Page 160 of When Darkness Calls

We talked about the two missing guards from the fire, Marcus’s death, the storage yard pick-ups, the Fest. All of it. And had started making plans for what to do…but not soon enough.

The last thing we had done last night was narrow down where we believed they had been doing it all—the storage yard.

I just have to hold on.

Liz will have called. They know. They have to know.

They will be here soon.

Darkness sweeps over my vision, painting the corners in an inky black. A color that I want to drown myself in. Anything to get away from the deep red I’m soaked with.

Sounds are starting to fade away, the things they are doing to me dull. I don’t even react to them anymore, my mind and body becoming numb.

In and out of consciousness I float.

One second, I’m tied to the chair.

The next I’m laying down. Maybe on something soft covering the hard floor. I’m not sure.

After that a silhouette hangs above me, a dark shadow. My clothes are gone. The cold air washing over me, almost a comfort.

Then nothing. A white golden light cast in a reddish film. I blink slowly, watching the light sway to and fro. It reminds me of that rock last year. Rolling over and over, going through the motions. Never react unless provoked. Just cycling until it reaches that inevitable moment where the energy is gone, and potential sets in.

But the light doesn’t stop. The potential never comes, it just…is.

Swaying against all odds.

And I think of what I have done the last two months, since that day I decided I wasn’t going to just be the rock rolling across the pavement anymore.

I had fun. I opened myself up to the possibility of love. I started to see the value in myself again. I felt like me. The real me.

And if I lay here, each second passing bringing me closer to death, I can at least say I lived again.

“Dani!”

A faint voice calls out a name from the room. It sounds familiar, but the constant pendulum is calming, comforting. I’ve never been hypnotized, but I could guess this is what it might be like. A drifting into unconsciousness. A promise of peace.

“No, sweet girl. Look at me.”

I blink slowly, but I can’t make out anything but the void like darkness closing in. It calls me, the way it always does, looking into the eyes of the Shadow mask.

“I’ve got you. I’ve always got you. I won’t let you die. You’re mine, Danielle. Do you fucking hear me.”

I do. I’m sorry.

And I fall beneath the surface of the darkness I call home.

forty-eight

Dani

Asteady buzz wakes me up. It’s a dull sort of noise, like people talking loudly through the walls. My eyes flutter open and snap shut at the sunlight filtering through a window.

Groaning, I lift a hand to my head filling the scratchy bandages wrapped around it.

“What the fuck?” I moaned, turning slowly away from the light, blinking again.

The room spins, and I see double but eventually everything clears and I’m lying in my bed at Cade’s house.