Kaleidoscope

By Ty Campbell

Katya could barely breathe. But she couldn’t stop. If she did, that...thing would get her. So she kept going. Ignoring her body’s every urge to tell her to stop, she kept going, adrenaline fueling her survival

She raced across the broken landscape. Everything around her was shifting like a mess of paint and light. Trees of every shade of color distorted themselves. The Light Realm was an inverted form of the world she knew The familiar streets and landscape around her was an off color, constantly warping itself into a new shade of blue, red, green, yellow, purple, and everything in between. Katya didn’t even remember how she got to this crazy place All she knew was that if she failed, everything would be consumed by darkness.

Katya ran with awkward form; she was clutching a large, dark book with ancient runes on the cover. It was bigger and weighed more than any textbook she’d ever had from school If that monster got it, that would be the end of the Light Realm.

The Monster roared mere meters behind, snapping its fangs at her. Her diaphragm wouldn’t allow her to scream. So she frantically kept going, crying freely from terror Her tears washed all the colors together so she could barely see a few feet ahead of her. At one point she lost her balance and tripped over her own legs in a clearing in the rainbow forest She landed hard and dropped the book As much as she wanted to lay down and accept her fate, her body would not be killed this easily. She fumbled desperately for something in her skirt pocket. The Monster was getting closer.

Finally, she drew out a green mechanical pencil The Monster was within striking distance. It was a horrible thing. It was the color black and had no form, and its body contorted and folded itself into different shapes. It had no eyes, but it seemed to smell Katya. Its mouth had several rows of sharp, ivory teeth Her arms and legs went stiff with fear. Katya clumsily pointed her pencil at the Monster and clicked it once A long cord made of pencil lead shot out of it and impaled the Monster. She clicked it again and snapped it back in place. Katya kept beating the Monster back with every ounce of her fury. But it kept coming despite the punishment she gave it.

Katya grabbed the book and scuttled backwards The thing kept advancing on her. If only I had a pen! she thought. Each blow from her pencil caused pain to the Monster, but it kept pressing despite that. Desperate, she reached back into the folds of her memory and used a simple binding spell. A ring surrounded the Monster and prevented its advance. It was already breaking free.

Katya knew she only had a few seconds left. After that, it would be over for her Then she looked at the book she was holding If there was another option she would have taken it, but there was no other way. She would have to deal with the repercussions later.

She flipped to a specific page in the middle of the book. The pages were dyed black, and the text was written in blood Katya ripped out the page and stuffed it in her mouth. Her esophagus burned as the words flowed into her body. Her eyes turned black.

The Monster finally broke free of the prison It rushed towards her with its might, but Katya was prepared. She summoned eight daggers and thrust them into the apparition's body. It stopped dead.

The cloud of vapor surrounding the Monster disappeared, and all that was left was a body bearing eight stab wounds Blood the color of black ink oozed out. It was male and had dark brown hair like Katya's. She knelt down next to the boy, who looked up at her with dying eyes. She couldn’t stop the tears from gushing out of her black eyes and onto the body

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry, I had to.” She choked out tears of grief and agony. “I love you!” she screamed.

The boy looked up at Katya “Save your breath, sister ” He paused and coughed. “I hate you,” he spat. The boy then stopped breathing and his eyes went cold and dead. Katya felt hollow inside, and couldn’t find a way to stop the tears from spilling out.

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