Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
The lighter flicks on again, only this time, Declan’s the one holding it. “Listen, Quaid. While I do appreciate your help back there in the cell, this is none of your business. You’re the one who needs to back off. This is between me and Aric.”
“Fuck that,” Quaid says, still backing up. “I’m not leaving her with you freaks.”
“Bru,” I say. Remaining remarkably calm. But that’s only because he’s Mr. Nobody. He’s got no chance of claiming Star, so I’m not even worried about it. I cursed her first. Declan’s kiss doesn’t count. She’s mine and that’s the end of it. “Just let her go and then you can be on your way and we’ll take it from here.”
“The hell you will,” Quaid snaps. He’s still backing up. And then, right before our eyes, they both just… vanish.
Like into thin air.
7 - DECLAN
Iblink my eyes. Then blink them again. “Where the hell did they go?” I spin in place, holding the lighter up, looking all around. But all I see is a gray wall of smooth stone. “Aric!” I yell.
“I’m right here, bru. You don’t need to scream like a little bitch.”
I whirl around and find him on the ground, holding his head.
“Why are you just sitting there on the ground like a lazy fuck? They just disappeared!”
He gets to his feet. “No shit. I was here, remember?”
“Why were you on the ground?”
“Something…” He sighs. Then takes a breath. “Something… knocked me over.”
“What do you mean, something? What are you talking about?”
“I…” He looks around, his eyes all narrowed in suspicion. “I don’t know.”
“Was it Quaid?”
Aric looks in the direction where Quaid was, then shakes his head. “No. It wasn’t Quaid. I saw them disappear, then everything went dark—”
“Yeah, the lighter was burning my thumb.”
“Well, when everything went dark something… hit me.” He looks at me now. And this look is, well, it’s not fear. Not exactly. But it’s definitely concern. “It hit me hard, too.” He puts a flat hand on the middle of his chest. “Right here. Knocked the fuckin’ wind out of me.”
“What are you talking about? What kind of something?”
He looks around again. “I’m not sure.” And now he’s whispering.
Which, not gonna lie, concerns me. So I hold the lighter up and look around as well. “What is this place?”
Aric doesn’t answer, just keeps slowly spinning, like he’s expecting an attack.
I sniff the air. “What is that stench? Is that you?”
Aric shoots me a look, offended. “Shut the fuck up, would you? Do you want it to attack again?”
“It? What is this ‘it’ you say attacked you? Because I didn’t experience an attack and I was standing right here.”
But he’s not looking at me. And he doesn’t keep the argument going. Which also concerns me, because in my experience, a good-natured argument is a nice way to defuse a stressful situation and someone who is sharing that stressful situation with you should appreciate this.
“Give me that lighter.” Aric grabs for it, but I pull it back.
“Get your own fuckin’ lighter.”
He stares at me, his eyes blazing with anger now. “What are you, fourteen? Give me the fuckin’ lighter!” Then he just snatches it out of my hand, flicks it back on, and starts walking.
“Where are you going?”
“Look,” he says, pointing into the darkness. “It’s a… hallway. Or maybe…” He looks up and around. “A tunnel, maybe.”
I look up and around too. “A tunnel? Why the hell would we be in a tunnel?”
“I have no fuckin’ idea,” Aric sneers. “I’m not the one who brought us here. You are.”
Which is true, so I don’t really have a comeback for that.
“Look,” he says. Again, pointing towards the darkness. “There’s an opening over there.”
“Who cares! What we need to do is find Mr. Nobody and Star!”
He ignores me and walks forward, leaving me in the darkness because he takes our only source of light with him. So of course, I have to follow.
He stops, waving the lighter around, trying to see everything. “What’s all this?” he asks.
I squint and lean in to see what he’s pointing at. There are little markings all over the smooth gray stones that make up the wall. “Looks like symbols, or something.”
Aric whirls around, sniffing the air. “Oh. Fuck.”
I whirl too—unsure what I’m looking for. “Oh, fuck, what?”
“That smell... I know that smell.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh, shit,” he says, walking forward again. “Oh, fuck.”
“Bru!” I say. “What is happening?”
He turns and his face has gone completely white. “I know where we are.”
I wait, but he doesn’t say anything. “Well? Where the fuck are we!”
He opens his mouth to answer, but instead of hearing words, I hear a sort of… snarling? Sniffing? Snorting?
Aric turns and then yells, “Ruuun!”
I’ve never claimed to be the smartest of men. I mean, look at me. When you’re blessed with this body and face—not to mention the hair—brains are really just an accessory. But when a demigod tells me to run in a voice that suggests this action will save my life, I’m all instinct.