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Katal had heard the thumping at the wooden door. She had no desire to open it. She was weak. It was probably that stupid boy… what was his name? Eric. He was the one who insisted that little girl come into their sacred space. He had been so sure that she was full of anger and vengeance. After all, she had made it through the swamps, the forest, and climbed up the cliff to get to them. To find the monster and kill it. Surely that was proof enough of her fury.

But it had been Susan who doubted Eric’s claims. And she had been right. Katal had seen it herself. There was something going on, and she couldn’t figure it out.

Her hand slid down the cold glass canister. There were probably about a hundred of them, filled with the Umber that she and the originals had brought. They had tarnished silver caps, with coiled tubes coming out. Each one had a chair, similar to a dentist recliner, for a human to feed off.

Her place was on a circular landing, in the center. All the piping and tubes led into it. It was there that she had to be injected. Her blood was what activated the magic in the walls and the fury in the Umber, to conjure the beast within her.

The canister was cold to her touch, and she leaned her cheek against it so that she could be cooled. Her frustration was burning on the inside. How wrong Eric had been about that child. They needed to find out the truth. What had they all fed on when the monster had gone to the town? It was something unexpected and unusual. Never in all the years that Katal had been alive had she felt this way. In fact, the last time that she felt this way, probably was the first time she had done it. The first time she had allowed herself to succumb to umber.

She remembered the man that had charmed them all. Simon had been his name. He had come to her at the club. She had been on a downer. Men were constantly telling her that they would love her to the end of the world, but they never did. They said they would fight bears for her. But there were no bears in Vertex. Only life and routine. Day in and day out, the sun would shine. Sometimes it would rain. But life was just one big wake-up and go to sleep. They only stayed for the initial fun, and once they were bored, they left.

She had been breathing on the silt pipe before she had seen him.

Wow. She hadn’t thought about a silt pipe in so long. For years, it was the only joy in her life. That heated pull of smoke would burn the back of her throat. It eased her mind out of complicated thoughts and worries that society put on her. What did it matter if she didn’t have a job? Why should she care about laws? They were all man-made. It doesn’t really matter. The only power or meaning something has is what we give it.

The parking lines only make sense to those that park. If you don’t know, they look stupid. White little boxes that were illogical and inefficient. It would make more sense to park in an open space, like the pavement. But somewhere along the line, someone wrote something, and now we all have to be confined to it.

And we were conformed to it from the very moment we took our first breath.

The runes beneath Katal glowed red. They could sense her thoughts. She released the canister. She shifted her ochre gown out from under her feet. She needed to go lie down and try to collect her stench. There was a bang at the door again. She cursed under her breath.

‘Imbeciles,’ she thought, as she stormed off to it. She pulled the heavy barricade bar out of the brackets. She pulled the doors open, and her eyes widened.

There were all her subjects. They had lost any kind of dignity and were all drooping in their skin sacks, looking towards the waterfall. Katal saw the last second of Keira jumping into the chasm. She screamed and reached out.

As Keira disappeared into the water, Katal dropped to her knees. The image was alive in her mind. She felt an overwhelming emotion. Susan ran forward and touched her shoulder. Katal visibly jumped and pulled on Susan’s arm. She looked at Susan in the eyes, as her eyes widened.

“Thomas!” she gulped. “Thomas!” she repeated, as she crawled on her knees and hands to the edge of the pool. Her body heaved as she sank her hands into the water.

“Katal,” Susan said, rushing to her side. She knelt down next to her.

Katal pushed Susan off, yelling at her.

“It’s not Thomas,” Susan shouted back. “It’s not Thomas.”

Katal pulled her face into Susan’s shoulder.

“It’s OK,” Susan whispered. “It’s not Thomas.”

“But Thomas…” Katal whispered.

“I know. It was Kiera. The little girl? She ran. We had cornered her, and she jumped in.”

Katal pulled away from Susan and looked her deep in the eyes, searching for the truth.

“It looked so much like him,” she whispered.

“It wasn’t him. He is gone, Katal. He jumped years ago. He’s not with us anymore.”

“I just feel…” Katal said, clutching at her chest. “I feel like I can’t breathe sometimes, you know? A mother should never have to experience that… And he just did it. I don’t know why. He was such a happy boy.”

Susan nodded to Katal’s ramblings.

Katal looked into the distance as she tried to process what she had witnessed. She looked back into the pool of water that was a dark hole in the crack in the mountain. As she looked, her eyes focused from beyond the water’s surface to the reflection, where she saw herself. Her cheeks were gaunt, and her hair limp. Her eyes were puffy from the dry tears. It was obvious she was weak and emotional. She shot her head up and looked at Susan. Her eyebrows furrowed in anger at her weak moment. Susan felt it and quickly stepped back, as if Katal were a growing wolf.

Katal slowly got up and glared at every face. As she snarled at them, with a look of disgust on her face, each villager pulled themselves together. They cowered down, as their skin became elasticated again, pulling tight over their muscles. There was a slight glow of red on the their face, as the runes on the wall echoed the fear.

“Did the child see you?” she said to the closest villagers. She raised her hand and pointed with her knobbly finger.

“DID THE CHILD SEE YOU?” she shouted.

The villager looked around to the others for support.

“She…” the woman whispered. “She saw all of us…”

Katal nodded slowly. Her back was straight, and her shoulders squared up.

“No wonder the little runt jumped to her death,” she said, smiling.

The villager looked nervous, but hoping that she was taking the right cue, she smiled back. She looked to the others and nodded. A slow chuckle waved through them. Even Susan smiled.

She turned to Susan.

“Where’s Eric?”

“He’s checking on the town folk.”

“They up the mountain yet?”

“No. They’re at the base of the cliff.”

“I don’t trust him to accurately judge the distance. If we have to change over, we need to start now. The moon is waning, Susan. It will take twice as long for the magic to conjure up enough power for the transition.”

Susan nodded. “Shall I…” She started, but Katal raised her hand and shook her head.

“I’ll go. You get this lot in the room.”

Katal pulled up her robe and walked with determination in her soft leather shoes. Susan watched her go for a few moments before turning sharply to the crowd.

“You all know the drill,” she said, flatly. “Follow me.”

She walked towards the wooden doors and could hear the footsteps behind her. Human souls who all wandered into the cave, unknowing that it was their last destination.

They were all committed now. They could never leave. Like any addiction, they would never reach the first high of their first time. Now, they were all so drained of emotion and life that they all pecked at crumbs, desperate to just get back to the simple neutral of the first base camp. The idea of ever reaching the summit had long withered away.

She hated the room. The red runes that lined the columns, the green light on the walls, and the looming figures from the past. Katal had told Susan that it was Simon who originally made the room as such. When they first did their experimenting between the old magic of the mountain and the new technology that Simon brought, he had wanted this space to feel empowering. To feel like they were here for a higher purpose. Simon had no idea what the power of the Umber would do to any of them. He only had ideas and thoughts, some of which were true.

Each person went to their chair and sat down. The metal clicked into place. The technology felt their presence, and as they placed their arms down, cold, sharp needles popped up. They flipped them over their arms, with their heads relaxed on the backrest. The needles sprang to life, sensing the emotions running through their blood. It pierced their skin, going straight into their veins to feed. There was a succession of clicks and gears moving as the needles pierced each arm in the room.

As the humans relaxed, so did their faces again. Their skin sagged to the side, sinking off their skull like oil on a wax surface. They could feel the pull of their emotions being merged with the black umber inside the canisters. It reached through the pipes and tubes, through the injections, and immediately fed, while distracting the human’s mind with thoughts of the dreams they would never achieve or have in reality.

Susan stared at the dark, sloshing liquid in the central jar. With the moon dying and a whole town marching up the cliff, she knew a single canister wouldn’t be enough.