"You're certainly not a wandering lost soul from Limbo," he observed.

I realized he wasn't wearing a shirt underneath his robe, as he was standing so close.

I took a step back. "You're certainly in my personal space."

"How did you travel into here with your body in tact?"

"It's kind of a long story, but I jumped through a portal to save someone I care about."

"Are you a creature of the Devil?"

"No...? Oh, okay, I get it. The white robe. The halo thing you had going on. You're working for the Big G, and you want to know if I'm one of the good guys."

"What are your intentions in the Unknown?" Caito inquired in the same military tone, disregarding everything I said. Call me stupid, but I had a gut reaction not to tell Angel Guy shit.

"That's none of your business," I said, my voice no longer shaking as I spoke.

"Except, it is," he said with a mocking smile as he swaggered closer. "I'm Guardian of the Unknown. Everything that crosses into here is my business, and mortals don't just cross into the Unknown. Not with their entire body in intact. This is a concerning failure in the system. I'll have to escort you to Limbo's main sector––"

His gaze suddenly locked on my arm, I followed it, as the skin of my injury knit together, healing up the claw marks like a zipper.

"Geez, took you long enough," I scolded my still untamed abilities.

Caito lurched backward and drew a sword at his hip, making me put up my hands up in startlement. His eyes glowed white as I felt my whole body suddenly lock up.

"How did you do that? Mortals can't self-heal."

"I'm no ordinary mortal," I said, feeling like the coolest person alive. The coolest person alive, currently writhing against the invisible hold of someone with a sword at my throat. "I'm just here... to find someone."

"Who?" Caito demanded.

"Death," I choked out. "The Angel of Death."

Turns out, the big name drop meant nothing to this guy.

"The Grim Reaper?" I offered.

"Oh, him. I believe we've met before."

In the distance, something monstrous unleashed a thunderous howl. Caito glanced calmly over his shoulder, rolled his eyes, and released me from his hold with an aggravated noise.

"You're telling me," Caito began in a slightly exasperated way, "the Angel of Death fell through a portal? Was he dying?"

"Yes."

"Hm. How peculiar. This will certainly cause a catastrophic effect on the balance between good and evil..." To himself, he muttered, "If, of course, the little fibber is telling the truth. But what an odd lie, indeed..."

I stared at him, speculating if this guy was an absolute lunatic. "You know I can hear you, right? Or is having convos with yourself what you normally do?"

Caito's dark blue eyes snapped to mine, and he frowned, like he had no idea what I was talking about. "Portals from the mortal realm are often imprecise. You've managed to cross into the most unfortunate. A realm where memory sits to rot and fades into the Unknown."
"You mean, Limbo?"

"No, not Limbo. This is the Unknown. A fragmented realm, where lost souls from Limbo come to die. If Death fell through a portal, and following him led you here..."

I swallowed back a well of emotion in my throat. "He was dying when he fell through."

Caito seemed to understand it all now. "This has happened once before."

"It has?" I asked, comforted that he would be of help.

"Yes, but that was a long time ago." Caito clasped his hands behind his back as he walked around me. "When a person's soul is at the verge of dying, their life often flashes before their eyes. Their conscious recalls the most pivotal moments in their existence. Moments they cherish, moments they regret, moments of hardship and grieving. Until their lifeform ceases to exist. These recollections are replayed in the currents of the Unknown as the soul briefly travels through to the...other side. If your friend was dying but not quite dead, and his body was still intact with his soul, I imagine he's been temporarily trapped here. Perhaps confined to his own memories."

"Forever?"

"Until his corpse completely parishes."

Without souls, I wasn't sure how fast that would be for Death, but I feared it wouldn't be very long at all.

"Then I'll find Death in the currents."

A look of empathy fell over Caito's features, an expression I could tell he didn't wear often. "I'm afraid what you seek is impossible. Navigating through the Unknown is challenging by itself. Recovering a body would be like finding a needle in a haystack the size of the entire universe. His conscious would have to somehow communicate with you and know exactly where his body is located. It can get awfully complex. Far beyond the comprehension of a mere mortal."

"Are you saying you're not intelligent enough to do this either?"

"I never said that."

I shrugged. "Then prove it, buddy."

Caito gaze locked on mine, and his mouth tightened. He down warded his gaze as he brushed past me, clutching my elbow with his hand. "I'm sorry, I cannot help you. Interacting with you is already a risk of disturbing a delicate balance between our worlds. I will, however, do you the favor of sending you straight back to your realm."

I ripped my arm out of his grasp. "You're really not going to help me?"

"There are rules in the Unknown. Rules that I must follow."

"Says who?"

"Says He who shaped the Unknown." Caito's eyes flickered white, and a chill crept down my spine. "I will tell the others that the Angel of Death is lost. But that is all I can do. I myself cannot interfere with what has been done by Fate. He is gone forever."

The harsh rejection and blunt truth felt like a stab to my chest.

"Against all odds," I whispered, as my shoulders crippled inward. But I wouldn't break. There was a time and a place, and this wasn't it. Lifting my head, I stepped into Caito's space, making him lean back in surprise. "Against all odds, I jumped through that portal to save someone I love. I don't care if what I seek is impossible. I'm not leaving without Death. Send me back, and I'll just keep coming."

Caito's gaze swept over me, lingering on my forearm, where the wound of the Crawlers had once been. "Well, I suppose your resolve is admirable. Unwise as it may be." He reached into his robes, removing what appeared to be a large circular coin. It was flat and relatively thin. Roughly the size of my palm. Made of what I expected to be pure gold, weighed heavy in my hand, and had no illustration or symbols on either side.

"Um, thanks?"

"It is one of my conduits," Caito explained. "Protect it with your life, for without it, you may be lost to the wrinkles of time. If Death's corpse truly fell into the Unknown, this might help you navigate to his fading stream of conscious. What you will see are merely recollections of past moments in time. You cannot alter or change the past here. But be warned, the Unknown is just as real as you and me."

I stared down at the golden coin, confused. "So, I just wish on this massive coinage, and it might take me to Death? Sure this isn't for a big vending machine up on Heaven or something?"

I started shaking the coin a few times. Suddenly the forest around us seemed to shift, like a glitch, or a mirage, and a sense of dread overcame me. What the...?

"Cease that immediately!" Caito reached out to clasp my wrist. His sleeve had rolled down with the fast motion, and my eyes widened at the sight of the reflective patches of skin across his forearm. The mirror-like skin bled into his fingers, as if it were spreading. Reminding me exactly of the skin of the Crawlers.

Caito quickly removed his grasp on my arm, shaking his sleeve roughly back over his arm.

"Do not ever shake the conduit like that, Faith. The magic within it is fragile and destructive. You need only use it with a small intentional thought."

All I could focus on was what I'd seen on his skin. "What's happened to you?"

An unsettled look flickered over Caito's otherwise cold expression. "You're running out of time." He turned sharply on his heel and marched forward, a portal opening before him with a flick of his hand. "Go," he said curtly. "Before the pathway closes. This will lead you directly into the currents of the Unknown."

"Wait, that's it? No talking me out of this, only to join forces with me? No 'How to Unknown' manual, or a virtual tour? Got any talking animals that can keep me company?"

Caito moved to stand behind me. "Hold the conduit close and pray for what you seek. On the twelfth hour of the third day, if you have failed your mission, I will come find you."

That gave me a little bit of relief. At least someone was looking out for me.

"And you will be my eternal prisoner," he added.

I held up a finger. "Say what?"

I turned sharply over my shoulder, but Caito was gone. Well, fuck. That had certainly been the last thing I'd expected. Other than the fact that the forest was now falling part around me. My heart pounded as the night sky above melted away to blackness, slowly leaving me in an endless black void. I didn't want to find out what would happen once the rest of the forest melted away in the same ominous fashion.

I quickly looked down at the conduit in my palm, then up at the portal in front of me. My fingers tightened around the golden coin, the coldness of the shiny yellow metal now warm from my palm. I thought only of Death as I walked forward into yet another portal, having not the slightest idea what would meet me on the other side.

Or who.

To be continued...

Please support my writing by giving this chapter a vote, commenting as much as you can, and sharing my writing with your friends!! :)

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The world is kinda INSANE right now, but I hope everyone is in good health and doing some self-care. I'll be in my writing cave in 2021 working hard for my readers. I can't believe we're on BOOK 3.... I have so much in store for this series and I'm SO excited! Not to mention ALL THE SECRET PROJECTS I HAVE OMG!!!!

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