“Sailor?” I shout into the gap.
Nothing. I have no way of knowing for sure whether she’s in there or not, but I know I have to check. I can’t just walk away in case she is in there and she’s in trouble.
Goddamn it, Sailor.
Of course she’s in there, Rye. Why wouldn’t she go into the ominous gate that leads to gods know where?
She is going to have to learn to follow instructions or I’m going to implant her with a tracking chip like a damn dog.
I pull the gate open a little bit further, feeling the thick, dusty air from inside coming out in a musty puff to greet me. I have a really bad feeling about this. The whole thing just feels wrong, like we are not supposed to be here. Maybe Sailor felt the same thing and for once in her life did the sensible thing and headed for the cabin.
I pull my cell phone out and call Sailor, but again it goes straight to voicemail. If she was anywhere but inside of that gate, she’d have taken my call.
Fuck.
Before I step through the gate, I send a quick text to Aziza telling her where I am and what I’m doing. I push my cell phone back into my pocket and pull the gate all the way open. I step through it, coughing on the dust I stir up, but after a couple steps, the dust settles and I peer into the darkness. In front of me is a steep spiral stone staircase with bare brick walls on either side of it. The staircase goes down further than my eye can see, and with a sigh, I step onto it.
“Sailor? Sailor?” I yell.
My voice echoes back to me and that’s the only response I get. If she’s down here, she must be a long way down not to hear my voice through the eerie stillness. She has a head start, but I’m fast and I’m confident I can close the gap between us. I just hope I’m not too late to stop anything from hurting her before I can catch up.
That thought pushes me on quicker, and I’m almost running down the staircase, my feet making dull thuds on each step, puffing up smaller clouds of dust that don’t reach high enough to get in my throat. All the same, as I descend, I can feel the air getting denser, like it’s closing in on me, and I am finding it harder to breathe with each step. The air around me seems to be getting warmer too, and I reach up and pull my hoody off without breaking stride. I tie it around my waist, wanting to keep my hands free.
Removing it does nothing for the heat, and the air is so thick here I feel like I am wading through molasses. Each breath I suck in is a struggle, and I don’t feel like I’m getting any air, no matter how much I pant and gasp.
I am a god and this place is affecting me so much that I am starting to feel light-headed and dizzy. Surely Sailor isn’t down here. She can’t be. There’s no way a mortal could have gotten this far without flaking out. I am on the verge of it myself.
I slow down for a second, ready to turn back, but then I see Sailor’s face in my mind, her mouth set in determination, her eyes giving me a stubborn refusal.
Yes, Sailor could have gotten this far.
She has an almost unearthly determination about her that makes the impossible possible. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do this for this mission, and if that means groping around on a dark staircase, barely able to breathe, then that’s what she would do.
I keep going, speeding up as fast as my airless lungs will allow me to. I take the steps two at a time now. My hope is that I reach the bottom and find that air is coming in some other way.
I squint my eyes when I see a dead end in front of me, solid brick blocking my path. I look down at the ground and see the steps keep going, turning around a sharp corner. I push on, and as I turn the corner, I see another wall in front of me. Another sharp bend, and this time, the floor is not clear. A foot lies against the wall.
Fuck.
I push myself onwards, fighting every survival instinct in my body that’s telling me to turn back, ignoring the spots of light that dance in front of my eyes. The air is so thick here I am not breathing at all. I stumble blindly down the stairs, willing myself to ignore the burning in my lungs, telling myself I have to get to her. I feel my knees start to give way and my head whirls alarmingly. I bite down on my tongue, hard enough to draw blood, and the sharp sting brings me back to consciousness. It’s not going to last though. Every muscle in my body is shaking and every limb feels like it’s too heavy to move.
I reach Sailor’s foot and I force myself to bend down. I grab Sailor’s ankle and drag her closer and then I scoop her up in my arms. She feels like she weighs a ton, but I know it’s the lack of oxygen making me feel that way. She’s tiny, and she barely weighs a thing.
I turn around and drag myself back up the few stairs until I come to the corner. I turn it and look up. The staircase spreads out in front of me, a mission only a crazy
