Original Souls (A World Apart #1)

by Kyle Thomas Miller

  "Anvard, hold on!" Corinth did the unthinkable. He detached the bars by pressing the two green buttons on either side of his security brace. The barred brace lifted off his chest, allowing more space for his chest cavity to expand outward. He collected as much air as he could then pushed out for release. He took another deep breath, and then scaled the sides of the cart. It was much easier when Anvard did it, because the cart was upright as he walked across it. But now Corinth slid down the sides of what used to be the floor, now vertically angled as the wall of the machine. He feared that he’d go right over the edges if he didn’t create some friction. His sweaty palms were the only thing between sticking inside the cart and tumbling out over the side. When he reached the bottom, he quickly grabbed hold of Anvard’s folded arms around the third bar in the row of seven.

  "No!" Andy shouted. "Get back into your seat!" Which was quite impossible at this point, but Anvard couldn't think of anything else he wanted more in the world than Corinth's safety.

  "Shut up, I'm thinking," Corinth said it with an air of calmness that diffused with the winds and carried over to a completely blinded Anvard. He'd gotten a lot of smoke in his lungs and eyes. The tears and burning sensation kept him from opening up. He didn't want to see what was in front of him anyhow, so it wasn't really that bad.

  Corinth may have been developing the courage of a warrior-like man, but he certainly didn't possess the strength of one. He tried pulling Anvard up, but it was no use. The big boy was too heavy for the weak kid. They held onto each other tight, as the coaster dropped slightly. The bump in the road freaked out Andy, but they were positioned secure enough to withstand it. Physically at least, though the mental toll was starting to become more of a relevant factor.

  "It's a good thing you're here," he told Corinth. "Or that would have been it for me." With a foreboding wince, he kissed Corinth’s hand attached to his own. Anvard didn't seem very auspicious about the tough odds they were up against.

  Anvard stared into Corinth's turquoise eyes like they had reached the end of time together. While they looked at each other, the first cart in line popped off the track, sending a blaze of debris and sparking flames everywhere. A piece a metal from the destroyed cart ever so slightly grazed the loafers on Anvard's hanging legs. It knocked his body further to the side, almost off the bar. Though Corinth was no weight lifter, he did provide him with enough leverage to stay attached to their cart.

  “Endure,” Andy whispered to himself. Corinth saw Anvard’s golden llave light up in his hand when he spoke the simple word. That bit of magik would help their arms to withstand the tugging pressures of the speeding coaster, but for how long?

  Corinth looked forward to a revolting mess. The carts began rebelling against the magnetic forces of the track. Individual carts ahead of them lost touch with the rail and simply plowed into the walls of the crevices, falling down to their dooms just over the vertical sides of the glass track itself. Sending minuscule, but no less flaming shards of material that cut the skin of all three boys. Corinth and Anvard were smart enough to close their eyes, lest they be permanently blinded. But Lindle had completely given up hope. He sat strapped down to his chair wide-eyed, staring out into the hard mountain ranges.

  Corinth squinted, trying to open his eyes without letting in any of the debris. What he saw sent a jolt to his system. The row of carts sparked with high-octane flames swirling around. If they had chosen a cart closer to the front, they'd already be dead. To Corinth, the wreckage seemed so fortuitous. His dream showed a large dragon flying toward him in the sky, melting his face with its lightning. But Walker and another mysterious force got in the way of this. No Walker and no mysterious forces were around, but the coaster’s resemblance to a dragon flying through the sky gave him an idea. In his dream, he always fell from the coaster, and that's what woke him up. The fall.

  "Lindle!!!" Corinth summoned every bit of strength he had and forced his words through his vocal cords. Before he closed his eyes back, he noticed the smoke catching a silvery-like light ahead. The fire was the only natural light in the cave. The only other light was that of the artificial lamps fixed to the sides of the cliffs. But he knew this silvery shade of light better than any other. It was moonlight. They were finally exiting the cave-like cracks that formed between the mountain ranges. The coaster made its way through without completely disengaging its connection to the magnetic track. "Lindle, can you hear me?"

  He was transfixed by the flames. Nothing was getting through, until a tiny shard of glass cut his upper eyelid as he was forced to blink from the toxic sting of the fuming gases. He screamed out in terror and tried to grab his eye, but the safety-brace over his body restricted his movement.

  Corinth heard his muffled screams. "Lindle, you have to listen to me! When we get out over the North Lake ... you have to uproot the track!"

  Both Anvard and Lindle took note of that phrase immediately. Does he mean to destroy the track? It didn't have a ring to it. Not at least in their ears. The railcar was edging so close to the exit. Corinth knew this was their only chance, even though he was well aware that the railcars had never righted themselves, so the entire row was now hurtling toward the outer perimeter, still on its side, though the track was realigning from vertical to horizontal. Now, just a series of uneven carts scraping against the even laid track ahead.

  Just ahead, another cart flipped off the track as they passed through the threshold, back out into the airy skies. Luckily, they cleared the mouth of the crevice first. Otherwise, the cart may have clogged the tighter drawn exit, derailing the remaining carts. It simply fell to the North Lake below. The sight of the falling cart showed Anvard and Lindle just how much they didn't want to have to do that themselves.

  "Lindle, listen to me!" Corinth shouted fiercely as the wind hit all of them hard. "If you drop the cart, the lake water can put out the fire!"

  "And smash our skulls!" Lindle finally yelled back. He held on tight to his seat. He felt much more secure in a fixed position. "We can ride it out. It's safer!"

  "Safer for who, you jerk!" Anvard couldn't control himself in more ways than Lindle knew. His body waved in the air as he desperately clung to the bar, and to Corinth. Who was still halfway inside the tilted cart.

  "You'll burn alive before that happens. Look! Look out at the track, Lindle!" Corinth implored.

  He unwillingly turned his head, he couldn't help but look now that Corinth brought it to his attention. What he saw froze him in fear. The whole time he hadn't been focused at all on what was happening around him. He was too afraid to look and really see what was out there. But now the truth was clear.

  "We've got to get off of this thing!" Lindle shouted hysterically. The remaining portion of the railcar already looked as if it'd tip over the sides of the track and into the lake. This made Lindle want to hear if Corinth had a better escape route than certain death.

  "When we reach the center, you have to break the track on both sides. Or else it'll fall to the side, and on top of our heads." Corinth's mind was working much faster than either one of theirs. He could see all angles of the situation, while hanging from the sides of a speeding coaster. But he also had his dream to guide the way. The coaster was always at the center of the North Lake when it suddenly collapsed in his dream.

  “Can’t we just jump?” Lindle shouted.

  Corinth didn't want to do that. He remembered his dream too vividly. He needed this to play out a very specific way to feel comfortable doing it at all.“Just work with me here, Lindle!”

  "Okay, how do I do that?" Lindle nervously inquired.

  Corinth was frustrated with his reluctance to help. "You just break it! With a spell. Use anything, Annihilate, whatever. Just get it done!"

  For once since the trouble began, Lindle wasn't being hesitant. "No! I mean how? You said to break both. If I break one then we'll start falling. I can't very well break the other one after that."

  Apparently, Corinth hadn't thought this all the way through.
>
  "Use a double spell!" Anvard shouted up to Lindle.

  "A what?" Corinth asked.

  "I don't know how!" Lindle cried from above.

  "Lindle, you have to!" Anvard didn't have a shred of patience left in him.

  "How can I do something I have no idea about?!!!" he shouted with a ferocity neither Anvard nor Corinth had seen in him since they met.

  "Tell him a spell," Corinth said softly to a nearby Anvard.

  "Lindle, use Doble. It means double in Maledictus!" Anvard was trying to avoid the inevitable truth that he didn't know the rest of the spell either.

  "I can't!" Lindle cried out.

  "Lindle, shut up! You don't know—if you don't try!" Corinth was taking control. "You have to tell him an exact spell, hurry!"

  Anvard’s mind went blank. "Well, it always starts with…with .... Doble!" he shouted, trying to pull the information from the depths of his mind, even though he had already given that piece of information. It was the rest that was in question. "Doble, then...."

  "Come on!" Corinth encouraged.

  "It's Doble then ... Uh!" Stalling, Anvard said, "you know, we used to speak Maledictus in Lirio more. But now it's just..."

  "Anvard! Shut your mouth about Lirio—and think. Think hard!" Corinth felt the cart rocking. It seemed like a warning that the atmosphere was about to change, drastically. He could see that neither of them had a clue to any double spells. Though Anvard had witnessed the affects of a boy using one at the Levantarse game. But that wasn't the one he needed to break the track anyway.

  Corinth decided he had no choice. His hands were already attached to Anvard's. He tried to go easy, but he had to search the deepest parts of his mind to find this hidden word, trapped far down below. Anvard's mind was so clouded by fear, confusion and pain. Corinth could feel his heart racing as if it were in his own chest. He kept digging as far as he could without hurting Andy.

  The two of them struggled to hold on, grappling with every bump the leaning coaster hit. Then suddenly, Anvard startedto shake. His body now convulsing on the side of their cart. Corinth was so entrenched inside of Andy’s head that the big boy began seizing up. The trauma of Corinth poking around in his mind sent him off the deep end. Corinth had no idea how to gently navigate people's thoughts yet. His grip on the bar started to wane, but Corinth held on even tighter to him.

  "Aniquilar!!!" he shouted into the sky, as he let go of his hold on Anvard's mind. The big boy suddenly felt himself again, and reaffirmed his grip on the bar that his fading spell allowed him to keep touch with.

  "Doble Aniquilar! Do it now, Lindle!"

  "I can't aim it from my seat!" he yelled back.

  "Then get up!" Anvard and Corinth yelled simultaneously.

  Lindle took a deep breath and looked down at the waters of the lake. The cart still titled to its side, he could see straight down. If he unfastened his strap, he'd just fall, unless he held on tight enough to the bars above his head to support his own weight. "Guys, this is a bit much," he voice grew weaker with every word.

  "Lindle, I know you want to stay on the side lines and hope for the best, but we can't do this unless you help out. Please, don't let this be the end. You wanted to come for a reason. We ignored the caution signs for a reason. This wasn't supposed… to be ...this dangerous, but we're already in it now. We have to do the best we can to get out of it alive."

  Corinth sounded off, not through the airwaves in the atmosphere, using his voice, but he spoke inside of Lindle's mind. Something he hadn't done since he realized he could do any such things to begin with. It was one of his easier tricks. Rather than searching through peoples assorted thoughts, he just told them what he was thinking.

  Lindle reluctantly pressed the two green buttons on each side of his brace. With his llave in hand, he pulled against the bars overhead. The wind force was lighter outside of the tunnel through the mountains, but still present. He was wobbly, but he was already out of his straps and there was no going back now. He pulled himself out and up to the opposite end of the cart from where Corinth and Anvard still dangled.

  "You can do it!" Anvard shouted in support.

  Corinth shushed him. "He needs to focus."

  "People love encouragement. It makes them feel stronger. I should think a physic would know that very well," Anvard was a nice fellow, but he didn't always say the right things at the appropriate times.

  Lindle fearfully crawled across the top of the tilted cart. He was a skinny guy, but the redistribution of his weight made the cart even shakier.

  "Lindle, just do it from there. Now!" Corinth shouted, quickly forgetting his own advice.

  "I can't aim, if I can't see. And I've never used a spell like this before," he spoke nervously and carefully. He thought if he even yelled too loud he'd lose balance and be headed toward a death spiral into the lake far below. "Why again are we doing this?" Another cart gave warning that it would be ripped from its magnetic gears to the track soon if they didn’t act. Sparks from up ahead flew all over the place, making Lindle take cover. He ducked down and covered his head with both arms.

  "Lindle, you have to do it now! Don't aim, just shoot." Corinth instructed him. "It doesn't matter anymore!"

  "I can't!" He didn't bother to lift his head from underneath his own comforting arms.

  "Do it now, or I'll come up there and kill you myself!" Corinth couldn't help but shout. Lindle's fear had become a huge liability, but he was still their only hope. Both arms were growing weaker. Anvard’s -Endurespell was wearing faint. They couldn’t keep it up much longer.

  Lindle raised his head with squinted eyes. He was afraid of the sparks. He couldn't see a thing his vision was so blurry. He long ago lost his unnecessary wire rim glasses. He heard voices calling out, but he wasn't listening anymore. He poured all of his energy into repeating the words Corinth had told him to say. He focused as much as he could, and pushed for the moment.

  "DOBLE ANIQUILAR!"

  The two white orbs of light generated by his llave came thrusting out together. They lit up the sky around them, and further blinded Lindle from seeing ahead, just like the continuous sparks from the other carts did. He lost balance and fell back down through the bars. He hit the bottom side, where Corinth and Anvard were. He straddled the bar, clinging to it for dear life. He noticed his llave was no longer in his hand. By then, it had already started its drop into the lake below.

  The lights of the spell flashed only a moment before Lindle got his wits back from the tumble. They shot high above the coaster into the sky. So luminous that they could be seen for miles. They crossed one another, and came back down in a death spiral of their own. The three boys could only hope they wouldn't miss, because the sparks from the cart just in front of their own became more intense, raining down too close to their heads. They’d be fried to death sooner rather than later if the spell missed its mark. Corinth realized that derailing a speeding train wasn’t as seamless as he thought it’d be. The lights struck the two metallic edges of the rail in unison.

  Immediately after, the track began its descent into the North Lake. It broke just a little beyond the center of the lake, as the rest of the blast created a shockwave of destruction up ahead. The cart ahead of theirs flipped over, as the track beneath it disintegrated. The track crumpled for at least a dozen yards ahead, sending glass and metal spewing everywhere. The fiery cart before theirs in the row began plunging toward the lake at about the same time their cart did.

  The three of them were on the inside falling with half the weight of the cart's metal bottom on their heads. It was better than all the weight, as Corinth tried to explain to them before. They could climb to the top if they had enough time, he thought. But they were physically sapped. They simply didn't have the leverage and definitely not the time. The track was high above the lake, but it wouldn’t take more than a solid minute to merge with the murky waters below.

  "Brace yourselves!" Corinth called out. He knew that the fall wouldn't kill them from ab
ove, but below. Unless, of course, one of the bars caught them on the head. But the crash into the water would create a pressure that may very well crush them. He thought maybe they should have stayed on, but he knew that wouldn't have given them any fighting chance. Their cart had already caught fire, and was the next in line to be flung off the track by the faulty engines and magnetism stripes running along its edges. But he didn't understand why his dream pulled him to do this, because falling through the sky was no clear solution to their problem. He realized he had no clue what he doing at this point, and just let the gravity of the situation takeover.

  As they prepared themselves for certain death, time seemed to drastically slow around them all. Almost intentionally, Corinth felt. Then suddenly, Anvard called out, breaking Corinth’s transfixed revelation that time wasn’t passing at its normal rate. "Get closer, Curly!" his tone was completely out of context, even to Corinth. He moved quickly to Anvard's side. "Don't let go of me, or else it won't work!" he said quickly, then immediately initiated his escape plan. He still had his llave clutched tightly in his hand, pressed up against the bar he clung to. They were so close to the water that their clothes started to wet with the mist.