Black Holes - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 3

Chapter Fifteen

Leah Azemar wasn't sure how much longer she'd last in this world. She didn't know where she was. Only that it was dark, and cold, and things occupied the darkness with her. What those things were remained a mystery, but from the noises they made, trying to sniff her out, she was fairly sure that was a blessing.

She'd spent her first few hours here creeping through the stillness, searching for food or water. It hadn't taken long to realise there wasn't any to be found.

This place was nothing but humming energy — the universe before it formed — and Leah knew she wouldn't survive long. If the creatures that inhabited this place didn't kill her, the lack of water would. But still, she tried to conserve her strength, curling into a ball and praying that somehow she'd think of a way to stay, to exist. She didn't want to become a part of this nothingness for the rest of eternity, even though she deserved it.

Leah's throat had grown parched, her breaths dry and cracked, when something flashed bright against the back of her eyelids. Her eyes had been closed, the flare appearing as a soft, red glow, before fading again, fast enough that she didn't have time to look before it was gone.

She cracked an eye open, scanning the darkness around her slowly. She didn't dare move. Didn't dare breath. She wasn't sure what light meant in this world, but noise was danger. Assuming light wasn't would be foolish.

Trying not to disturb the equilibrium that lay around her, Leah rose, getting her legs underneath in a crouch. The handcuffs that still enclosed her wrists clanged, and she flinched, waiting for an answering shuffle, the thud of approaching feet, but none came. She let her body relax, convincing herself that she was safe for now, and her eyes scanning the darkness. One more flare and she'd move. Run, if she had too, even though it'd waste precious energy.

Leah waited, counting her breaths, body full of tension.

When that light flared again, she jumped up, about to sprint away, but this time the light lingered, and she could see the world that expanded in front of her. It was the flattest plain she'd ever seen, the stillest air. No divots, no undulations, just black, smooth ground and cold, empty atmosphere. And that light, though it had seemed so close when her eyes had been closed, lay kilometres off, far enough away that she had to squint to make it out.

It looked like a flickering sphere, hovering just above the surface, and around it, illuminated by it's glow, were black silhouettes.

She took a cautious step forward, peering at those figures. There were all different sizes and shapes. One looked like a slumped sack, another, like a man, crouched down. But even from this distance, she could tell most weren't human. They were too deformed, too skeletal, too large.

Perhaps those had been the creatures sniffing around her, trying to find her in the darkness.

Leah held back a shiver and turned away. If light attracted those things, she didn't want to be anywhere within it's sphere. And if that was a human with them, either they'd made a deal with the devil, or they were well beyond her help now.

She took a step towards that deeper gloom, wondering how far she'd have to go to become invisible again, when a noise made her freeze.

Another foot had fallen alongside hers. It had been shadowed within her own, soft as smoke, but it was there. She was sure of it.

Leah scanned the area around her. There was nothing within the halo of hazy light, but the black expanse before her... that was far enough away that anything within it remained hidden, camouflaged.

She drew a deep, quiet breath, and then took another step, squeezing her eyes shut as she listened, praying only silence would follow.

It didn't.