Descending Shadows: Hard Choices

“Wait, Leslie, I’m your brother!”

“They don't understand us, Nolan! Let's get out of here!”

“No, I can't leave her—I won’t!”

“Come on, Nolan. We won’t stand a chance at saving them without the antidote.”

We retreated and, eventually, they lost our trail. I was thankful for that; we would have no choice but to kill them if they were to corner us. If they did, too much would have been at stake for us to show them any leniency… Even if it killed us inside to do it.

As we entered my house, Jason rushed towards me with open arms.

“Moon, you're back! Where have you been? I thought you were dead!” he cried.

“Come on, champ, we weren't gone for that long,” I said, hugging him tightly.

He looked at me confused. “What do you mean, ‘not that long’? It has been over a year.”

“What? That’s impossible,” I replied.

“It isn’t, really,” said one of the teachers as she walked in with a toddler in her arms.

“Do you two remember baby Jane?”

“Yes,” Nolan and I replied.

“This is her now.”

Our eyes were agape as our minds raced to understand our new situation.

“Perhaps time flows differently in the Serpian World,” I said.

Nolan rubbed his forehead with his palm, shaking his head as he sighed and walked away.

“I’m glad I didn’t waste any more time over there… I’m sorry I took so long, Jason,” I said, hugging my brother once more.

“Moon, where’s Leslie?” Jason asked, looking around.

We told them what happened and asked if there were any antidote vials left, but the news we heard wasn’t what we were looking for. Two of our friends, Joseph and Leo, had been infected. They had broken some of the vials, and the last two that were left, were used on them.

“So, we don’t have any for my sister? Great…”

“Not unless I can help it,” I said, walking away.

I started working on the antidote right away, and Nolan joined me as well. It was too late to use a syringe on them, so we decided to make smoke grenades with the antidote. Once ready, we left for the woods.

We soon heard screams echoing from the thickets ahead. Leslie and Arabella were attacking policemen. We quickly hit them with our grenades. Leslie and Arabella were out cold moments later, and we soon cut open the officers’ wounds and took out the venom. We then took them to my house for more treatment. I didn’t want to leave Leslie and Arabella behind, but the officers took priority at the time.

We started making more of the antidote for the cops, just in case they needed it. The others tied them up to a metal bar for safety. However, it was not long before we heard screams inside the house.