Page 76 of Can you take it?

As soon as the giant cloaked creature had stepped through the doors, the world behind it began to burn at the edges, turning to charcoal.

The entire doorway went up, turning into a black void. Still the skeletons continued to dance, though the ones without a partner began to run around chaotically, as though they too were frightened. With a turn, the hooded character glanced at me. It had a face that reminded me of a large white rabbit with tall oddly shaped ears and a creepy blank expression. As it charged forward, everything behind it began to smolder until it was nothing but blackness, as if it was taking out the entire tier.

“What did you guys do?” Bexley shouted.

Walter, in Anna’s body, smartly used the chaos to his benefit and managed to fling his skeletal dance partner into the burning, smoldering edges before it turned to black.

The skeleton crumbled and was gone, freeing Walter, who began to run toward me before remembering that even though I looked like Eletha, I was not.

He ran to Eletha in my body and began to fight off the skeleton, eventually managing to do the same, tossing it into the wake of skeletons as the hooded creature slowly walked toward the other end, where we had now all gathered, its pace eerily slow.

It had big black eyes, though unlike a cute white rabbit, its face looked murderous and evil. There was no question that it was coming to kill us.

“And here I thought these tiers were starting to be too easy,” I mumbled, still stuck with my skeleton.

Walter had managed to free everyone but me. He was just about to head in my direction when the man-rabbit caught up to me. Still, the skeleton twirled me relentlessly. Bexley, falling back away from the burning half of the room, managed to stumble through one of the oil paintings. Half his body remained hanging out.

“Holy shit, look what you found, Bexley!” shouted Walter. “It’s the portal, it has to be. Get out now! Go, quick!” shouted Eletha.

“Go, it’s fine!” I shouted, needing them to hurry, as soon there would be nothing. Walter ran as though he was going to help me, but Eletha grabbed him and shoved him toward the painting where Bexley’s legs hung out of the gold frame.

“Walter, get Anna! Get her out of here!” I shouted, wondering where she was. Until my eyes found her scrambling across the floor, her fingertips almost touching the black-lined, fiery hole as she reached for the pendant.

“I have to get it!” she cried. “My powers! I have to get them!”

“Anna, leave it! It’s not worth it! You’ll die!” I called out, shoving the skeleton into the rabbit.

Before I could grab Eletha and run out, the oddly fae hand of the giant man-rabbit gripped my arm. It felt like ice flowed out from its hands, sucking the life from me.

“Eli!” Anna shouted. “Go, Anna!”

She managed to grab the pendant and stumble backwards, just out of the fire, but if she didn’t stand soon, there would be nowhere for her to go.

The man-rabbit and I were pushed back against the wall, only a few feet away, while Anna struggled to stand to make it through.

I’ve never been filled with more emotions than I was in that moment as I realized part of me was glad she had her powers, because I truly believed she might do good things with them, and also the realization that I was about to die.

Not just die and go to another realm, but be gone from everyone’s memory forever, because that was what happened when you were killed in Tartarus after you were already dead.

Thoughts filled me of all the things I never got to be a part of. I would miss out on Cal and Mendax’s baby. The fact that I never got to fall in love. I never got to do any of the things I dreamed of doing. They weighed on me.

The creature’s grip tightened on my arm as both it and I watched Anna hike her leg over the large picture frame and climb in.

I could see the others, only now they were in painted form, as if they’d been a part of the painting all along.

I waited for her other leg to lift, so I could look away and focus on my feet.

At the last second she paused, looking back at me, looking at the pendant in her hands.

“Go! What are you doing?” I shouted.

Before I could scream another word, Anna jumped back out of the painting and ran at me, letting out a scream as she charged at the rabbit, catching us all off guard.

I felt the creature brace itself, but Anna surprised us both, and instead of ramming into the monster, she rammed into me, loosening its grip on my arm while grabbing me and shoving me toward the painting.

She was saving me.

“Go, get out of here!” I shouted as our eyes caught. She didn’t say a word, and she didn’t have to. She gripped my arm tighter than the monster had and shoved me into the painting until I fell over its ledge. She fell in after me and finished pulling me in.