AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Relentless.
It’s so strong that I don’t know how she’s withstanding it. I stumble toward her against my will and she stops me with a hand on my chest.
“What room?” she says again.
Her voice sounds too real, and she’s too solid for this to be a dream. Is this fucking real? Invisible power radiates off her.
It’s like…
Like a laugh in the dark. Like razor-sharp nails. Like a nightmare.
Ice washes down through my veins. Somewhere behind me, there should be a bedroom door, and in that bedroom is my mother, dead.
“Didn’t you see it?” I ask her. “Behind me. The door.”
Daisy tilts her head. “There’s no door.”
She winces, and the pull gets stronger. It sets my teeth on edge. It makes my muscles want to fight and never stop fighting.
“What’s wrong? What’s hurting you?”
Her face calms, her eyes going huge and innocent. “Nothing hurts here.”
I’m not doing my job. I haven’t checked for security flaws. I haven’t checked for anything.
I tear my eyes from Daisy.
That’s when I see the gates.
They’re fucking massive, and as soon as I’m aware of them, the pull turns painful. The gates are huge.Gates.I can only see one, but I know there’s more. I don’t know how I know, only that I do. Heavy black stones outline darkness. Nothing but darkness. It’s pitch-dark, like Daisy’s bedroom.
And then it’s not.
Then I can see the apartment, and the broken door, and my mother’s staring, lifeless body. My shoulder shatters again. Shatters and shatters and shatters. There’s nothing left to break, but it doesn’t stop.
Daisy frowns up at me. “Hercules?”
I can’t speak.
“What are you looking at?”
Don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t.
I can’t stop her. Daisy turns, her hand dropping away from my chest, and I can’t lift either hand to stop her. Pain radiates down to my wrist, and my fingertips, and my toes. It hurts more than hitting the ground ever did, and that’s not right. This isn’t real. It’s not real.
It feels real.
Daisy looks at the gates.
There’s a moment of terrible, pressurized silence.
“Daisy.” My mouth doesn’t work, but Imakeit work, because fuck this. “Daisy, close your eyes.”
She screams.
It’s the most worst sound I’ve ever heard, and it vibrates into all the stone. It shudders around her.
We’re closer to the gates.
