The Amulet- part IV

He looked around as if there might be someone who could help him, but of course there was only her, and she was sobbing so much she could do nothing else. Although the pain was slow to build, it would reach heights and intensity the likes of which he would never have imagined possible.

Then his limp, near lifeless hand began to shake, as did his entire body, along with hers. Both had the same thought at the exact same time- earthquake. She was stunned that her Nirvana could suffer such earth-like evils, but there it was.

She managed to get up and even helped him to his feet just in time to avoid a boulder that had been dislodged from its resting place a few dozen yards away. It was large enough and moving fast enough to take out the enormous oak tree he had been resting under, exploding it as if it had been packed with C4. They watched it until it vanished, absorbed into nothingness as if it were a soap bubble.

Standing in their now still and silent world the pair held onto each other and scanned the terrain, looking for whatever may be next, whatever it was that would not let them relax.

Everything, with the exception of the boulder and tree, was just as it has always been. Then, in a matter of several seconds, the missing items were back. Without the slightest sound or tremor both the tree and the boulder had been restored, coming into being as if they were in a cameras viewfinder being focused.

The silence was disturbed only by the resonance of their beating hearts, their breathing too shallow to register. For several minutes they simply held each other, fighting against that growing sense of despair. She reached over to examine his hand, thinking hard on the ways of first aid.

Then, as if to stop her from easing his pain, they heard it, turning their faces in unison to see who or what it was that emitted the low, guttural, deliberate laugh. It not only stole the warmth from their blood, it also reverberated throughout, revealing the proportions of their terrain by bouncing off invisible ramparts in shimmering waves.

Then they saw it, the source itself.

Hilarity oozed from the boulder, chuckling like a bully that had trapped his latest victim in a broom closet in junior high. Hundreds of small clefts and ridges in the giant stone began to change shape, evolving to circles, then ovals, and every thing between. After a moment or two the gyrations escalated into convulsions. The rock formed ears, a nose, a forehead, a disheveled hairstyle, and eyes; the details filling in rapidly. There was even beard stubble like snippets of cable TV wire and, scattered here and there, pimples the size of dinner plates.

Then all was dark.

Laughter, laughter, laughter, rising and falling, was moving around in the darkness of its own accord without any particular path. He thought the boulder had to be flying, but discovered it had not moved when it began to glow in crimson.

Silence, even their hearts failing to beat, as the murderer spoke.

"Where have you been, my friend?