Dark Realms (2 page)

As I tried to step around him, his hand
snaked out and grabbed my wrist. “Not so fast.”

I inhaled sharply and
instinct took over. I rotated my wrist, snatched my arm away from
him, and then quickly hit him in the jaw with an
uppercut
.
It was
like hitting a plate of steel.

“Ahhh!” I gasped in pain.

“Nice attempt,” he smiled darkly. “I do
applaud your efforts. It amuses me.” He then smacked me back,
hitting me in the chin. I fell backwards, landing on the
ground.

In pain, but now more furious than anything,
I jumped up and swung my leg up to kick him in the chest.

He caught my foot and dug
his nails into my ankle cruelly. “You
are
a fighter, aren’t you?” he said,
grabbing my neck with one of his large, cold hands, holding me in
place. “I like that.”

“No, I’m really not,” I whispered hoarsely
as I tried to pull his fingers away from my neck. “Please, you’re
hurting me. Let me go and I’ll do whatever you want.”

Sighing, he released my neck. “You should
have thought of that before you crossed me.”

Crossed
him?

I opened my mouth to scream, but he clamped
his hand over it with incredible speed. “Uh, uh, uh…” he
whispered.

Terrified, I reached between his legs and
squeezed as hard as I could.

He roared in pain and released me.

I turned away and began running towards my
apartment building, frightened.

“Hey!” hollered a man’s voice from an
apartment window above. “You okay down there, miss? You need
help?”

Before I could answer, someone grabbed me
from behind and I was whisked away into the darkness.

Chapter Two

I slept and my dreams were morbidly
disturbing.

I was trapped in some kind of old pine
coffin, trying desperately to escape. As I pounded and clawed at
the wooden box, I could hear someone digging.

Without a doubt, I knew it was a grave.

My grave.

Each stab at the earth was followed by the
sound of dirt being tossed, chilling me to the bone. When the noise
of the shovel stopped, I cried out for help, hoping that it was
some kind of mistake

“Please!” I screamed again, pounding my
fists and kicking my feet against the coffin. “Let me out! I’m
alive in here!”

Silence.

“Dammit, I’m not dead! This is a mistake!
Someone help me!”

No response.

I sobbed. “I don’t deserve this. Please… let
me out of here.”

“Uh, uh, uh…” replied a man, chuckling.
“Should have thought of that before you crossed me.”

My eyes snapped open and I
sat up. “Oh, my God,” I whispered in horror as my eyes adjusted to
surroundings that I did
not
recognize.

I was in a dimly lit barn, lying on an old
wool blanket, and there were three others with me.

“Welcome to your nightmare,” muttered one of
the women, who was sitting a few feet away. She looked to be around
my mother’s age, had short dark hair, and a painful-looking shiner
under her right eye.

“What’s going on?” I asked, getting to my
feet. I brushed away some straw from my knees and straightened up.
“Where am I?”

The woman with the bruise smiled grimly.
“You’re in the Land of Oz. Don’t you remember riding the tornado
here?”

I stared at her in confusion. “I…”

Then it all came back to me.

The stranger.

Our fight.

Running and then being grabbed from
behind.

The weight of the situation hit me like a
sledgehammer. “Oh, God…someone kidnapped me?”

“Oh yeah,” said a girl, walking over. She
was not much older than me, with short blond hair and glasses.
“Obviously, you’re not the only one. I’m Amy, by the way.”

“I’m Emily,” I answered in a hollow voice. I
looked around the barn, which held no animals or livestock.

Just us.

“I don’t understand, who’s doing this and
why?” I asked.

“Do you remember the guy who took you?”
asked Amy.

I thought about the man by the pool.
Obviously he was involved. “Yeah. I’m sure it was this guy with
dark hair and pale skin. He approached me by my apartment building
and we fought.”

“He’s one strong son-of-a-bitch,” muttered a
dark-skinned girl who was lying down on another blanket, staring up
at the roof of the barn. “Something’s not right about him.”

“That’s Tara,” said Amy. “She actually
stabbed him with a switchblade.”

Tara turned her face to look at me. “He
didn’t even flinch. Stabbed the bastard in the hand and it was as
if nothing happened. It was some freaky shit.”

“Uh, did he kidnap all of you?” I asked, not
recalling the guy having any kind of wound on his hand when he
assaulted me.

“No,” replied Amy, lowering her voice.
“There are more of them.” She looked towards the roof of the barn.
“They’re probably watching us right now.”

I felt like I was in some kind of twisted
horror movie, only this was real. I stared up at the dark shadows
of the barn and shivered. “Why are they doing this?”

“I don’t know,” said Amy. “We were all
brought in here within the last twenty-four hours.”

“Have you tried to escape?” I said, lowering
my voice as I eyed the barn door.

Tara snorted. “Hell no, genius. That didn’t
cross any of our minds.”

“Be nice,” said the woman with the bruise.
“She’s just as confused as the rest of us and doesn’t deserve any
more abuse.”

Tara closed her eyes and sighed. “Yeah, I
know. Sorry. I’m just not in the mood for this shit anymore.”

“We’ve tried getting out of here,” said Amy.
“But they’ve locked us in from the outside. And…” her lips began to
tremble. “Another woman tried climbing up to the loft right after I
arrived. But, something killed her up there.”

“What?” I asked, horrified. I looked up
towards the loft, which seemed so dark and menacing.

“There’s something up there,” she whispered
in an ominous voice, stepping closer to me. “Gloria, the gal who
climbed the ladder, she screamed bloody murder when she reached the
top. Tried climbing back down, but something pulled her back and
dragged her away from the edge. We couldn’t see exactly what was
happening.” She grimaced. “But, we all heard it.”

I swallowed. “Something?”

She nodded. “We heard it growling and then
it sounded like Gloria was wrestling with it.” Her eyes filled with
tears. “I’ll never forget the sounds coming from up there – her
cries and something that sounded like hissing. I was so scared, I
almost peed my pants.”

“We were all scared,” said the older woman,
shaking her head.

“What happened next?” I asked.

Amy wiped a couple of tears from her cheek.
“Um, I think she tried crawling back towards the ladder, but never
made it.”

“I take it you guys were too scared to do
much?” I asked bluntly. “I mean, I’m sure I’d have been scared to
death myself.”

“Well, I was going to try and help,” said
Tara. “But then I saw all of the blood.”

I shivered. “Blood?”

Amy pointed towards the top of the ladder.
“Yeah, if you stand back far enough and get on your tippy-toes, you
can kind of see Gloria’s shoulder. There’s blood there. Lots of
it.”

I stepped back and looked. Sure enough,
someone’s hand appeared to be reaching for the edge, as if she’d
been crawling away from something. I couldn’t really see her
shoulder, however.

“Did you ever see what attacked her?” I
asked.

“Nope,” replied Amy. “Thank God.”

I squinted, trying to see the woman above
better, but it was hard since it was still dark outside, and there
were only a couple of lit lanterns in the barn. “Do you think it’s
still up there?”

“I don’t know and I’m not about to look,”
said Amy. “Whatever was up there hasn’t made any noise for the last
few hours.”

“I think it might be sleeping,” said the
woman with the bruise. “We’ve got to find a way out before it wakes
up again.”

Just then, the barn door was opened.

Tara jumped up and we all moved closer
together.

Chapter Three

“Ladies,” smiled the man who’d assaulted me
earlier. “We have a new addition to your group.”

Standing next to him was another guy with
long blond hair, which was pulled into a ponytail, and pale skin.
In his burly arms he carried a sleeping girl with short, spiky pink
hair. He moved forward and set her down on the floor of the
barn.

“Excuse me, guys,” said Tara, folding her
arms under her chest. “I have to ask –

what in the hell are we doing here?”

The blond guy smiled a big, toothy grin.
“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough. For now, relax and get some rest.
You’re going to need it tonight.”

Her dark eyes narrowed. “Is
this some kind of freaky sex thing that you’re into? ‘Cause there’s
no way in
hell
I’m
going to let anyone put their hands on me. Not without a fight, you
know what I’m saying?”

The dark-haired man threw his head back and
laughed. “Sex? No. You’d never survive that, I assure you.”

“Please let us go, Martin,” begged the woman
with the bruise. “We won’t tell anyone. I swear. Just let us
go.”

Martin, my abductor, smiled brightly and I
was stunned of how white his teeth were. “Anna, don’t worry, dear,
we’ll let you out of here soon enough. By the way, are any of you
ladies hungry?”

None of us answered.

“Well, if you’re not now, you will be later
and you’ll definitely need your strength. We’ll be back for you
later,” said Martin. He motioned to the other man. “Come on,
Brandon, it’s almost dawn.”

“Wait,” said Amy, taking a step towards
them. “Gloria… um, something killed her. Something in the
loft.”

Brandon smiled coldly. “She should have
stayed below. I advise all of you to stay away from the loft.”

“Why, what’s up there?” I asked.

“You really don’t want to know,” said
Martin, his eyes twinkling. “But rest assured, it won’t harm you
unless you venture up there.”

“This is insane!” hollered Anna, raising her
hands in exasperation. “Why are you doing this to us? Our families
must be worried sick.”

Martin sneered. “Really? You think your
husband, the one who gave you a black eye, is worried about where
you are at the moment? Or Tara, do you really think anyone is
missing you? Face it, nobody even knows you’re missing, and if they
do, they’re not going to be searching for you in the next couple of
days.”

“My parents will be worried,” I protested,
wondering how he knew so much about our personal lives. “They’re
definitely going to know that something is very wrong.”

“Well, maybe your
‘boyfriend’
can tell them
you’ve been kidnapped. Hmm?” said Martin.

I glared at him. “What in the heck is wrong
with you? Don’t you realize what you’re doing is illegal? You’re
going to go to jail unless you let us go!”

Brandon chuckled. “The little one amuses me.
That’s the one who almost got the best of you?” he asked.

“She fights dirty,” replied Martin.

“I
fight dirty?” I snapped, clenching my jaw. “You’re the one who
kidnapped all of us. You can’t get much dirtier than
that.”

He grinned. “You have a point.”

I stared at him incredulously. “You act like
this is some kind of game. A woman has died and you are acting like
it’s no big deal. You’ve got some serious issues.”

The smile fell from his face. “Behave and
we’ll let you out of the barn tonight. You can leave here and never
look back. If you try and escape beforehand, however, you’ll fail,”
his eyes narrowed, “and die quite painfully.”

His words made my stomach clench tightly. As
insane as it sounded, death was obviously within reason with these
guys.

“If you promise to let us go,” said Anna,
“I’ll cooperate. As long as I know that thing upstairs is
restrained somehow.”

“You’re safe down here,” replied Martin,
looking up towards the loft. “That’s all you have to remember.”

Tara snorted. “And we should trust you?”

“Whether you do or not is completely up to
you. I don’t think you have much choice though, do you?” stated
Martin.

She clenched her jaw and looked away.

“Remember, obey us and you’ll be free to
leave the barn later,” said Brandon, walking towards the door.

“What about Gloria’s body?” asked Anna.

Martin and Brandon looked at each other.

“We’ll take care of it,” said Martin.
“Later.”

“Now would be better,” said Tara.

“I’m sure it would,” said Brandon,
laughing.

I watched as the two men left and locked us
inside once again, wondering if we should have tried making a run
for it or tried rushing them as a team.

“This is crazy,” said Amy. “I just don’t get
it. Why would they keep us in here just to let us go without
expecting something?”

“Oh, they expect something,” said Anna, her
forehead wrinkling. “We just don’t know what it is yet.”

“Okay, is it me, or are those two of the
whitest people on this planet,” said Tara. “I don’t want to sound
racist or anything, but they’re so damn white, they glow.”

“It is kind of creepy,” said Amy. “My skin
has always been pale but they make me appear tan. Maybe they’re
sick?”

I walked over to the girl with the pink hair
and knelt down beside her. She was looking pretty pale herself and
I wondered if she was even alive. “Maybe they’re albino,” I said,
reaching out to touch her forehead.

Her eyes popped open and she backed away in
terror.

“Wait,” I said, smiling reassuringly. “I’m
not going to hurt you.”