My breath hitched in my throat as he pulled my shirt up, exposing my stomach. My skin crawled at his touch, which was now cold as ice. Lightly running his finger down my right side over my ribs like he was counting them, he stopped right where they ended. My eyes flew open as cold quickly spread up my ribs and made it hard to breathe. His hands vanished into my abdomen. I couldn’t help but watch. It was like seeing roadkill; you know you shouldn’t look, but you just have to. Soon, both his hands up to the wrists were inside my body. There were sharp pains caused by him rooting around my insides, as he moved things aside so he could reach whatever it was he was looking for. When I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to handle it any longer, there was a sharper pain that made me cry out and a heat that quickly became unbearable. While I was screaming, he withdrew his hands. In his fingers was a chunk of something. He ran his transparent tongue over the chunk, his whole body seeming to flash in and out of existence as he did. He ran his hand over my head, then leaned in close. The ghostly tongue flicked out and ran down my cheek with an eerie sensation.
My eyes darted wildly around the room, trying to find something comforting to look at. Nothing presented itself, but my eyes settled on a dark figure in the corner. When it stepped forward into the light, I realize it’s him. NO. No, it can’t be. I can’t live through that again. I screw my eyes shut and chant to myself, “This isn’t real. He’s not here. He can’t be here.” When I open my eyes, he is grinning at me, just like he used to. My heart stopped, then started beating wildly. The taunts had faded from the peanut gallery, but I was too petrified to take my eyes off of him. I couldn’t look around to see where they had gone. My mom stepped out from behind him, and said,“Look who I found, Honey. He says he missed you.” My breath was sawing in and out of my mouth, and I felt like I had run a marathon. My eyes rolled, and settled on the other being that was tormenting me.
The tall-thing headed toward the door, fading in and out of visibility as he did. He stopped at the door and looked back at me. For a moment, the transparent face flashed into existence before my eyes, and it was even worse when it was solid. I whimpered, and he smiled, his lips literally going from ear to ear, exposing multiple rows of sharp, serrated teeth that looked like they could rip me to shreds. He walked out the door, leaving it open behind himself. I didn’t know how much more I could take.
He walked forward, followed by Mom, both still grinning. My skin crawled as he pulled a weird instrument that looked like a shinny paint spatula with a flexible rubber handle from the case, stuck it up my nose, and moved it around. I could feel it scraping my sinuses. He pulled it out, a nasty, bloody, stringy booger on the end. Blood ran out of my nose, and into my mouth. The next instrument he pulled from the case looked like a hypodermic needle. He put a hand on my forehead, and slowly inserted it into my eye. I screamed. I wanted to throw my head around, but I was afraid to move. He withdrew the needle, and I could see it was half-filled with a pinkish gel. My contact moved and the room went blurry as my eye filled with tears. Honestly, it was better than what he had done before, but I stopped that thought. I couldn’t handle reliving what had happened so many years ago. I shut my eyes, but they flew right back open. I had to watch him, had to know where he was. Suddenly, my mom blurred, and merged into him. He faded for a second, reappearing as a translucent black shadow. It moved out of sight. A minute later, I heard the door latch as it closed. I hoped it had left the room.
I don’t know how long I sat there, working my right hand and my feet again to attempt to loosen the bindings. My left wasn’t working right, and every movement caused pain to shoot up my arm. Eventually, after my hand was slick with blood, the bindings suddenly disappeared. I could feel the circulation returning to my feet. I slowly put my shoes back on, but I couldn’t tie them, since moving my fingers caused unbearable pain to shoot up my arm to the shoulder. I cradled that arm against my belly, doing my best not to move it as I walked to the door. I put my ear to it to listen for movement, then opened it a crack. Once I was sure no one was in the hall, I opened the door the rest of the way and tried to put my head in the hallway. My head thunked painlessly as it hit what felt like a piece of glass over the doorway. I could see beyond, but I couldn’t lean out into the hallway. I put my good hand out, and rested my palm on the invisible barrier. It was cool to the touch, but it also had a slight vibration I could feel on my palm.
This must be the ward. I went back into the room, and looked around, but there was nothing to help me get out, and nothing I could use to make a sling for my arm. I turned to the door again and contemplated what I should do. The abductors had walked through the doorway, but I did not notice if they did anything special to lower the ward before they left, since the door had barely been in my line of sight. I walked over and examined the doorframe. Most of it was clear, with no marks or even scuffs, but halfway down the left side were two small triangles, one upside down over the other, both split by two wavy lines. I glanced at the right side, and sure enough, in the same place on the other side was the same symbol.
I reached out again, this time watching the symbols. When my hand hit the invisible wall, the symbols lit lightly in purple. I paused, thinking. Obviously, the symbols were the ward, or at least part of it, but I knew nothing of how to break one, or anything else about wards, for that matter. I leaned my right shoulder against the invisible barrier as I thought.
Suddenly, a hand came up and grabbed my shoulder. I tried to elbow it, but the arm had come through the barrier, so I was not able to make contact with whoever owned the arm. I just kept elbowing the unseen wall as the hand let go.
“Sugar! Stop! It’s me!” The voice was familiar, but sounded like it was filtered through water.
“Who?” I couldn’t see who was speaking, and I didn’t recognize the voice.
“Come on! It’s me, David.” He leaned around the corner, and I could finally see him.
“Oh, thank God! There is some kind of ward on the door. I can’t get through it.” My voice was overly calm for the amount of panic I had zinging through me at the moment. He frowned as he watched me hit the barrier a few more times. Then he pushed his arm through the barrier, brought his arm back, then stuck it through again.
“I can’t feel it. Grab my hand.” He held his hand out as he spoke, and when I put my hand in his, he tried to pull me to him. His arm moved through the barrier fine, but my hand stopped at the door. The panic started to subside as I watched David.
David frowned. “Well, that didn’t work. Let me think for a minute.” He started studying the door frame.
I pointed to the symbols on both sides. “These glow when I try to go through, watch.” To light the symbols, I put my hand on the barrier again, and said, “We need to hurry. I don’t know when those guys are going to come back.”
Still preoccupied with studying the doorframe, David said, “What guys?”
“There was a really tall, skinny guy with no face who moved really weird along with another thing.” I left out the shape-shifting, since I still couldn’t face the demons it had brought back, but I was really proud of myself for still sounding so calm. I took all those feelings and locked them away in my mind. It had worked for me before, and it will work for me again.
He pulled out a knife. “I have an idea, get back.”
I ran and ducked behind the chair. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.
David scratched the knife over one of the symbols. A spark flew, but it didn’t seem to hurt anything, so David scratched harder. In a few seconds, he had completely obliterated the symbol. “Okay, come try to put your hand through the door,” He ordered.
Walking over with my hand held out, I paused before I got to the door, and took a deep breath. Then, I reached for the door. There was some resistance and it was lined with a purple light, but my hand made it through the doorway.
Leaning close to my hand, David looked it over as I wiggled my fingers. “That’s interesting. Does it hurt?”
�
��No. There’s a slight feeling of cold, but that’s it. Should I try to walk through it?” I bit my lip, as I thought about trying to walk through it. I wasn’t sure I could make myself.
David grabbed my hand and pulled, catching me against his body. My breath hitched as fire ran up my wounded arm. “Seems like that worked! Let’s get you home.” He pushed some hair back behind my ear as he stared into my eyes.
I blushed and glanced down. “Thanks.” I wasn’t super comfortable being held by other people, but this felt kinda nice.
He cleared his throat and ran his hands down my good arm, making sure I was steady before letting go. “We need to get moving, if you think someone is coming back.”
“Oh, yeah. I really want to get home. I’m done with this day.” David gave me that weird look again, but it was gone so fast, I wasn’t able to tell what it was. “How did you find me?”
“I came home, and it looked like a tornado had hit your room, and I could feel the remnants of Lorgaire magic. I did a quick Finding on you and it showed me that you were being held here, so I came to rescue you. I think I ran into the tall guy you were talking about. I knocked him out.” He glanced quickly up and down my body, seeming to look for damage. “Are you ok?”
“I’ve been better, but I’ll survive. Where are we?”
“I’m not exactly sure, but I can get us home, and that’s what matters. Come on, someone might come to check on you. We have to find an empty room, and then I can open a gateway home.” He took my good hand, and ran his fingers lightly over the raised welt and dried blood on my wrist. “We need to get this taken care of as soon as possible, too.” We snuck along the hallway as we searched for an open door.
About halfway down the long corridor, we found a door that was partially open. The room beyond was dark, so David cautiously peered in. “It’s empty.” He let go of my hand as he entered the room, and I slowly followed, fighting the urge to sneeze. The room had a dank, musty smell, and every footstep kicked up clouds of dust.
David slowly turned around, surveying the room. “This will do. Block the door. The beings here will be able to feel when I draw enough power to make a gateway, and they will find us quickly. I will do this as fast as I can, but it does take a minute, and they may find us before I’m done, so make sure whatever you put in front of the door will stand up to some abuse.”
“Ummm, okay, then.” I looked around for something substantial while David got comfortable on the floor. There was a giant desk, but I didn’t think that we could move it, even if David helped. “David, I don’t think there’s anything. I am going to lock the door, but I can’t block it.”
He sighed. “Okay. I’m going to start. Stay back behind me.”
I locked the door, then stepped behind him, and sat down. For a few moments, there wasn’t much to see, just David seeming to meditate. Slowly, a rotating spot of color formed in mid-air in front of him. Once it appeared, it quickly grew big enough to step through. The first gateway I saw looked like a soap bubble, this one looked like a rainbow spinner. All the colors seemed solid, but spinning fast enough it was just a multi-color blur.
“That’s different.” I got up and leaned over David’s head to examine it.
“Every gateway looks different. Come on, we don’t have time for this. I’m surprised they are not here already.” Despite his words, David got slowly to his feet and brushed off the back of his pants before holding out his hand for me. “This will be very disorienting. Don’t feel bad if you throw up.” As he said this, he tugged on my hand and pulled me behind him as he jumped in. The last thing I saw was the door bursting open behind me, then rainbow colors bored into my head.
Chapter 9
I slowly opened my eyes as my stomach protested. I hadn’t eaten in quite a while, which was probably a good thing. I was sure if there had been anything in my stomach, it would not have been in there any longer. The room spun around me as my head struggled to catch up with the magical maneuver we had done. I squeezed my eyes shut again, and just laid there.
Wait, where were we? Why was I laying down? In that brief moment I had my eyes open, I didn’t recognize the room we were in. As the spinning feeling faded, I attempted to open my eyes again. This time, I managed to open them enough to see, a little. I glanced around the room, moving slowly so as not to start the spinning feeling again. I was laying on a dark denim couch, and the walls were painted a dark charcoal. There was a giant TV on the wall in front of me. There were huge speakers in each corner by the ceiling, so there was obviously a surround sound system.
“David!” I called out, while scanning the room once again for him.
A section of the wall swung inward silently, and David came into the room from the dark hallway beyond. “Yes?”
“Where are we?”
“This is our man cave in the basement at my house. Once you are less woozy, we can head upstairs. Mom is making us dinner.”
I had so many questions! My stomach chose that time to growl, bringing my attention to the most important question. “Dinner! How long was I gone?”
“It’s been 23 hours and 13 minutes since I saw you last. Not that I’m counting.” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away as he blushed. “We’ve been back for about a half-hour. I brought you to the basement because, for most Shadoewynne, being underground blocks their magic. They will be able to tell what dimension we came to, but not where in this dimension.”
“Okay, but why wasn’t I staying down here earlier? Why didn’t we watch the movie down here?”
David laughed as he knelt down in front of me. “It’s the man-cave, Sugar. We can’t taint the equipment down here with girly movies. You weren’t staying down here earlier because we thought the other wards we had set were enough to stop them from finding you, but obviously, that was wrong. I don’t understand how they found you and I feel really bad for all you had to go through.” He took my hand, running his thumb over my knuckles. “I am so sorry I failed you, Evalia”
I scoffed. “Seriously, David, don’t worry about it. It wasn’t your fault.” My mind went back to the first time I saw the Lorgaire and that feeling of something settling into my skin, which I could still feel when I thought about it. Maybe I should mention it, but his next words made me forget about it again.
“What did they do to you?”
There was an odd note to his voice, making him sound angry. “They took some blood and hair, and it seemed like they were taking tissue samples from my cheek. He also reached into my arm and took out a red spongy thing and what looked like a sliver of bone from my arm, and he took something out of my stomach too. They stuck something up my nose, I think to take mucus samples, and took fluid from my eye.” I shivered. Again, I didn’t mention the shape-shifter. I couldn’t think about that, and unless I wanted to explain the backstory behind it, it wouldn’t make any sense to David. I wrapped my arms around my body.
He started muttering under his breath, but I couldn’t make anything out.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “What’s wrong?” I was trying very hard not to show my fear, and to bury it deep. His attitude wasn’t helping, and I wondered what was pissing him off. I was the one who had been abducted, and I was the one scared for my life. I didn’t like being afraid, and I was over it. The more I thought about everything that had happened in the last few days, the angrier I got. Anger is good, it drowns the fear. Feed the anger!
“I need to go talk to my mom. Come up when you are ready.” He said tersely, as he hurried out the door. It shut behind him. Oh, shit. I hoped I could figure out how to open it, since I didn’t even see it until he came in. Focusing my anger on him, I found myself thinking that hopefully by the time I figured out how to get upstairs, whatever had crawled up his butt had found its way back out.
When I swung my legs over the edge of the couch, the room spun around me. I held on for dear life with my good hand and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. Ever so hesitantly , I opened my eyes again, making
sure not to move. After I was sure the room was not going to go topsy-turvy on me again, I slowly stood up, still holding on to the arm of the couch. You know, just in case. Everything stayed where it was supposed to, and it felt like my legs would hold me, so I started to make my way over to the door. By the time I reached it, I was feeling much steadier and more like myself. I searched for the way to open it, but after about ten minutes, I gave up.
Since I didn’t have my phone, it looked like I was stuck down here until David decided to come back for me. Since I couldn’t figure out the door, I went back to the couch, laid down and put my arm over my eyes. My mind was going in circles, rehashing all the events of the last couple of days. I missed my apartment, and I wanted nothing more than to go back in time to before the paintball war, so I could stop myself from going, and none of this would ever happen. My heart lurched at the thought that I wouldn’t have met Travis, but that was ridiculous. We barely even knew each other.
Suddenly, a tap on my arm brought me out of my thoughts. I moved my arm enough that I could see Travis looking down on me, his eyes locked on mine. His eyes were red and bloodshot, and it looked like he had been crying. I flinched away, but quickly tried to hide it. It hadn’t been him in that room. It was something else. He pulled me up and hugged me hard, while being careful of my arm.
“Are you okay? I thought you had gone to bed last night because you never answered when I texted that I wouldn’t be able to go to your apartment with you last night. I walked in the door this morning, and David yelled you were gone and jumped into a gateway. It closed behind him, and I don’t have the ability to make them. I didn’t know what was going on.” He let go long enough to stare into my eyes again, then he pulled me back into another rib-cracking hug.
A Glint of Shadoewynne: Book 1 of the Shadoewynne Series Page 8
