A deep, guttural roar erupts through the dark room with such force that I scramble backward until I hit the desk. The top corner nails the back of my skull with a sharp crack. All the air is sucked from my lungs as my vision turns dark for a second before clearing.
My chest tightens in fear and shame as I feel Shadow's indignation draw near me.
A gravelly voice dug up from the pits of hell fills the room. "What is this?"
The room is darker, as if Shadow is everywhere at once.
I hear David shuffle in the darkness.
Then Shadow’s voice is in my ear. "Evie. I felt—I felt the same thing I’ve been feeling from you in the daylight hours when I cannot come to you. And this? This is what has been happening?"
The words are frozen on my tongue, no, lower. In my heart. They stick there, unmovable.
"Evie?" David slurs. He stumbles blindly in the darkness, likely searching for an answer to the surreal scene playing out before him.
The room is suddenly alight with Shadow's wrath, a red lightning storm inside the shadows. His tentacles stretch toward David like an angry black sea serpent until they wrap around him, whipping him up into the air like a rag doll.
David gasps in pain as the coils slither and tighten around his throat. His face turns blue, eyes bulging in desperation as he vainly attempts to break free from its vise-like grip.
I’m unable to move or speak. My heart pounds in my chest, my hands trembling at my sides.
"Please," David croaks, his eyes bulging as Shadow continues to strangle him. "Please."
"You’ve hurt her. You’vebeenhurting her."
I feel emotions radiate from Shadow, rage, pain, and disbelief, but the one that hurts most of all is betrayal. I kept this from him all these years.
I can’t take it anymore. I get to my feet, rushing toward them, tears streaming down my face.
"No, no, no," I plead, grabbing onto Shadow’s tendrils. They’re cold to the touch, but I ignore the chill spreading through my body. "Don't do it! Don't ruin what I've worked so hard for!"
Even as I try to stop Shadow, guilt and shame wash over me like a tidal wave. I allowed this to happen. I let David take advantage of me because I believed it would be the best deal I’d get.
"Why?" Shadow roars at me. My hair flies back.
I can’t speak for a moment. "I did what I had to do." I hurl the words at him like I don’t care what he thinks. Like I’m not dying inside at having him find out I’m more a horror show than he’ll ever be.
"Why didn’t you tell me?"
"Because this ismylife. You can’t save me from it!" I yell back, hot tears streaming down my face.
Instead of my explanation calming him, Shadow’s eyes turn crimson as his wrath takes over. His attention turns back to David, and time slows to a molasses crawl. More lights flash, his insides a lightning storm.
"Then I’ll punish." He growls.
The tendrils wrapped around David’s neck and limbs tighten then yank.
"Shadow, no!"
The sound of skin and tendon ripping accompanies the spray of blood as Shadow rips David apart.
A hot splash hits me in the face as my heart fully stops in my chest.
I barely register the footsteps until the door opens and Jean stands there in her robe.
David is everywhere in the room. His blood, painting the walls and windows. Chunks of him littering the floor.
The whites of Jean’s eyes blaze in the low light, growing brighter and brighter until she opens her mouth. She screams and never stops.
