The Pick-up Chapter Twenty Two The Other Side
The Pick-up Chapter 22.Twenty Two The Other Side.story.txt
(c) 2025 by the Entangled Pair
They stepped through the turnstile as one. No clack of metal teeth. No ticket stubs torn. Just a slow push, like moving through warm water. The noise of the midway dropped away behind them.
Ahead stretched a corridor of canvas and iron struts a service passage no customer should ever see. Fluorescent bulbs flickered overhead, casting light the colour of old bones. At the far end, a curtain stirred without a breeze.
*breathe* *count* *on three*
Lucky’s boots hit the boards in time with Raven’s and Saniyah’s. Three beats, one pulse. Their shadows bled together until a single, long shape walked the corridor.
Raven brushed the tent wall with her fingers; it felt like leather, warm and shivering.
*what is this place?*
***Threshold!***
The reply was bright and sharp, like a welding arc, inside all of them. They staggered under the force of it. Talon’s silhouette flickered across the wall, handlebars curved into horns, exhaust pipes like ribs. The image pawed the ground, then looked back at them.
**come**
Saniyah’s cross burned cold against her skin. She felt the words without language, a whole litany in one breath: *measure* **merge** ***become***. She genuflected, almost knelt. Lucky steadied her. “We’re still us,” he said aloud, though the sound of his voice felt thin here.
From beyond the curtain came the smell of wet earth and ozone. The dim flicker of carnival lights began to resolve into a wide, dark arena. He thought he heard engines revving far below, a subterranean chorus.
**wings and wheels** **wheels and wings**
Raven’s throat worked, but no sound came out.
She was seeing the same thing Lucky and Saniyah were: a circular track of black iron, bikes and other 'shapes' streaking past without riders, engines howling in sync, sparks shooting and falling like meteors.
Above it all, a dragon-shadow wheeled, its wings forged from calliope pipes and chrome.
***This is OUR ride!***
The message vibrated their teeth.
Lucky stepped to the edge of the track, looking down. The bikes slowed, aligning like a drill team. One lane opened. A space awaiting Talon.
Behind them, somewhere in the corridor, Talon’s pipes rumbled once, twice, then swelled louder as she rolled herself forward, riderless. She had morphed into a custom three wheeler with a center saddle and two trailing passenger seats.
As their ride passed by, the three of them turned as one, their hearts drumming the same rhythm. Lucky mounted first followed by Raven, then Saniyah. Talon decended to the waiting space. **The run is on**
End Chapter 22
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