Beautiful Souls (41 page)

    
              Enormous waves formed behind us and wiped away half of the water park’s patrons from view, scattering them in every direction before washing them out of sight. It seemed as if a low-grade tsunami had just reeked havoc on this little river.

    
              Another wave crashed down and threatened to tear Leo and I away from our shared inner tube and each other.

    
              “What’s happening?” I screamed, as another giant wave swelled behind us and crashed down directly on top of us this time, white foam spraying outward and ripping the inner tube from my grip.

    
              Leo let go of the tube and set it free into a water-land of white-caps and froth. He used both hands and all of his strength to fight back against the suction of the undercurrent which had formed in the belly of the river caused by the intense force of multiple crashing waves, but he was only able to catch hold of my wrist.

    
              Leo’s eyes were wild as I swam toward him against the rippling current, but it was too much fury to fight against in the end. One more massive wave sank into our bodies and broke away the only tie that still held us together.

    
              I watched momentarily in terror, as if time had slowed, as Leo was washed out of the angry roaring river into the trees. His body was shoved flat against a tree trunk and held there by the sheer force of the moving current. I saw his mouth move, forming words that I could not hear over the roar of the uncontrollable water.

    
              Without anything else to hold on to, I sailed downstream, fighting and slapping my arms to protest my decent. One last magnificent wave was the last thing my eyes beheld before I was shoved deeply underwater and everything went dark.

I woke in a dark room. My head throbbed and hung lazily with my chin pressed against my chest. I noticed first the hum of machinery, or working gears, or something similar which pounded out a hypnotic, droning reverberation. A bead of sweat dripped into my eye. My entire body was drenched in layers of sweat from the muggy overheated room, completely bathed in darkness.

                   I attempted to wipe the stinging drop of salty sweat from my eye, but my hand wouldn’t budge. I tried to move my other hand, and it was stuck as well. I peeled my eyes slightly open into slits. They felt as if they’d been glued shut.

    
              I took in my surroundings: the slate-colored, concrete floor stained by blotchy, rust-tinted areas that gave me the sickening impression of blood, hard block walls lined with mildewed boxes and moisture pooling around their bases, no windows existed, one door across the room, metal compartments as big around as coffee tables dotted the expansive room --- generators, perhaps the makers of the humming noise now living inside my throbbing head --- and a single light bulb, which hung bare from its frayed electrical cord, dimly illuminated the center of the room. The light cast an eerie, yellow glow and bounced shadows into each blackened corner of the room, dripping a drop of built-up condensation every couple of seconds.

    
              I was in some type of basement.

    
              I dropped my head lower and made out the dirty chains that shackled my ankles to a rickety wooden seat. I felt the same cold bite of metal at my wrists from what must be identical holds, confirming my worst fears.

    
              I tried to form words but my throat was too dry to construct any sound. I cleared my throat. How long had I been here like this? My memories began to flood back as my mind grew more and more conscious of what I had just endured: my necklace, the hooded figure, the certainly hexed river, the low-grade tsunami --- and oh God, where was Leo?

    
              My last memory of Leo was of him being washed out of the river into the trees. Where was he now? Had he gotten away or was he being held captive like me? Was he still alive? I felt the tears swell up behind my eyes and a lump form in my throat. I swallowed it down. I wiped the last thought from my mind, refusing to entertain such nonsense.

    
              First thing’s first, I had to find a way to escape my confines. The humidity in the room had caused me to sweat completely through the fabric of my bikini top and jean shorts, or so I’d thought. Depending on how long I’d been held captive, there was the possibility that I may still be damp from the river; but regardless, I was still drenched and I thought that I may be able to use that to my own advantage. I attempted to let my moist, slick skin slide through the chain’s impossibly tight grip, but to no avail.

    
              I was out of breath and needed to salvage the remainder of energy that I had left. I had to get out of here. I paused to think. I closed my eyes and allowed my head to hang as my body sank into deep concentration.

    
              I thought that just maybe, since I possessed the power to shield, then maybe I could reverse that power and have the opposite effect. I squinted my eyes and held my breath in total concentration, hopeful that any second the chain links would be blown to pieces and I’d hear the scattering clatter of metal hitting concrete, but that moment never came. Instead, I heard the unmistakable sound of metal being manipulated and mangled.

    
              My eyes flew open just in time to watch the metal door on the opposite side of the room break free from its hinges and soar through the air.

    
              I scrambled within my confines to break loose, but the chains still wouldn’t budge. Panic hit me like a brick wall and somehow, someway caused my mind to clear. My mind was now a perfectly organized array of activity. I knew what I had to do in order to set myself free.

    
              I felt myself transform. The change was initiated by my clarity of thought, coupled with my anger over being held captive and my fear about the unknown of what had happened to Leo.

    
              I mumbled under my breath the spell Leo had taught me --- after our little incident of nudity in the woods --- to maintain my clothing when going back to human form after shifting. I ignored my surroundings against every instinct prickling inside me to look at what had just blasted through the rusted metal door, and instead cast my spell.

    
              My back hunched, my body shook violently, then my cat-like legs and paws easily slipped out from my rusted metal confines. I still fought the urge to look back toward the doorway, abandoned the knowledge that someone or something was only a few yards behind me, and focused myself in order to search for a way out of this underground room.

    
              My instincts and sight were heightened in panther form. My cat eyes caught hold of shapes and light more easily, while the wild survival instincts of a predator told me how and when to best react to my threatening environment.

    
              The yellow-gold, slit eyes of the panther that I now was spied a sliver of filtered light shining through an area in the wall hidden behind a pile of soggy, mildewed boxes. I could’ve never seen the subtle difference of muted light against the shadowed corner using merely my human eyes.

    
              I ran for it on all fours, feeling a nip at my heels as I bolted toward the sliver of light. The stacked boxes along the wall crashed to the floor as I pawed through them, not hesitating for even a second. The scattered innards and displaced crates played interference with my pursuer, giving me an edge and a seconds head start toward my escape into the light.

    
              I still couldn’t bring myself to look back. The sliver of muted light drew nearer and I realized, with a sinking of my heart in a moment of dread, that what I’d thought might have been a hidden doorway, potentially capable of leading me to my escape, was only a large vent in the lower half of the wall which had filtered in a tiny ray of muted light from the next room. There was no possible way I could have gotten through the vent in my current shift form. I needed my human fingers and dexterous thumbs to pry the vent cover loose from the wall.

    
              I finally chanced a quick look back as I shifted back. Something dark was fighting its way out from under the pile of rubble and crates. I formed a white-hot fireball in the palm of my hand and released it onto the rubble and dark mass. Sparks flew as it made contact with something that I couldn’t see, and I heard a low growling howl, sounding entirely inhuman.

    
              The noise terrified me, instantly raising the hairs on the back of my neck. I was scared in to hyper-drive and fought with the slick, metal vent covering, trying to break it free from the wall. I felt the grate loosen as the screws holding it in place were stripped from their holes.                    Another hard, clawing tug on the edge of the vent cover with my scraped and bleeding fingers had freed the top half of the cover. I kicked the hinged grate with all my might, releasing the final two screws and sending the vent cover flying across the pile of rubble. It landed with a loud clank of metal on concrete as I dove through the opening in the wall.

    
              A hand grabbed my ankle, and it’s pull caused my body to slam against the ground, my cheek hitting the cold concrete floor on the other side of the wall.

    
              I looked back through the vent hole and couldn’t make out the dark figure; I  only saw black standing in black shadows inside a black room.

    
              I scrambled on the floor, the hand still holding onto my ankle. I kicked and squirmed, anything to make my pursuer loose his grip, and that’s when I heard it.

    
              “Lydia, stop,” he said. The voice was so familiar.

    
              I hesitated.

    
              “Lydia,
please
stop. It’s me.”

    
              A flash of recognition shot through my mind. “Lucus?” I don’t know what made me say that name. I didn’t even know anyone with that name.

    
              “Yes, darling, it’s me. Take my hand and we’ll go home now. I’m going to get you out of here.”

    
              I didn’t know why, but I trusted his voice; it was hypnotic, soothing, and familiar.

    
              “Who are you?” I spoke quietly.

    
              He stepped into view, releasing his hold on my ankle.

    
              I gasped. “Luke?”

    
              “Yes. Come on, let’s go home.”

    
              I took his hand.

Acknowledgements

                   I would like to thank my sister-in-law, Onita, for her encouragement and time spent reading over drafts of Beautiful Souls. You are always kind, encouraging, and know the right things to say. Truly, without your love of reading and books, Beautiful Souls would have never been written. Thank you, thank you, thank you…I can’t say the words enough times.

    
              To my kiddos, Becca, Emmy, and Carter, not only for lending your names, but for the time and patience you have all three allowed me to spend writing in my imaginary world. I love you all more than words can ever describe.

    
              To my husband, Steve, for never asking me what I was up to while I spent months on end writing in notebooks and typing God-knows-what on the computer. You know me so well. So well, that you knew asking me about my writing would have embarrassed me enough that I never would have finished Beautiful Souls. Thank you for all that you are and all that you do. I love you, always and forever.

    
              To my Betareaders, Laurie Witham, Melissa Edwards, and Onita Mullanix, for all your feedback and constructive criticisms. Your help has made Beautiful Souls a better story, and your encouragement has made me continue what I love to do.

  
 
              Thank you all who have bought and read Beautiful Souls. Your positivity and encouragement brightens my days. Your passion for Becca and Leo’s story drives me forward and is the reason there will be a Beautiful Souls #2. Thank you so all much!