Raina: Darkness & Dreams (Raina DP Sequel)

Chapter 3

Raina ran through the dark maze.

I can’t see anything!

She panicked as she felt the walls, cool to the touch, and tentacle-like vines covering them.  Or at least she thought they were vines.

Isn’t the trick to get out of these things to keep going left?

She did what she thought was the right thing to do.

She continued to stumble through the darkness.  It seemed that she was the only person in the maze, but she felt like a force was watching her, waiting for her to mess up.

Another dead end!

She backtracked to take another way, but she seemed to be only hitting dead ends.

Her heart was racing and her bare feet were sore from the gravel underneath them.  She was wearing the nightgown that she had worn to bed that night, only it had tears from snagging on the branches of the maze walls.  She only wanted to get out of the maze.  She focused on every turn and tried to remember even in the darkness.  Her eyes couldn’t even adjust to it like the darkness was its own fog.

Finally, she made it to a clearing.  The middle of the floor began to spark and an eerie green fire started to flicker and spread.

“Now what!?” Raina exclaimed.

Then she heard a familiar chuckle.

“Did you think defeating me would not take its toll on you,” a voice rang in Raina’s ears.

She saw the figure in the flames, unscathed by them.

Her mother stood elegantly in a black gown that shined in the fire.  Raina thought that it could be made from scales, but she didn’t know for sure.  Her mother looked the same as she did over a year ago:  youthful and deadly, her wicked violet eyes glaring at Raina.

“You were a fool to think that you could rid of me so easily,” her mother’s taunting voice still gave Raina shivers.

Raina felt the flames lick her arms as the floor was covered in flames.  The flames were slowly scorching the ends of her nightgown and backed away from them.  The fire light up the room until it was an inferno and Raina could not see an escape.

Her mother, however, cackled, “You will get what you have coming to you.  The darkness wants a body and you will pay the price.”  She remained where she was, still untouched by the flames.

“NO!  Noooo!” Raina backed up to a wall, but the flames snaked up her legs and around her body.  She felt herself burning and screamed at the agony she was experiencing.

I will never see Loki again.

A single tear fell down her cheek.