Just as the two were about to continue talking, something cut through the air.
A faint hiss.
They both froze, glancing around, alert, trying to trace where it came from, but the moment they turned back to each other, Viola was gone from Ezekiel's sight, and Ezekiel vanished from Viola's.
The transition was seamless, yet violent in its absolute silence.
One moment, the warmth of a companion was a mere arm's length away, the next, there was only the suffocating pressure of a void.
It felt wrong.
"I swear Ezekiel was just here!" Viola gasped, her hands grasping at the empty space where his shoulder should have been. Her fingers closed on nothing but thinning air and the sudden, biting chill of the environment.
"Viola? Viola, where are you?" Ezekiel's voice echoed, but it sounded distant, as if he were shouting from the bottom of a deep well, the sound waves vibrating through water rather than air.
