Ruby Shadows (Born to Darkness #3)(5)

She headed off to get it, still harrumphing, and I went to my own room to get a t-shirt to wear to bed. Some nights I preferred PJs but it had been really hot in Tampa lately and our little AC unit could only do so much. So I would be sleeping light tonight.

I just hoped I would be sleeping sound as well. If I had another one of those freaky dreams… I shuttered and pushed the thought away. I’m going to be fine and get a good night’s sleep, I told myself.

I had never been more wrong in my life.





Chapter Two

Gwendolyn





A creaking sound woke me up in the middle of the night.

I sat bolt upright in the blackness, my eyes wide open, my heart pounding. I’d been having the dream again—about the headless thing coming to get me. If I closed my eyes I could still see those gaping jaws and the long yellow teeth, hungry for my flesh.

Or no, not my flesh—my soul—I suddenly realized. For the thing in my dream, the physical part of me—my body—would be nothing but an appetizer. It was the immortal part the headless thing was after and it would stop at nothing to get it.

Stop this foolishness, I lectured myself uneasily. It’s just a dream and that creaking sound was probably just the house settling.

It was a plausible enough explanation. Grams’ little bungalow had been built back in the nineteen twenties. It had been modernized with central heat and air because you can’t live in Tampa without AC—not unless you don’t mind dying of heat stroke—but it was still old and old houses make noises. Besides, I reminded myself uneasily, Grams had white magic wards all around the house, protecting every door and window. Even if the creaking sound was something awful coming for me, it would never be able to pass through her charms to get at me.

The thought calmed my nerves somewhat and I was just settling back in the bed and pulling the covers up to my chin when I heard the creaking again. This time it was coming from right underneath the bed.


I gasped and sat up again. Something’s not right. What’s going on? Wards around the house or no wards, my heart was suddenly pounding and I wanted to run. I was sleeping in just my t-shirt and panties and I was just about to swing my bare legs over the side of the bed and make a dash for it when I had a horrible mental image. What if the thing with no head grabbed me by the ankles and yanked me under the bed?

I pulled my legs back up abruptly, feeling sick with fear. What was happening? Every sense I had—both physical and supernatural—was on high alert. This creaking wasn’t simply the house settling—I was under attack. But who—?

Before I could finish the question, there was another creak—a horribly loud one this time—and the entire bed shifted.

That was it. I was getting up out of there. I stood up on the bed, intending to take a flying leap for the door of the bedroom. But just as I was poised to jump, there was a fourth creak that was more like a roar. The bed shook violently and suddenly I found myself falling. Or rather, the entire bed was falling.

I didn’t understand what had happened at first. All I knew was that I was suddenly flat on my back and the room had just gotten a whole lot darker.

I scrambled to my feet and stood on my tiptoes, trying to see what had happened. From the faint light coming from behind the window shade, I could tell that everything had shifted. For some reason, the floor was now at eye-level. I could see Grams’ furry house shoes, which I had bought her last Christmas to keep her feet warm, right in front of me. They had been by the side of the bed earlier but now I would have to reach up to grab one.

I brushed against a wall which hadn’t been there before and the smell of fresh dirt hit my nose. A clod of soil broke off and fell onto the clean white sheets, scattering filth all over.

My first thought was that Grams would have my hide—she’s very big on cleanliness, especially when it comes to not sleeping in a dirty bed. The second thought was, how in the hell had a dirt wall suddenly grown up between me and the bedroom around me. And why had everything shifted?

“Grams?” I shouted without much hope. “Grams, can you hear me?” The crash the bed had made would have woken anyone else but that damn C-pap machine she wore at night made so much noise it drowned out everything else. She often said the second coming could happen and she wouldn’t notice it over the sound it made.

I called again but I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t appear. I would have to get myself out of this mess.

The moon must have come out from behind a cloud outside because suddenly the light in the room got brighter. I looked around and finally understood. Grams’ big four poster bed with its homemade quilts and too-soft pillows had somehow sunk down through the solid oak flooring. It was like a sink hole had opened just beneath it which probably explained the wood creaking just before it happened.

Just then I felt the bed shifting under me again. I screamed and grabbed desperately for the lip of the hole I was in. Then the bed disappeared entirely, sucked away down into the ever deepening hole. I was left hanging there by my hands with my feet swinging down into the darkness.

Oh my God, I have to get out of here! Have to get away from this room before the hole gets bigger or something else happens.

What that something else might be, I didn’t want to imagine. I felt sick with fear but I forced myself to get going.

I gripped the broken boards, ignoring the pain as splinters dug into my fingertips and tried to dig into the dirt wall with the tips of my toes. It was surprisingly hard, though, and wouldn’t give much. So much for that.