"He Hath set the dark places in readiness... He hath made my chain heavy."

  -Lamentations 3:6-7

  Prologue: The Velocity of Tears

  ...Elian!

  He looked behind him, the weight of what he was doing fulling setting in. He couldn't go back; he would be trapped.. but forward- "Elian" The voice was calmer, his little brother looking at him, hand touching his own. He couldn't let him down... his mind was decided after all. Elian stared at him though the tears, through the sobbing he didn't recognize as himself.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  The smaller boy looked so determined, this new chapter something he couldn't be pulled away from. "Don't let me do this alone. I need you" His words were like silk, fitting for his beauty and yet Elian couldn't move, body frozen. Fear bubbled inside of him, terror he had only ever heard about from stories of the world below, but this, this was real. He felt sick. "I-... I don't know if I can" He spoke, words shaking, barley being spat out, mind on the edge of a breakdown and yet, the younger smiled.

  "We can do this... together" He spoke nearly drowning out the screaming, the cries from his other siblings; begging, pleading to him not to go. He turned back around, eyes landing on the oldest, the only one standing, not saying a word... how could he speak, his face said it all. Disappointment. Pleading. Sadness. He wouldn't. He wouldn't cry, wouldn't beg, he'd let him make this choice...

  Bile rose in his throat as he took his younger brother's hand, letting himself be led away from the only family he had ever known and into the cold void below, every step making his body feel a sense of weight he had never before, and suddenly... he felt nothing under his feet.