Short Story - Rapture of Rays

Rapture of Rays

Friend trudged with Comrade and Companion through the expanse.

A rapture of rays cascaded from the tip of the earth’s circular sky, shakily swirling like wind that could not comprehend its own power. A vast swarm of swallows dipped and dived as if the air was water, breaking open the bleak bruised sky with a shimmering iridescence, rising and expanding like gargantuan cumulous clouds and dominating the pin prick light of the meek stars. The luminescent ice beneath mirrored the fluttering feathers, creating a cascade of colour on its surface like a meadow in spring; there was almost a scent of pine, of stinging fresh water.

Below their feet, arrow-headed shadows darted in the freezing water, obscured by the thick glowing ice. Further away, frost-covered firs wavered, their pillar shapes swinging as the bright birds went this way and that, warbling as they did so; there would be no other sound if they did not, save the moan and the creak of the frozen floor.

Breath steamed. Breath steamed and billowed.

‘Oh save me’ the trees seemed to sigh.

Friend stopped, hands dug deep into his pockets and watched the flitting sea of birds for a moment. They had to stop running now; there was no more benefit in trying to escape.

“Here?”

He turned to face Companion, who face was gaunt and pallid, sunken in his red-swelled cheeks and hollowed in the eyes.

“Here,” he replied, raising the pickaxe and plunged it into the ice. Comrade helped and Companion watched, distracted by looking back to where they had come from. They made a circle of loose ice like a plug.

The wind spat with every plunge of the birds and sucked as they clambered upwards, twittering nosily. Their loudness and colourful quality bursting over the ice constantly made it impossible to see if there was anything gathering in the distance.

“What if I don’t want to escape like this?” Companion asked fearfully, eyes unmoving from the slab of ice.

They used their axes to heave the plug from its watery pit and let it slap onto the side to reveal a black hole.

“It has to be done.”

“Isn’t there another way?”

“This is yours.”

Companion stepped closer to the dark pool and leaned over apprehensively, whilst Friend and Comrade studied his reaction. Although the water lapped and shimmered, it reflected none of the colour from the birds above, nor did it absorb any glow from the ice.

“Do you know what’s down there?”

Friend glanced at Comrade and they decided silently to say nothing.

“It’ll be cold,” Comrade said, after a while.

“I guessed that,” replied Companion.

“Come on,” Comrade said, sitting and crossing his legs, waiting. “You’ve got to get in soon.”

Companion stared more into the deep depths and then, was overcome with a sudden fear that broke the quiet calm of his mouth and eyes, letting out a strangled cry as if he had seen something lurking within and pelted in the opposite direction, a flurry of frost in his wake.

Friend and Comrade gave each other glances, stood and took a few running steps to gather speed, then let the ice rush beneath their feet. Companion slipped and skidded, his feet in a frenzy struggling to balance and race at the same time.

Friend and Comrade gracefully slipped in front of him and caught him by the arms, his feet flying in the air before he bashed to the ice. The birds above cawed and flocked closer together like a storm cloud.

“It’s time, Companion,” he said, dragging him with Comrade. “They’ll be here soon.”

“It can’t be time; it can’t be time!” He cried, unable to stand because of his feet slipping beneath him. The reflections on the ice thickened like lava.

Unfeelingly, they tossed him to the hole, but missed and he skidded over to the other side. He looked up at them in fragile desperation; lips trembling, body quaking.

“We’ve done this for you,” Friend said. “It’s time now. You said you would. You’ll be safer in there. The birds have already shown we’re here –”

“Would you rather face what is coming?” Comrade asked Companion seriously.

Companion didn’t answer, but his expression indicated no.

The birds sung loudly and swept the wind around and around, speeding from side to side agitatedly.

“Alright,” Companion breathed.

He crept closer and closer to the hole, the water eagerly lapping over his shoes and patting his hands. And then he was gone, in a floor of encasing, obscuring water, his fingertips submerging last.

Comrade and Friend took the slab of ice from the side and slid it back into the water where it fitted like a piece in a puzzle. The birds died down. It was quiet.

“Do you think he’ll get free?” Comrade asked.