Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Head-splitting howling and whooshing battered Haven as she tried screaming.
Nothing came out.
Pressing her hands to her ears, she blinked, hoping the darkness swirling around her was the result of consuming bad carnival food.
She shouldn’t have had those fucking fish tacos!
The blackness sucking on her moved like a whirlpool in great oceans of night. Turning her head from one side to the other, she tried distinguishing up, down, backward, or forward.
Damn it!
An unknown force was propelling her through the void.
Pulling her legs into her chest, she wrapped her arms around her knees and let her gym bag hang loose from her wrist—the damn thing got sucked into the whirling hellscape with her.
Grunting, she winced. Her eardrums pounded like someone was prodding them with a ten-foot chopstick.
Floating through the abyss, she squeezed her eyes shut against a flood of burning tears, and she shuddered as slimy hands of fear clutched at her heart.
Terror welled, oozing, pushing against her lungs, and she gasped for air.
Fighting against the urge to panic, she threw her head back and breathed deep… in, out, in, out.
Suddenly, the whooshing ceased, and the swirling blackness lightened to a pearlescent purple—still as death, deep, and terrifying.
The force propelling her through the void released her, and with a yelp of surprise, she plummeted, freefalling into cool air, and landing hard.
She laid there--wherever there was--desperate to focus, to make it make sense, to draw in breaths that weren’t tinged with terror and paralyzing confusion.
She was standing in the parking lot, then she was falling…and now she was…where?
And how the hell had she gotten to wherever the hell she was?
What the absolute fuck happened?
Shaking her head slowly, she tried to dislodge the numbness, to dissipate the buzzing between her ears.
She had no idea what the hell happened or what was going to happen, but she knew that lying there wasn’t going to get her answers.
With the wind knocked out of her, finding the strength to rise to her feet was difficult. Under her hands, the ground was moist and grassy.
After a few moments, she could breathe, but nausea slapped her when she inhaled the strong odor of…shit. Holding her hand to her nose and mouth, she stumbled but gained her feet.
Slowly, she lifted her head.
Holy shit.
Definitely not a parking lot in Philly.
Her gaze met a large open area under a sky lit with stars—not a single flicker of unnatural light to dull the view.
She blinked, then blinked again at the sight of wooly figures dotting the vista.
She wasn’t in 4H but she knew a fucking sheep when she saw one.
What the hell?
Despite the stench, the air was crisp and cool.
How in the hell did I get from a parking lot to a pasture?
She stumbled again, still a bit woozy from the descent through the wormhole washing machine, and kicked something at her feet.
She peered down.
Her duffle bag.
Sighing, strangely relieved to find something familiar, she dropped her hand from her face and slowly bent to grab the bag.
Careful to not speak too loudly, she rasped, “I hope to God this is just some dream.”
Deep down, she knew it wasn’t.
This isn’t real. This can't be real. I didn’t just fly through a black hole and land face down in Oz! Oh, God. Please let this all be a dream.
She felt like a ripe tomato someone threw against the side of a brick building. Her knees and hands were sore from the landing, and her head ached from the earsplitting noise.
Before she could gather herself to even think about investigating wherever the hell she’d ended up, a deliberate and rhythmic pounding pierced the silence, quickly approaching.
She glanced over her shoulder and gasped at the sight of a large black form advancing from over the crest of a hill.
It was coming straight at her.
Fast.
Panicking, she turned toward a line of trees and sprinted for cover.
She didn’t dare look as she quickened her steps, her heart beating out of her chest. The pounding intensified, and the ground vibrated with the speed and force of her pursuer.
Once she reached the tree line, she peered back and nearly staggered in shock. The great black beast was on top of her.
“Halt,” a man roared.
She blinked. The great beast was a large man riding a large black horse.
Fuck this shit!
Turning, she ran for deeper cover.
Behind her, the dark man grumbled a curse.
Something heavy and solid crashed against her back. At the mercy of inertia and velocity, she flew forward, hitting her forehead against a rock.
Hard.
As blackness engulfed her, only two words penetrated the encroaching fog.
“Bloody hell.”