Free The Death Seer (Skeleton Key) by Skeleton Key, Tanis Kaige Page B

be alone and unloved? It couldn’t be real. I needed it not to be real. “Do you intend to stand in my way?” I asked.
    The girl’s eyebrows lifted. “Of course not, lady. Why would I do that?”
    I situated my bag on my back and aimed my flashlight at the path ahead of me. “I’ve been told there are dangerous things out at night. I thought you might be one of them.”
    “I’m no danger. Where do you intend to go?”
    I walked past her. Now that I had light, I could pick up my pace. “Suicide swamp.”
    The girl fell into step beside me, occasionally having to jog to keep up. “You must be mad. No one goes there. It’s for them living ones who cheated Death. It’s just for them, not for you or anyone else.”
    “My friend is there looking for his mother. I have to make sure he’s okay.”
    “Do you know ought about the place?”
    “Only that it’s a place of despair. Can you tell me how far it is?”
    “Far?”
    “Yes. Do you know how long it will take me to get there?”
    “It will take as long as it takes, I suppose. It ain’t like there’s boundaries. You walk for however long it takes you to start losing hope, and then you’re there.”
    I stopped and looked at her. “That doesn’t make any sense. What if I never lose hope?”
    “Then you’ll never get to the swamp. It’s just as well. Terrible place, that.”
    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I couldn’t believe the insanity of this place. It was ridiculous. Kord showed me a map. There was a path that led directly to the swamp and I was on that path, therefore if I kept walking I would eventually find it. That was logic and logic never failed.  
    My shoes made light dollops of sound on the dirt as I hurried toward the swamp. The forest was utterly silent now that the children’s voices had hushed. I supposed I had my new travel companion to thank for that. She was watching me, I felt her eyes. When I glanced toward her I saw that her head was turned toward me, staring at me straight-on even as she walked. The unnerving behavior frustrated me.  
    “Stop looking at me that way,” I said.
    “I’m waiting to see you lose hope.”
    “Well, that’s not happening.”
    We walked at a fast pace until my muscles were burning, and yet the path remained unchanged. It was as though I was on a treadmill, walking and walking and never getting anywhere. This world was mad. The whole idea of it. Up until then, it had felt like something of a dream or an adventure. I don’t think I truly believed it was happening. But there had been a little boy once, ten years ago, and that little boy was a man, now, and that man needed my help. I would find him, he would find my door, and we would both wake up from this dream together.
    But so what if we did? What was I returning to? Hadn’t my world gone just as mad with people not dying, just lying there as living corpses? That would be my fate as well. And Kord’s. We would lie down one day and never get up. And suppose Kord did manage to put things right and everything went back to normal. Death would then ultimately lead here, to this awful place with its torpid red sky and maddening lack of logic. Was this man’s ultimate fate? To wander around a pretend world with no sense of time or purpose…with no passion or energy? A few short years in the living world thinking your life meant something only to land here, a pointless depot for souls?  
    A squelching sound froze my thoughts. I shined my flashlight down at my feet only to find myself ankle-deep in muck. I looked around. The forest was behind me and all around me were black marshes.  
    “You found it!” came a distant voice.  
    I shined my light at the forest and saw the girl hugging a tree. “Told you it was down this path.”
    “Good luck, lady! Don’t talk to none of the spirits! And if your friend is in there and his face is under the water, then leave him, for he’s lost for good.”
    I waved to her, and she disappeared into the