Chapter 16 Under the Dome Shaped Glass #2
When I got to my room, I took a shower, still reveling in how he’d felt so close to me. Tucked in his arms, I’d gotten the best sleep I’d had in months. When I finished dressing, there was an immediate loud banging on the door.
As alarming as it was, I couldn’t help but notice a small scroll on my nightstand that wasn’t there before. The pounding ensued again.
“I’m coming, stop banging!” I shouted.
Shuffling over to the door, I unlocked it, and it swung open.
Melanie shoved past me, slamming the door behind her, and started pacing in the middle of my dorm.
“What the—”
“Is it true?” she asked, her voice shaking with rage, her violet eyes furious.
“Is what true?” I asked, still rubbing sleep away.
“Do not mess with me, Anna. Did you sleep with Blake?” she snapped.
I stared at her, as if seeing her for the first time.
“Um—”
“I should kill you,” she muttered, pacing again.
“Stop!” I shouted, tired of her cutting me off. “I didn’t sleep with him, I fell asleep beside him,” I said. “It wasn’t like what you’re thinking.”
She stopped, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she watched me with a tortured expression.
“You fell asleep beside him?”
I nodded sheepishly. “Yes, he was helping me with my Celestial Observances assignment and it got late.”
Melanie turned away from me, looking out the window.
I didn't understand her at all. I remembered overhearing her and Blake that night, and if I had to guess what was going on, that meant that the reason they broke up was because of her.
“Why do you care?” I asked quietly.
She said nothing, but I saw the redness.
“I heard what he said to you. If you don’t love him, why do you want him back?” I asked.
She turned, stunned, then did something I wasn’t prepared for. She moved so fast I had no time to block as she slammed me against the wall, both hands tight around my neck.
I struggled to free myself but was trapped. I couldn’t catch my breath. Panic rose within me like a drowning swimmer trying to rise to the surface.
She leaned in, her lips hovering beside my ear.
“Never speak to me like you know me again.”
The air pressure in the room changed. For a moment, everything was still, heavy and wrong. It was only a moment, then, the air itself exploded. I watched in a vacuum of silence as the glass of my mirror and windows shattered. It sprayed pieces of glass everywhere, and Melanie’s hand released me.
She never looked away from me, glaring as I slid down the wall, gasping for air.
Without another word, she vanished.
I sat there, trying to catch my breath, and massaged my neck.
As I waited for my body to work again, I stared ahead of me, seeing the small scroll on my table again. It was right next to the vial Caelan gave me.
Irritated, I got up and stepped over the glass and snatched it from the table.
I unfolded it. There were only three words.
I let go of the slip of parchment, letting it flutter to the floor. Seeing Caelan’s vial, my mind focused on my heartbeat, my breathing, the numbness in my fingers as the cold wind made my candles flicker.
I closed my fingers around the small vial. What did Malakai see when he took it; his life, his past, his justification for his despicable behavior? The chaos in my mind was costing me—I couldn’t let this go on. Not when hidden enemies were leaving threats in my room. I popped the cork.
I needed this to stop.
Tipping the vial back, I drank.
Shadows.
Twisting, strangling, draining, hurting.
I tore my eyelids open.
Bleary dim light made it hard to see.
I was home, in the cabin, and mom was there, too.
“Mom?” I whispered.
I saw her hand, and her long, slender fingers splayed out across the floor. I sat up, crawling over to her.
“Mom,” I said, gently shaking her.
She didn’t move.
Her eyes were open, staring up into the darkness.
A cold breeze howled, and I winced. The window was broken.
A sudden pain blinded me, shooting through my head so much that I cried out in agony. I fell, my hands finding the shattered glass from the window.
I hissed, my hands slipping as I tried to get up.
The shadows.
Fear took me under like a violent wave on dark waters.
I remembered what happened to her. I remembered what I’d let in. I scrambled to get away from her body, my mom’s lifeless eyes frozen in the moment I’d lost control.
The darkness had consumed her.
My darkness.
A flurry of tears wet my cheeks as I tried to get to my feet, but I slipped, my back hitting the floor painfully.
My palm was slick with blood. Finally, I got to my feet and fled into the darkness outside.
The screen door snapped shut behind me as I sprinted across the deck and down the steps.
I took the familiar path into the woods.
There was a campground nearby. Maybe I could find someone there.
A stabbing pain in my chest halted me beneath the thick canopy.
I grabbed my chest, falling to my knees.
Leaves crunched under my knees as they hit the ground.
A howling wind whistled through the branches.
Rain started to fall. I held myself up on my palms, dragging in deep, long breaths, but it didn’t feel like I was getting any air.
The chill that had taken hold of me still lingered, and despite it being a warm summer night, I shivered.
It had been nothing like the cold I felt in the cabin, though.
That cold had gripped me at my core, freezing my thoughts, dreams, and existence.
A stick breaking halted my breath. I slowly leaned back on my feet as a shiver crawled up my spine.
I sensed someone there. Someone close enough that I could feel their presence as certain as you felt the warmth of a fire.
I stood up, searching, but I didn’t see anyone.
I took a step, intending to search for this person, but fatigue struck me hard.
I stumbled. My body felt weighted, as if standing for much longer would take a miracle.
I touched my forehead, trying to quell the dizziness.
It didn’t work.
I stumbled, unable to stay on my feet, but before I hit the ground, strong arms reached around my waist.
My eyelids were slipping, and my vision was fading. I couldn’t keep going anymore.
“Are you okay?”
A distinctly male voice reverberated in my mind.
I leaned against his chest. He held me up as I looked up at the sky. It was raining harder now, the cool sting numbing my cheeks. It felt good. I vaguely noticed my body shift, my feet leaving the ground. He was warm. I leaned closer to that warmth, hiding my face in his shirt.
I closed my eyes, comforted by the repetitive rhythm of his gait.
The last thing I remembered before darkness overtook me was how tightly he’d held onto me.
His arms carried me, one beneath my back and the other under my knees.
He held me close to his body, closer than anyone had ever held me.
The steady rise and fall of his chest soothed me. I hoped he’d never let go.
I’d relived the events of that night many times in my nightmares.
The vial’s contents made it feel like I was there again—the recall was vivid and intense. The memories of the constant interrogations I faced after I’d been found resurfaced.
No one had believed me when I told them what I saw that night. They told me my mind had made it up—a response to the trauma. That I was having hallucinations to help me cope with things I couldn’t process.
But Nightfall wasn’t a hallucination. Cody and Skylar hadn’t been hallucinations. They were real, and my mom was dead.
What if what I saw was real?
What if what I’d felt and what I’d done to my mom was my fault?
What if the shadows were still inside of me?