The Demon's Grave (12 page)

She turned back to us and attempted a confident smile, “The Challenge.” Before anyone could protest she bent at the waist and launched herself into that darkness. It swallowed her whole, leaving no trace. I couldn’t even hear the sound of her footsteps.

Robin gasped so sharp and hard it could have been mistaken for a shriek.

“Where’d she go?” I demanded. “Why’d she do that?”

Read took two rigid steps forward. “We can’t just let her go in there alone.”

“Yes we can,” Robin squeaked.

“The demon said we’d starve waiting here,” Read flung his arms up. “If these Challenges are based on our nightmares, do you really want to go in there weak and starving?”

Flinching, Robin pressed herself harder into Cody. If she wasn’t already crying, she would have started.

“Ease off her,” Cody’s low voice held no room for an argument.

Looking up at Cody, Read shrugged. “What do you want me to say? You want to leave Phoebe out there?”

“What if we get separated?” I asked.

“We already are,” Aidan said.

No one could argue with that.

Read started toward the doorway again and glanced over his shoulder at us, fear glistening in his eyes. “For the record, I think we should have stayed here.”

“I can’t believe that we’re doing this,” Aidan mumbled to me.

Shivering against the warm breath at my neck I held out my hand to him. “Come on, Aidan. It’ll be over soon when they give me drugs.”

He stared as if I’d offered a hand grenade. After a hesitant pause he took the two steps toward me and took it. Again, no charge coursed through us. In fact, the hum that I often felt whenever he approached wasn’t there either.

“What do you mean, ‘give you drugs’?” Aidan asked in a low voice.

Poor Aidan, he was hoping for a great weekend party, one that we would all enjoy, but it turned around and blew up in his face. Well, rather,
I
blew up the party. That’s me: tick, tick, tick…‌

Robin was peering up at Cody. Her fingers had knotted themselves in his shirt. “Go?”

Lost for words, Cody returned her gaze, helpless to answer.

Read came around us and took my other hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

I squeezed back, feeling how sweaty both of our palms were, while Aidan’s fingers were ice on my other hand.

“You guys coming?” I asked Cody.

Cody jumped when he realized I was staring at him . Beads of sweat frosted his forehead. “If I stay here do you think something will happen?”

“Yes,” I answered as honestly as I could. “And I don’t think it would be good. The Challenge might be my only way out of this mess.”

“
Our
only way out of this mess,” Aidan corrected, eyeing me incredulously.

“And Phoebe’s in there,” I added.

“We can’t just leave her there,” Read said.

Robin whimpered and peeked at the door through splayed fingers. “Let’s just stay. Maybe he can’t force us in. He could have been lying. Anyone consider that?”

Cody patted the bricks where the door leading downstairs used to be. “They’re right, we have to go. We’ll just be trapped here instead.”

Courage, remember these people need a leader
, I thought, though it felt foreign. Phoebe shouldn’t have gone so quickly, she was the brave one.

I nodded to Read. “Robin, take Cody’s hand and Read’s. We’ll all go together.” At least I wasn’t doing this alone.

Robin reluctantly peeled off Cody’s chest, gripping his hand already. Taking small, uncertain steps, she drew closer, assessing the dark doorway.

With a deep breath she looked to the three of us and slapped her free hand into Read’s as if it was a last minute decision.

“He said
if
we could beat him.” She said, her voice cracking in experimental optimism.

Smiling as best as I could, I felt Aidan tug to lead the way. I realized how grateful I was that I didn’t have to head into the dark first.

Aidan glanced back as he reached the door. “Duck.”

I gripped Read’s hand tighter as Aidan slowly melted into the darkness. The colors in his face and half mingled with the inky black before fading into it, almost looking as if he were being pulled apart, like the shadow-man had done.

Hunching over to fit through the door I hesitated, my face inches from the black pool.

Aidan’s hand pulled on mine and I let it inch into the dark.

It was chilled, but not cold. The air felt thick, like walking into a mist except it wasn’t damp. Taking a deep breath I inched forward and felt Read squeeze my hand again.

“You’re doing great,” he said, pressing close from behind. He was warm against my hip and shoulder but so close I didn’t dare look back.

Be brave
, I thought,
like Phoebe
.

One cautious step was all it’d take and I closed my eyes to do it.

Pins and needles prickled every pore.

Overwhelmed, my eyes snapped open and I found myself staring into darkness.

Wiggling my fingers to adjust my grip on the hands, I realized I couldn’t feel them. I tried to turn my head, when the sensation of weightlessness hit me like a baseball bat. I couldn’t feel the floor beneath my feet. It was like I was floating.

Parting my lips I realized they felt fat and fragile, as if too much movement may cause them to explode. No sound escaped as I tried to form Read’s name. Something had stolen my voice again.

I had been so relieved before we stepped through that doorway that I wouldn’t be alone and here I was, alone.

The panic didn’t have enough time to take root when a pale light flashed in the distance.
Am I dead?
I wondered. Wasn’t this what people saw before they died? The white light at the end of the tunnel? This wasn’t much of a tunnel, just an endless stretch of darkness, but the light was at least a destination.

Somehow I was gravitating to the glimmer.

As I drew closer I could make out a room within the light. Grey walls, green floors and people were beginning to form through the warbled film-coated entrance.

I recognized two people. Phoebe was awkwardly holding Robin, who was crying. How had she gotten there before me? I wondered. I couldn’t see Aidan, Cody or Read in the room yet.

I drifted into the light, my limbs were still numbed when I reached it.

Pitching forward onto a green carpet, I felt myself jolted into reality. My cheek pressed to the carpet and I took several panicked breaths before I could compose myself.

I shifted my arms and could feel the warmth of my skin. The prickling sensation subsided, allowing me to sit up without grimacing. Read and Aidan had been behind me, I wasn’t sure if they followed me through or had been there the whole time.

Read stood up in alarm, wiping sweaty palms on his jeans.

Aidan sat closest to me. “Is everyone okay?” He asked, his voice gruff as if he were fighting a cold.

There was a muttered reply amongst us few, each struggling to clear the cobwebs.

I stood up and Aidan followed, standing very close to me as we both inspected the cramped little room. There was a horrible, dirty, thin, green carpet at our feet. I wiped my face as I could still feel it there. The four walls held no entrance or exit, trapping us within. I turned to see if the portal to the room was still there, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Aidan leaned closer to me and whispered. “Where’s Cody?”

I hadn’t realized he wasn’t in the room with us.

“What happened?” Read asked.

Robin tilted her head up. Her face had lined itself with blackened tears from her mascara. “Cody, never came through. It’s all my fault!” Sobbing between each word she managed, “I didn’t believe him when he said he got that message.”

“Robin?” Read took a cautious step forward.

Phoebe’s arms dropped, her compassionate expression hardening. “What message?” Her eyes rolled up to find me.

Shrugging, I held up my hands as if to say, “
How should I know?
”

Wiping her nose with the back of her hand, Robin edged away from the cold voice. “Cody told me about a message that he got last night,” she said stiffly. “It was the same one that was on the wall. I thought it was a prank.”

“Which one?” Phoebe growled. There were two black stains on her sweater where Robin had leaned.

Still refusing to look over at her, Robin replied, “The torture one.”

Railing torment lies within.

Aidan cursed under his breath.

Robin seemed to remember her makeup and wiped at her face.

“Who else got a message?” Aidan demanded.

I crossed my arms over my chest and stepped away from him. Phoebe’s pointed stare targeted me, and everyone’s attention shifted.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Robin’s voice hit a shriek that made me wince.

“Why didn’t you?” I shot back, “or Cody for that matter?” The moment I snapped I realized I shouldn’t have. Robin’s wounded expression had me refocusing my attack. Taking a deep breath through my nose I tried to catch the reins of my emotions. I felt a weight in the pit of my stomach. It twisted like a boulder suspended by a string, ready to drop.

“I had my reasons,” I said at last. “It’s not like this is real anyway. Right, Phoebe? Remember when I told you?”

“You both knew?” Robin squealed.

Phoebe’s eyebrows pinched. “
You
knew about Cody’s message,” she accused.

Read was shaking his head, ignoring the girls’ back and forth. To me he said firmly, “This is all real, Nora.”

His grey eyes were the most intense I’d ever seen them. He was staring at me as if I might shatter and he could keep that from happening. No wonder the girls crawled over each other to get him.

“This isn’t happening,” I said to him. “Right now, in the real world, I’m having a nervous breakdown and you are all probably worried half to death.”

Phoebe and Robin were still toe to toe, screaming at each other. “It’s your fault!” Phoebe jabbed a finger at Robin. “If you didn’t tell him what to do all the time, he might have said something to one of us.”

Robin recoiled. “I don’t tell him what to do all the time and you didn’t say anything either.” Then she struck like a snake and shoved at Phoebe to push her back. Taken off guard, Phoebe stumbled.

Read grabbed my shoulders, snapping my attention back to him. Frustration lined his handsome face. “Nora, this
is
happening.”

I jolted and saw Aidan jump past us and between Phoebe and Robin. “Don’t do this now. She didn’t know.”

Read shook my shoulders for my attention. “We’re stuck in some grave thing with a fucking demon.”

I tried to wriggle free as his fingers dug into my shoulder. “Read, stop it.” I spoke, but couldn’t hear myself over the fight. Read’s fingertips pressed against bone and I bit back the panic. Do I yell at him? I had never seen him like this before.

Read’s wild eyes focused when Aidan grabbed his wrist.

“She didn’t know either,” Aidan jerked on the arm holding me.

At first I didn’t think Read would let go, until something in his hardened expression cracked. He flung his arms away, the finger impressions leaving a bruise-like throbbing. Backing away from me, he shouted. “If you’re going crazy, maybe I am too.” Snapping his head toward Phoebe and Robin he shouted, “
Will you two shut the fuck up?
”

The jarring sound silenced everyone. Read often spoke in smooth, even tones, never this.

Phoebe stalked away from Robin in the bitter silence, arms crossed and back rigid. Robin’s fists were white knuckled and she looked ready to sputter an insult, but trembled instead. The room thrummed with emotions and was too small to get away from them.

“The messages,” Aidan held up his hands in a truce for everyone to see. “They must be connected somehow.”

“You’re right.” The foreign voice penetrated the room.

We all twisted in the same instant. He was standing in the middle of the room, amid us all.

“The messages are connected.” Damien’s smirk was both seductive and sardonic.

Robin voice cracked in its shrillness, interrupting my confusion.

“
Where is he
? Where is he you, bastard?”

The sudden outburst startled us all.

I jumped, bumping into Aidan just as Phoebe caught Robin from behind.

Wrapping an arm around Robin’s narrow waist, Phoebe pulled back before she could barrel into the demon at our center.

Robin is normally a pretty and primped girl, but with streaking make-up and the hostile twist of her full mouth she was a frightening sight. Baring her teeth at Damien she began to wiggle and twist, her sundress riding up to dangerous heights.

Phoebe tried to hold her tighter and Robin fought harder. I knew I should help her, but I couldn’t move. Not because I couldn’t, but because I was scared.

Damien stared at Robin stone-faced.

She didn’t crumble under the gaze as I would have. “Cody! I’m talking about,
Cody
, you idiot,” she screamed, mistaking his blank stare for ignorance. She burst free of Phoebe’s weakened grip and raced at him. Petite, frail Robin was diving at someone twice her size with a blind determination. Phoebe stumbled, swinging her arms only once. She didn’t follow too closely before slinking back to her corner.

Damien deftly caught both of Robin’s wrists in one hand.

Crying out, Robin twisted like a wild animal, kicking and shrieking.

It was Aidan who stepped forward first, grabbing Robin around the waist to pull her away.

Damien tilted his head to the side studying the tiny girl for a moment. He spoke calmly, though somehow his voice echoed inside my skull over Robin’s booming words. “Don’t attack me again.” I’m not sure what he did to make her drop to her knees, but Robin’s bare, shaking legs buckled, almost dragging Aidan down with her.

Releasing her, he took a step back as Phoebe helped Robin to her feet and back against the wall, the farthest they could get away from the demon.

Chewing on my lower lip I felt helplessness threatening to creep in. How the hell were we supposed to win a game against a demon? The messages. It all had to do with the messages, like Aidan had said. They held a key to our escape, they had to. “I want a piece of paper and a pen.”