Shadowrun - Novel - 18 - Worlds Without End.pdf

Shadowrun Caroline Spector - Worlds Without End
I start to run down the hill, back to the town
where Caimbeui and I left the car. The fields I run
through are fallow, dead, and brown. Where there
was once a cobblestone road, now only small jagged
pieces of stone show against the dun-colored earth.
A stillness hangs in the air. But this is not the silence
of a quiet afternoon.
The buildings I pass are crumbling. Finally, I come
to the tavern where we stopped for lunch. No vehicles
are parked outside. The windows are boarded up,
but the door hangs open, listing on one hinge.
I go inside.
It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the
dark. Broken chairs litter the floor. Glass crunches
under my feet. There's no one here.
I walk outside again.
All around me, everything crumbles to dust.
And I am alone.
Tears streamed down my face. The spriggans
grabbed my hands and spun me about harder and
faster. The world revolved around me until all I saw
was a blur of light and motion. Shutting my eyes, I
tried to block it out.
I open my eyes.
We spin about under the azure sky, hands locked
with one another.
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WORLDS WITHOUT END
"Faster," he says.
"You'll make yourself sick," I reply.
"Faster."
So we turn and turn until we both fall down onto
the soft grass.
"The sky is spinning," he says.
I put my hand on his forehead. He is warm, but
not unusually so. My hand looks so large against his
tiny forehead. I can hardly believe that this creature,
this small boy, came from me.
He pushes my hand away, impatient again to be
going. In a flash he is up and off and running.
Chubby legs pump and I see he's beginning to lose
his baby fat. In another few months he'll be a little
boy, a baby no longer. And I find I can't bear the
idea of his growing older. I would keep him like this
forever.
From high in the sky, a bird cries out. I look up,
shadowing my eyes with my hand. It begins a slow
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