A cold breeze howled, and I winced. The window was broken.
A sudden pain blinded me, shooting through my head so much that I cried out in agony. I fell, my hands finding the shattered glass from the window.
I hissed, my hands slipping as I tried to get up.
The shadows.
Fear took me under like a violent wave on dark waters.
I remembered what happened to her. I remembered what I’d let in. I scrambled to get away from her body, my mom’s lifeless eyes frozen in the moment I’d lost control.
The darkness had consumed her.
My darkness.
A flurry of tears wet my cheeks as I tried to get to my feet, but I slipped, my back hitting the floor painfully. My palm was slickwith blood. Finally, I got to my feet and fled into the darkness outside. The screen door snapped shut behind me as I sprinted across the deck and down the steps. I took the familiar path into the woods. There was a campground nearby. Maybe I could find someone there.
A stabbing pain in my chest halted me beneath the thick canopy. I grabbed my chest, falling to my knees. Leaves crunched under my knees as they hit the ground. A howling wind whistled through the branches. Rain started to fall. I held myself up on my palms, dragging in deep, long breaths, but it didn’t feel like I was getting any air. The chill that had taken hold of me still lingered, and despite it being a warm summer night, I shivered.
It had been nothing like the cold I felt in the cabin, though.
That cold had gripped me at my core, freezing my thoughts, dreams, and existence.
A stick breaking halted my breath. I slowly leaned back on my feet as a shiver crawled up my spine.
I sensed someone there. Someone close enough that I could feel their presence as certain as you felt the warmth of a fire. I stood up, searching, but I didn’t see anyone. I took a step, intending to search for this person, but fatigue struck me hard. I stumbled. My body felt weighted, as if standing for much longer would take a miracle. I touched my forehead, trying to quell the dizziness.
It didn’t work.
I stumbled, unable to stay on my feet, but before I hit the ground, strong arms reached around my waist.
My eyelids were slipping, and my vision was fading. I couldn’t keep going anymore.
“Are you okay?”
A distinctly male voice reverberated in my mind.
I leaned against his chest. He held me up as I looked up at the sky. It was raining harder now, the cool sting numbing my cheeks. It felt good. I vaguely noticed my body shift, my feet leaving the ground. He was warm. I leaned closer to that warmth, hiding my face in his shirt.
I closed my eyes, comforted by the repetitive rhythm of his gait. The last thing I remembered before darkness overtook me was how tightly he’d held onto me. His arms carried me, one beneath my back and the other under my knees. He held me close to his body, closer than anyone had ever held me. The steady rise and fall of his chest soothed me. I hoped he’d never let go.
I’d relivedthe events of that night many times in my nightmares.
The vial’s contents made it feel like I was there again—the recall was vivid and intense. The memories of the constant interrogations I faced after I’d been found resurfaced.
No one had believed me when I told them what I saw that night. They told me my mind had made it up—a response to the trauma. That I was having hallucinations to help me cope with things I couldn’t process.
But Nightfall wasn’t a hallucination. Cody and Skylar hadn’t been hallucinations. They were real, and my mom was dead.
What if what I saw was real?
What if what I’d felt and what I’d done to my mom was my fault?
What if the shadows were still inside of me?
Chapter 17
Create Woefully Broken Ties
