“Monique?” I whimpered, tears sliding down my face. “Mom . . . anyone . . . please . . .”
I held my breath as I laid still, listening for breathing, for movement, for anything.
“Please,”I pleaded into the blackness.
Silence. Awful, cold silence.
Move.
Terror caused my stomach to sink, then rise. Shaking violently, I clambered to my hands and knees. My stomach heaved and I vomited. I wiped the edge of my mouth, and crawled shakily away.
I gritted my teeth so tight my jaw ached. My left hand was spread flat on the floor, supporting my weight, as I reached forward with my right hand, waving it back and forth like a Christian at church enraptured by song, hoping to find a door, or a light, a weapon, anything, something which might help when he came.
He would come. My mind kept telling me he was standing in the corner, watching me fumble my way blindly through the dark, teeth bared, nostrils flared, smirking. I felt another scream constrict my throat and blossom in my mouth. I bit down hard on my lips so it wouldn’t escape.
I touched something hard, the texture of a rough brick. A wall and something to follow. I tried to push my way to my feet, but my muscles were weak and numb, and I felt as if I’d gained four hundred pounds. My legs were unable to hold my own weight. I collapsed back down.
The air was musty, dense, stale. Just like a cellar. Like Ethan’s cellar.
I closed my eyes, drawing in a few deep breaths. A voice in my head tried to draw reason.
You’re a witch, Amy, and he is human. You have an advantage when he comes for you, you can take him bysurprise. All the training you’ve done was for this.I found myself nodding.
But I couldn’t use my powers now even if wanted to, I’m too weak.
Then you wait, you wait.
I waited to hear more but nothing else came. I opened my eyes, blinking into the black, hoping to see the shape of something, anything. Darkness. Awash with fear, but fighting to keep it down, so I could move, so I could breathe, so I could find a way out of here. I felt my way, inch by agonizing inch, along the rough brick wall. I thought of Monique. She was a vampire, immortal. She’d be okay. She’d wake and come looking for me.
A niggling voice jostled to the front and told me she was in on this.
I buried it. I had to, just to keep going.
I thought of Karson. He’d be furious we left home. I pictured his face, the stone god, black eyes, chest barely moving. Then I imagined his roar filling my ears and I found myself craving to hear his rage. Anything would be better than the sound of my own breath thumping out of my lips.
Dust coated my nose and lungs. I fought the urge to cough, scared the noise would lure the attacker back.
I fumbled forward, the floor grinding under my knees. My legs shook. It would be faster to rise and walk but my legs wobbled like jelly, and I didn’t have the strength to stand yet. I raised a leg and my knee hit something hard. I reached forward; my fingers bumped into wood. I fumbled my hands along the hard edge.
Stairs.
I was in a cellar, or some other underground room. A tomb. Stairs would lead to a door. Maybe whoever had left me there thought I’d be out for a while. I could use my powers to unlock the door. I could escape.
Something shuffled behind me. Footsteps. I gasped and swung my head back. My heart boomed out of my throat. I listened hard. Nothing. It was just an animal, I told myself.
Ahead, the tomb door opened, just a crack. A thin light slithered in. I whipped my head around and froze. The emerging light heralded a conflict of emotions. It waned the darkness and brought a slice of reprieve, but the crux was I knew someone dreadful had arrived. Part of me screamed to recede back to the darkness, hide in a solid corner, attack when they least expected it. Another part wanted to get up and run toward the light.
I glanced around wildly, searching for something that might help. But in the shallow eclipse I could barely see a few feet away. Frail and quivering, in the end all I could do was stare, chest heaving, heart pounding, arms trembling, and wait. Someone was there but I couldn’t hear them. I wondered if the sound of my heart thumping in my head had impeded my hearing. I couldn’t see him either, but the evil energy pressed all around me and I knew he was there.
A figure appeared. He loomed three feet in front of me.
“You’re awake. Much sooner than expected. Never mind, I’m almost ready.”
He was a she.
My mind, wrapped in a blanket of drowsiness, couldn’t place the voice. Clear vision of her was obscured by the light behind her dark silhouette.
“I have a friend waiting to see you.”
