Chapter 22 - Dissonance

Slicing winds bit at Yuzu, tearing at her body as she found herself once again in the white world. She was standing on a ground of packed white earth. Her body was pale and desaturated, and she immediately had to brace against the heavy winds that stung her skin.

Once again she felt the sensation of being dissolved into an endlessly white void.

But far worse than the physical sensation was the noise!

It sounded like a thousand shrill violins were frantically being played in a cacophonous orchestra!

It sounded like nails were being screeched across a hundred boards all around her!

An angry, arrhythmic banging of steel and heavy chains pounded through her body as if it were tearing her apart!

She felt like her very being was being ripped to shreds by the dissonant vibrations. She was losing consciousness, her sanity was being torn into an incoherent madness from which she would never recover.

Even as she was fading into nothing, her skin painfully began unravelling as if separating into a thousand threads. The threads splayed outward revealing the raw flesh beneath. She cried out in fear as she looked down at her trembling hands and arms, seeing the wild threads of skin whipping around in the invisible wind.

She almost lost herself to the pain and terror, when out of the corner of her eyes saw the shrine in front of her. It was faded and pale white, but it was undoubtedly the same stone shrine as in the real world.

A moment of clarity rippled through her being as she recalled the purpose of her presence here. Her heart steadied as she focused on the feeling of conviction to save her friend. It was an emotion that had originated from deep inside her soul, and as such it became an anchor for her mind among the cacophonous surroundings of the white world.

She heard an illusory bell ring out. At once the discordant melodies and the painful screeches calmed down. The writhing threads of skin returned to her body, merging together and becoming smooth and whole. The ringing reverberated through her body, growing louder and stronger, a single pure tone that brought peace and calm to her mind, heart and body. She felt her spirit grow stronger.

She breathed in deep, closing her eyes as the winds buffeting her diminished. The white world became calm as the ringing sound faded to silence.

When Yuzu opened her eyes again, she was able to see her surroundings clearly.

The white world extended into infinity with no horizon. She could only see a short distance around her. Everything outside that radius faded into a white nothingness.

The ground below her had dirt and white grass not unlike the ground in the real world. In front of her was the stone shrine.

Yuzu realized that she was holding the ornate chest in her hands, though she did not recollect how or when she had taken it from the bag on her back. She looked down at it. Unlike everything else in this world, it was solid and its rich wood and golden and silver inlays were vibrantly coloured. The colours of the chest seemed even more rich than they had been in the physical world.

She intuitively felt that the chest was providing her with strength and allowing her to maintain her presence in the white world. She gripped it more firmly as she looked up at the sky above the shrine.

As she focused, thin illusory threads began to materialize. They extended from the edges of her vision to a single point above the shrine, where they tangled into a bulky, chaotic knot. They had a different quality than in the physical world. She could feel the life energies flowing in them.

As she expanded her view she realized that there were many, many threads around her, that only seemed to reveal themselves through her concentration. Some threads were faint and dormant, others were vibrant and dynamic.

She could see Char Char's thread enter the knot. It was the thickest of all the nearby threads, but inside the knot it frayed and thinned and eventually ended. The other threads were dark and covered with a strange, sticky residue.

Yuzu reached out for the knot and was surprised when it hovered down towards her. Up close she saw that it was about the size of a head of lettuce and resembled a chaotic ball of yarn.

Holding the ball, she sat down cross legged on the ground and placed the ornate chest in her lap. With both hands she began prying at the threads, trying to untangle Char Char's thread from the others. She found that she could still sense the premonition when she touched the thread, but also that she could tune the sounds and visions out, quelling them and allowing her to concentrate.

As she picked at the threads, one of the dark threads snapped. The ball began to shift as the end of the snapped thread unraveled and dissolved into nothing.

Yuzu became aware of the sounds of growling and snarling, the heavy din of rain and wind, the shouts of Char Char for help. They seemed to come from all around her, like echoes on the wind.

In the real world, Char Char was fighting for her life at this very moment!

Yuzu watched as the ball of threads began squirming in her hands as time caught up to the knot of fate.

With a sense of urgency, Yuzu began pulling at the strings to unravel the knot!

~

Char Char stumbled backwards into the side of the shrine, clutching at her mangled arm. Her hood had fallen away, her long black hair was soaked and several long locks hung heavily over her face. The crashing of thunder and rain beat down on her as her eyes glared intensely at the monsters around her.

She had heard the wolves before she’d seen them. Vicious, feral snarls approached from the darkness. She only had enough time to stand and ready her walking staff before one of them had pounced on her. Its yellow fangs sunk deep into her left arm, gouging at the flesh. It whipped its head to the side, throwing her to the floor.

Blood pumping with adrenaline Char Char snapped to her feet and struck the wolf hard in the side of the neck. The staff snapped on impact, sending a jarring pain through both arms. Staggered by the blow, the wolf turned to face her only to be skewered through its mouth by the jagged end of the staff. It collapsed to the ground and did not move again.

Blood pooled at the base of the shrine as she gripped the broken staff in a defensive posture in front of her. She trembled as the rest of the wolves slowly approached, at least a dozen of them fanning out in a circle around her. They were huge, with mottled fur that clumped around patches of diseased flesh. Though they were not healthy, their ragged appearance made them even more intimidating. They had strange fronds growing out of their bodies, some of which ended in eyeballs that seemed to follow her as the wolves circled. She felt the inevitability of death close in around her, but rather than experiencing fear or even horror, she felt incredibly calm and focused.

“This is it.” Char Char muttered, lips trembling as she prepared to make her final stand. She had been lucky with the first wolf. She knew she wouldn’t get a second chance. “I’m sorry, dad. I’m sorry, grandpa.”

The next wolf pounced from her side without warning, its eyes wild and red as it lunged for her throat. Char Char didn’t even have the time to react, but as it made its leap, its paws slipped on the wet mud and it missed her by centimetres, slamming head first into the side of the stone shrine with a heavy, final crack.

Char Char screamed as she instinctively twisted her body away, just barely managing to avoid the snapping jaws of a second wolf. She stabbed at a third wolf with her staff, but it glanced harmlessly off its shaggy pelt. The force of the thrust caused her to slip on the mud and it barreled directly into her as it lunged past. She hit the ground hard on her back with such force that it knocked the wind out of her and snapped her head against the ground.

Her consciousness reeled from the blow. All thoughts in her mind went blank as she gasped for breath. Her body was sluggish with pain and disorientation. She heard the crack of thunder pierce the air. She closed her eyes, waiting for the end, but it didn’t come. When she opened her eyes seconds later, the orange glow from the lantern ten feet away was wavy and doubled. Her head was swimming.

She reached out to the side for her staff, and instead felt warm, sticky matted fur and the body of a fallen wolf.

“You alive?” A grizzled voice said above her.

Char Char’s vision came into focus as she looked up at the approaching man. He was lean and wore a cloak that seemed to shift and shimmer in the lantern light, making it hard to discern the exact position of his body. His angled eyebrows and nose gave him the appearance of a hawk. His eyes glinted like steel. In his hand was a revolver. He held it casually pointed towards the wolves, who had once again formed a circle. They growled and yipped, but seemed unwilling to confront the man who had come to Char Char’s aid.

In the white world beyond, Yuzu felt the knot disperse. The black sticky threads released their grip on Char Char’s golden thread. It remained frayed, but whole, as the threads continued to shift and change around her.

Sweat dripped from Yuzu’s forehead as she sat back with a loud sigh. She had nearly not made it. She had started by prying the threads away from Char Char, but quickly realized that she did not have the ability or strength to hold all of the wolves off. In an act of desperation fueled inspiration, she had reached out to the thickest nearby thread that she could see - a thick, silver braid that flew from its position fifty meters away and landed in her hands. She forcefully jammed it into the knot, running it alongside Char Char’s thread in an attempt to strengthen it against the wolves.

The effect was clear and immediate!

An echo from the physical world drifted into Yuzu’s ears.

“Thank you for saving me.” Char Char coughed as she tried to pull herself to her feet. “Please be careful, the wolves don’t look right...”

The Hunter frowned as his eyes scanned the area around them. He looked past the wolves, as if he could pierce into the darkness beyond.

“It’s not the wolves I’m worried about.” He muttered.

Yuzu gasped as tendrils of silvery-grey smoke began emanating out of the ground around her. She stood up, trying to push the smoke back but she felt an intense resistance to her efforts that she couldn’t overcome.

A shrill, piercing shriek echoed through the veil of rain. The bestial cry crackled with a percussive element that could be felt in one’s body.

The hearts of Char Char and Yuzu were filled with dread as the unseen monster approached.