Of Frost & Cinder (Old Version)

Into Darkness

Chapter Thirteen

My pulse drums hard in my ears. Something doesn't feel right, like an uncomfortable pressure sitting on my spine.

Where am I? I twirl around, searching for any semblance of the bathroom I fainted in, but there's only an infinite line of olive walls, with old damask wallpaper peeling down to the dirt-caked floor. Before me, the walls disappear into a whitish fog, reminiscent of the Golden Gate Bridge in the fall.

"What are we supposed to do?" Something whispers, and my heart beats on the muffled voices like a drum.

I whip around to search for the origin, but I only meet with more green walls. Instead of this side fading into fog, this part of the hallway is dark. Dampness fills the area between me and the line of shadows.

One side is light, one side is shadow. The literature nerd inside me should see this as a metaphor of sorts, a warning. Perhaps deep down, I do, but when my feet shuffle towards the light, it doesn't feel like a decision I've consciously made. I just move.

I take three strides when my name ripples past my head in a gust of cold wind. The noise echoes until it disintegrates into the light.

"Shelland..."

I have no idea who the voices are coming from, but they leave a strange itch beneath my skin, like I should recognize the altered tones.

"Help me..."

I take a look towards the darkness. I know I shouldn't go there, I can feel the fear bubbling in my gut, but my body pivots without me telling it to and step by step, I close in the space between us.

"Who's there?" I croak, though my esophagus feels like it's coated in chalk. "Hello?"

HELLO

Hello

hello

Silence.

I push louder, "Hello?"

HELLO

Hello

hello

"No!" The violent burst ricochets down the hall, vibrating small rocks across the floor.

"We can't do this! It's not right," a woman sobs. The sound is frantic, terrified, and my stomach lodges into my throat. I know that voice. I've heard it countless times before.

Closer and closer I get to the shadows. Despite the warning blooming in my gut, I keep going until I'm just outside the line.

"Mom?" I call into the dark. I wait for the echo, for the whispers to call to me, but somehow there's nothing. No voices, no whispers, no wind. The loudest noise in the hall is my pounding heart.

As I begin to turn back, the wall of shadow waves, like a first drop of rain disturbing a glassy lake. However, these ripples don't dissipate...they're growing, intensifying as if trying to latch onto some sort of rhythm.

Faster, faster the barrier ripples. So strong, it's nearly pounding against the walls.

An arm bursts from the shadow in a billowing plume of smoke. Skeletal fingers made of coal scrape along my skin and wrap around my ankle. In an instant, the arm rips my leg from under me, and I slam into the hard floor, paralyzed in breathless fear.

"Sssshell..." the creature hisses as it slowly drags my foot into the barrier. "Let us in..."

I kick and cry out, desperately trying to fight out of the skeleton's iron grip. My shoulders burn from scraping against the carpet, but I keep kicking until I hear the crack of bones snapping against my boot.