Page 32 of Cherry Moon

“Aki…” I whimpered “Aki…”

My life…

…my life is over.

CHAPTER NINE

AKIRA

Light chased the darkness away with the chime of a broken bell.

Bloody hell! My poor ears!

Pain pulsated in the back of my head, as if I’d been walloped there, my eyes adjusting to my new surroundings.

“What the fuck?”

Smooth walls surrounded me, curving upward in the shape of a fishbowl. A hole directly above me showed me the full disk of the Cherry Moon surrounded by pink-washed clouds, blossoms wafting across it.

But the pretty light didn’t reach down here. A strange, off-white light did, emanating from the smooth walls of bone.

Yeah. They were bone.

Great. Just what I wanted to see.

I sat in the middle of the bowl, examining every inch of the place to find an escape route. The walls were perfectly smooth with no grooves for traction, and the curvature was too steep to run up.

Hmmm. I had been stolen, teleported to some bowl of bullshit.

So much for the anti-magic, eh?

The only level part was this small circle my booty rested upon.

Not looking good.

“As if that will stop me.”

I got to my feet, cracking my knuckles and taking some deep breaths. Echoes of my panic attack still lingered, and fear did its best to chew my guts out.

All the same, I wasn’t being beaten by this new twist. Because this was it now, the gun fired on a new round of bullshit. The fight brought to me before I went out there to find it for myself.

Good. Let’s get it done.

I wasn’t anyone’s bitch. I didn’t cower in the corner, begging the shadows to leave me alone. Okay, maybe a little bit for balance. Whatever. Sue me for not being a robot.

At the end of the day, I told you to suck a cactus, and then smashed your face in.

The real you.

No.

“Remember who you are.”

Hush it!

Right. Time for some bone-smashing.

“Bones break,” I muttered, hands balled into fists. “Get fucking ready.”