The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga) (43 page)

“Be brave…be brave…be brave
.” I repeated as I continued on and took the most frightening steps I ever had before in my life. The echoed crunch of each step beneath my feet made it impossible to tell if anyone was behind me without stopping and that was just something I wasn’t willing to do. It wouldn’t take them long to guess that I had braved hiding in the caves, so I needed to use what little time I had ahead of them and hide somewhere.

My little torch offered me a small amount of com
fort but only enough that it stopped me from walking into any walls. Anything other than that and I was on my own. It just wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate this level of darkness. I had never encountered anything so frightening before. It was almost thick enough to reach out and touch. With each foot further the harder it became to breath at a normal rate. The temperature was so cold, I could no longer put down my shaking to just the intense fear.

The last time I remembered being this cold was when being pushed into the frozen lake by Layla and being convinced I was going
to die. Well, right now I was not far from the same feeling. I didn’t actually know what was still making my legs move further on, but I didn’t think I was that far from crumbling to the floor and praying for this nightmare to end.

It felt like the heavy blackness that surround
ed me was weighing me down and a brick wall at my back was preventing me from escaping. I felt trapped in my own fear and I needed to calm myself down if only so that my breathless panting wouldn’t give away my position. I tried to take deeper breaths…in…out…in…out they came and went but no matter what I tried telling myself, my heart wouldn’t cease its hammering against my chest cavity.

I had to stop for a second, I had to just try and control this dread. I leant against the wall with the flash light shaking in front of me, so I used both hands in an attempt to gain some control. That’s when I realised I was silently sobbing and the tears I left behind
were like an invisible trail of bread crumbs.

“Control…breathe and control breathe Keira…darkness can’t hurt you…remember back…Why are we afraid of the darkness when the light shows us more of the land of nightmares?" I let this mantra sink in and used it to ease my deep set fear, twisting it into something else. The grip on reality started to seep back in and I convinced myself that the danger wasn’t down here but back up there and it…well… it was coming for me!

So I decided to use the darkness as a tool, a means of hiding like a friend that would shield me against the real threat. I needed to trust the shadows like I trusted that Sigurd would come. He would save me, I just knew it but until then I needed to be strong. I needed to let go of the fear.

I wiped away my tears, gritted my teeth and my breathing became that of determination. I lifted my head and with a steadier hand, aimed my way to take firmer steps into what I now considered was my escape. And so I moved. Strong and sure onwards I went until I found one of the plaques on the wall. This time when I saw another dummy I didn’t freak out other than let my breathing hitch at the unexpected. This was Franklin
’s cave and if I remembered correctly not far from the banqueting hall. This was going to be my aim, as I knew exactly where I was going to hide.

As I stopped at the junction I started to hear other people in the cave and knew it wouldn’t be much longer before they were upon me. I picked the right
tunnel and moved as fast as I could, all the time resisting the impulse to look behind me with the flash light. I knew that would be another way to give them my position if they were close enough behind me, so I put a lock down on that urge. I was just coming around to where the left side would have brought me and that’s when disaster struck. The light from my torch started to flicker as the power started to diminish.

“Shit
!” I whispered and started to work the dynamo to gain more power but the noise it made was too loud. I knew it wasn’t far now so decided to continue on quicker. The dim light flickered off mid-step making me inhale sharply. I had to pump it a few times to get it back and I shrieked out when the light lit up two figures of small children right in front of me. I only just managed to keep hold of my bladder let alone the torch!

My mind quickly started to process what it was seeing and I remembered back to earlier. This was the children’s cave and the small mannequins I saw now demonstrated how some children would find their way down here to play…which sounded just plain bonkers to me.

I moved on from this disturbing display pretty quickly, hating anything creepy that included kids, but in my haste I didn’t see what was in front of me. I went straight into the wall ahead and let my hand save me from knocking myself out. I looked up to see something in the wall that didn’t make sense…A face? I moved back and raised the flickering torch only to freak myself out again enough to scream. Right in front of me was some weird skull shaped head that had been carved into the stone. It looked like someone had created the eerie picture by using their fingertips to gouge into wet clay. The stark white face of chalk dripped with condensation almost like it was crying for my distress. Green moss grew around the top and framed its shocked features. Why would anyone make this?

I whipped my head round as I heard once more the distant voices coming from the passages behind me and wondered how long I had. Needless to say I did this thinking whilst on the move. I aimed what little light I did have and saw straight ahead of me was an opening, so I ran. I held on to my bag to stop it beating around my body with the movement and made it into the massive open space that was the banqueting hall. It was the largest space in the caves and it was easy to see this was the main hosting area for Dashwood and his friends.

I didn’t really care about that now, as my thoughts were more along the line of, ‘I hoped I had made the right decision to hide here’. I scanned the area just as my light started to completely give out on me but at least managed to find one of the deep alcoves before it did. Soon the dark wall at my back surrounded my entire body in a black cage of terror.

I felt around the rock until I was sure of the ledge I was about to hoist myself up onto and lifted my bag over before using my puny upper body strength to lift the rest of me up. I scrambled forward until I felt the bars on the door that kept me from going any further.

“Damn it!”  I said in a frustrated whisper. I wrapped my fist around the metal and gave it a shake that echoed in the empty space. I cringed at the sound and knew I couldn’t get away with doing that again. It didn’t help that the ceilings in this room were about thirty foot high, giving every movement a boost in sound. I shifted my weight and sat with my back to the bars, with my legs tucked up tight to my chest.

Well
, this was it. I could do no more and didn’t have time or the light to find another spot to hide in. I had remembered the alcoves but forgotten about the bars preventing you from getting inside them. All the men needed was a decent torch and I would be done for. Ok, so a gun was now going on my new list of must haves…because those night vision goggles would have come in pretty handy right about now!

Waiting was another form of torture. Being sat in the dead silence with despair as my only friend was not an experience I would ever like to relive any time soon. There was nothing worse than waiting for the unknown to find you scared out of your ever loving mind and unable to fight for your life. What could I do against Demons the size of wrestlers on steroids? Well
, one thing I would be doing and that was throwing this piece of shit torch at them…fingers crossed I took out an eye!

When I first saw the light
coming from beyond the passageway I had to slam my hands over my mouth so as not to scream. I even had to bite down on to my bottom lip to prevent the trembling. I knew this was it and what other choices did I have…? I was out of time and luck was no longer my friend.

“In here
.” A voice travelled to me and I tried to stay as still as the air in this room. I focused on my breathing but it was difficult when my lungs felt like they couldn’t get enough air to circulate around my body and to my pounding heart. I finally got my first glimpse of who was after me as a black figure had to almost bend double to get through the opening. I was lucky in the sense that they were only armed with the small flare of light from the lighter he held.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up but I knew that thing wouldn’t be giving him much to go by. As he stretched up to his full height he lifted it up closer to his face and I saw the single flame reflected in the mirrored lenses he still wore covering his eyes. My stalker walked further into the room to allow the others at his back to also enter. Three big guys spread out as each took a space in the room that was on either side of the archway.

“Give it up girl, we know you’re in here.” The black guy stated in a firm authoritative tone, which told me he was the one in charge. Which begged the question…who the Hell was this guy?!

“She’s here, I can hear her little heart pounding…we won’t hurt you girl
.” I wanted to shout out, ‘yeah right’ but decided to bite my fingers instead. I heard him release a breath through his nostrils in frustration before he started moving around the room.

“The light isn’t for our benefit
.” He told me as he made his way round. The sound of the gravel under his booted feet danced along my tightly strung nerves until I want to shout out not to come any closer.

“It’s for yours pet, so you know where we are…it’s for your fear...” He stopped and the small flame let me see enough of his face to witness him sniff the air like an animal sniffing out its prey.

“…The fear I can smell and…” He licked his lips before snarling the word,

“…Taste
.” He then smiled, flashing a fang that grew in length from his gums and down his chin. He stopped and waited, as though trying to judge something and then when obviously coming to a decision, he did something that nearly made my heart stop beating.

“It was your choice
, pet…” His grin grew and he turned his head to the lighter he held and finished his sentence,

“Now it’s mine
.”

Then…

He blew out the light.

Chapter 40

Twenty Two Steps for t
he Brotherhood

             
Now with the only light long gone and four men in the room with me in their sights, my chances plummeted just as my fear skyrocketed. I could hear the crunch, crunch, crunch of each footstep getting closer and I wondered if everyone else could hear the deafening chorus of my heart beating out like death’s drum.

The irrational part of my brain wanted to close my eyes tight and repeat ‘there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home’. Thankfully though I didn’t give into the compulsion and remained as still and silent as I could.

“Be sensible now, girl.” His gruff voice surprised a sharp breath from me at how close it sounded. I reached down by my side until I felt the gravel there and so, so slowly grabbed a fistful of the tiny stones as my only means of a weapon. I knew it was a wasted effort, but I just didn’t have it in me not to try and fight, even if it meant my death. These bastards wouldn’t take me with ease!

One, two, three more crunching sounds, the last one being the loudest so far told me where he was in the room. My hold on the stones tightened until it hurt but it was a pain I welcomed. If anything it brought me comfort to know that these little pebbles could hurt someone.

Then suddenly he was there! I screamed out as the lighter lit his face right in front of me and if that was his way to elevate my fear, then he couldn’t have been more wrong! But the one thing it did at least do was give me a target. I turned my scream of fright into one of outrage and threw my handful of small projectiles in his face, watching with satisfaction as one cracked the lens of his shades. He took a few startled steps back and I took my chance. I jumped from the ledge, leaving my bag and in exchange reaching for the zippo lighter that still had flame. Then I legged it for the opposite exit into the next set of caves.

“RAAAHHH!” The roar echoed
round the walls and I almost expected them to shift with the force and come crashing down on us all. I panted out my panic and kept running with one single flame to guide my way. I soon found myself torn between my haste and the light that wasn’t taking kindly to my speed. It kept threatening to go out and at one point it hit its limit. I stopped, frozen in the dark and through my shaking hands, fumbled to try and re-ignite it.

“Come on! Come… on!” I shouted at it through gritted teeth until I got it the on the third try. The tight space of the tunnel reflected with an orange glow but was only enough light to show me a foot in front of me. However
, I kept running. I could hear the shouting of angry voices coming at my back but knew I couldn’t stop now. All ideas of them not hurting me after what I had done were long gone.

I quickly came to a junction and didn’t think about the decision as I took the right, pushing away from the rock I bumped into. It hurt but my mantra then turned away from being afraid of the dark and more towards…

“It’s just bruises Keira, it’s not a severed head, which is what you will get if you don’t get the fuck outta here!” I no longer cared if they could hear me anymore as there was only one place I could go and one place for them to follow. My mind started to work like a damn steam engine as I thought back to today. Where else could I hide, what else did I see?

“Wait…the river!” T
hat was it! I remembered the river that bent round out of sight. The water was shallow enough to walk through and surely they wouldn’t think to look there…would they? Well, there was only one way to find out. I bumped along the tunnel, propelling myself off the sides whenever I would get too close.

“
God, where is it!?” I asked frustrated with not knowing what was around the corner and desperate to see the next section that would bring me out by the Inner Temple.

I finally came to the point where both ends met and when I rounded the corner a high pitched scream exploded out into the caves! It actually took a second to f
igure out it came from me as a shadowy figure came at me. A ghost looked as though it came straight from the rock wall and came charging right at me. I tried to turn and I covered my head with my arms in a protective manner out of reflex.

“O…oh…GGG…od please…” I stammered through my arms knowing soon my legs would give way and I would no longer be able to move. All the things I had seen in my life and never once had I seen what I considered
to be a ghost. It just proved that the things we fear the most in life was the unknown.

“Calm
.” A gentle voice spoke as it neared and I screamed again when I felt it touch me.

“NO!”

“Look at me…Keira,
see me.”
I knew that voice! That rough voice that had whispered in my ear, that had told me his secrets and of his first life passed.

“Jared?” I said as I felt my arms being gently lifted off my head.

“Is it really you?” I asked in a small voice that was on the verge of hopeful tears.

“Yes
, pet.” On hearing his answer, even before I saw his face to confirm the fact, I threw my arms around his neck and clung to him, thinking of the impossible act of ever having to let go. I felt his hand hold the back on my head to his shoulder and then realised we were both on the floor. When did I fall…when did he catch me? He was on his knees holding me to him with one hand at my head and the other ran up and down my back as I sobbed into his jacket.

“Ssshh now pet, I have you safe
.” He crooned softly into my hair.

“
Yyyou…you’d better not be a bloody ghost.” I stammered out after letting my emotional outburst run its course. I felt the rumbling in his chest as he laughed.

“I can assure you I’m not
.”

“Thank
God.” I muttered and he laughed again.

“Although I don’t think we can thank any
God on that account, now come, up you get.” He said gripping the top of my arms, raising me to my feet. I wobbled a bit and he held me steady until he was satisfied. This was when my situation sank in enough to be useful.

“Jared
, you have to listen to me, there…there are men out there, they…well, they chased me down here and there’s this one guy, a massive guy that followed me earlier today and now he has more men and…and…” My head was going back and to, through this jumbled tale, as if expecting them to jump out at us around the corner.

“Keira
, stop.” When I didn’t look at him I felt his fingers and thumb grab my chin. With my face still turned down I saw the small flame from the lighter I must have dropped in my shock. It was just enough light to show me his serious face after he held me still for a minute, before raising my head up to look at him. His silver eyes flashed in the dim light as he assessed me and only when my breathing had calmed did he speak.

“There is no threat
, Keira.” I knew he spoke the truth and was about to brave asking him what he had done to them, but decided I had enough horror for one day and didn’t think adding a word by word description on a mini massacre would be wise…Not unless he had a fancy for watching consuming chocolate in reverse!

When he held out his hand I decided to trust him and gave him my hand in return. He lent down and retrieved the lighter, flicking it closed and plunging us into darkness.

“What are you…?”

“I can see well enough for the two of us
, so trust me. Keep hold of my hand and put your other hand on the back of my jacket. Take slow steps and you will be fine.” I did as I was told, taking the back of his jacket in a tight grip making him chuckle. We walked a few steps and after I stumbled into the back of him a few times he huffed out his frustration.

“Let’s try something else
.” This was the only warning I got before he turned to face me abruptly and lifted me by the waist up his front. I gasped and quickly found a hold on his shoulders to keep steady.

“Wrap your arms around my neck
.” I did as I was told as I dangled a foot above the floor.

“Now wrap your legs around my waist and lock your feet at my back
.” I coughed before saying a confused,

“Sorry… what now?”

“Just do it, pet.” I bit my lip in the dark at the intimate position this new hold put us in and could feel my cheeks burn, even in the icy temperature. When I complied with his gentle command he leant his head down, brushing my neck with his nose, inhaling deeply. Then his lips skimmed up the column of chilled skin resting just by my cheek. This was so his praise could be heard clearly, making my heart skip a beat. 

“Good girl, now hold on tight, I am going to be moving fast
.” I did as I was told making him smile against the side of my face before he took off. Thankfully, the stronghold he had on my upper body prevented me from being too jostled when he broke out into a mad run through the pitch black tunnels. I tucked my head by his neck as the feeling of dizziness washed over me from travelling fast in a small space I couldn’t see but only feel.

It took no time at all to make it back up the tunnels and when he stopped I felt kind of woozy from the speed.

“You can let go now, pet.” I heard what he said but for some reason it took some time for me to follow through with the suggestion. I felt him chuckle before reaching behind his back to first unlock my legs before doing the same with my hold on his neck. I was surprised he didn’t actually need to pry my fingers back, I held on that tight. He held me as I slid down his length and like before didn’t release me until he was certain I wasn’t going to drop as the sack of jelly I felt like.

It took me a moment to figure out where we were. I couldn’t help but squint at the little light that was coming from somewhere in the room and I had to blink a few times to regain focus. Although
, as soon as I did this, I immediately wished I hadn’t, for there, leaning against the same ledge I had hidden in, was my big scary stalker!

It took me all of about ten seconds to realise none of the men were a threat to Jared, especially the black dude who was stood casually with his arms folded over his vast chiselled chest encased in leather. I wrenched from Jared’s hold and backed awa
y from him. His eyes narrowed at the sight of my retreat and a growl rolled up from his chest.

“Keira
!” He said my name in warning but I shook my head.

“You…you
’re…with them.” It wasn’t a question but I still hoped for denial as an answer. It was when I didn’t get it that I made my move. I spun quickly and made a foolish dash for the way out of the banqueting hall. It was quickly proven to be foolish when steel bands wrapped around me from behind and pulled me flush with a solid chest against my back. I started to squirm around in hopes of getting free when his growling stopped and it started to sound vicious.

“STOP!” H
e roared hurting my ears. Of course, I did as I was told. I could feel his heavy breathing as his chest heaved, making each muscle tense from his rippled abs to defined pecs that pressed into me from behind…Oh yeah, I stopped moving alright!

Once he got his temper under control
, I felt his hold ease so I could at least breathe without working at it.

“Testy little thing isn’t she?
” I looked to the black guy who just looked a bit bored with the whole display of disobedience. Jared just growled at him and then whipped me around to face him. His silver eyes flashed in his obvious anger and I swallowed a frightened lump at seeing it directed at me.

“Don’t. Do. That. Again
.” Each controlled word looked ripped from a pit of fury and all I could do was nod silently.

“So, what next?” Jared’s burning gaze still tried to burrow a hole in my head when the question asked finally tore his wrath away.

“Everyone out, NOW!” Jared ordered in a booming voice that vibrated through the cavernous space of the banqueting hall. The black guy slapped his hands on his thighs and said,

“You heard him boys, fun’s over when the rabbit’s caught
.” I frowned at being referred to as furry animal on a hunt but no matter how brave I was frowning, I still sank back against Jared when he stepped closer. He grinned down at me and then leaned in to me to make sure he was heard,

“Some advice for next time
, girl…” He looked over his broken shades and his eyes blazed the same colour as Jared’s, only his had black rings around them. 

“…don’t run from the beast…it
excites us, ain’t that right bro?” I sucked in a hiss of surprise. His brother!

“
Orth don’t be a dick! Now go wait outside until this shit is done.” His brother laughed a deep gravelly sound that was drowned out by the slap he delivered on Jared’s back, one that despite the obvious power didn’t make Jared move a muscle.

His brother’s stride to the exit was surprisingly stealth like considering his immense bulk. He bent to duck his head through the opening and then
, as if remembering something, he turned back.

“Oh and J, you owe me a pair of fucking shades
, man!” Jared’s response was to flip him the bird, making them both grunt. Meanwhile, watching the brotherly banter was making me shake my head like I had just stepped into an alternative universe. As soon as he was out of sight I pushed from Jared’s hold once again, only this time it was to face him, not run from him. His brother might be a dick but I wasn’t one to turn down good advice!