Chapter 39
K yla found herself lost, trapped in a nightmare happening in her own head. Her surroundings such a pitch black she couldn’t even see her hands in front of her face. The only sound echoing around her being the haunting cackle of the old maid trying to overthrow her.
Fear froze her to the spot, full well knowing that the witch was looking for her, wanting to extinguish her to jet-black oblivion forever.
“I bet your dear old gran never expected this,” she called out, her voice high pitched, full of mocking.
Footsteps echoed around Kyla, bouncing all around, making it impossible to pinpoint exactly where the old hag was. Kyla tried to block out the maid’s taunts of her gran but she was ultimately done for—she had no mental barriers protecting her thoughts anymore—the rotten bitch was a part of her thoughts now.
A sudden ice-cold breeze blew across the back of Kyla’s neck sending a violent shiver down her spine. Dread pooled in her stomach. She knew she’d been found.
“I must say, you really are quite powerful. I never expected this much raw energy to be inside one of you.” A flash of bright blue streaks lit up the darkness like lightning before two frightening eyes stared back into Kyla’s. “I think we’re going to get along just fine. Don’t you?”
“Just kill me already, you old bitch.”
The maid cackled, the chilling sound howling around Kyla in such a way, goosebumps popped up all over her body.
“My dear girl, what would be the point of that? It’s you that has all the power. You’re like the nuclear reactor of a submarine. I’m merely the driver.”
“And what makes you think I’m going to do anything for you?”
“Because if you don’t, I’ll kill all your friends and family, which of course to the outside world is actually you. I don’t need magic for that, my dear. Then, when you’re all sad and alone, rotting in prison, I’ll set up my next body and leave you to a life of loneliness, misery, and guilt.”
“You need help.”
“No, my dear. I think the one in need of help is actually you.”
“Actually,” came a third female voice. “It is you that needs help, Mildred.”
Silence. A long, strained silence filled the empty dark void. Kyla sucked in a sharp breath. She didn’t recognise the new voice at all. However, the underlying threat and promise of danger in her tone of voice could not be mistaken. If it weren’t for the voice being female, Kyla would have sworn the words came from her grandad.
“Impossible!” Mildred hissed.
A flash of blue streaked across Kyla’s vision before darkness plunged around her again.
A girly giggle filled the space around her, the sound not too dissimilar to a young girl being tickled. “You should know more than anyone that nothing is impossible.”
“I watched you die,” Mildred yelled, her voice wavering with anxiety. “I saw your throat slit open like the Grand Canyon.”
“Ah,” came the reply. “But what is life if not but a state of mind? A mere perception of being?”
A sharp gasp sounded from behind Kyla. “No,” whispered Mildred. “No...”
Kyla watched, her eyes widening, as a dot of white light appeared in front of her. Like a zip being opened, the dot then widened into a huge horizontal line, bright light streaming through like someone had just allowed the sun to shine.
Consumed only by fear and a dire need to escape, Kyla ran towards it, desperate for freedom. After all, light meant good things, right?
As she took off, a hand clamped down around her forearm, holding her back, keeping her pinned to the spot with that one touch.
“This is not for you,” the voice said. “You will stay.”
Kyla stood, rooted to the floor, watching in nothing but utter fascination as through the light came a long purple cloth. Its fibres reached down towards her, teasing her to take a hold and follow it back up, like a rope of life from the lifeguard when lost at sea.
Just as she debated lunging for the cloth, Mildred screamed, a deep guttural scream that pierced Kyla’s ears and curdled her blood. Cringing, Kyla covered her ears, not able to listen to that animalistic noise.
Strange Latin words started filtering in, reverberating all around her. With each word spoken, Mildred found herself dragged closer and closer to the purple tendrils dangling from the light. The instant Mildred involuntarily touched the cloth, she was whipped back to the light.
The instant she disappeared, the light vanished, but her screams still resonated around Kyla. Wondering what would happen to her next, in the darkness, Kyla held her hands out in front of her, hoping to find the source of the strange voice, wanting something, someone, to hold on to, to make sense of this reality, to ground her, to bring her back.
Inch by inch, the darkness began to fade, light slowly creeping in from her peripheral vision. She then realised she was growing again, filling out her own body. Mildred was gone, Kyla was back. Tears swam over her vision.
As the last of the shadows faded, the tingling of her limbs alerting her to an outside presence, she frantically looked around for the owner of the mystery voice, wanting to thank her, needing a face to remember as she found herself grateful for her life.
“Wait!” Kyla yelled. “Who are you? I need to thank you.”
No words came but instead a picture filled Kyla’s mind’s eye.
A picture of the ring she’d received on her seventeenth birthday.