My eyes flew open. For a moment, all I could see was darkness, and panic rose inside me. But then a row of candles flared to life – a clever magic trick – and I got my first glimpse at my surroundings.
I stood in a wide, dark cavern, lit by the candles standing in niches around the walls and torches placed in a circular structure in the center of the room. The rock was grey with veins of some mineral twisting through it – the mineral glowed an odd color that seemed to disappear as my eyes tried to focus on it. I turned to the center of the cavern, where a wooden platform covered with a scaffold and ropes of different lengths had been erected, almost like a gallows. A shadow slid out from the cavern wall and floated toward the platform.
Something about the place seemed familiar, like I’d been there before. A faint sound reached my ears. Scritch-scritch-scritch. Tiny feet scraping against stone. An unsettling presence hiding in the gloom.
This is the cave from my dream. Only this time, it was lit up.
But why am I here?
As the candlelight flickered around the shadow, I resolved it into a robed figure, head bowed, hands clasped at the waist. I yelped and staggered backward. My arm flew out and brushed another figure who advanced toward the platform. More figures poured out of the shadows. As one they raised their arms, their fingers splayed, and let out a low, guttural sound that chilled my blood.
It wasn’t a hum or a chant, more like a dog baying with hunger – the kind of sound no human could make.
The invisible, malevolent force wrapped around me, dragging me toward the platform. I tried to cry out, but my lips froze shut. I scrambled for something to hold, but my hands clasped only air. My feet skidded across bare stone, tripping and kicking as the force dragged me up the wooden stairs.
I stood on the platform, staring down at a metal seal, covered with the same star symbol in the school crest. It looked like a manhole cover, made from whatever mysterious element was veined in the cavern walls, but sewers had nothing on whatever was underneath.
The force that held me… it came from below the platform. Whatever it was, was on the other side of that cover, and it was a thing of such overwhelming vileness that its dark energy could not be contained by any earthly metal.
The baying, keening sound of the robed figures rose higher, jamming my ears. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t think. The great and terrible hand that was not a hand, the limb made of darkness and terror itself, dragged me closer, held me in place.
The lip opened and fear itself poured out. I stood on the edge, frozen in place, and stared down into a void – so dark that it was no longer darkness, so deep that it pierced space. It was as though all the malignance in all the universe had been poured into that void, and it now leered back at me, dragging me closer, pulling me down down down…
“Hazel!”
My vision wobbled. The void dragged me forward. My foot slid across the slippery wood, catching on the edge before my body toppled over the edge. I tore my lips open in a silent scream as the void reached up to swallow me…
“Wake up, Hazy.” A sultry voice called me back from the void. “You’re having a nightmare.”
My body jerked, the hand slithering over my skin as I was torn from its grasp. A room came into focus – not the stone cavern with the veins my eyes couldn’t quite see, but grey walls, trendy furniture, and a massive TV and sound system. A shirtless Quinn leaned over the bed, staring at me with wide, curious eyes.
I sat up, rubbing my throbbing head. “It felt so real.”
“Dreams usually do. Coffee?” Quinn held up a cup. “Ayaz has a new machine, specially flown in from Europe by Trey’s dad. A piece of advice, though – never ask a Turk to make you a coffee. They only like it when it has the taste and texture of dirt.”
“Yeah, sure, coffee sounds great.” I accepted the cup, flopping back against the pillows and taking a sip. Ah, warm liquid gold. Some of the fear from the dream slid from my shoulders.
Now I was awake, I could figure out what the fuck was going on with my reality.
I peered down at myself under the covers. I wore a large, oversized t-shirt with some heavy metal band logo on it, and my own underwear.Where are my clothes?
Quinn sat on the end of the bed with his own cup, grinning at me.Shit shit shit. What’s going on? What happened last night?
Snatches came back to me. I took a shortcut through the gymnasium. Something attacked me. Quinn carried me out, and the guys brought me back here. But what did it all mean, and why wasn’t I wearing my clothes?
Why can’t I remember?
My chest tightened. “Quinn, did we… do anything last night?”
“Nope. Not unless you count drooling all over Ayaz’s pillow and Trey kicking me in the face.” Quinn pointed to the sofa, which had been folded out into a bed. Trey and Ayaz topped and tailed on it, the sheets thrown over their body. There was a third space on the end with an indent of Quinn’s body. Muscled limbs poked out in all directions. I swallowed hard.
Have I died and gone to heaven?
And if so, why did my head hurt so much? Was I sick? Surely if God thought I deserved three semi-naked Kings, one of which was bringing me coffee in bed, he also saw fit to ensure I was well enough to enjoy it?
“We thought you wouldn’t be comfortable in your uniform,” Quinn said. “Ayaz undressed you and he was very gentlemanly. Trey and I didn’t look, although it was fucking tempting, let me tell you. I only resisted because I’m basically a saint.”
“What’s the time?” I muttered, rolling over and searching the nightstand for some kind of clock. There was a huge stack of books – I noticed biographies of famous artists and what looked like poetry books.Poetry? The mystery of Ayaz deepens.
