I forced myself to stand, even though my knees threatened to buckle underneath me. He watched me, seeming to be amused at my fright. I whirled about, frantic to escape.
The glow that lit the room vanished, stopping me in my tracks. I inched forward, holding my hands out in front of me. The steps weren’t far. I could reach them if I kept going. Something grabbed my hair. I yanked my head forward, unwilling to look behind me. I wanted to scream my head off, whimper, and have a nervous breakdown all at once. But I couldn’t.
The tip of my shoe caught something on the floor. I stumbled forward, scraping my hands. A hand closed around my ankle, pulling me back. I turned to find glowing red eyes. They were all around me. I sat for a moment, not really sure what to do. My mind wouldn’t register what was happening. I choked out a scream as they closed in on me. Suddenly, flight or fight kicked in. I bucked my body, flinging my leg free from the thing holding me.
I scrambled.
I clawed.
Hands were all over me. My fingernails tore the harder I struggled against the things around me.
The man on the throne’s laugh played at my ears, clear and loud from a brazen set of lungs. I clamped my teeth down on my tongue to keep from screaming again. I pushed with all of my might and broke free. After jumping to my feet, I turned to run just as the glowing light came back. At the foot of the steps, I glanced back to see everything the way it had looked when I got here. Nothing had moved. Nothing had changed.
I took the steps two at a time, not caring how unstable they appeared. At the top, I stopped dead in my tracks. The platforms were vacant. The bones had turned to an old off-white color; maggots crawled in between them and fell to the floor. Low growls from above made the hair all over my body stand on end. The creatures once standing on the platforms were poised, ready for attack, as they perched along the walls near the ceiling. A jolt of pain in my head, making me squint and take a step back. I opened my eyes to find they’d returned to the platforms. I blinked erratically, feeling confused. I wasn’t waiting around to see if they changed again. No way.
I flung the door open, hoping the birds had decided to move on. They shrieked from the branches above. But that wasn’t what worried me. Beside each grave stood a child. They didn’t move. Not a single inch. They only stood there … staring. I had nowhere to go. I was surrounded.
A bird landed at the foot of the steps, and I gasped.
Its black feathers were gone, leaving only skin. Its head cocked as beady red eyes ran the length of my body before opening its mouth. There was no beak. The mouth opened to the sides, exposing row after row of jagged teeth. All at once, the children raised an arm and pointed at me, their solid black eyes never blinking.
I tore down the steps, jumping over the hideous, deformed bird. Running was my only chance. I couldn’t stand there and wait for them or something inside that building to decide it wanted me. The ground rocked beneath my feet as another pain surged in my head. The warm liquid poured from my nose again. It dripped over my lip. I looked up, and the graveyard was empty. Swiftly, I turned toward the trees to see the birds were back to normal. I was almost out. Just a few more feet, and I would be back in the woods. The ground began to moisten, making the surface slick. I trudged through, my feet making a sloshing sound.
At the last row of graves, the ground was covered in blood. One tombstone in the middle had it dripping down the front. I stopped and dropped to my knees. I wasn’t sure why. My better judgment told me to keep running, but I couldn’t. Some invisible force wouldn’t let me.
“No. That can’t be.” I read the name across the front. Thomas McAdams.
I had only heard that name a few times in my life. It wasn’t very often that my grandfather talked about him. Their years had been cut short. Pappy told me he’d died of a sickness they hadn’t had the cure for back when they were kids. Seeing all the other children that belonged in the graves let me know that was untrue. Something had killed these children.
I touched my temple as my vision swayed. I went forward a bit, reaching out to catch myself, but a black fog closed in fast. I hit the ground with an umph. I could barely see straight. Everything looked hazy. Forms moved nearer. The group of kids closed in on me. They reached out, and just as they touched me, everything went dark.
I felt nothing. That feeling should be pleasant, at least I would think. No pressures from the world, no need to survive, no annoying innate human emotions to hold me back. But it was anything but pleasant. The fact that I felt nothing made it clear that I was just… there. An entity that I wasn’t sure was dead or alive, with no real meaning to go on. What was the point of me anymore? There wasn’t one.
“Your reason for being is to succumb to my power and act upon whatever need I have.”
I shivered, not because I was afraid, but because his voice controlled me with just its sound. I craved it. Needed it. I searched through the darkness, desperate to find the source. It was a longing that devoured any rational thought hindering my complete surrender. I was nothing without this person. A person whose face I had yet to find.
“Why can’t I see you?” I could hear the distress laced in my question. I jerked to the sides, my eyes stricken with panic. Every fiber of my being yearned for him.
“You’ve seen me.” A low, hungry laugh filled the space around me. “You will belong to me.” A man appeared, stepping out from the darkness that enveloped most of his form, the one I had fled from. The man sitting on the throne beneath the ground. I fought to stand, but my legs trembled so violently that I dropped to my knees at his feet. His long fingers reached for me and twisted a few strands of hair around. “The one that got away, finally back where she belongs.”
I stared into his eyes as they bore back into mine. His jaw locked as he let my tresses fall from his grasp. “I don’t like having what was promised to me somewhere I can’t find it.” He stepped away.
I could feel a pull. An invisible cord, wrapped around my midsection, connecting the two of us. Without realizing it, I leaned toward him as if my body begged for him to be near me.
His sultry lips turned up in the corners.
Words would not form. I wanted to beg him to take me now, not leave me. It would kill me if I wasn’t with him.
He ran a chilled finger down my chin, causing a moan to escape my lips. “In all due time, my dear Piper. Days only separate us. Then we’ll be together for eternity.” In a pop of light, he vanished.
“Piper! Piper!”
I blinked, taking in an explosion of light. My vision dotted, making it hard to focus.
“Can you hear me?”
Water rapidly filled my eyes, cascading down the sides of my face.
“Jen— Jensen?”
His face became clear, worry etching his features. He glanced up and behind me as if waiting on someone else to talk.
“You took a nasty fall, Piper. Thought I told you to stay off your feet as much as possible. Or at least you should’ve had Jensen with you.”
Irritation knotted in my stomach as Dr. Brown’s condescending tone rubbed me the wrong way. Why were most doctors like that? They went to medical school so suddenly they thought they were far more superior than everyone else that populated the earth. Bullshit. Most probably looked up every illness on WebMD like the rest of us.
Jensen reached down, took my hand, and pulled me into a seated position. He swatted a few leaves from my hair as I touched my forehead. It seemed to be spinning. Maybe I could just get it to steady if I held on.
“How did I get here?” I asked. I was at the end of the sidewalk, behind the motel. This was not the last place I remembered. I had been in the cemetery. The kids … they had all been around me. And then him. He’d been in my head. “This wasn’t where I passed out.”
I shook my head as the two men fell silent. I looked to them for answers. They had to have answers. Who was the man that I had seen underground? Why had there been so many children with black eyes?
“A kid
came out of the restaurant and saw your foot propped on the sidewalk. She came down here and found you,” Jensen said.
“You must have fallen and hit your head,” Dr. Brown continued.
“No. No, that isn’t right. I went through the woods.” I pointed back into the trees where I’d become lost chasing the twin girls. “I ended up at a cemetery. There were—” I let the sentence fall flat. They didn’t believe me. Or if they did, their faces didn’t show it.
“You better be glad she found you. We need to get you up and to the motel so I can put you back together again,” Dr. Brown said, laughing.
I rolled my eyes, causing Jensen to grin. The two of them each took a side then brought me to my feet. Together, we slowly made it back to my room. After Dr. Brown surveyed my injuries and repaired the damage, which was only a few popped stitches, he left Jensen to tend to me as before.
Jensen plopped down in a chair near the foot of the bed and ran a hand through his hair while pulling in a ragged breath. “You really gave us a scare. Thought we’d lost you.”
“Why does it matter?”
His head cocked to the side. “What do you mean?”
“I slapped the sheet draped over me. “I’m a stranger. Why would it bother you so much if I disappeared?”
“Because we don’t want anything to happen to you. That’s why. Can’t a stranger be a human being and care for someone he doesn’t know?”
I didn’t answer. The only sound came from the rattling made by the old air conditioner.
“I went into those woods. I saw two girls. They led me out there. Their eyes were … black. And I found a man in this room underground.” I couldn’t look at him. The story sounded absurd, even I admitted that. If I were on the receiving end of it I would be ready to call the crazy house and have a bed waiting for me. I glanced up to him, expecting to see him smiling and to tell him I was joking. But that wasn’t what I found.
His face was deathly pale, eyes nearly bulging from the sockets.
Holy shit. Maybe someone wouldn’t think I’d completely lost it. “Do you believe me?”
He shifted, tearing his eyes away from me to stare at the floor. “I believe when you hit your head that hard, anything you think you’ve seen can be possible.” With those words, he broke any hope I had of someone taking my side.
I was alone. It would have been nice to have at least one person helping me sort through the things happening to me. It was too much to do alone. It was too scary. As if on cue, anxiety bubbled in my chest at the memory of how the man on the throne had made me feel when he talked to me. My entire body ached as if having withdrawals from a strong drug. I could feel him around me.
I burst into tears. I couldn’t help it. Everything was too much. I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, trying to comfort myself.
“You’ll be fine. I promise.” His voice was distraught as he walked over to the bed, closing the gap between us. He sat down beside me, hesitating for a moment before putting an arm around my shoulders.
I shifted away, out of Jensen’s hold. I wiped the tears from my face and turned to him. “I need to use the phone now.” I should have called someone the second I woke up. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t. And I hadn’t because of … what? A cheeseburger?
“Do you want to go up to the restaurant now?”
I shook my head. “First, hand me my cell phone. I want to see for myself that it doesn’t work.”
Jensen slid off the bed and dug through the pile of clothes he had brought into the room. After a few moments, he pulled out a cracked phone and handed it to me.
I turned it on, praying it would work. My heart skipped a beat when my home screen loaded. I pressed the green phone icon to retrieve my contacts. The screen distorted. “No … please…” I begged the device in my hands. Please just hold on until I can get this number. I scrolled down, searching for Taylor’s number. Just as my finger was about to touch his name, the screen distorted again, taking me back to the home screen before turning to black. “No!” I chucked it across the room, and hit the television. I covered my face, fighting the rage that boiled within me.
“It’s okay. We’ll just go to the restaurant, and you can use that one. No biggie.”
I allowed him to help me up, still fuming over my phone not working. The only number I could remember off the top of my head was Nolan’s. Everyone else, I relied on my phone for. If I made it out of here, never again would that be the case. I would memorize every number I used.
The restaurant was nearly empty when we entered. Jensen ushered me behind the counter and motioned to an old phone. “Call whoever you need to.”
I swallowed, picking up the receiver. I expected it not to work. I expected there to be dead air, static, no way to call anyone, and for him make up another excuse. I let out a sigh of relief as the hum of the dial tone reached my ear. I punched the number, eager to talk to Nolan, even if he was a dick. He would have to understand that I needed him. He would have to come here.
“Hello?” His voice sounded deeper than I remembered, scratchier.
“Nolan?” Had I dialed the right number?
“Piper?” He cleared his throat, coughing a few times. “What do you want?”
“Oh. Did you receive a phone call about me getting into a wreck?” I narrowed my eyes at Jensen, waiting for Nolan to confirm their story.
“Yeah. Piper, did you forget you broke up with me? You’re not my concern anymore. Call someone who cares.” He coughed a few more times.
I was numb. How could someone be such a dick?
“Nolan … I need you. Please … if you can’t come, can you tell Zuri to pick me up?” I turned away from Jensen. “I don’t want to be alone here. It’s like they don’t want me to leave.” I pinched my eyes together, waiting for his answer.
“Piper, what the fuck? People are trying to take care of you there. You always try to think the worst about everyone.”
My stomach churned. Vomit pooled at the back of my throat. I didn’t know how to react. This was totally unlike Nolan. I knew he had tendencies of being an asshole, but this was beyond anything I had ever experienced with him.
“I’ll try to get in touch with Zuri. Do you have the number there where you’re at?”
I found it at the top of a nearby menu and recited it to him. “Try to get some rest. The world isn’t out to get you.”
“Yeah,” I choked out. The line disconnected, but I continued to grip the handle so hard it made my hand ache.
“What’s the verdict? He coming to get ya?” Jensen asked, appearing beside me.
“He said he would send someone else.” It was a semi-true statement.
All this time, I’d never pictured myself to be one of those girls who needed to be rescued. The damsel in distress who couldn’t do anything for herself without the help of a man running to the rescue, but here I was practically waving a white flag in defeat, letting my hair down the castle like Rapunzel, and cowering in the corner waiting for my knight in shining armor. A knight who wasn’t coming because he had no idea where I was. I felt sick. I leaned over the counter, placing my palms against its cool surface.
Jensen’s hand moved to my forearm, patting it. “Feeling okay?”
I wasn’t. I was anything but okay. With a sigh, I peered up at the door through the matted hair draped over my face. No one was coming through that door for me. This sense of terror — of loneliness — of abandonment — was a devastating blow.
“Piper?”
Fighting to stop tears, I gave him a weak smile. “I’m fine. Just got a little dizzy. Can you help me back to my room?”
“Sure thing.” He dropped the towel and grabbed my arm. The sun had already set, and in its place a full moon brightened the sky, covering the ground in a milky glow.
“You’re going to the burning pits of Hell!” a woman shouted behind us.
We stopped, Jensen’s grip on my arm tightening. The woman appeared to be in her seventies, or if she wasn
’t, time hadn’t been friendly to her. Wiry, thinning hair flowed about her wrinkled face. From the deep creases around the corners of her mouth, it seemed she must have frowned most her life. Her eyes were wide, fearful, yet angry with nothing to lose. Funny how I could tell all that from the pale blue eyes that bore into me. But I could. I could feel the emotions emitting from her.
I looked to Jensen, whose mouth was twisted into an irate pucker. His eyes narrowed, staring at the woman with such hatred it made me uncomfortable.
“We are already in Hell. Did you forget that was the name of this town, Mae?” he hissed in her direction through tight lips.
She tossed back her head, her gray hair dancing along the back of her tattered sweater. “You know what I mean.” A loud sob escaped her throat as her pointy chin trembled. “You took my girl.” Her arms flung out to the sides making a swooping motion. “You all did.”
“Mae, is there a problem here?” A sheriff came out of the restaurant and put himself between us and the woman.
I was paralyzed as I watched the show in front of me. Crazy was something I was used to on the streets of New York. But this … this was the beginning of a news special. One where a crazed woman killed everyone around her and then ended her life. Tense silence blanketed us. She seemed to be weighing her options as her eyes darted around.
“No. No problem. I was just heading home.”
The sheriff took a step toward her, placing a hand near the gun on his hip.
I gripped Jensen’s arm. I could not see this woman shot. No way. I was already emotionally unstable. This place freaked my shit out. Fuck all that.
“I don’t want to hear about you coming back. I’ve had just about enough of your outbursts. Scaring people and all. Get your head clean, or I’ll be taking you in next time,” he threatened.
Her knees buckled slightly, and she stumbled, trembling all over.
Chosen (The Urban Legends Series Book 1) Page 12
