The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

Chapter One-Nightmares

this book is still low on editing and will be subject to some changes also in relation to the rewriting of book 2

RILEY

I DAZED IN AND OUT fearing the moment sleep gripped my consciousness, because I knew I'd be seeing Adam in my nightmares and in my dreams and that I'd also see myself kneeling over an ocean of dead bodies.

Bursting through the shadows, Luc's voice pierced the void. I covered my ears, heart racing, and let out a scream...

My legs wadded the duvet to the floor in a panicked fit. My fists rained down on the mattress until I twisted back to reality, to the bleak ceiling above, panting. The shrill cries echoed in my skull as if I'd remained at the warehouse. Blinking tears away, I shuddered and turned on the side. It rushed back, breaking through the barriers of my mind like water spraying from a crack in a dam before surging in massive waves. 

The throbbing pressure had threatened to brim inside my chest and crush me... but then it lifted. I'd clobbered to my feet and saw that others were beginning to stand, not without palpating their sternums. The hunters continued to agonize on the ground, bleeding like their inner cavities had transformed into fountain streams.

Someone closer to Lauren tried to step up. How was she alive all this time? And... where had she come from? 

Her eyes had flared and static had pricked my skin—pricked all of us. Before I'd been able to grasp a thread of sense, I was swept off the snow and the warehouse dwindled at a dizzying speed. We left Adam and Ethan's bodies there.

Mutants had used that flit of rest and hasted back to Heather's mansion.  I'd sagged on a couch in the living room, staring at a wall, numb and shivering. Though the house was warm, my body was so cold... 

They swarmed the room. Shouts overlapped as figures argued with sharp movements. There was a bestial quality to it all, like they were finally shedding their human mannerisms learned over the years.

They collided close together, grabbing one another's collar or glaring at each other. Some glassware shattered. I tightened my lids shut. My head dinned with white noise but some words were able to sink in.

"We have to go back for her!"

"Are you insane? She almost killed us all and you want to return to the hunters?"

"But she's alive, we can't just—"

"It's too damn dangerous, and we're not losing anyone else! Have I made myself clear?"

I curled around my blanket, feeling like the ceiling would cave on me. With a hand, I buried my head under a pillow.

Heather had collapsed onto the carpet, sobbing. The children had been ushered to the basement while people barged inside and struggled to contain Luc. He stomped on the floor, yelling and kicking, rearing his head to try to hit anyone.

For the first time, he seized me in the corner and stilled. My legs wouldn't carry me, but our gazes locked from across the room. I've never seen eyes so wild and filled with visceral rage, and it was like a punch in the gut. He started drawing toward the living room, but the men pushed his thrashing body deeper into the hallway and out of my sight.

The house's foundations quivered as he threw profanities back at his handlers. Champagne glasses on the table burst into tiny shards while plates rattled. The little crystals from the chandelier clinked and swayed as if shaken by invisible hands.