As if on cue, I make out the
music. The lulling, mystical song of the desert. It sounds far away, and I have
to really listen for it to make anything out at all.
‘See, you hear that? It’s all
the people who want you to come back up with us,’ I say.
‘I don’t hear anything, Easton.
It’s not for me.’
‘You have to really listen for
it,’ I reply. ‘I couldn’t make it out myself.’
Yates seems to take a step back
towards the edge, despite the look of being torn between two worlds.
‘Is Elle there too?’ he asks. He
wipes his nose on his sleeve and takes a step towards us. ‘I’m sorry, Easton. I
am. I just…’
‘She is, and I know,’ I say. I
step over to him and catch him in an embrace. He smells like he’s been outside
for an age. If he was alive, I could imagine his fingers being cold and stiff,
swelled against the cold as his blood tried to keep him alive.
‘Upson,’ I say. ‘Come on.’
The big man comes over.
Determined not to lose him this time, I take his arm and grip tightly. I hold
onto Yates with my other. I try not to look over the edge but I can’t help it.
The split second my eyes dart towards it makes me feel nauseous, terrified,
like a child separated from his parents.
The second feels like an age.
The age ends. I’m Easton with my
friends and we follow the music up and away from the Abyss, hoping never to
return.
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