Page 83 of The Echo of Forever

“Please face forward for tonight’s sacrifice. Maybe the Gods keep you.”

The center of the garden lit up in flames, and the screams came next.

I tensed as they danced higher, casting shadows across the masked faces around us. The screaming wasn’t coming from the fire; it was human. Or at least it sounded real.

“Easy, my forever,” Demetrius whispered against my ear as he positioned himself behind me like before. “Look closer. Effigies.”

Oh.

The flames weren’t consuming flesh, but they were burning effigies, crude human shapes made of straw and cloth.

When I was a kid, my grandfather burned one for each of us every new year. He said they were meant to represent shedding our old skin and starting anew.

“Tonight, you witness rebirth,” a voice boomed as the screams ceased, their tenor carrying across the garden. “Death of the old ways. Birth of the new. Those who remain have proven worthy of truth. Please proceed through the flames.”

I had no clue what came over me, but I laughed, and it caught the attention of others.

Through the flames?

Demetrius and I stayed rooted in place as bodies began to move through what was clearly fake fire.

“Stop laughing,” he said, sounding like he was having a hard time holding his back as he took my hand. “Come on.”

I started to understand that the people around us experienced this before. They obeyed each command without a second thought.

Whatever the air and communion had been dosed with wasn’t meant to harm but to relax. Nothing, other than meeting the man beside me, had ever felt so freeing.

I snickered at what I once thought was fire, but now realize was only fog mimicking its look and movement.

“Choose an empty cabin and wait for instructions.”

Their land was much bigger than I thought.

The cabins were scattered throughout what looked like a miniature village, each one identical with heavy wooden doors and no visible windows.

“What a weird game,” I muttered through my laughter as he led us to a cabin on the far left, while most everyone else went right. “This feels like an illusion. Is this real? Or are we dreaming?”

He chuckled, and it made me laugh harder.

Were we the only ones who found this ridiculous?

“Everything about you having the fucking giggles is making my night, baby,” the flirt mused as he pushed open the cabin door.

Inside was sparse and smelled like lavender and vanilla. There was a single bed with white linens, a small wooden chair, a table with a pitcher of water atop it, and what looked like a meditation cushion for two on the floor.

“Are you floating like me?”

He pushed me down on the bed and sat beside me.

“I’m not that far gone, baby,” he said, pushing his hood back, then doing the same for me.

A soft chime echoed through the cabin, followed by a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

“The communion you drank contains a mild truth serum,” the voice continued. “It will not force words from your lips, but will prevent falsehoods from forming.”

I stared at Demetrius, my mind racing despite the pleasant fog still clouding my thoughts.A truth serum?

“That’s why I can’t stop laughing,” I whispered, touching my lips. “It’s like my body won’t let me hide anything.”