See How She Falls (The Chronicles of Izzy #3)(62)

“Weep not the lost, for more shall fall," the shadows whispered.

“I’m trying to exist in solitary confinement here. Move along," I grumbled, trying to get my mind back where it had been.

“If you do not act, all will be lost.”

“The darkness shall fall.”

“The war rages on.”

“Act now or all will be lost.”

“More shall fall.”

The whispers kept going and going, repeating the same things over and over again. I was going mad. That had to be it. Madness would be better than sanity at this point. At least in madness, I might be able to forget.

“The darkness will fall.”

“Oh my GOD! Can you not say anything else?” Stupid whispers. Why couldn’t they leave me alone?

“The war rages on.”

“Heard that one already," I grumbled.

“You know not what you must do.”

“Well at least that one is a new one.”

“You must not linger here, do not make my death mean nothing.” Kennan’s voice broke through the others.

“Kennan?” I looked around me, trying to find him. He was there, somehow. Or was it another cruel trick that pulled at my mind?

“The darkness will fall.”

“Kennan!”

“Linger not, for I am with you always.” Kennan’s voice faded as his face flashed before my eyes. What a cruel, cruel joke for my mind to play on me.

“Kennan, don’t leave me again. Please stay.” But I knew he was gone, or the phantom of him was.

“The war rages on.”

“Oh for the love of all that is holy, please just stop.”

“We can never stop.”

“Oh, so now you are answering me?” I looked around me into the inky darkness and saw flashes of movement. “Who’s there?”

As one, figures began emerging from the fog. Each one more disfigured than the last. Their skin a charred black I’d seen only days, or had it been months, before. I looked upon them in horror. These ghosts sent to taunt me, to mock what I’d given.

“The darkness is coming. The darkness will fall," a female voice promised. I looked more closely at her. I had a strange feeling that I somehow knew her, and as she raised her blood caked eyes to mine, I knew exactly who she was. Molly.

I swung around to look at everyone standing there. The source of the whispers. Ian muttered, “The war rages on," while Conall circled around muttering the same thing over and over again. Sena stepped forward, warning that I knew what I must do. They circled about me like sharks, waiting to take down their prey, moving ever closer. I longed to move, to run, but I’d trapped myself here. I was lost in the dreaming, there was no escape from them.

“The darkness will fall, and you are the bringer," my aunt lunged for me, wrapping her hand around my throat. Cutting off any objection I may have made.

“Act now, Izzy, or all will be for naught." Just like that they disappeared.

Had I been here before? I couldn’t remember. Had I seen them, really, or were they just another manifestation of my mind?

I shook it all away, and returned to floating, lost in the dreaming. Far from everyone except the memories of Kennan.