90 DEADLY DAYS (WEEKLY UPDATES RETURNING THIS DECEMBER)

Chapter 25.5

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Chapter 25.5

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I open my eyes on a bed of ice. The sky rains into my eyes, and yet, I still smell lingering flames. My back numb from cold, my lungs frozen to a simple hum, I shiver as raindrops skim all over my limp skin like tears. It's like my body's crying—I'm broken with so much sorrow.

Imagine, being trapped in a nightmare you can't escape even in dreams.

Kerry—eaten by infernos.

Jewel—vanished.

Adonis—he doesn't even know who I am.

Me...I'm a monster...a butcher...

As if things couldn't get any worse, I shift my eyes to the trees hedging the river I've been coughed up from. Water laps at the right side of my face, gently kissing the inside of my ear. There, at the edge of the treeline, are the nightmares. The arsonists.

Each one stands sentry.

Waiting.

I hold my breath. I try to look dead. Have they noticed I'm awake? What are they waiting for?

A black vision is not far from where I stand. The air surrounding it is void, cold, smelling strangely of blood and corruption. Horror slowly stretches its wings inside of me.

The face...that's what you should never look at.

Risking giving away the fact I'm alive, I look where the shadows direct their gaze. And my heart sinks.

A cerulean lake spreads so far out, the cliff face on the other side of it is as small as my fingernail. Crisscrossing over the water is a thin, raised embankment tufted with lime green grass and grainy stones. A bridge snakes across the blue too, looking rather worse for the wear. When the wind blows, old wood groans complaints.

All is peaceful until a foreboding creature lined with scales breaches the surface near the center of the pool. Please be a hallucination.

It's not.

I close my eyes.

The scales mean one thing. The sea beasts from the canyon have cousins. They are here too.

Voices break into the whispery silence—human ones. They come from further down the shore. They haven't yet seen the soul-shattering visitors. They'd run if they had.

They speak to one another in excited, frightened tones.

"They were everywhere!"

"I could barely see in the dark, all I saw was black capes."

"They even killed some of the Raiders."

"Raiders?"

"Grabbed one by the hair and went through em' with metal. Charged metal...the way the Raider shook...it was unnatural."

"I don't want to hear anymore."

"Why are we heading here?"

"This is the only way out. They say on the other side is freedom."

"How do you make it to the other side? Look at that bridge."

"Are we the only ones left?"

"Kade...there's bodies!"

"Over there! All over! Look-."

Thump.

Silence.