Chapter 32
Lynx
The air is cold against my skin as Dylan runs around me in circles, giggling, hitting my legs with a stick to try and provoke me into chasing him.
I always bring him here after work. He’s cooped up in the house or at school for hours, but just having him out here by the water, fresh air, a smile on his face, makes the long days worth it.
I’m not working for me. Not really. Every hour I spend at the tracks is more food on the table for my brother.
More time for us at the house before we get put out onto the streets.
He giggles when I try to catch him and runs off down the grass mound, hiding behind the big oak tree. Following him, I ignore the muck covering my uniform and my fallen cap.
“Catch me, Lynx!” he yells, screaming a laugh out as I pretend to nearly grab him and fake a fall to the ground.
After getting to my feet, I brush off my pants and go to run after him again, but my eyes widen, my breath catching, a scream trapped in my throat as Dylan runs in front of a moving Eldrith Company train and—
Gasping for air, I shoot up in my bed, sweat covering my skin like I’ve been trapped in an inferno.
Our shared room is small and dark and damp from the downpour we’ve had for weeks—the windows don’t keep the water out, and the walls are paper thin.
Every week that passes without Dylan getting sick is a miracle.
Mom chokes from my left, a bucket filled with… I sit up and lean over to get a better look. “Is that blood, Mom?”
“Go back to sleep, Lincoln,” she says, trying to bat me away with her arm. “You have work tomorrow.”
I rise from the bed and pull her tangled hair from her face as she vomits up more blood. The strands are starting to mat, but she refuses to let me brush them out or get someone in to help.
Her chin is stained crimson, even after I wipe it with a damp cloth. “You need to see a doctor if you’re getting worse.”
“I’m fine,” she lies. “It’s your brother you should be worrying about.”
I frown. “What do you mean? Dylan is fine.”
My eyes lift at the sound of someone else hacking up blood.
My heart stops when I see Dylan on all fours, vomiting onto the ground, gagging and crying before his voice turns hoarse and deep.
When he raises his head, red, demonic eyes stare back at me before he grits his elongated teeth and runs at me and—
Sable holds my face as my eyes ping open. “You’re okay, you’re okay,” she says repeatedly, brushing her fingers through my soaked hair. “It was just a bad dream.”
Relief pulls at me. My face is in her hands, and she’s littering my forehead, nose, and lips with kisses to calm me down. It works. My heart rate slows, my breathing settling, and my eyes close as she rests her head on my chest and cuddles into me.
“Sorry,” I say, tracing circles on her bare shoulder.
“Dylan again?”
I nod even though she can’t see me. “Always. It’s like he’s haunting me.”
Humming, Sable tilts her head to look up at me. “It’s understandable. You were the reason his life went to shit, after all.”
I frown, my finger freezing on her shoulder. “What did you just say?”
Her brows knit together with confusion. “I said the dreams should calm down soon. We only buried him a week ago.”
Wait. What?
Dylan is dead?
Sitting up, I slide away from under her and get to my feet. “I’m still dreaming,” I say, pacing in front of the bed as Sable sits up, her naked chest on full display. “I’m dreaming. I must be!”
She shakes her head. “Please don’t yell. You’ll wake the kids up.”
My legs stop moving, my eyes flicking to her. “Kids?”
“Are you feeling okay, Lynx?”
There’s a faint cry, a baby’s cry, from down the hallway. I rush out, ignoring Sable telling me not to be too noisy, to stop running, but I’m already following the quiet sobs until I stop at a red door.
Red.
All the doors are dark oak.
Why is this one red?
“Lynx! Help me!” Dylan’s voice travels through the door, filled with desperation. “Lynx!”
My shoulder smashes against the wood repeatedly, but I pay no attention to the pain radiating down my side. One last hit, and the door bursts open. Blood coats the walls, soaks the floor, and Sable stands over my brother’s body with a blade in her hand.
She turns slowly, a grin on her face, growing wider.
“Lynx.”
Her lips aren’t moving, but I can hear a voice.
“Focus on me.”
Lifting my brother’s head by his golden hair, she takes a step toward me, and I fall back, tripping over my own feet as I land on the ground, the ceiling now filled with crawling flames.
A panicked Sable crouches down beside me, no blood in sight. “Hey. Are you okay?” The back of her hand presses to my forehead. “You have a fever again. Can you stand?”
“Get away… from me.”
“No. I’m trying to help you.”
“Lynx.”
“Wake up, Lynx.”
A blade buries itself in my chest, Sable’s face deadly close to my own as she yells my name.
“Lynx!”
Large hands grab at my face, but I can’t see who they belong to through the blood pooling in my eyes. Pain. Fire. Heat. Screams. Torture. Horror. It’s all I can think about as I hear my name being called once more. My head is being shaken intensely.
“I got you,” the voice says. “Breathe, man. Try to follow my voice. Come on.”
Dylan runs at me, his smile wider than normal, his eyes those of a psychopath, and I’m fully prepared to take one last blow and give in. But just as he reaches me, my knees connect with the ground, and my brother vanishes into dust before morphing into Tony.
His eyes are equally as wild, yet filled with worry, his lips moving erratically, but I can’t hear him. He shakes me again, his hands still on the sides of my face.
Too zoned out to tell him someone is behind him, I feel the heaviness of something dropping on my head the same time it happens to Tony—then the flames burn out, the world ceases to exist, and all I see is black.
The shackles cut into my skin, my wrists nearly snapping from how tightly the chains keep me in place.
Blood roars in my ears, and confusion overwhelms me because what the fuck happened? The back of my skull aches from the impact of what hit me, and when I open my eyes, I flinch at the sight of Tony on his knees in front of me.
We’re in the courtyard above the dungeons—a large expanse of ground where we can see the pit of fire, the castle in the flaming sky, and the Walls of Eternity in the distance.
The bodies are moving more aggressively, as if they can sense impending doom.
The smell of burning flesh has my stomach recoiling, and I try not to vomit.
For once, my friend looks uncomfortable, anxious, and as if he’s about to see his end.
But there’s also something else. Acceptance. Relief. His brows rise ever so slightly, as if he can read my mind and see what I can see.
I grind my teeth as I force my voice out. “You knew th-this would h-happen.”
All I get in response is a smirk. He’s sacrificed himself, and for what? Because I wanted to save someone I loved? He’d do this for me?
No one ever sacrifices themselves for me.
“Tony—”
Something wraps around my mouth, muting me, the material so tight against my face, I can feel my skin splitting.
Wincing, I squeeze my eyes shut and try to breathe—this isn’t happening.
None of this is real. Sable was just lying beside me in bed and I’m counting her freckles, playing with the softness of her hair, waiting impatiently for her to wake up and give me attitude.
My gaze falls on the blade inches from Tony’s throat, and I yank at my restraints, my gag muffling my pleading that he be set free.
“Don’t fight against the shackles.”
Looking up, my eyes meet with the one demon I can’t stand. Vadden. He shouldered into me the day I left Hell—and it looks like he’s succeeded in his quest to become Satan’s bitch since then.
He’s holding something sharp. A knife. It glints in the light from the rising flames in the distance, the blade nearly the length of my arm and engraved with a curse far worse than death.
One scrape of that thing and your insides will boil and you’ll cease to exist in any lifetime—trapped within the weapon forever.
I can’t speak. I can’t beg.
“You look afraid for someone other than yourself. Has spending time with the human melted your cold, dead heart?”
Tony doesn’t react as Vadden runs the blade down his cheek. He keeps his eyes on me, but I know he’s afraid. I can see it all over his face. The one weapon that can trap his soul in an eternity of doom is gliding over his skin.
“Tell me, Lincoln. Why are you even here?”
Giving him a reply will only fuel this. So I ignore the fucker and keep my focus on my friend.
He needs to run. He needs to snap this cunt’s neck and get the fuck out of here before—
A cry catches in my throat as Vadden lodges the blade in Tony’s neck. He gasps like an animal, drops to the ground, and doesn’t get back up.
A laugh fills the eerie silence, and I glare up at the piece of shit grinning at me as he yanks out the blade and shoves it back in, again and again, before licking the blood from the metal.
“He always annoyed me. Ready to tell me why you’re here and how the fuck you’re human?”
Eyes glow in the distance where the demon can’t see, then two more sets. Three. Four. Countless forms appear around us, including Nala, who moves to kneel beside Tony’s body.
Tony is gone. Tidus is gone.
My best friend is gone.
Swallowing, I glare at the demon wielding the blade with a grin, wishing he’d just drop dead and I’d wake up from this nightmare. But I can’t and I won’t because this is real.
Tony’s presence, as frustrating as it was sometimes, was what kept me going all the years I was stuck down here.
I yank at the shackles. Human and weak and useless. Even if I did get free, I don’t stand a chance. But neither does Vadden as more and more hounds crowd us, growls filling the air.
His slimy grin drops, and he steps back.