My eyebrows scrunch together, and I take a beat, choosing to steal his camel’s reins and take the lead in our slow march. Something about his demeanor makes me doubt myself. “Unless you and your angel buddies just speak it for funsies, it is to us earthlings.”
He barks a laugh. “Myangel buddies?You underestimate the size of Elohim.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have to if you’d just tell me more about it.”
“Nice try, Dawn, but I think the Abyss is enough to wrap your head around for now.” As soon as the words come out of his mouth, my attention inadvertently shifts back to the low-rolling vibrations in the ground. They’ve gotten even more intense since we started walking, and unease starts to spider crawl up my neck. Some innate part of me is getting more and more frantic, despite my best efforts to keep swallowing it down.
This godforsaken tunnel is nothing more than a haunted house,I tellmyself.Nothing is going to hurt me. It’s all theatrics.
“Before we get to—” Dusk pauses abruptly when I flinch, and his camel does as well. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you jump.”
“It’s fine,” I mutter, displeased.
“Are you alright? I can take the lead again. I was just kidding when I?—”
“I said I’mfine. Continue.”
“Right.” He clears his throat, clearly not believing me. “Well, there will be an open cavern where locusts guard the city gates. Judging by the sound, they’ve prepared a large welcoming party for us today. I don’t imagine their reclusive king will bother to come to greet us, but if he does, just stay behind me. He’s an uppity asshole, and I don’t trust him one bit.”
“So… no giant underground worms?” I peer over my shoulder, cocking an eyebrow.
“What?” His expression is genuinely baffled. “Where did you get that idea?”
I can nameexactlywhat movie spawned that fear, but I guess he doesn’t spend much time watching human movies. “Nevermind. So you don’t like the angel king. Considering his grotesque decorating style, I’m not really inclined to trust him, either. So how does the locust swarm come in?”
Dusk grimaces. “Listen, Kae. The locusts are… not what I think you’re expecting.”
Well, the Bible doesn’t explain the locusts in a way that makes a ton of sense, and I can’t quite remember the specific details, but I highly doubt that a horde of crop-eating bugs will be the thing to terrify me. I’ve never been scared of bugs; my dad made sure of that when he got me a pet tarantula when I was a kid, since he felt bad for not getting me a dog or cat because of Mom’s allergies. The little shit was mean, so I didn’t keep it long… but still. Now would be anawfultime to start getting queasy over insects.
“How bad could they really be?” I turn back around, looking ahead of us.
“Define ‘bad.’”
“Can I fit inside one’s mouth?”
“Well, no, but?—”
“Then I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I scoff, waving him off. “I’m not scared of bugs.”
“If you say so…” His voice wavers with a sing-songy uncertainty, and I know he thinks I’m bluffing. It annoys the shit out of me.
“For the last time,I’m fucking fine. Quit worrying about me so much.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
We get to a part of the tunnel where the slope flattens and begins to round a corner. The vibration is nearly deafening, rattling my skull around. It’s not a rumbling, I realize, but the buzzing of enumerable wings. So many wings that the noises of their movements have bled together into one singular roar. We round the corner, an overwhelming metallic smell filling my nostrils, and?—
My stomach catapults into my throat the moment I see the locusts.
They’re notbugsat all.
Thousands of bipedal, humanoid creatures fill the massive cavern to the brim. Some stand on the ground, while others crowd the air with semi-translucent insect wings. For every human-like feature they have, it’s either morphed in a grotesque way or they have an additional insect feature to counter it.
I grip the reins tighter, backstepping.
My eyes dart from locust to locust, taking in their horribly unnatural anatomy. Though they stand on two legs, they have four arms: a more developed set of limbs sits on top while a skinnier, seemingly redundant pair is nestled beneath them. Most of their lanky body is made of gold metal vaguely outlining a human skeleton, with sharp ridges imitating shoulders, ribs, and various other bones and muscles.
And then there’s the tails. Massive scorpion tails extend in chitinous segments from their lower back, nearly reaching down to the floor, before curling upward again.
