CHAPTER 27 OUT OF THE DARK
Maddy pressed his back against the door, the ice-cold metal biting into his bare skin like frozen teeth.
Sweat beaded at his temples despite the chill, trickling down to sting the raw scrapes on his cheeks.
He held his breath without realizing it, eyes straining uselessly in the pitch blackness until white spots danced across his vision.
The darkness pulsed with quick, stuttered breaths that weren't his own—wet, ragged sounds that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.
Maddy flattened his trembling palms against the cold door, shoulder blades digging into the rusted surface, his entire body pushing back as if he could somehow melt through the unyielding barrier.
In this nightmare, anything could be hiding in the dark with him—claws, teeth, or worse.
His frightened mind conjured the image of another creature like the giant's companion—all yellowed fangs and rope-thin limbs—locked in here with him, watching him with hungry, unblinking eyes. .. and no one to harness it this time.
Another slight scuff of feet against concrete made his heart stutter painfully against his ribs.
He couldn't see the room he was in, but the way sound bounced back at him suggested it was small—a closet of some sort?
Too cramped to run, too confined to defend himself if something attacked.
He inched to his right, the rough concrete floor scraping his bare feet, his hand feeling blindly through the suffocating darkness for something, anything to use as a weapon, fingertips scraping against rough concrete until his nails bent backward.
A stuttered breath from the darkness made him freeze. Not wet breathing, like the thing that had tackled him in the corridor, but hitching breath like... someone crying. The sound was small, almost fragile, a series of tiny gasps that punctured the oppressive silence.
Maddy frowned and cautiously stepped forward away from the door, hand tentatively stretching into the black void before him.
His fingertips touched hair—soft, tangled strands that felt electric against his skin—and the other occupant erupted in panic, screaming with a high-pitched terror that sliced through the darkness.
Hands slapped blindly at his arm, fingernails scraping his skin.
A girl, her fear palpable as a physical force between them.
Backing away, Maddy held up his hands in the darkness, his heart hammering against his ribs like it might break through. “I-I'm not gonna hurt you,” he said quietly, his voice barely audible over the blood rushing in his ears. “I'm not...”
The screaming died away into tense silence, heavy with uneven breathing, then a shaky voice whispered, “M-Maddy...?” The voice was thin, disbelieving, edged with hope so desperate it hurt to hear.
Maddy went deathly still, convinced he was hallucinating the voice, his muscles locking as if movement might shatter this impossible moment.
“Maddy...?” More desperate now, his name tumbling out on a broken sob that seemed to echo in the cramped space.
Trembling badly, Maddy reached out with shaky hands, his fingers quivering in the blackness, disbelief cracking his voice. “Savannah...?”
“Maddy!” The girl grabbed him in the darkness and flung her arms around him, breaking into sobs that wracked her entire frame.
She clung to him in a death grip, her nails gouging into his back.
She cried uncontrollably against his shoulder, her tears hot and wet against his skin, as her body shook violently beneath his hands.
Maddy hugged her tightly, his palms flattened against her chilled skin, goosebumps rising beneath his fingertips.
His thumb brushed the elastic of her bra strap, then the thin band of her panties as he gripped her waist, feeling every rib beneath her skin.
God, please… don't let them have hurt her…
He held her closer and pressed his face into her tangled hair, the faint scent of strawberry shampoo nearly gone beneath sweat and fear, and cried with her, hot tears running down his dirt-streaked face.
“You… You're alive…” she whispered through her sobs, voice breaking. “I-I thought…” Her body strained beneath her cries as her broken nails cut into his back, leaving trails of stinging pain he barely registered.
“I'm here,” he whispered thickly and kissed her head, tightening his arms until he could feel her heartbeat hammering against his chest. “I'm right here.” He sniffed, swallowing hard past a lump in his throat that felt like broken glass.
“We're gonna get out of here and go home. I promise.” He hugged her harder, feeling the delicate bones of her shoulder blades beneath his palms. “I promise.”
Savannah sniffed and raised her head, her uneven breath warm and damp on his face in the pitch blackness. “C-Cole is here,” she whispered, lips trembling against his cheek. “And… Gabe. That man… he has them.”
“What?” Maddy frowned, a queasy knot coiling like a snake in his gut. “Cole and Gabe? He took them, too?”
Savannah sniffed again, a sob catching in her throat. “And… And Abel.”
“Abel?”
“He's safe,” Savannah whispered, her words feather-light with relief.
“Cole told me. He's home. He's safe.” She trembled and broke down again, her entire body convulsing with each ragged breath.
“I-I thought he was dead… I thought you were dead.” She shoved her face against his throat, crying, her tears running down his collarbone.
“I thought… I thought I was going to die, too.”
“You're not,” Maddy said with determination, his voice hardening like cement. “I won't let anything happen to you.” His breath quickened as he held her against him, the metallic taste of fear in his mouth dissolving as his full focus wrapped around Savannah—and keeping her safe.
Cole stood motionless, his body like steel, every muscle stretched taut with tension beneath his sweat-soaked shirt.
His grip on the gun remained firm and steady, knuckles white against the black metal, his eyes narrowed into predatory slits, fixed on the rusted door like a sniper on his target.
The feverish warmth of Gabe's ragged breathing warmed Cole's back as he planted himself like a human shield, legs braced shoulder-width apart on the grime-slicked concrete floor, protecting his husband from whatever nightmare might burst through that corroded barrier.
But no one entered. The door stayed shut, its pitted surface mocking them with its stillness.
“What the hell?” Gabe murmured, his voice a sandpaper whisper that scraped against the suffocating silence, perfectly voicing the confusion that churned in Cole's gut.
Cole's stance faltered, his shoulders dropping a fraction of an inch as he cautiously lowered the gun to hip level, maintaining a white-knuckled grip on the weapon, finger hovering near the trigger in case the door suddenly exploded inward.
“I don't know...” When Gabe started to move around him toward the door, Cole's arm shot out, palm pressing against his husband's blood-soaked chest. “Let me.”
He signaled for Gabe to move out of the line of fire with a sharp nod of his chin, then crept forward on the balls of his feet, raising the gun again until the barrel lined up with where an intruder's center mass would appear.
He pressed his ear to the cold metal of the door and listened, holding his breath.
Nothing but dead silence pressed back against his eardrum.
That didn't mean someone wasn't out there in the darkness, waiting for them with predatory patience.
Daniel knew they had his gun. He wouldn’t rush in, knowing he might get shot. But he could unlock the door and take them down when they stepped out. It was probably a trap. Who else would unlock the door?
Despite Cole's objection, Gabe joined him at the door, his labored breathing whistling through clenched teeth, blood seeping through his T-shirt in a crimson Rorschach pattern. Cole straightened, the tendons in his neck straining. “It's got to be a trap.”
“What choice do we have?” Gabe asked with a note of tension. “We have to get out of here and get to the kids.”
Cole agreed but hesitated, his fingers whitening around the gun's grip. “Let me check it out first.”
“Cole…” Gabe's plea hung in the fetid air between them.
“You're hurt,” Cole said, eyes flicking to the dark stain spreading across Gabe's shirt.
“You're not going out there.” He pressed himself against the wall, the cold concrete leaching through his sweat-soaked shirt, and pulled the door open a few inches.
The rusted metal scraped sharply, and Cole winced, sweat beading along his hairline.
He peered around the doorframe into the shadowed corridor beyond—a throat of darkness that could hide anything.
Cole held his breath until his lungs burned, straining to hear past the jackhammer pulse in his ears.
Nothing but the drip of distant water and the hollow moan of air through abandoned passages.
They couldn't wait. Every minute they hesitated was another minute the children spent in the monsters’ grasp.
Cole motioned for Gabe to stay back with a sharp flick of his hand, then eased through the gap in the rusted door, the cold breath of metal brushing against his sweat-slick skin. He moved in a half-crouch, weapon raised in both hands, index finger just outside the trigger guard.
He pivoted left at the whisper of movement—a sound like fabric dragging across wet stone—and leveled the gun at the darkness, squinting until his eyes watered.
Something massive shifted in the inky blackness twenty feet ahead, a deeper shadow within shadow.
Cole's spine locked rigidly, his boots grinding against the grit-covered concrete as he widened his stance.
Sweat trickled between his shoulder blades, cold as ice water.
The thing moved again—an enormous silhouette stretching upward to an almost unbelievable height, its hooded head nearly brushing the low, rusted pipes overhead.
“Come.” A single word, low, rumbling—like thunder rolling through the heavens.
But this thing didn’t look like something from the celestial realm.
As it turned away, Cole caught sight of broad, unnaturally wide shoulders beneath torn fabric, moving with the smooth, predatory grace despite its size.
A piercing high-pitched giggle—eerie and chilling—echoed through the foul air, crawling across Cole's neck like icy spider legs, raising gooseflesh down his arms.
What the fuck was that?
“Cole?” Gabe's voice, barely a breath from the doorway. “What is it?”
I have no fucking idea.
“I'm... not sure,” Cole mumbled, eyes still fixed on the monstrous figure in the shadows… beckoning them to follow. He glanced back at Gabe. “Come on.”
Gabe stepped from the room. It took him a moment to notice the monstrosity in the darkness. He froze. “What…”
“It wants us to follow it,” Cole murmured, keeping a tight grip on the gun.
“Why?”
Cole shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Neither man was quick to move.
“I think…” Cole swallowed. “… if it wanted to kill us… we would probably be dead already.”
Something chittered in the darkness—a clacking sound… like teeth clicking. Ice crystals formed in Cole’s blood. Was it coming from the shadow beast? Something in his gut said it wasn’t.
“What the hell…?” Gabe whispered tightly. “Did you hear that?”
Cole nodded, holding his weapon half-raised. He took a step down the corridor.
Gabe grabbed his arm. “Cole…”
“We have no idea where to start looking,” Cole said quietly. “Maybe…” He glanced down the dark corridor. “Maybe… it will lead us somewhere.”
Gabe eased his grip, and the two men followed the giant at a respectable distance, maintaining enough space between them in the event the thing suddenly turned on them.
Well into the dark void, something thumped —like someone jumping down onto the floor. Cole and Gabe halted, and Cole raised the gun higher, squinting into the darkness. Goosebumps sprinkled his arms, causing the hair to stand on end as something moved through the shadows, teeth clacking.
“What the fuck is that?” Gabe whispered with a notable edge.
Cole shook his head, squeezing the gun's handle, and eyed the darkness.
“Come… come…” something tittered at them. It wasn’t the same rumbling voice as before. “Are you friends of the pretty baby?”
Whatever was speaking to them was close, weaving back and forth in front of them in the dark.
“Pretty baby with the pretty name,” it cooed, falling into a creepy, sing-song tone. “Savanna… Savannah…”
Both men froze. Cole leveled the weapon, heart pounding. “What did you say?” His throat quivered. “Do you… Do you know where she is? Is she hurt?”
The thing tittered again. “Pretty baby is hiding.”
“Where?” Cole insisted tightly. “ Where is she?”
“Come, come.”
Was this… thing … and its monstrous companion leading them to Savannah?
After a few more twists and turns, they entered a corridor with windows.
Dawn was just beginning to light the sky outside, casting a pale glow through the broken windows, allowing the men their first real look at what was leading them through the behemoth structure.
It wasn’t the sight of the giant that caused their steps to falter, but its small, creature-like companion that leered at them with razor-tipped teeth and eyes of madness.
Cole’s grip on the gun tightened as he watched the thing warily. The way it sized them up made his skin crawl—as if it might lunge at them at any moment. A glint of lust mingled with the madness in its green eyes, causing Cole to watch its every move, never taking his eyes off the thing.
He understood it was just a person— a young man in his early twenties—but it wasn't easy to see it as fully human by the way it moved… its teeth… the primal savagery in its eyes. What the fuck happened to him to turn him into… this?