Mio
The Marrow Key pulsed once in Mio's palm.
Then the air split open.
A door materialized two feet from the bed. Plain marble wood, etched with geometric lines. Gaian's mark.
Nana's mouth hung open. "What the f—"
"Language."
"You were thinking it too!"
She was. Mio turned the key over in her hand. The teeth matched the keyhole perfectly. Of course they did.
"Stay here," she said.
Nana pouted. She hadn't done that since elementary.
Mio slid the key into the lock. Turned it. The click came from too far away. She pulled the door open. Darkness first, then shapes.
"Don't close it on me, Nana."
Her sister giggled from behind her. "Okaaay."
Mio stepped through.
Bones.
She stood in the ribcage of something that had never been human. The bones arched overhead like cathedral vaulting, each rib thicker than she was tall.
Gaps between them showed void and distant shapes. More skeletons out there. Dozens of them scattered across a darkness that had no floor and no horizon.
