Into the Darkness (Darkness #1)(26)

My blade glowed red-orange, reminding me that these things were bad news. Whatever was zinging through my body like Prozac on steroids allured this thing, and I had a feeling my version of rewards were different than its own.

“Go. Now!” I yelled in the deadly quiet room.

Jared startled next to me, but continued to stare at the pulsing purple eyes.

“C’mon!” I ripped his arm with me, jerking his body to a start.

He staggered behind me as the foundation quaked beneath us, another blast sounding off to the far right. As we emerged into a dimly lit room, the walls started to glow again, not having been able to compete with the light from a moment before. The glow was weakened, though, as if whatever was happening outside was aimed at the very fiber of the house.

Clutching Jared’s hand tightly, I contemplated which direction to go. Towards the front was the way I knew, but it was also bombarded. On my best day I might be able to sneak out, but no way could I get a lumbering Jared out behind me. The back was the next logical direction; but assuming there was a backyard, there had to be people loitering around. With swords.

So, Mr. Wizard, where did that leave us?

I took a deep breath, watching distractedly as a na**d man shimmied his way across the room like a fencer, his long, pointed sword glowing blue-red as it whipped back and forth in front of an overwhelmed opponent. It wasn’t the only thing whipping back and forth…

“Why is everyone always na**d here?” Jared wheezed beside me.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing. C’mon, let’s go.”

Following my sixth sense, I walked quickly across the nearly empty room, turning a quick right, then another left, yanking Jared around, through and under fighting people waving swords. No one so much as glanced our way. I thought it very strange, but didn’t want to stop and ask for a survey as to why.

We hit the room with the desk, the one where I’d watched the couple fornicating, and then halted. Being near the front of the house, this space was alive with activity. Swords and knives of all different colors tore through the air, landing ripping blows to opponents. Blood splattered the floor, people screamed and shouted, someone went flying past my line of sight and smashed into the wall like a floppy pile of limbs.

There was no way we could get to the secret door.

BOOOOM!!!

Jared and I fell back into the doorway, the ground quaking beneath our feet. The swirling colors in the walls swelled, like an electrical surge, before they dimmed. Then went out!

The hair rose on my arms. Something seriously wrong just went down, I could feel it. Whatever that color shifting was, it was meant for protection, and now it was gone.

The first monster entered the room.

It stood ten feet tall, like a Viking of old made out of rotten cheese, holding a flaming staff. It had no eyes, no nose, and for a mouth, a gaping hole filled with molten fire. As the first people from the house rushed it, the staff swept in a great arc, splitting two people in half as though they’d been made out of paper. The third person, holding a glowing red sword, a color to match the staff, blocked the sweep, causing a spray of red sparks from point of contact.

Another monster entered the room—it was the purple-eyed beast I saw earlier. And it was looking right at me!

“Run, Jared!” I hollered as that blossom in my chest rose, hearing a strange call in the air, and humming to join it.

I turned and pushed into Jared, like a kindergartner in a fire drill without a teacher to maintain order. I pushed him through the door, then dragged him behind me as I ran blindly, knowing those monsters entering the house were now looking for me. The word was out—whatever strange kind of thing I possessed, it was exactly the kind those monsters were looking for. Whether they were looking to extract or use, I had no idea, but I didn’t get a rosy, sparkly slippers kind of feeling from the beasts.

I twisted and turned until I found another secret entrance. The only problem was, I was too rushed and freaked out to concentrate on how to open it! I closed my eyes and concentrated, a droplet of sweat working down my forehead.

“What are we doing?” Jared asked in hushed voice dripping with fear.

“Shhhh!” I put my fingertips to my temples, as if that would help. It didn’t. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to will that sixth sense to be more obvious.

No luck.

I was in the beginning stages of kicking the wall when I felt it. My blood froze. My tongue got thick and my muscles sluggish. Jared had stopped breathing all together.

I turned in trepidation.

Chapter Twelve

Three human-shaped beings stood in the room with us, monsters all, each more horrible than the last. One had purplish horns covering the length of its body, blackened skin like a log after the fire has burned away. Another oozed some sort of liquid onto the floor—green, but pus-like; it emitted a putrid smell. The last was easily the worst. Its enormous head nearly touching the ceiling looked like it was made of writhing, angry worms, reddish in color, like maggots feasting on a bloody carcass.

It dawned on me that every monster I had seen had some sort of color attached to it. Each of those colors had existed in the swirling walls. These represented green, red, and purple. My knife was currently glowing a faint blue. That all meant something.

Since I didn’t know what it meant, it didn’t help me now.

“Jared, get behind me,” I said in a shaking voice.