Daydreams And Nightshade (DaN #1)

Chapter 61: Double whammy

"To the left!" Alexei yelled at the group as soon as they entered the entrance hall again and Shyen didn't have time to react before he was shoved in the aforementioned direction.

Noah and Livia weren't slow to follow and they hurried up the stairs just as the boar tried storming through the door, once again getting stuck with splinters flying and cloven hooves slipping along the smooth floor. Shyen gritted his teeth as he turned back to see Alexei readying his rifle at the bottom of the stairs.

"Alexei, it's not going to help!"

Why would it? The boar was huge enough to tear through doorways and get impaled by debris. Why would a bullet hurt it?

"You know what, Shyen?" Alexei asked as he took aim, letting out a calm breath. "I think it just might."

"No—No, wait!" Shyen called out as the boar broke free to rush into the room towards Alexei just as the latter fired his shot.

The three people standing on the stairs removed their hands from their ears as the smoke faded, and to their confusion and relief they found Alexei completely unharmed and the boar gone without a trace.

"What—" Shyen gasped for air. "What in the world happened? Or, how..."

"Faced my fears." Alexei shrugged as he began reloading his rifle immediately. "Or something like that... It's a nightmare house and the mara supposedly feeds off of fear, so I guess I sort of... Told myself I could defeat it by shooting it, ignoring logic or something."

Shyen struggled for words, but supposed he should've known. Positively illogical. That would be the kind of friend who'd grown up with the Hargreaves twins and not run off. And Shyen appreciated it.

Then he realized how few of them there were, and he looked around the room.

"Where—" He grew cold. Where were the others? Where were Luna, Derek and Lucius?

The others looked around as well.

"They— They can't have..." Noah's words choked, and he wrapped his arms around him as he looked towards the corridor they'd exited through.

"All right," Livia said, trying to snap them back from their horror filled thoughts. "All right, we shouldn't panic, right? We need to stay calm. Besides, Mr. Kilgrave is immortal. I'm sure he shielded them and they're fine."

Shyen grimaced. Derek could do many things but not even he could withstand the weight of a boar trampling over him. They'd all have been—

He covered his mouth, but before his mind could spiral further Livia shook his shoulder.

"Hey, none of that, all right? We'll just... Check to see if they made it."

"I'll go," Alexei suggested. "I can—"

He was interrupted as a loud, rumbling noise sounded through the hall and Shyen felt the ground moving underneath him. There was no time to react however, and the air went out of him as he suddenly found himself falling. The stairs had given way underneath him, Noah and Livia.

A brief glimpse of Alexei turning to run in their direction was all he got before everything turned into dark stone around him, and he soon hit the ground hard with a stabbing pain shooting through his lower back. He gritted his teeth as he rolled over on the cold, dirt covered ground and looked up at the hole above them.

"Is... Is everyone all right?" Alexei's voice called out, but Shyen couldn't see him.

"A bit sore," Shyen admitted. "But I think I'm good otherwise."

"Yeah, same here," Livia's voice was heard, and Shyen thought he could discern her sitting up from the ground further away. "How about you Noah?"

Noah had landed pretty close to her, possibly even colliding with her, but he seemed to at least be conscious.