A Contract With My Demon
"The Ninth can have my soul. I just want her back."
The descent was a nightmare of vertical miles.
They used the rope until the rope ran out, then they climbed down the pulsing, vein-like ridges of the tunnel walls. The deeper they went, the more the physics of the world began to fail. Gravity became a suggestion. The walls began to whisper in the voices of people Elara had lost her father, her friends, even the versions of herself from the mirror world.
“Give up, Elara,” the walls hissed. “The girl is already stone.”