Elena Vasquez's Arc

Chapter 10 of 11

Elena kept walking north, deeper into the jungle where the canopy blocked out most of the light. The vial pressed cold against her hip through the fabric of her belt. Behind her, the stranger's footsteps had faded. She was alone now with her choice. A sound stopped her—a wet collapse, then silence. Elena turned back and found him sprawled in a pool of purple fluid that spread from beneath his bandaged arm. The mark had torn through the cloth, weeping faster now. His eyes rolled back, showing only white rimmed with faint lavender. The vial. She needed to use it now, while the skull burned hot in her pack. Elena dropped to her knees and reached for her belt. They came from all sides at once. Hooded figures stepped out from behind trees, their forms solidifying from patches of shadow. Lavender eyes fixed on her from beneath deep hoods. Six of them formed a circle around her and the fallen stranger. Elena's fingers closed on the vial, but a figure moved between her and her pack. Another stepped over the stranger's body as if he were already dead. They didn't rush. They didn't need to. The skull was three steps away in her pack, the vial in her hand, but they stood between her and any chance of joining them. Elena made her choice in the space of a breath. She threw the vial hard at the nearest figure's chest. Glass shattered. Green liquid sprayed across black robes and splashed onto the jungle floor. The figure shrieked—a sound like metal tearing—and staggered back. Where the liquid touched, the robe began to smoke and dissolve. The other figures turned toward their burning companion. Elena lunged for her pack, grabbed the skull through the fabric despite its searing heat, and ran. She understood now what the stranger had tried to tell her: the vial could destroy the curse, but only if she could reach the skull and use it together. Separated, she had nothing but the cursed object itself and a line of figures between her and any way to end this.