Chapter 17
Arthur breaks but it’s too late, our car hits the truck, it spins, my body hurts, my head feels light. I sense the car drifting off the road, beyond Arthur’s control, as my consciousness slips away.
When I regain consciousness all around us is darkness, and I reason that we must have ended up in a tunnel. Our car is moving, but I cannot find the manual break to stop it.
“Iris, are you ok?” Arthur’s voice emerges from the blackness in which we are immersed.
“Yes,” I say, “And you?”
“I’m so sorry, Iris,” he apologizes.
“Don’t apologize, tell me if you’re hurt,” I insist, the words quickened by the adrenaline still flowing through my veins.
“I’m ok, and I’d feel even better if I could understand what’s happening,” Arthur replies.
“Can you try to break?” I ask.
“I’ve tried already,” Arthur tells me.
“I can’t find the hand break,” I say.
I hear Arthur feel around the car, and I sit still, holding my breath.
“It doesn’t work either,” he tells me after a moment.
“So the breaks are broken”.
“I doubt it. There’s something else happening here. Don’t you have the perception that a force is pulling us somewhere?” Arthur replies.
“Are you scared?” I ask.
“No, not this time. Now I really want to see what’s next,” Arthur says, and a moment later we exit the tunnel, our bodies and car battered and yet still functional.
MONASTERIUMBURG, reads a wooden sign in the unpaved road unravelling before us.
5:03 a.m., reads the clock in the car.
“It seems like we got in the right spot in no time,” Arthur comments, forcing a laugh to lighten the atmosphere, as we look at each other and shiver.