Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
EMERY
Cold.
Dark.
Pain.
Nothing to hold on to. No light to reach for.
Would this awful hell ever end?
I woke to the sound of a scream.
It was a distant echo. A howl more than a scream.
An animal.
Everything else came in a rush. The wet earth under me, water lapping at my legs, the wind on my back.
Fuck, it was cold.
Moving was painful, breathing was painful.
Everything was painful.
Still, I felt more alive than ever, every fiber of my being electrifying, burning like a fire inside me.
Or maybe that was hypothermia setting in.
My body shook with laughter before I groaned in pain.
I was alive. I guess I had Roman Martel to thank for that.
Still, I was dangerously close to losing out on this race with death.
I dug my fingers into the cold ground, my muscles tensing as I tried to move my arms. There was sharp pain in my shoulder, in my back, along the side of one rib, and just above my hip.
I grit my teeth, then froze. Someone was walking around me. Silent as a ghost.
The smiling woman came into view. No, not just her anymore. She had my sister’s face. Only her smile was wrong. Twisted, bloody, carved into her skin, showing mangled teeth.
She crouched beside me, tilting her head.
You did this to yourself. You're such a loser, Emery. You let them kill you. And now I’ll die too. Is that what you want?
She wasn’t my sister. Not anymore. My sister was dead.
Oh, you want me to die, right? All because of her.
Her.
I closed my eyes and a vision so bright, so fucking beautiful, assaulted me.
Eve.
Her hair caught in the breeze, shining in the sun.
I opened my eyes wide, horror hitting me straight to the gut.
Eve.
She was gone.
They took her from me.
Ooooh , cooed my smiling sister. You lost your precious, Evee, so sad. She made a pouty face, pretending to wipe her eye. Then she stood and kicked dirt in my face. You’re pathetic. You couldn’t save me and you couldn’t save her either. Maybe you should just die.
Damn if I didn’t feel a sudden urge to.
I closed my eyes again, and this time, I thought I might have passed out because the visions, the dreams, felt so real.
Eve smiling, Eve laughing. I wasn’t in the dark anymore and she was beside me. She touched my bare face and didn’t shudder. But I saw tears in her eyes.
“Don’t go, Emery,” she said. “We were so close. Don’t go.”
I opened my eyes. My body shook now with rage, the fire burning hotter.
No. Fuck that. I wasn’t dying. Not here.
I had to get Eve.
Somehow.
I tried to move again. I lifted myself an inch, then fell in the mud. I laid there for some time, knowing I needed to try to find the strength to get up.
As I braced myself to make another attempt, an engine roared softly, getting louder. A pair of headlights flashed across the beach where I lay.
A car door shut, then I heard the crunching of footsteps.
“James! Get out here!” shouted a male voice. Another set of footsteps joined.
“Jesus, is he alive?”
“Yeah, I think so. Hurry, let’s get him to the car.”
Hands came around me and attempted to pick me up, dragging me across the ground.
I let them slide me into the back of the truck and put a tarp over me. My mask was gone. But that was fine. This was fine. I just needed to survive.
I saw Eve’s face again, this time screaming at me just above the surface of the water.
She was gone. I’d lost her.
But I would find her again.
And no one would stand in my way.