novelraw Chapter 419: Their Hands
Chapter 419: Their Hands
Lu Li stood on the swaying deck, his hands clamped tight around the mast to keep from being washed overboard.
“We’re about to make port, so for god’s sake, hold on!”
A coarse shout erupted nearby. Lu Li turned his head to see the ship’s captain leaning out of the wheelhouse, bellowing at the terrified sailors.
Through the storm, Lu Li could make out a distant, tree-covered shoreline.
It was most likely the Shadow Swamp—a place not much safer than the boundless sea.
“Reefs dead ahead! Hard to port!”
Suddenly, a desperate cry came from the sailor in the crow’s nest.
The captain’s face twisted. He scrambled back into the wheelhouse and smacked the helmsman on the back of the head.
“Quickly, damn you, hard to port!”
They had spotted the reefs too late.When it became clear that a collision was unavoidable, the sailor’s piercing scream echoed across the deck.
“We’re going to crash! Brace yourselves!”
The sailors scrambled to secure themselves. One of them rushed toward Lu Li—or rather, toward the mast behind him—and tied himself to it with a rope.
“My dearest Alice, I pray you help us reach the shore...” the sailor muttered, his voice trembling as he clutched a worn picture frame, its image blurred by the rain.
The next moment, the ship shuddered as it slammed into the reefs.
Standing by the mast, Lu Li was thrown into the air and plunged into the sea.
With a splash, he sank into the water, enveloped in a cloud of air bubbles. He drifted downward for a moment before beginning to float back up.
The dark water swirled before his eyes. Suddenly, a shadow fell past Lu Li, sinking toward the bottom.
Lu Li glanced at the sinking picture frame and, on impulse, reached out and grabbed it.
The scene shifted, and Lu Li was pulled into the next vision.
At the same time, in reality, the fading Face-Worm’s expression softened into one of relief.
A second, invisible hand appeared. A rough, calloused palm gently supported Lu Li’s back.
...
A homeless man, rummaging through the trash, closed the lid of a dumpster.
Finding nothing, he shuffled toward the next bin, a sour stench trailing behind him.
Night had fallen over the city, and the dark alley was lit only by the faint glow of the moon.
Lu Li looked up. A familiar, hazy crescent moon hung in the sky.
Creak...
The homeless man lifted the lid of the second dumpster.
“Ugh...”
He peered inside, grimaced, and let the lid drop. Pinching his nose, he waved a hand that was missing its index finger.
He seemed to have lost hope of finding anything in the last bin. He opened it listlessly, but his expression suddenly lit up with joy.
The dumpster was tall, and the man couldn’t reach what was inside. He stood on his tiptoes, stretching, but failed. Then, bracing his hands on the rim, he began to climb in.
The lid pressed down on his back, his legs dangling in the air as he slowly worked his way inside.
Lu Li sensed that something was wrong and reached out to grab the man’s ankle.
But he was too late. The man, already halfway in, slipped and vanished into the bin. There was a dull thud, followed by a rustling sound.
Before Lu Li could react, a long shadow fell across the alley, stopping at his feet.
Lu Li looked to the side. A balloon with a grinning human face had floated into the alley.
Thump!
A noise came from the nearby dumpster. The homeless man, having found something, pushed up against the lid.
Lu Li raised a hand to hold the lid down.
Though he knew it was pointless.
The balloon drifted toward the dumpster. Just as Lu Li had seen before, the homeless man was supposed to climb out and fall into the balloon’s trap, which would wrap around his neck and turn him into another one of its kind.
The vision dissolved, and Lu Li was transported to the next fragment.
In the viscous depths of the sea, a hand missing an index finger supported Lu Li’s back.
...
“Help... someone... help me...” a woman’s desperate cry echoed through the swamp.
Lu Li slowly stepped out of the hut.
On the edge of the abandoned village, a girl in a tattered dress ran in terror across a wooden bridge and hid inside the hut Lu Li had just exited, slamming the still-solid door shut behind her.
Squish...
A six-limbed creature, its feet sinking into the mud, emerged from the forest surrounding the village.
It followed the girl’s tracks, closing in on the hut.
Lu Li looked at the closed door. Muffled sobs could be heard from inside.
Without hesitation, Lu Li reached out and held the door shut.
What followed was a seemingly endless stream of visions of death.
With one small difference: in the viscous depths of the sea, a fourth, pale hand appeared, supporting Lu Li’s back.
His descent was slowing...
Lu Li witnessed countless deaths. Some were followers of the Mother of the Swamp, but most were innocent victims.
The visions spanned a vast stretch of time, from an immemorial age when the Allen Peninsula was untouched by civilization to events that had transpired only a few hours ago.
Watching death after death, so real it was as if he were experiencing them himself, Lu Li learned the history of the Shadow Swamp: the founding and fall of Tenebrae, the abandoned villages, the events within the town, and their ultimate conclusion.
Lu Li saw many things: how the underground temple fell, how the Tower of Eyes was erected, the bloody rituals of the followers of the Mother of the Swamp, the destroyed granaries, and the scattering survivors...
He also saw familiar faces: the owner of the Great Wave Tavern where he had stayed upon first arriving in Tenebrae, her assistant, the mayor, Aunt Sophia.
Even knowing that all of this had already happened and that nothing could be changed, Lu Li continued to do everything he could to prevent these deaths in the brief fragments of the visions.
Old visions faded, and new ones appeared.
Lu Li stood before a hut in the forest.
The place was bustling with two families and their children.
As evening approached, the men chopped wood in the clearing while the women chatted inside the hut. The children played, except for one boy who sat huddled in a corner, holding a diary and clumsily writing something.
[April 12. I’m so sad... I don’t know what happened, Mom and Dad ran into the house, grabbed me, and we just ran. They brought me to the forest, the ground here is wet, is it a swamp? There are so many bugs, but it’s good we found a house before it got dark. Another family just like us lives here, with a little boy!]
“Mom, I want meat!”
The boy’s sudden cry silenced everyone.
“Of course... we have new guests...” his mother smiled sinisterly and took an axe from the wall.
Just then, a burning branch from the fire suddenly flew into her face.
Flames erupted. Before Lu Li could approach the child, the vision ended, and he was thrown into the next scene.
...
Lu Li froze.
A multitude of hands supported him, keeping him from falling.
In the viscous depths of the sea, Lu Li hung suspended, his hair and clothes unmoving.
Gradually, a new, small hand appeared, settling on a free space on Lu Li’s back.
The small hand’s strength was negligible, yet it seemed as if a strand of Lu Li’s hair stirred.
It was no illusion. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Lu Li began to rise.