'Til Death We Meet Again (A Grim Awakening Book 3) Page 12

  “Are you beginning to understand what’s going on?” Fear walked toward me. “It’s just you and me here,” he chuckled before he went on, “and anything I decide to use against you. Tell me… what are you most afraid of? You were always the scaredy-cat.” He brought his finger to his bottom lip and smiled. “But that’s right, I’m to blame for that.”

  I was slow to get off my back, but just when I did, he used his tail to wrap around my waist and bring me to my feet. I grabbed his tail and tried to loosen it—he made it tighter. “Hmm, what to do?” Red eyes roamed over my body. “What would mess with Grim in the worst way?” Bile rose in my chest at the way he was looking at me. He was using me to get back at Killian.

  “He’s going to kill you,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Not if I can stop it—or at least not before I kill you,” he answered. “Death is only the beginning of the pain you’ll see once your soul belongs to me.”

  I was afraid of him. I couldn’t even get untangled from his tail—how was I supposed to survive this nightmare? He smiled at me knowingly—he could sense how I felt. He grabbed my hand and forced me to touch one of the horns on his head. “How am I, Melanie, do I look like the perfect nightmare?”

  I had to have lost my sanity for a moment because I smiled. “You look like a pathetic demon who crossed the line a long time ago. You’re desperate to escape what’s coming for you, so you hide from Death.” This time I was the one to laugh in his face. “But he’s coming for you whether you like it or not.”

  His hands wrapped around my neck as veins traced his face, showing his anger—he was pissed and I may have just cost me my life.

  You know his weakness just as he knows yours. Look for it.

  Look for it? I hated how the voice—the me inside my head who I believed was the very power I possessed—never gave me enough information. Only enough to get me searching…

  I couldn’t breathe… I scratched and pulled at his face… my vision blurred.

  I startled myself awake and jumped into a sitting position. I must have passed out again and I wasn’t dead. Which was good, but who knew when Fear would grow tired of playing with me. I had to figure out a way to wake up—not like I’ve been doing, I needed to actually wake up.

  I looked around and saw all the desks around me. I recognized this room. It was the very room he attacked me in as a child—this was Alex’s current school now. Only this was all an illusion, I knew that, but it didn’t stop my heart from racing faster. He chose this place on purpose.

  The lights were on. I stood up and like déjà vu, the sky outside the windows turned dark. In my mind, the logical thing to do was try to open the door, but as I turned around in that direction, I knew that he was wanting me to reenact our first encounter.

  “I won’t play your games,” I called out into the room. “I’m not afraid.”

  The lights flickered and when I squeezed my hands into fists, they were already clammy. I took one step back and bumped into the teacher’s desk. It squeaked and that alone caused me to panic. I pulled myself together quickly and focused on the back of the room.

  Just like I expected, the back row of lights went out. Everything was the same. Only I wasn’t a helpless nine-year-old girl who didn’t know what was happening to her… I’ve been through so much more and I was alive, and I sure as heck didn’t plan on dying in this place with him.

  Another row went out and I looked around. I spotted the windows and started pushing the teacher’s desk across the floor until it hit the wall. I went back and grabbed a chair. I took it with me as I climbed on top of the desk. The windows weren’t very big and they were high off the ground. I jerked the alphabet curtain off one of the windows—the one that I was going to climb through. I lifted the chair up and used the two back legs to break the glass.

  Another row went out and I hurried up. I threw the chair down before placing my hands in the window. I still felt a few pieces of glass against my palms, but I had no time left. I pulled myself up and hesitated the moment my head was out the other side of the window. I couldn’t see anything. It was pitch black.

  My heart pounded in my ears and throat. I took a deep, brave breath and pulled myself through the window. Glass grazed my stomach and I hissed, trying to ignore the little sharp jabs of pain. I fell into the darkness.

  Only to land right back in the classroom. He controlled everything in this dream. I screamed in frustration and got back on my feet. The room was way darker now, and I saw that there was only one row of lights left before it would be complete darkness.

  This was the worst kind of fear. The kind you waited for—the kind you couldn’t see. I’d rather deal with him face-to-face then be forced to wait like I was now. I didn’t know why I looked, but I pulled my shirt down and the mark was gone.

  “I found you.” My skin crawled. I knew why it wasn’t there. He planned to put me through it all over again.

  Last of the lights went out.

  My breathing was quick and heavy, and my hands were out in front of me as I waited for what I couldn’t see. What could I do? The voice told me to look for his weakness, but how—

  My feet were knocked out from underneath me. I screamed and my hands were searching for Fear—waiting to feel his presence crawl above me. And he did. I brought my feet out between us and kicked him. He was completely silent, and I knew he fed on my fear. My hands found his horns and I pushed at them—keeping him away from me. I could feel his breaths and something in me cracked.

  I was losing. I was terrified. And that pissed me off more than anything.

  “Get off me!” I screamed.

  His claws tore through my shirt as he began to draw the X onto my chest. I screamed out in pain and frustration, then I saw them.

  Despite the dark, I saw two chains running out from something—oddly they were just there floating. Fear was still above me and when I brought my hand out to feel where they were coming from—it was his chest. Now I was confused. What was I seeing?

  My chest was on fire as he continued to slowly carve the X onto my skin, but I ignored the pain and tried to focus. One of the chains seemed never-ending and floated all over the room in a ghostly glow—it looked solid and strong. The other one was totally different. It was shortened to the point that it was only a few feet long running out of his chest—it looked brittle and old… no that wasn’t the right word for it… dying.

  The chain looked to be dying. I knew what I was seeing. I understood perfectly. I was seeing Fear’s lifeline as well as Marcus’s. I found it: his weakness.

  “I see it,” I grunted through the burning I felt on my chest.

  I reached out and grabbed Marcus’s chain—I couldn’t see anything in the dark except the chains, but I felt him stiffen above me. “You really are dying, Marcus.” I jerked the chain and he made a sound in his throat—like he was sucker-punched in the stomach.

  He disappeared above me—the chains faded away as did the darkness. We were back in my room.

  Now it was my turn to frighten him. There was a certain calmness I felt. I wasn’t dying here, yet… someone might.

  “Marcus,” I whispered with a smile as I walked out of my room. The house was still dark—silent. Fear’s chain floated all over the house, I just needed to follow it.

  Then I heard them downstairs. I leaned over the bannister and saw the wolf demons. There were three of them, but they didn’t have any chains running out of their chests which meant that they probably weren’t real, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t kill me. One jumped up over the bannister in front of me while the other two took the stairs. I needed to find Fear, and if I was right, maybe I could end Marcus right here and now before he did me.

  I climbed onto the bannister next to the wolf demon and before I lost my balance—I jumped and grabbed a part of Fear’s chain floating in the air. My legs gave a little with the fall and I fell to my knees in the hallway—ouch! I didn’t look up to see what the wolf demons were doing; I didn�
��t want to think about how easily they could kill me if they got ahold of me—which would be easy trapped in a house with no escape.

  I tugged at Fear’s chain—it was everywhere, so it was hard to pinpoint exactly which direction he was in. Only I think he found me first when I was yanked backward by the shirt. “What is it that you see?” He turned me around to face him only to kick me in the chest.

  Oh, God. Did he break something? I didn’t want to stand back up and face the pain I felt. I placed my hand over my chest and stood—I bent over and focused on breathing. There was a catch in my ribs—not a good sign.

  “Don’t act like you don’t know.” I smiled, but I couldn’t hold back the groan as I held my chest.

  “I’ll admit, I am very intrigued. Just what are you, Melanie?” he asked. “As much as I would love to find out—I think it’s better if I kill you right here and now, no more games, but do you blame me? Who knows when you’ll decide to do a Grim on me and bring that scythe out.”

  I grabbed Fear’s chain again right as the wolf demons came up behind me. They held my arms down, and I tried to wiggle out of their grasp, but it was a futile effort—compared to my strength and theirs as well as the pain shooting through my chest, I could do nothing.

  But I did still have a hold of Fear’s chain, and Marcus’s floated close between us but not close enough that I could reach it. “I feel bad… honestly. I wanted to play with you more—drag the pain out, but I’m a smart guy and I know when to quit.” He rubbed his chest as he spoke, “For a second there, it almost felt like you were pulling me—” He laughed and shook his head. “Nah, even with the powers you possess, you’re still human.”

  I grinned at his casual attempt to be at ease—I knew I spooked him earlier. “Do you want to know what I saw—what I’m seeing now?” I asked. His eyebrows raised as he stepped closer. The wolf demons still held me, but I relaxed in their hold so that it would hopefully loosen their grip. One kept growling into my ear and it took everything in me not to gag from the stench of them. Fear was a dangerous demon, but his own games would be his downfall. He could have killed me in the water—the very moment I woke up in this place, but he didn’t.

  Stu-pid. But I wasn’t complaining.

  Lucky for me was more like it. His need for games, torture, and drawn out pain was the reason I knew I was getting out of this alive and for once, I was glad that he was the way he was. His game of cat and mouse—his need to hurt Grim by making me suffer—all of them were mistakes he couldn’t help but make.

  “Two different chains are coming out of your chest. One’s solid and strong—unbreakable… the other, though, it’s short and brittle and right there at the end…” I pointed to the tip of Marcus’s chain. I knew he saw nothing there from the look on his face. “It’s like a wick and it keeps on getting shorter and shorter, I wonder, Marcus, why that is?”

  He looked confused as well as angry. He clamped his teeth together as he growled at me. “I’m going to enjoy taking your life. Just know that it’s only the beginning once I own your soul.” His eyes grew redder as he stalked closer.

  “I don’t think so.” I jerked at Fear’s chain so hard that he was thrown forward on his knees. The wolf demons were no longer holding me as tightly as they should, and I slipped out of their grasp without any real effort. Fear was holding his chest as I came at him. He looked up at me with a shocked expression. I let go of Fear’s chain and grabbed ahold of Marcus’s.

  I planted my shoes on both of his thighs as I leaned my face down over his. I felt no fear as I looked down at the monster who used to be the thing I was most afraid of. I flashed my teeth. “I’m going to end your life right here and now, Marcus,” I yelled and brought his chain between us. “By breaking this chain!”

  His eyes were wide and he gasped—I took pleasure in his horror.

  When I started pulling at his chain, he threw some sort of light at me and suddenly he grew distant—far away. I lost my grip on the chain.

  “Don’t think that this is the only thing I planned when I placed those ghosts inside you,” his voice echoed in the darkness that closed in around me. “You’ll see soon enough.”

  Then, I was waking up. I raised up into a sitting position on the bed I found myself in. I felt sick and feverish—I knew something had to be let out. Something awful seemed to be lodged in my throat and I couldn’t stop myself from opening my mouth. Blackness flew out—talk about gross and terrifying. The dark cloud floated above my head.

  Killian sprung from his chair and gave the cloud a hostile look. It expanded right before exploding. The pressure from the explosion was violent—I felt it go straight through me and from the look on Kilian’s face, he did too. The castle even seemed to shift and move, and I realized whatever came out of me was still expanding further through the castle.

  As soon as the castle stopped shaking, Killian bent down on the bed. He looked worried—anxious. He had a five o’clock shadow outlining his jaw. He touched my cheek and said nothing for the longest time—I don’t think he knew what he wanted to say, but his eyes looked like they held a whirlwind of emotion.

  “No,” I said out of frustration. I pulled away from him and placed my hands through my hair that felt all sweaty and icky. “I could have killed him!”

  “Melanie, what are you talking about? Kill who?” I looked back to my left where he sat next to me and recognized his worry.

  “Marcus,” I told him. “He forced me out of that place—wherever he had me—right before I got the chance to.”

  “He’s not supposed to die until the 31st.”

  “Your rules, not mine,” I stated quickly.

  His eyebrows bunched together. “How could you have killed Marcus? He’s still Fear as of right now.”

  “Not exactly. Now this is gonna be hard to explain, but I saw their life—” I motioned with my hands dramatically and brought them up to my chest. “Two chains hung out of Fear’s chest. One is his and you’re right, Fear’s definitely not dying. Ever. Marcus’s, on the other hand, is short and it was lit like a fuse. Don’t you get it? It’s because he’s about to die like you said, and all I had to do was break his chain and I just knew he was a goner,” I said through pants and all of my dramatic flair because I had almost killed Marcus. I took a deep breath and looked at Killian who was dead silent. He ran his hand across his unshaved chin. I squinted my eyes at him. “You don’t believe me!” I tossed my hands up in the air because I was all about being dramatic right now—I almost died and I almost took care of Marcus once and for all—I deserved to be, even though it was nothing but almosts.

  “Think back, Killian,” I told him, “wasn’t there a moment right before I woke that you felt his death right in the moment like he was dying?” I pleaded with him.

  He looked at me for the longest time before he took my hand and smiled. “How could I have been focused on that when you were lying here stuck in another realm that Fear put you in? And how can you be angry that you got pulled out of the dream realm when I was right here worried,” he cut himself off and straightened his voice. “I believe in what you saw and thankfully it scared Fear enough that he woke you, but you don’t know for sure if breaking the chain would have killed him, right?”

  I wanted to nod my head, but I couldn’t. “I wasn’t positive; it was just a feeling. A very strong one.”

  Lincoln stormed into the room, followed by Ryan. He took one look at me sitting up and smiled. “What the hell just happened?” Lincoln looked to us both. “The entire castle shook.”

  “The spell Fear used on the ghosts left her body and whatever it was… caused that huge tremor,” Killian told him.

  “Something didn’t feel right about it.” Lincoln shook his head.

  “I know,” Killian agreed. “I think we should sweep the woods and everything just to be on the safe side… it almost felt like a new spell instead of the one he used to keep her in the dream realm.”

  “I’ll check it out.” Lincoln left the roo
m, and Ryan stepped on in.

  I took a deep breath and noticed my chest no longer hurt. I grabbed it and tilted my head. “My injuries must not have been permanent while I was in that realm.”

  “No, your injuries were real,” Ryan told me and I looked up to him. “He kept healing you every few seconds and he got so crazy, that we had no choice but to leave him alone with you so that maybe he could relax.” He nodded toward Killian. “That guy was a nervous wreck.”

  Killian sighed. “You scared the living dead out of me.” I grinned and he added, “And that was supposed to make you smile.” I shook my head at him. “But, I wasn’t the only one worried about you.” He looked to Ryan. These two were being weird… since when did they try to acknowledge one another?

  “That’s a given,” Ryan said.

  “Somehow, I made it,” I told them both with a shrug of my shoulders.

  Killian had that sort of intensity about him that came out of nowhere. One minute he was worried and relieved I was okay and then, he was watching me with a pair of steely eyes—a look of determination and a hint of something much darker lurked beneath the surface. I shifted my weight on the bed—unable to handle the heat of his gaze. Even Ryan must have sensed the change in Killian because he said, “You probably want some time to relax. Come find me later if you want.” He walked out of the room and left me to face the imposing man sitting next to me who had suddenly turned all predator.

  “You’re not leaving my side until this with Fear is taken care of,” he said out of nowhere. “No, even then, you won’t leave my side.”

  My heart skyrocketed. “What?” I mumbled.

  “I’m saying I want you to stay here with me,” he answered, and I hadn’t expected him to be so straightforward. I felt the heat in my cheeks rising.

  “You said you didn’t want me to stay here unless I was going to be sleeping in your bed,” I spoke too quickly. My emotions were all over this place. Happy. Excited. Scared. Loved.