Ch. 3 • Tear Stained Cheeks • Ep. 1
1536 Words
Echo pressed her palm against the cold metal wall of the tunnel, squinting into the darkness. Beneath the damp smell of rust and oil, she felt it-
A faint current of air.
Her fingers traced along the vent carefully until the metal gave way to rough stonework hidden behind the pipes.
"Ace!" she called excitedly through the tunnel. "Found another way-air's coming through!"
Behind her, muffled voices erupted all at once.
"What'd she say?"
"She found something!"
"Tell her not to touch anything!"
Too late.
Echo shifted eagerly toward the opening, searching for something to pry the loose stones apart. Her hand brushed through scattered junk littering the floor until her fingers wrapped around the wooden handle of a rusty hammer.
"Got it!"
She pushed herself upright too quickly.
Her boot slipped on loose debris.
"Whoa-!"
Echo stumbled sideways and crashed hard against an old desk buried beneath dust sheets and broken tools. Something heavy rattled violently above her.
A small metal statue tipped sideways.
Her elbow smacked directly into its head.
Click.
Echo froze.
For half a second, nothing happened.
Then a sharp metallic clang echoed somewhere deep inside the walls.
Back in the tunnel, Arrow's entire body went rigid.
His chest tightened instantly.
"Echo?!"
Without waiting another second, he grabbed the vent grate alongside Ren.
"Help me move this!"
The rusted metal screeched painfully as both boys strained against it. Finally, the opening bent wide enough for Arrow to force himself through.
He shoved into the darkness immediately.
"Tink!"
His voice bounced sharply off damp bricks and rusted pipes while stale air burned at his lungs. The tunnel felt suffocatingly narrow compared to Echo's smaller frame.
Ahead, a soft cough answered him.
"I'm okay-"
Relief hit so hard it nearly buckled his knees.
Arrow pushed forward faster until the tunnel widened suddenly into a hidden chamber tucked beneath the abandoned building.
Echo sat awkwardly beside the overturned desk, rubbing her scraped elbow with a pained wince.
Arrow crossed the space instantly.
"You scared me to death," he breathed.
Before she could answer, he pulled her tightly against him.
Echo blinked in surprise as his arms wrapped protectively around her small frame, steadying both of them at once. His breathing came fast and uneven against the top of her head despite how hard he tried to calm it.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Echo mumbled quietly into his jacket, "...Sorry."
Arrow exhaled shakily.
"Just... warn me before almost dying next time."
A faint laugh escaped her.
Only then did Arrow finally pull back enough to look around the hidden room properly.
Dust blanketed everything.
Broken tools lay scattered across warped wooden tables while cobwebs stretched thick between shelves filled with dismantled gears and rusted clock parts. Somewhere overhead, ancient pipes groaned softly through the walls.
Then he noticed it.
A faint glow spilling across the far wall.
Arrow narrowed his eyes.
To the left, partially hidden behind collapsed shelving, stood a narrow spiral staircase winding upward into darkness.
Shadows pooled heavily beneath the worn iron steps.
Echo followed his gaze immediately.
"...That definitely looks secret."
"Yeah," Arrow murmured.
Behind them, distant voices echoed faintly from the tunnel as the others struggled through the widened grate.
Arrow stood first, instinctively positioning himself between Echo and the staircase.
"Stay close," he whispered.
Echo nodded instantly.
Together, they climbed slowly upward.
Each careful step released low creaks from the aging metal staircase while dust drifted through the stale air around them. The higher they climbed, the colder the air became.
At the top waited a heavy wooden door mottled with rust around its iron hinges.
Arrow pressed his ear carefully against it.
Silence.
No footsteps.
No voices.
Nothing.
Slowly, he wrapped his fingers around the handle and nudged the door open.
Dust spilled outward immediately.
A stale gust swept past them as the door groaned inward, revealing the abandoned clockwork shop beyond.
Moon-pale lanternlight filtered weakly through filthy windows onto rows of frozen gears, overturned stools, and cobweb-covered shelves. Broken inventions sat abandoned where their creators had left them months before, trapped beneath layers of silence and dust.
Arrow pushed the hidden door wider and glanced back over his shoulder, a grin breaking across his face despite the dust coating everything around them.
"We found a way in."
Echo's eyes widened as she stepped fully into the abandoned shop behind him. The room felt frozen in time. Dust floated thickly through pale lanternlight leaking between boarded windows while rows of forgotten machines sat silent beneath layers of cobwebs.
Outside the hidden entrance, Knox, Lyra, and Ren exchanged quick looks before slipping inside one by one. The panel scraped softly shut behind them, the sound immediately swallowed beneath the distant roar of Aethelre outside.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
The old clockwork shop stretched farther than they expected.
Shelves lined every wall, crowded with intricate gears, dismantled automatons, broken clocks, and delicate springs that still glittered faintly beneath years of dust. Worktables overflowed with strange half-finished inventions while hanging chains creaked softly overhead whenever the wind rattled the building.
Lyra's gaze flicked immediately toward the scrapes on Echo's arms.
Then to Arrow.
A silent understanding passed between them before Lyra quietly followed Ren deeper into the shop.
Knox wandered after them, poking curiously at an old brass mechanism.
"This place is creepy," he whispered.
"That's because it's abandoned," Ren replied.
"Very comforting."
Echo barely heard them.
Something had caught her attention.
Near the back wall, a half-open drawer reflected a strange flicker of orange light.
Her heartbeat quickened instantly.
Slowly, she crossed the room and pulled the drawer wider.
Inside rested an iridescent crystal shard.
Orange.
Glowing softly beneath the dust.
Exactly like the one from Aether Lake.
Echo stared.
"No way..."
Carefully, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the shard she'd hidden earlier. Warm light spilled across her fingers as she held both fragments side by side.
The moment they touched-
Hummmmmm.
A resonant vibration surged through the room.
The shards fused instantly in a burst of orange light, forming a single radiant crystal pulsing like a living heart.
Echo gasped.
Behind her, Arrow's expression changed instantly.
"Tink-no!" he shouted. "Pull back!"
Too late.
The crystal flared violently.
A searing jolt ripped through Echo's hand.
"Ace!" she cried out. "It's burning-I can't let go!"
The air around them warped.
Books ripped free from shelves.
Loose tools spun upward violently while dust and shattered glass spiraled toward the glowing crystal like a growing storm.
Knox stumbled backward hard enough to slam into a table.
"Echo, fight it!" he shouted, panic cracking through his voice. "What is happening?!"
The pull intensified instantly.
The floor beneath Knox vanished into darkness.
"AH-!"
The void yanked him forward violently before throwing him backward just as fast. He crashed into a shelf with a painful crack, gasping for breath among falling gears and broken wood.
"Knox!" Ren shouted.
Then Lyra screamed.
"Echo!"
Her body fractured into glowing shards of light, splintering apart like glass caught in a storm.
Ren lunged forward instantly, grabbing her wrist.
"Lyra-hold on!"
The void dragged both of them toward the swirling orange core.
Everything spiraled faster.
Walls groaned.
Windows shattered inward.
Arrow braced himself against the battered front counter as chaos tore through the shop around them. Wind screamed through the room while the crystal's pull dragged at every part of him.
But his eyes never left Echo.
She was slipping.
Being pulled toward the collapsing light at the center of the room.
Fear hit him harder than the destruction around them.
No.
Not her.
Arrow forced himself forward against the crushing pull, boots grinding across splintering floorboards. Every step felt impossible.
Still, he kept moving.
"Tink!"
Echo reached toward him desperately through the storm of debris.
Arrow caught her arm.
And pulled.
The instant she broke free from the crystal's grasp, sparks exploded outward in a blinding flash.
The crystal imploded.
For one horrible second, Arrow looked up.
Ren still clung desperately to Lyra's arm.
Both of them were already halfway swallowed by the void.
"ARROW!" Ren shouted.
Then the darkness collapsed inward.
And they were gone.
Silence slammed through the room.
Arrow froze.
Echo stared at the empty space where Lyra and Ren had been, horror draining the color from her face.
"...No..."
The building groaned violently around them.
The floor split beneath the collapsing shelves.
"Arrow!" Knox gasped painfully from the wreckage.
The ceiling cracked overhead.
Instinct finally snapped Arrow back into motion.
He grabbed Echo against his side and hauled Knox upright with his other arm despite the fire ripping through his muscles.
"Move!" he shouted hoarsely.
The three of them stumbled through the collapsing shop as beams crashed behind them and gears rained from the ceiling.
They burst through the side door seconds before the building caved inward completely.
Cold night air slammed into them.
Behind them, the abandoned clockwork shop collapsed into itself with a deafening roar beneath the glowing lights of Aethelre.
Arrow nearly dropped to his knees in the alley.
Echo twisted around instantly, staring at the wreckage in horror.
Dust rolled through the street.
The shop was gone.
And Lyra and Ren hadn't come out with them.
- Writer
