by M A Roth
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Wake up.” The voice was harsh and too close for comfort.
I opened my eyes, but they felt grainy. I had spent the whole night with my stomach cramping; my back felt like it was on fire from where I had slept against the tree—if falling asleep for a few moments at a time qualified as sleeping.
I looked up at Nicolas. His hair sat perfectly, falling to his shoulders. His clothes showed no signs of been crumpled under his fur coat, and his face looked alert, as if he had been awake for hours, and yet he looked like he’d had a good night sleep.
I didn’t want to know what I looked like. If I went by how I was feeling then, I looked like crap. I stood up, my body still shaking. I wasn’t sure if I could feel my toes. I wiggled them inside my boots, and a sizzling pain erupted. At least they hadn’t fallen off with the cold.
Nicolas turned and started to trudge through the freshly fallen snow. Everything looked snow white again; there were no traces of steps or prints in the snow at all. Not even signs of wildlife or the demons. I should have been happier about that. But the memory of last night had me hunching with the shiver that ran up my spine.
I found myself wrapping my arms tightly around my waist as I followed Nicholas obediently, not saying a word. Every few feet, my body shook involuntarily, and the pain in my head was worsening. I felt like my body was seizing up, like an old door in need of greasing. A stump of a tree hidden under the layer of snow caught in the front of my boot. I started to fall and could see Nicolas turn and race to stop me before I hit the ground. He was fast – but not fast enough.
My face hurt with the impact of hitting the ground. My palms stung from the cold concrete, which tore away a thin layer of flesh.
My eyes snapped open. Concrete? That wasn’t right. I got up slowly and realized I was in a room. It looked like a windowless basement. An eerie light shone everywhere, but I couldn’t find its source. My heart rate started to rise, and sweat filled my palms, stinging my cuts.
I sat in the middle of a circle of people. All of them stood still as statues, all eyes on me. I stood slowly; not one of them moved. They watched expectantly.
Calm down, Abigail, I told my beating heart. I needed to stay calm in case I had created this. The silence stretched as I slowly did a full circle of the room. My heart plummeted into my feet as my eyes landed on Cathy. I raced towards her but hit what felt like a solid wall before I could reach her. Pain ignited in my face, and a thin trail of blood dripped from my nose. I reached my hand out, but it hit the invisible wall.
Cathy looked at me, tears streaming down her face. “Help me,” she mouthed. A noose was tied around her neck. She stood on a chair. I watched as a man left the circle, moving towards Cathy. My hands immediately hit the wall. “Leave her alone!” I screamed. My heart beat against my ribs like a caged rabbit.
My eyes flickered across all the faces, and then back to Cathy and the man just as he kicked out the chair from under her. Her body plummeted, only to be snapped back by the noose around her neck.
I slammed my body into the wall, and it dissolved, nearly causing me hit the ground. I steadied myself and reached Cathy. Grabbing her legs, I pushed her body up. She took in a large gulp of air. The man moved back into the crowd. All eyes were on me and Cathy.
“Get me down, quick.” Cathy’s words were hysterical, and tears of panic flowed down her face.
I held her legs tight against my chest. She weighed a ton, and I wasn’t sure how long I could hold her up. “Remove the rope from your neck,” I said, not looking up at her. She became hysterical again, crying. “Cathy, calm down. Remove the rope!” I shouted. Her panic and fear were leaking from her, making my own worse. I looked up when she didn’t reply, tears streaming down her face.
“I can’t. My hands are tied. Please don’t let me die.”
Her words made my mind go numb. Panic tore through my body. I shifted her in my arms slightly, turning to the watching crowd as tears blurred my vision. “Help me!” I screamed. But they all continued to look.
“Fucking help me!” I roared with anger and frustration, but my words had no effect on them. They only caused Cathy to cry harder. I kept one arm latched around her legs as I reached the other behind her. My fingertips rubbed against the rope that bound her hands. There was no way I could untie it without letting her go. I let out a howl of frustration.
“Oh God, don’t let me die. Not like this.” Cathy’s pleas tormented me. I held her legs tight against my chest, but my arms and legs trembled with her weight. I couldn’t keep her up much longer. I looked around me for the chair that she had stood on, but I couldn’t see it anywhere. A movement through the crowd caught my eye. Nicolas.
Hope surged. “Nicolas, help me,” I said, meeting his dark eyes.
“This isn’t real,” he mouthed.
Cathy started to cry again. Her words were panicked. “Abigail, it’s real. Please don’t let me go.” Her eyes bulged from her head. Her face tear-streaked, she pleaded.
“It doesn’t matter. Please just help me,” I said, turning to Nicolas once again.
He said two words before he disappeared, and I could see pity in his eyes that frightened me. “I can’t.”
And that was it. My arms shook violently. Cathy could feel the vibrations race up her body. I looked up through my own tears. “I’m so sorry,” I said, and she started to scream. I looked away not able to look at her as my arms failed me.
I tumbled to my knees. Her cries were cut off as her neck snapped. My mind couldn’t accept what I had just let happen. I hit the ground hard, the bang to my head knocking me out.
I woke still crying, back in the snow-covered landscape. Two large black boots came into view, but I didn’t look up. The grief I felt was too much.
“It wasn’t real,” Nicolas said as he knelt down, coming to eye level with me. I had never hated anyone so much in my life. My hand struck out before I could think about what I was doing, and it connected with his face hard.
The sound ricocheted around the empty forest. My palm stung, but I didn’t stop. My anger was boiling over. “You son of a bitch!” I hit him again and again, and he didn’t stop me. My anger and energy vanished as quickly as they had ignited, and I felt empty, like a hollow shell. I sat there, trying to tell myself that Cathy was fine. Fighting for deep gulps of air, I tried to calm down, but it didn’t completely remove the horror of watching her die. It all felt too real.
Nicolas stood stiffly, not saying a word. My actions should have gotten me killed. I didn’t regret them, but they didn’t ease the pain in my heart. “We need to keep moving,” he said quietly, but his tone wasn’t as harsh as it normally would be.
I didn’t look at him; I didn’t want to see what was in his eyes. Fear made me keep my head down as I rose. He stood still, and I knew his eyes watched my face. He was about to say something else. I could feel it. I started to walk, stopping him from saying anything. He walked beside me as I moved slowly, afraid of falling. My steps were slow, but he didn’t say anything; just kept the same pace as me.
I had never felt so fragile before and needed Zee. His name very softly tumbled from my lips. “Daniel,” I whispered, wishing he could hear me. But as the snowy landscape moved past my eyes hour after hour, I knew no one would save me. Everything looked the same. My body burned with pain; my stomach rumbled and cramped. I felt like I was dying.
My emotions seemed so far out of my grasp that I didn’t recognize myself. I had no idea if it was this place, or my mind had finally snapped, and I was finally having a breakdown. I would have laughed, only the cold and pain kept me very much subdued. I reached for my old friend, the one who got me through most of my life—anger.
“When we fall here, we end up in our worst nightmare, usually trying to save someone we love. But we will always fail.”
I looked at him, firstly startled that he’d spoken after so many hours of silence, and secondly, by his words. They brought on a fresh wave of anger. “No shi
t, Sherlock. You should have warned me before I fucking fell.” My words hitched up a notch in volume, and I watched his thoughtful expression turn to anger. I swallowed, wondering if I had gone too far.
“Try not to be so clumsy the next time, and watch where you walk.” He bit the words out before he started walking again, faster this time, his small flash of kindness gone. He was back to his stiff poker self.
Well done, Abigail, I thought. Only you could piss off the man who held your life in his hands. But what did he expect? He could have warned me. He could have just left me in the alleyway with Zee and Cathy. The bitter thought made me feel angry again. I wanted to pummel him to death.
“We're nearly there.”
His words pulled me out of my thoughts, and a cold shiver of fear raced up my spine. Where was there? I let out a heavy breath and tried to keep up with him without falling. We hadn’t walked much further when he stopped and raised his hand for me to do the same. I stopped without question, my heart rate picking up as my eyes scanned the empty landscape. After a moment of not seeing anything, my body started to relax. I found myself plummeting as the snow dropped away under our feet.
CHAPTER NINE
It was the heat that hit me first. Smoke rose from my clothes, and I slapped my arms and chest frantically.
Nicolas grabbed my arms. “It’s only steam.” It took a moment for his words to penetrate through my fear. When I looked at him, I noticed steam was rising from his clothes, and sweat trickled down his face. “I need you to stay close, Abigail.” Nicolas let me go.
I nodded in agreement as I looked around. We stood in a tunnel. A fiery glow lit it up, but I couldn’t see where it was coming from. Steam oozed out of pockets in the ground, which we crossed with care. The walls seemed to drip with black tar. I watched Nicolas’s feet and stood where he stood as I blinked sweat out of my eyes.
My back itched from my sweat-soaked clothes, and I wanted to rip off my top. The heat was making the ground look like it was wriggling below my feet, and the sweat and steam were burning my eyes.
Nicolas stopped, and I almost crashed into him. He turned slowly towards me. He didn’t have good news; his eyes told me that. I swallowed. “You can’t panic. It’s vital that you stay calm. If you panic, you will make this worse.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice. His eyes dropped to the ground, and I looked. The floor still moved, but standing here and focusing made a small squeal come from my mouth. Nicolas’s gloved hand covered my mouth before the sound could fully erupt.
The ground was covered in snakes; long, black snakes. They slid alongside my boots. Once one passed, another appeared. They moved faster than I would have thought possible.
“Abigail.” Nicolas’s voice had me looking at him; his hand still covered my mouth. “Can you keep it together?”
I nodded and removed his hand. He gave me all of two seconds before we started to move again. Now I didn’t want to look at the ground. I had fought demons, been in some of the most haunted houses in England. Snakes, I could handle. Yeah, I could handle snakes. I wiped the sweat off my forehead, but more coated it in seconds.
It was getting hotter and brighter; the heat was intense. I wanted to ask Nicolas to turn back, but I didn’t say a word. The snakes lessened the deeper we walked. Nicolas’s steps slowed, and I was prepared this time when he stopped. I looked around him. The wall had fallen away, and a massive fire raged in the center of the domed room. Movement around the fire had me moving back behind Nicolas.
Men moved around it, throwing coal on the flames. I couldn’t make out any features, as they were covered in soot from head to toe. None of them wore clothes, and large blisters the size of my hand coated their naked black bodies.
But it wasn’t them that had me hiding behind Nicolas. It was the man with the whip who slashed their backs as they passed him. His size was that of five men. His muscles bulged unnaturally; he reminded me of a bull. How the hell were we going to get past?
The tunnel continued only twenty feet away, but that twenty-foot gap looked like miles now. I grabbed Nicolas’s arm. “What’s the plan?” I whispered close to his ear. There was no way anyone could hear us with the roar of the fire.
Nicolas turned and moved us slightly back into the tunnel before he spoke. He also whispered, “We need to crawl across. Stay low on your belly. Mastigo is too busy having fun with his whip.”
I blinked. That was his plan? Crawl on the floor? I looked at him doubtfully.
“The most important part is to keep your eyes closed, no matter what.” He turned to go.
“Why?” I asked.
“You’ve heard the phrase that the eyes are the doorway to the soul. Well, they literally are, here. So close your eyes and no one can see you.”
That made no sense to me. “Fine; then why can’t we walk across?” I whispered, and Nicolas moved close.
“We don’t have time for this. Just do what I say.” Before I could respond, Nicolas was on the ground, crawling across the open expanse.
I got to my knees, stared straight ahead, and closed my eyes before moving. So many thoughts ran through my mind, like how the hell could this really work? And why not just close our eyes all the other times so no one would see us? And why not walk across. The stony ground was biting into my hands and knees. Maybe Nicolas was laughing right now, watching me crawl with my eyes closed as whip guy stood over me. The need to open my eyes and check was overwhelming. But I kept them closed.
“You are nearly there.” I could hear Nicolas’s words they were like a lifeline, and I moved quicker. Nicolas’s hand touched mine as I passed into the tunnel. It wasn’t until he helped me stand that I opened my eyes. But I wasn’t looking at Nicolas’s; he was being held by four men, with the same red eyes as the one who grinned at me.
The cage that I and Nicolas had been put in wasn’t empty. It held six other people. So much for the eyes been the doorway to the soul. I wanted to smack something or someone.
“It always works. I really don’t understand.” Nicolas did look bemused, but that didn’t get us out of jail.
One of the questionable women moved closer to us, walking sideways. Her eyes focused on Nicolas. He didn’t seem to notice her, and I nudged him. He followed my gaze to the woman, who stopped when he looked at her. She bowed her head but kept her eyes trained on him.
“I will tell you what you want to know if I can come with you.” her eyes darted between me and Nicolas; each time she looked at me, she looked more confused.
“No,” Nicolas said, before going to the door of the cage. He rattled it, and some of our other inmates hushed him. He silenced them all with a look. I watched as they took a step away from him, all but the woman, who was still walking sideways towards him. Her eyes still continued to dart to me. I felt it first—that feeling that you’re being watched—and I was, by everyone else in the cage. Nicolas was busy focusing on the door; the rest were focused on me.
I stood a little taller, my feet separated, ready to fight if I had to. The woman who had spoken to Nicolas continued to talk to him. I don’t think he responded. If he did, I couldn’t hear. I was keeping my eyes trained on the slow-moving group towards me. They moved as one, in a hypnotic way, not making a sound.
“If anyone touches her, they die.” Nicolas spoke without turning around, and they all scurried away like rats.
“You cut that pretty tight,” I said, feeling peeved that he had known I was in danger.
“You cut it pretty tight asking for help.” Nicolas looked at me now.
God, I wanted to kick him in the face, he sounded so righteous. I wanted to ask why they were so afraid of him, or why the woman bowed, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “So are you getting us out of here or what?”
“I’m trying.” His growl ignited my anger, but he turned away.
“It will work,” the woman said sounding sad.
“I know that I don’t need you to tell me.” Nicolas replied. His tone wasn’t friend
ly. But he was nicer to her than me.
“What will work?” I asked her, and she eyed me.
“You both will get out of here. His plan to escape will work” she answered then tilted her head, studying me. “You don’t smell right,” she told me before turning to Nicolas. “She doesn’t smell right.” She looked nervous, her eyes shifting back to me.
“Forget I spoke,” I told her. She was a nutjob.
Nicolas stopped what he was doing and acknowledged the woman fully. “That’s because she’s poisonous,” he declared.
This caused the woman to smile. “Liar,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “If I get it right, can I come?”
I heard the click as Nicolas answered the woman. “No.” He turned to me. “Ready?”
I was beside him in a second. I was never more ready than anything in my life. We left the cage, closing the door behind us. None of them tried to follow. But the woman who had spoken to Nicolas started to cry.
I felt a bit sorry for her. I didn’t expect him to take her under his wing and coddle her, but he could have left the gate open. I couldn’t imagine what they were facing ahead of them. “Why didn’t you let her go?” I had to ask. It was more of a statement, saying you’re an asshole for not letting her go.
“They would get us caught, and I don’t think we would get a second chance to get out of here. Now be quiet. Or I’ll leave you behind,” he said.
I didn’t believe for one second he would do such a thing. He needed me. For what, I wasn’t sure, but I knew I would find out soon enough. I just hoped Zee would save me first. My stomach tightened at the thought of Zee.
