project atlantis ; excerpt
edited a conversation between two of our characters into something passable as an excerpt! this is being cowritten so not all words are mine. context: bonding between two outlaws on the run from the crime syndicate run by mara's father. she used to work as a smuggler traveling between atlantis and earth.
After a moment of pondering, Ry decided to switch topics. They could come back to the discussion of families later. Enough had been said on that for the moment in his opinion.
"You mentioned your mother's family is in Aegina, so I assume you crossed the portal at least twice? What's it really like?
"Oh, I've crossed a number of times," Mara said with a wry laugh. "It's like..."
How to put it into words? The nothing, the everything. The creaking of wood. The pressure in the back of one's mind, so tight you can feel it crawling up your throat. Her visible eye darkened as she thought of it, hunger and fear both.
"It's like nothing else. My mom was afraid of it, that's why she never went back. It fills you up."
Ry shivered as he listened to Mara describe the space between the worlds. He had always wondered what it was like, but had never been brave enough to attempt the crossing. And Mara had done it several times? She was made of stern stuff.
"Do you have any particularly memorable crossings? Any encounters that stood out?"
Mara tilted her head and bit her lip as she thought. Every encounter was memorable, in its own way. In its own, horrifying way. She sorted through her memories, tossing aside anecdotes that might give Ry trouble sleeping the next night.
"Once I thought I saw myself," she said after some time had passed with her limping along. "A rare time in which a group was passing the other way at the same time as us. From Aegina, I think. They all had hoods on, eyes on the ground—the smartest way to do it—but one looked up as they passed. We made eye contact. And I swear... Two preserve me. I swear it was my own face under that hood."