A cold chill courses down my spine and I wish I were anywhere but here. There is no escape from the darkness; even if I run, his voice is surrounding me, taunting me.
“You’re no friend of mine,” I call back. My voice echoes around me before silence falls again. When nothing else replies I keep moving. It’s something to do, standing idle feels wrong.
A tug in my gut pulls me from the darkness so abruptly I nearly scream. But for some reason my mouth doesn’t open. My senses come back a bit sharper than they ever were in life. There’s a scent of leather and sage in the air that soothes me for some strange reason. The most exciting part is that I can see light behind my eyelids. That moment of hope is torn away as I try to open them, only to find it’s impossible. My body that had functioned just fine when I was walking through the in between, now is filled with lead. Panic seizes my chest as I attempt to lift my legs, arms… anything. But I’m frozen in place, my mind the only thing working properly.
Am I in a coma? Is this Hell?
That thought strikes a chill through me so deep my body convulses, but it’s purely involuntary. Surely I wasn’t so bad in life that I deserve to go to Hell. Wait… why can’t I remember my life? There’s a strange half memory, a flash of a face then it’s gone. As if I’m being taunted by wisps of memories I’ll never get back.
My senses return slowly until I can make out several distinct voices and the feel of a hand on my wrist as if they are checking a pulse. Again I try to move, to open my eyes and see who’s here, but I still can’t.
“How long is she going to be out?” a honeyed voice demands, a slight impatience to his tone as if I’m simply being difficult, not fighting for my life. Indignation begins to rise in me at his frustration, but his voice has the breath catching in my lungs. He somehow seems familiar and something tightens in my chest at the sound.
“As long as it takes,” another voice chimes in. He sounds exasperated and I have a feeling the first man’s impatience is normal for him. That tightness deepens until it feels like I’m stuck in a vice.
“Do we try and wake her? It’s been so long since we’ve had someone join us,” the first voice asks in a slight whine. Yet, he also sounds almost excited now.
Wait. Join them for what?
As they talk back and forth like I can’t hear, my memory decides it’s ready to return. Brad’s face fills my mind and the last moments of my life are jerked to the forefront of my thoughts.
Wait, he isn’t Brad. Where am I? There’s no way I survived that… but what is this place? There is a distinct lack of bleach in the air, no sounds of a busy hospital. A heart monitor at the very least should be beeping steadily. Yet all I can smell is sage and leather.
“Let her wake on her own, she needs time.” A rumbling voice commands. I try to scream to tell him Iamawake, but I can’t open my mouth any more than I could open my eyes. Nothing is working and every second I’m stuck in this fucking prison has panic clawing at my throat.
Why can’t I control my body?
“She’s healing already, that’s a good sign.” The second voice speaks up again, startling me. They’d fallen so silent that I’d already lost myself again in my thoughts. This voice is smooth and sultry. I never knew a voice could sound so sexy, yet his dulcet notes prove they can.
“Her rune marking is interesting.” The third voice comments. His voice has a lighter tone than the others, though hardly high pitched. It is such a nice sound that I find myself wondering if he can sing. My thoughts bounce back and forth between incoherent and intelligent, making me feel even more unsettled.Wait! Runes?!Images of witches and tarot cards run through my head.What the fuck is happening? Who are these people?
I snap myself out of my weird musings. The need to wake up and get away from these psychos is near overwhelming. Though, I have no clue how I’m even alive, that bullet struck me. I’m also not in any pain, which worries me.Am I going to be a quadriplegic?Will I even be able to run away when I eventually do wake up?
“She’s the first in over a hundred years; we have to be careful with her. I don’t want her waking up alone,” The low voice commands again, sounding oddly protective. I have a feeling he’s their leader.It’s a cult, isn’t it? My fucking luck, I take a bullet and get saved by a damn cult full of sexy voiced men!
“I’ll stay with her until Ari gets here. I can’t seem to leave her side yet.” The melodic voice answers with a bit of reverence this time.
Wanting to put a face to the voice, I try again to open my eyes andsee who’s speaking, but every time I try, my strength drains. The constant drain of energy leaves me even more helpless than before.I need to find out how it’s possible that I’m still alive. Surely I can fight off one man and get away, right? If I’m going to do anything, I need to wake up. It’s now or never!
Of course, the harder I try, the more exhaustion threatens to pull me under. Eventually, my mind starts to get fuzzy and I can’t focus on the conversation around me. Moments later, I’m swallowed up into the darkness once more.
This time I’m not simply alone in the silent darkness. Eerie whispers surround me, swirling around in the air and making it impossible to pinpoint. It sounds like several voices overlapping, piling on one another until it’s a dull roar.
The place I’m in is still devoid of any real light, but this time a soft fog covers the ground, rolling out in the distance. It seems to never end and I wonder if this is the only way I’ll truly be able to move now.
If that’s not Hell I don’t know what is.
A light forms around me, softy at first then growing rapidly until I have to blink my eyes several times until I can adjust. It takes a few beats to realize it’s coming from me.
What the heck?
My heart is racing so fast that my pulse pounds inside my skull like it’s trying to escape.Despite the anxiety, it’s reassuring to feel my body breathing, blood pumping through me, it means I’m not dead.
Then what am I?
There’s no one here to answer my questions but for some reason I just know I have to fight my way out of this place, not just be pulled from it. My mind and body aren’t connected and until then I’ll be stuck in this in between.
That thought gives me hope, a purpose. Now if I can find a way out of this darkness I can wake up and save myself. No matter how sexy a man’s voice is, or three of them, I won’t be taken into some cult or whatever the hell was going on in that room.