INK: Vanishing Point (Book 2) (25 page)

“Then I’ll be with Shay,”
I say with resolution. That’s all I want is to be with her. To
keep her safe.

“You can’t keep her safe in
there,” Carl says with a sad smile. “Just be careful.”

“He’s not going to get
stuck,” McNab says, and looks at me. “You aren’t
going to get stuck. You’re going in, and you’re coming
right back out with Shay, do you hear me?”

“Yes. I just have to stay attached
to the line, right?” I ask, tugging at the climbing rope.

“You should tell him,” Carl
warns McNab.

“No, he knows all he needs to,”
McNab returns.

“Tell me what?” I ask,
trying not to panic.

“Nothing, just remember the line.
That’s all you need to know. Get Shay, come back. You hear me?
Get her and come back.” He bends down in front of where I’m
sitting to look me in the eye.

“This is a bad idea,” Pitch
says as he calibrates a piece of equipment that’s monitoring
something on me. I have no idea what any of this shit attached to me
is.

“Is there any other way?” My
heart aches thinking of her being alone in there. I have no idea what
to expect other than what McNab has told me.

“No. But that doesn’t make
it any less of a bad idea,” he returns. “Eli, it’s
the only way, and we have to get her out of there fast or we’re
going to lose her. It’s not going well for her in there. We may
have lost her already.” McNab never looks up from the screen
tracking her motions. There’s pain running through his
expression.

“Okay, he’s set.” Quag
looks at Pitch. “You done?”

“Yup, he’s ready.”
Pitch shakes his head and sits down at a computer screen.

I get up and walk over to where they
have the tripods set up on the pile of mud. “Just go through?”

This feels so ridiculous. I’m
hooked up to all of this shit, and now I’m going to walk
through an imaginary door to another dimension.

“Not another dimension, another
plane. It’s a little different.” Carl comes over and puts
a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll be with you all the way on
this side. Just try to keep your mind open.”

“You got it, Chief.” I
release a breath and move forward, expecting to only walk across the
room and not through the invisible door.

To my surprise, I lean forward and find
that I’m in a very different place from the other side of the
guest room. It’s some sort of swamp. The screaming is
deafening, and it’s all I can hear. I put my hands up to my
ears to drown out the sound, but it doesn’t help. I take a few
steps and have to stop because there’s a pain shooting through
my head from the noise.

“Eli, listen to my voice, not
theirs.” I can hear Carl in my head.

“How?” It hurts and I can’t
concentrate.

“Just stay calm, think of Shay,”
he says.

“I am, but it hurts more when I
do.” I’m holding my head because of the pain.

“Focus, Eli, you’ve got
this.” Carl’s tone is calming. He keeps talking about
Shay. Telling me to imagine her smile, her mannerisms that drive me
crazy in a good way, and how she smells. God I love how she smells,
like she was made for me.

“That’s it. Keep that up and
keep walking. You are nearly to her,” Carl says.

“There’s a clearing up ahead
and I can see someone,” I call out.

“Eli, do not interact with anyone
in there other than Shay,” he warns.

“Got it.” Shouldn’t be
a problem. The horror that is surrounding me isn’t exactly
conducive to chit chat.

Pushing through the vines, I reach the
clearing. “Aiden?” He looks so old and decrepit. I nearly
thought it was Oliver.

“Eli,” he says simply
without looking at me.

“Are you okay?”

His head snaps in my direction with a
hollow stare. “Do I look okay to you?”

There’s a rustling in the thicket
directly in front of us. Shay slices through a tangle of vegetation
and enters the clearing. The sword she’s holding is dripping
blood, and she looks nearly identical to how she did in the drawing.
Her hair is matted and her clothes torn. Her eyes are wild with rage
and fear. Her chest is covered in sweat and dirt and is heaving with
labored breaths. My heart sinks into my stomach as I wonder if she is
going to murder me and everyone else in the house. What if I die in
here? What if she stabs me with that thing?

“Then you die,” Carl answers
in my mind.

“Thanks.”

Shay’s wild eyes focus in on me,
having heard me speak. “What are you doing here?” she
says in an angry tone.

“I came to bring you home.”
My hand extends toward her cautiously like she’s a rabid
animal.

She stands there panting for a solid
minute and takes careful steps toward Aiden and me.

“And what are you doing here?”
She looks Aiden in the eye.

“I’m here to be with you and
help you.” She turns her head to me. I choose to stay silent;
it seems like the safe bet. After studying me for a long while, she
gently puts her hand on my cheek and caresses my neck. I drink in her
touch and try to convey my love to her through my eyes.

Her hand rests over my heart and I don’t
dare move. I break a hint of a smile. “It’s yours.”

Without responding to me, she looks back
to Aiden.

“Shay, baby, I love you. Come with
me.” He reaches out to her, and she drops the sword and moves
toward him.

“Shay.” I speak softly.
“Shay, please come home.”

Her focused stare burns through me, then
returns her attention to Aiden. Shay looks down at her hand, flexing
it. She studies us both again.

Her expression becomes more certain than
I’ve ever seen it, and she reaches forward with a powerful
push, creating a hole in Aiden’s chest. She pulls her hand
back, holding his heart. It beats one time, then stills. She looks at
it, then at Aiden.

“Now I can go home.” She
drops the heart, and it hits the ground at the same time as Aiden’s
body.

Holy fuck what just happened?

“Don’t panic, don’t
make any sudden moves.” Carl’s alarmed voice rings though
my thoughts.

Shay bends down and picks up her sword
and looks at me expectantly.

“Come with me, Shay,” I say
it to her in a calm voice even though I’m scared shitless.

“No, I already know the way,”
she says as she turns and walks in the opposite direction.

“Don’t let her go,”
Carl warns.

“Shay, really, come back with me.
Everyone’s waiting for you.” I step toward her.

She turns and raises her sword to me. “I
don’t need you.” She disappears back into the thicket.

“What do I do?” I plead for
Carl to give me instructions.

“Come back,” he says,
defeated.

I make my way back, replaying what
happened, and I can’t stop picturing her ripping Aiden’s
heart out of his chest. I swear I could hear the last beat it took.
It was in her bloodied hand and she dropped it. She just dropped it.

When I come back through to the bedroom,
everyone is waiting.

“Did you see her? Is she okay? Why
didn’t she come?” McNab is full of questions.

Carl’s head hangs low and he looks
completely exhausted. I’m covered in mud and grime. I don’t
remember how it got there. All I really remember is what she did.

“She–she–” I
stammer falling into a chair.

“She what? Is she okay?”
McNab asks. Everyone else in the room is solemnly quiet. As though
they know what happened.

“She ripped his heart out and
dropped it.” I lean my head back in the chair.

“Jesus Christ. She ripped who’s
heart out?” McNab is in my face.

“Aiden, she ripped Aiden’s
heart out. And dropped it, just dropped it on the ground like it was
a used tissue.”

“Aiden?” McNab questions.
“Not possible.”

“He was there. She did it.”
I pause, my breath catching in my throat. “Like the pictures,
she has a sword.”

McNab kicks one of the tripods. “Fuck
me.”

“What now?” I ask, surprised
at seeing McNab unhinged.

“I don’t know,” he
says. “I just don’t know.”

Shay

The tears that want to escape me choke
me instead, and I feel like I can’t breathe. There’s no
way I’m showing any kind of weakness. I did what I had to do;
nothing in here is real and I had to let it go in order to get out.
At least that was the idea, but I’ve been running and cutting
through the thicket for what feels like hours. Whether or not I’m
any closer to getting out of here is a mystery. But giving up isn’t
going to help.

Another clearing comes into my view. I
don’t recognize this place at all. It seems strange that this
part is unfamiliar, yet every other part of this place was like a
warped mirror image of my memory. Cautiously, I walk into the
clearing, staying vigilant for any movement. My fingers hold the
sword so tight my knuckles are white.

There’s a light coming from the
opposite side of the clearing. I cross over and poke the light with
the sword, but nothing happens. Exhaustion overcomes me, and I have
to sit right where I’m standing. I’m afraid to close my
eyes for fear that Elise or Aiden will appear in front of me. Dread
fills me as I try to reconcile what I did to Aiden, but something in
me knows it wasn’t really him. The way he let go of me, Aiden
would never do that. He would only ever go on his terms. Surely this
line of thinking is self-serving, designed to make me feel better
about my choice to tear his heart out. I don’t know where I got
the strength. After pondering for a few moments, I study my hand. “I
guess you’ve always had the strength within.”

The space that the light is taking up
expands as I speak. Squinting my eyes so as not to end up with my
vision obscured, I try to look closer at the light. “Open,”
I command. Once again, the space around the light gets bigger.

I scramble to my feet, never taking my
eyes off the light. Moving toward it, I stumble a little. “Open,”
I say again, and the light becomes more intense, hurting my eyes.

“No,” I command, and the
light dims, but the opening stays the same size. I put my hand
through but can’t really feel anything on the other side.

A dark shadow comes toward me, moving at
a menacing pace. My instincts tell me to run, but I stand my ground.
I’m trying to figure out if this light is the way out of here,
and this thing coming at me is telling me that I’m probably
getting close. It comes through the light, stopping in front of me. I
watch as the image of the Specter solidifies.

“Why?” he asks simply.

Fear surges through me, threatening my
resolve. “I don’t belong here.”

“But my love, I need you here. I
brought you here for us.”

“No us, only me.” I push
past him toward the opening but run into an invisible barrier. I can
see something resembling normal through the portal.

“But I can be whatever you want.”
His dark features morph into Aiden’s face. “Is this what
you want?”

In silence I push hard against the
barrier, never looking the Specter in the eye. His face changes to
Eli’s, and I shudder a little but continue trying to break
through.

“My love, look at me. I can give
you everything.” He motions to the dark twisted world around
us.

Anger takes me over and I scream out, “I
don’t want any of this. I don’t want you in my life at
all and I will go home.” With a final push, I fall through the
invisible barrier and through the portal.

The sensation of falling feels
interminable. Everything passes me by in a blur and I can’t
make out any of the images or shapes. Hands wrap around my neck and
squeeze, pulling me back. With my arms flailing, I try to find
anything I can grab on to so I won’t be drawn back to where I
was. Even though I have no idea where I’m going, it has to be
better than where I just was. Fighting and scraping at anything I can
hold, I break free and gasp for the air I was being deprived.

With a thud, I land. The light is
hovering above me, and without even thinking, I yell out, “Close.”
The light disappears.

The silence feels as disconcerting as
the screaming in that nightmare land. It takes a few moments for me
to acclimate to the quiet and warmth of where I am now. With eyes
closed, I inhale deeply and know immediately that I’m in
Aiden’s bedroom in the Roth family home. I’m scared to
open my eyes for fear of finding it’s just another illusion. I
pull my knees into my chest and work on building the courage to see
if I’m really here.

Slowly, my eyes open. Not a thing out of
place and not a speck of dust on any of the trophies hanging on the
wall. A wild boar, a few deer, a big-mouth bass and a small shark
adorn the walls as a testament to Aiden’s hunting and fishing
prowess. I take in the scent again and fall into the comfort of the
smell of him.

Trying to run my fingers through my
hair, they catch in a matted tangle. I look down at my clothes
covered in mud, blood and God knows what else. I go into the bathroom
adjacent to Aiden’s bedroom and strip my clothes off, leaving
them in a heap on the floor. After turning on the shower, I study my
body in the mirror and find many scrapes, cuts and bruises.

“That’s going to leave a
scar.” I run my fingers carefully over a large gash on my arm
and one on my belly. The mirror begins to fog up and I step in,
letting the hot water run over me, I realize how thirsty I am as I
start drinking from the shower head. For several minutes I just let
the mud and grime wash down the drain. I worry about the false sense
of comfort I have, hoping and praying that this isn’t an
illusion. The shampoo feels like heaven. I wash my face and body with
Aiden’s soap. His scent is all I can smell, feel and think
about.

The truth about where Aiden is still
eludes me. Is he dead? I really don’t know. The memory of
pulling his heart out of his chest plays in my mind. The horrified
look on Aiden’s face as his heart beat one last time.
It
wasn’t really him
, I
tell myself. Nothing there was what it seemed. I had to do it to get
out of there, to loosen the grip the Specter had on me. The water
starts to run lukewarm. A dry laugh escapes me as the droplets run
over my face. “The Specter.”
I
really must be going mad
.
Satisfied that all the mud and conditioner is out of my hair, I turn
off the shower and wrap myself in a towel. For lack of a better idea,
I go to Aiden’s closet, grab a t-shirt from a drawer, pull one
of his thermal hoodies off its hanger and bury my face in it to take
in the scent of cedar and laundry detergent that is Aiden. The aroma
is distant and a little stale since I’m sure Aiden hasn’t
been here for awhile. The pain of his absence tries to surface, but I
have things to take care of and push it back down. I slip into a pair
of his sweat pants and go back into the bathroom.