Chapter 34 #3
The chase continues and I feel the heated caress of the void behind me, snaking up my legs. I pick up my pace, taking every last bit of energy with me and willing my muscles to keep fighting.
One more step.
One more breath.
Just around the bend.
The trickling of water alerts me that I am nearly at the antechamber where the forked tunnels were and past that, the steps to freedom. The stairs approach and I begin bounding, taking the steps two at a time.
Just a few more.
Killian steps from nowhere in front of the frame of the entrance, on the other side, in my room, alive. And I realize then that his power, godsdamn apparating, helped him shift to safety.
“NO!” I scream as he latches the door shut. My hands smack onto the wood right before I’m engulfed.
The monster tears into me immediately but not in the way I expected.
I was right about its manifestation. Not solid, but not completely weightless.
This being is dense, dark, evil. The energy within it poisons me and all light blackens.
The void consumes and consumes and consumes.
Pulling my body in every direction and I tumble down the stairs, only landing further into the shifting abyss of its carnage.
My skin lights with the flame of intense pain and my scream is swallowed, rendered useless, the entirety of my body enveloped in the oily substance of which this abomination exists.
Broken and suspended in this shadow, it does not stop.
It tears through me again and again, pulling out every last bit of energy from my body.
My skin is now dried and I yell useless, silent screams yet I push, sliding my body down the last step onto the damp gravel.
The knife I had is missing, but still I push.
Unsure of how much further it will allow me. Unending, unyielding.
Gravel scrapes beneath me as my will stretches beyond survival.
If my life was a deep well, I surely have found the bottom.
The air from my lungs, whatever is left, is sucked dry and I begin to suffocate.
Invisible claws begin to rake down my back, shredding my dress and skin.
Ribbons. I pull myself one more inch, pushing for one more after that.
It’s a foolish thing, to want to continue your existence through such immense pain. To want to exist knowing the odds are against you. And that glimmer of fool’s hope that was expelled these last few inches is now spent.
The claws come back, seizing my body at the same time my hand wraps around the dagger lying at the entry to the tunnel.
My fingers spark around the metal, cess metal, and I swing my arm into the mass, hoping I don’t stab myself in the process. Heat in my hand wraps up my arm as I will any amount of power through the alloy. The beast vibrates and shifts crazily, as if lighting it on fire from the inside out.
No, I am doing just that.
The vice around my torso releases and I draw in a sharp breath of air before stabbing the dense space again. Oddly, I can feel it find purchase and the void begins to shrink in on itself. Slowly the pressure around my hand releases as it wraps around the hand holding the dagger.
“LET. GO!” I scream, yanking my hand from the small black orb before me. Inky, black matter spills from it. I scramble backwards to avoid touching it. The void ripples and recedes in a floating manner back down the tunnel we came through, struggling to stay afloat and groaning the entire time down.
The door at the top of the stairs does not open. Killian believes I am still being finished off.
Wherever Sawyer is, he was involved in this.
Pulling myself to my feet, I slice the bottom of my dress off to a comfortable tea length and trudge down the left tunnel, hand covering my nose to avoid the stench.
This tunnel slopes down before forking again.
Using whatever vampyr sense of smell I have, I sniff the left tunnel and immediately repulse, vomiting against the rock wall.
This is ancient death. Rot.
The right side, I carefully offer my nose to. The stench lingers from the other but this one feels safer. My options are scant so I take off to the right. Gods, I hope this does not connect with the other tunnel. It very well could.
There is no light down here so I take each step slowly, trying to discern any bumps or changes in direction. There must be miles of tunnels under here, maybe all of Krue. What other horrors do they hide?
A soft pin of light appears at the end of a straight section. I pick up my pace, my feet aching from the jutting rocks that cut into my soles. Freedom is close.
Without warning, I drop into a pool of water.
The drain water smells putrid and I swim to the top and begin stroking to the end as the tunnel opening becomes clearer.
Vines hang in front of the exit, hidden naturally by the elements.
Water is something I have yet to master but I imagine, with my normal abilities, I could float myself to the edge.
The ground meets my feet on the slope up and I exit the tunnel, leaving the manor behind.