World Between: Chapter 9 part 2

Aaron screamed as he threw a chair through a table. He had hoped this method would be more effective, but the noises continued to distract them in various ways.  The thumps continued, and breaking sounds slowly built up into the shuffle of random noise. 

“It has to— be here,” Jared spoke with a raised voice. “If she is going through this much.”
“Get in the kitchen!” Aaron shouted as he ran toward the doors himself.

Noise racketed up in the much smaller room filled with scattered pans, and broken bottles. Aaron’s head cracked back, and he felt a pan fly into the left side of his face, but he managed to swing the cellar doors open. Jared slowly followed him as he tumbled down.

“You alright?” Jared asked. “Sorry, I—”

“It’s fine.” Aaron said, getting up. “I remember a lot of safety stuff.”

“The noise stopped, at least.” Jared replied.

What gave it away? Sofia’s voice echoed. As did her giggle when both jumped backward. We're not done yet boys~

“The entrance had to be somewhere inside,” Aaron said. “That was the one place we never saw.”

Clever. Sofia replied. So you coming or what?

The purple dirt forming a long hallway seemed fitting to Aaron. “Like a final boss, a reminder that we're almost home.”

You could’ve gone home at literally any time. Sofia’s voice continued to echo You simply chose not too

“Why do you even care?!” Aaron replied.

WHY DO YOU? Sofia echoed back. You have been avoiding the public eye, as best you can, for months. Fought people who were never human to begin with, and stomped over way through a world you want no part of. Go home.

“You must’ve realized by now we can’t do that.” Jared replied. “We cannot let such a large chunk of us just leave. The entire planet will have to shift its way of life.”

“They left in October.” Sofia replied. “You came in like January? The world has been doing fine.”
​
The long hallways finally widen into a circular room. The walls extended up into blackness reaching higher than the ground above them should’ve been. Sofia stood in front of the Dark Gem above 3/4th deep into the room from it’s only exit.

“The adjustments are expected to take years.” Jared replied.

“Don’t act like we will do them.” Sofia replied. “We never have, and we never did.”

“What right do you have to make that statement?!” Jared shouted. 

“Wait… how do you even know what October is?” Aaron asked. “Why are you sure we came here in January?” 

“I’m not sure.” Sofia replied. “Time feels like it works the same, but it’s not like I know. So based on things people said it was January. You’ve caused a lot of black outs by the way. You remember how we were all using electricity to keep in touch? Well, I guess it’s not really electricity here.”

“Who? What are you?” Aaron asked.

“What WAS I.” Sofia corrected. “The answer you’re looking for is that at one point I was human. Now something more of my own design. It’s not the first time you’ve--

Sofia slid backwards as Jared threw an arrow of light into her shoulder. “Enough.” He said with his open hand still out. “Enough of the games. Enough of you lies. Enough of…”

“Ray?” Aaron asked, as a masculine cough coming from where Sofia just stood.

“Ow.” Ray said, grabbing the arrow and ripping out his shoulder. “Wasn’t expecting that to—” more coughs came, each a little more feminine as Ray shifted back again. 

“Interesting, so that's what it does now.” Sofia replied. “Not really a truth, in my humble opinion, but I guess it's an answer.”

“All this time… why didn’t you say anything?” Aaron asked.

“Don’t act like you'd believe it.” Sofia replied. “You still think I took over or something. It’s all over your face. As I was saying, however, it’s not the first time you’ve seen such a dramatic shift. Though it might be the first time you’ve seen this kind of shift. None of the other 7 did this kind of a swap.” Sofia twirled as she finished talking. 

“We can fix that back home.” Jared replied. “There are ways to help you.”

“You still don’t understand.” Sofia replied as the Gem behind her swirled to life. “You can’t make me a dark mystic. You can't drag millions of people to a place they never want to be again. And we can’t talk this out!”

“Because we made our choice…” Aaron replied.

“And I made mine.” Sofia nodded.

“Then why did that flower point us to all this?” Jared asked.

“You know, I’ve been wondering that myself.” Sofia admitted. “So seems we’re about to find out, together.”