by Lizzy Ford
Katie awoke in a sweat, the blurred scenes of gore and screams of dying from her dreams fading. The room was dark. She was alone. Disoriented, she leaned over to turn on the lamp. It was almost two in the morning.
St. Louis. She was in St. Louis.
Rhyn was still gone.
A tremor of dread slid through her. She’d had an impending sense of doom since meeting Gabriel on the street outside the faux police station, but this feeling was…defined.
"Rhyn? Can you hear me?" she called, feeling foolish when nothing happened.
She rose. As she bent to tie her shoes, a gory vision made her stagger. It was her dream all over, the flashes of light, darkness and blood, the scent of sulfur and death. She landed on her knees, horrified yet knowing something was very wrong. Rhyn was in trouble.
She glanced out the window and spotted the Arch. It flashed, silver glinting off its graceful curve. She closed her eyes, and dampness slid through her, over her. She opened her eyes and froze, recognizing the shadow world. Portals to other places glowed around her.
"Rhyn?" she whispered, close to panicking.
One of the portals flickered as if in response. Terrified of what she'd find on the other side, she stepped through and tripped. Grass tickled her hands, a chilled wind nipped her neck, and the scents from her vision intensified until she was near gagging.
She pulled her shirt over her nose and mouth and sat back on her heels. She sat on the river bank across from a series of wide, large steps leading up a hill to the park where the Arch stood, framed against a black sky.
Death. It was everywhere. She rose, trying hard not to look or touch anything. The grass, the road, the steps…all were littered with bodies and soaked in blood. She didn’t know what kind of massacre had occurred here--was it even real or was it a dream? She stepped through masses of flesh and body parts, holding her mouth, until she reached the road. It was less cluttered with bodies. Some of the tattoos of the dead still glowed, the eerie red tribal patterns punctuating the landscape.
She didn’t feel cold inside; she felt frozen. She’d grown up never having seen death, and in the past week, she’d seen it in its most gruesome forms. She felt something squish beneath her shoe and almost vomited.
The sounds of heated discussion made her look toward the river. Three forms with glowing tattoos were moving slowly toward the road, stopping to sift through the dead bodies. One grabbed an arm and took a bite.
"Not here."
The words were loud. She looked around, panicked, and darted to the massive stairs. Keeping along the long wall, she inched her way upward, sticking to the shadows. The three creatures continued to hunt through the fallen, sometimes eating, most of the times pushing body parts aside in search of something.
In search of Rhyn. She reached the top of the stairs and stared at a similar scene leading past the Arch and all the way up the park toward the city.
She heard a shout and whirled. The three creatures made a run for the stairs.
"Rhyn!" she called, darting forward. "Rhyn!"
Another vision, one of the Arch through the branches of a tree. She staggered and looked around widely before going to the right. She stepped on something squishy but didn’t let herself stop to think about what it was. Instead, she half ran, half leapt through the piles of bodies into the treed area lining two wide walkways.
"Rhyn!"
She was closer. She felt him. No vision came to her and she continued. The creatures had reached the top of the stairs and were looking around, trying to figure out which way she’d gone.
"Rhyn!"
Her shout drew their attention, and they started toward her.
"Goddammit, Rhyn!" she said, tears rising to blur her path.
The taste of death was in her mouth and if she looked, she knew her shoes would be covered in blood. She ran, eyes blurry and stomach turning.
Stop. His command was weak, yet the air around her stiffened until she hit an invisible wall.
She dropped, surprised and disgusted when one hand landed in what was a human or creature at one point. She wiped her hand on her shirt and leapt up.
"Rhyn?"
Katie.
She turned, not sure if she heard his voice or if he was in her head. She hopped over another mess and searched the darkness. His was the only form in one piece; he was propped up against the base of a tree. She dropped beside him, crying, shaking, terrified, and found he was unconscious.
"C’mon, Rhyn, they’re getting closer!" she said, and shook him.
He sagged against her. She smelled his blood, felt the weakness of his body when their skin met. The sensations surprised her.
The creatures were coming. They’d kill her. They’d kill him. He wasn’t waking up.
She choked back a sob and saw the glint of starlight off a knife on the ground. She crawled over him and snatched it, wiping its blade on her clothes before she hesitated.
She’d never cut herself before. She looked at her wrist, where Lankha had bitten her, closed her eyes, and hacked. Pain made her gasp as blood welled and spilled. She placed her wrist to Rhyn’s mouth, willing him to awaken, to drink her. She’d never thought she’d find a reason to want some creature to suck her blood; if ever, now was the time.
At first, nothing happened, and she readied herself to run. He groaned softly, licked his lips. His body tensed so fast she didn't have time to blink.
His silver eyes opened, glowing almost crazed in the night. Uneasy, she started to move away, but he grabbed her arm to keep her wrist in place and tore into it. She screamed, the creatures came closer, and sheer will made her close her eyes to envision the hotel room.
The shadow world…she staggered and floated through it, hauling him with her toward a pulsing portal that grew blurry fast. She toppled through it into their hotel room. It was silent aside from her choked gasps. Rhyn was unconscious again, his face marred by her blood.
There was nothing left of her forearm but a mangled mess. Horrified, she stumbled into the bathroom for a towel, wrapped her arm in it, and collapsed, sobbing.
