ONE
brYNDIS ASHGLO
The Legends of The Forgotten, by Tibor Harper
“He will despise me because of you,” I answer the creature in my mind, and its cruel laugh adds to the chill in my veins.
“Bryn? What’s wrong? What are you looking at?” Declan’s panic seeps into his voice, flaring up once more. But he doesn’t look anywhere but at me, doesn’t see what I see, hear what I hear. The sound of the creature’s echoing laughter drowns out his words, as deafening as wind blowing in my ears.
“Don’t you see, young one? No one can hear me but you.
I’m as much a part of you as the skin covering your flesh.
” Its laughter is vicious. Harsh. It’s the sound that steals me from restful sleep, the voice narrating the dreams that wake me in the depths of the night, drenched in sweat.
I need to find nightshade. It’s the only thing that will keep it at bay.
“One of these days, you will stop running.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “We need to hurry.”
Declan searches the trees, looking for something, someone, but I know he won’t find anything there. Whatever it is, it only wants me. Its voice lives inside me, clawing for a way out.
“What is it, Bryn?”
“Nothing!” I lie. The truth is that the creature is right. I don’t know what Declan will do if I tell him my secret, and I need him too much to find out. My lungs burn, and my legs tremble by the time we reach the top of the long hill where I’ll find what I need.
I’d give him a reassuring smile if my heart wasn’t threatening to stop beating. There, where the massive patch of nightshade stood only a week ago, is now nothing but a pile of wet dirt, wiped clean of everything that keeps the minuscule shards of hope alive within me.