Brodi Ashton - Everneath

To: my dad.

A quiet man.

A fierce warrior.

History books call it the Underworld. Or even hell.
But I know its neither. It is really called the Everneath,
and its not a place for the dead. Its a place for the
Everlivingbeings who have discovered the secret to
eternal life. Its a place for their Forfeitsthe humans
who give up everything to nourish the Everliving. Its
the world caught between this one and the next, a layer
between Earth and hell. I know because I was a Forfeit.
I would give anything to change this.

I was picturing his facea boy with floppy brown hair and brown eyeswhen the Feed ended.

At first I didnt know what had happened. I didnt know where I was or why it was so dark. I knew only that the pain inside methe feeling that I was being drained from the inside outhad subsided, and now everything was numb. Maybe I no longer existed.

Its over, Cole whispered in my ear.

I wanted to answer, but my mouth wasnt working.

Nikki, try to open your eyes.

That was why it was dark. My eyes were closed. Id been squeezing them shut for I dont know how long. The muscles around them had forgotten how to relax, so it was some time before I could pry them open.

When I did, they stung, like a fresh wound exposed to cool air. After a hundred years they had forgotten how to produce tears.

It was still dark all around us, but as I worked on my eyes, the black forms that had bound me to Cole began to peel away, as if an oil slick were lifting from my skin.

I could see.

I looked at my arm, from my shoulder down to the elbow, and a little lower, to where it disappeared behind Coles back. My skin was so pale. Almost blue. I was wearing a black tank top. I tried to remember putting it on but came up with nothing.

Nikki. Try to stand up.

I shook my head, surprised that I could move my head at all. The Shades, with their black, fluid forms, had cocooned us so tight for so long. Coles head was next to mine, his chin resting on my shoulder, his blond hair touching my cheek.

You can take your time.

Mmm, I said. It was all I could manage.

I started with small movements, flexing my fingers and my toes, shocking my hibernating muscles awake. Cole did the same. I could feel his fingertips pressing into my back, restarting the circulation.

I worked up to my knees, my legs, my elbows, making small movements against Coles body. But where I tried to separate my legs from his, the skin stung. It was as if we had been sewn together, and I was ripping us apart.

I groaned in pain and pulled him tight against me again.

He let me. I know its going to be hard, Nik. Well just take it slow, okay?

I nodded, and he held me for a few long minutes before we tried to separate again. This time, he rubbed the affected skin as we went, and I had a brief memory flash of a woman ripping a Band-Aid off my knee, and then rubbing it to ease the pain.

But when I tried to focus on the image, it slipped away and I was in the dark again.

I shook and reached for Cole, but this time he grabbed my wrists, gently and firmly.

Nik, Im sorry. The Shades say the Feed is over. I know it feels weird, but we have to get used to it.

I wasnt sure I believed him. Without his embrace, my body felt empty and hollow, as though we were one person, divided. Except it wasnt an even division. He had taken away everything that made me me. And I would only be me again when I was next to him. I wasnt sure my body would survive on its own anymore. I was no longer whole.

Even though I was trembling, I sat up. My legs dangled over the stone ledge of our alcove and I looked around. We were in a giant cavern, the walls of which were filled with hundreds of alcoves just like the one we were in, but they were all empty.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew we were the last ones to start the Feed, so we were the only ones left. Stairs built into the rock zigzagged up the walls, leading to the alcoves above us. The ground was covered in a sea of black sludge that swelled and pulsed like a lake in a storm.

More Shades. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.

Theyre stretching out too, Cole said from behind me. They should be. The Shades had been wrapped around us for the entire century, unmoving, funneling my own energy directly into Cole.

Cole.

I turned my head until I could see him in my peripheral vision, deeper inside the alcove. His was the only voice Id heard for the past hundred years. The only name I knew anymore. He rubbed his eyes, trying to pry them open with his fingers. This part never gets easier, he said.

I faced forward again, looking out over the dark ground. I had this niggling feeling that I was forgetting something very important. The more I tried to figure out what it was, the more my heart pounded. If I could just remember, my heart wouldnt explode.

And then it hit me. When Id opened my eyes, Id forgotten the face. His face. Thats what it was.

I closed my eyes again, and there he was. Hair that flopped forward in a tangled mess. Big brown eyes that could search me out in any crowd. Callused hands that could lead me anywhere.

I couldnt remember the name that went with the face. Id lost it years ago.

Nik?

Cole shifted so that he was sitting beside me. He had shaken off the shroud of a deep sleep. Nik, look at me. There was a strange urgency to his voice. I twisted my head to look at him and was struck by how attractive he still was. I had been in his arms, but I hadnt seen his face for a century. It was the same. His blond hair framed his dark eyeseyes that were wide open now, in surprise. His gaze roved over my face, my body. How did you do it?

Do what? My voice sounded strange. I wasnt really paying attention to what he was saying because I was thinking about being wrapped up with him again. Being whole again. I started to lean toward him, but he put his hands on my shoulders and studied me.

You youre still the same Nikki. You survived. He cupped my face in his hands, and then turned it left and right, as if he couldnt believe what he was seeing. I found you.

What do you mean?

He shook his head with a strange smile on his lips. I mean, Ive searched for youfor someone like youfor thousands of years. He tilted his head back and gazed up, as if he were thanking the cavern ceiling for something. He clasped my hands so tightly it hurt. You have no idea what this means. This. Never. Happens. Nik, you dont have to go to the Tunnels. You can stay with me. Become an Everliving.

He jumped off the ledge and stood on the ground, the Shades there making way for his feet. He reached out his hand. Come with me, Nik.

I looked at his hand, and then up at his face. Where?

Out of here. He gestured to the giant cavern. You can live forever like me, and you wont have to go to the Tunnels. His face involuntarily grew hard. It seemed even immortals were scared of the Tunnels.

I reached for his hand, then hesitated as I remembered that face. The one with the brown eyes. The boy with the hands that fit mine just right. Im not sure how, but I knew if I went with Cole, Id never see that face again. The boy with that face was not an Everliving.

He was a human, and he was on the Surface. Where Id left him. I knew it like I knew I needed air to live.

No, I said. I pushed away from him and stood up on my own. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I had another choice. Im going home.