Chapter 49: Fear (2)
Their wry smiles came in sync, like a practiced motion, like an inside joke only they understood.
I let out a nervous, self-deprecating laugh, one that sounded more like a choked wheeze.
"You guys are joking, right? Ahaha...haa. Of course, you’re joking."
Ben’s face stayed rigid. Unmoving. He didn’t entertain my delusions.
"We already checked the back," he said, voice clipped, rough like gravel. "There’s nothing there. Just a black membrane surrounding the realm."
No. No way. That couldn’t be true. There had to be another way. A passage, a break in the realm, a hidden route—something. But the town? Only the town? Why?
My heartbeat thumped, steady and slow, before picking up pace, each second ticking by like the swing of a pendulum. I forced myself to think.
I did travel through the town before. Through that place.
And nothing happened—
Until I looked at it.
That thing.