Out of the Darkness

199

"Wait!" I said, snatching it up before he could. "This is the book that I looked in. There was something inside of it...a spell maybe. I can't remember. Something about life, or life force." I flipped through the pages, trying my best to remember what it had said. "Uugh, damn it!" I exclaimed in frustration, and tossed the book back onto the shelf. It fell in an open position, the pages fluttering down on each side. "Uh, Colby?" Sam called out. "Yeah?" I asked."Is this the spell?" I looked up to find him looking at the book, still opened on the shelf. I glanced down at the pages. I felt my heart leap up into my throat. "This is it! I can't read it though. I just saw that she had scribbled something in the margins. See here? It says life something. I can't make it out. How did you find it?" He shook his head. "I didn't. This is how it landed." "Weird," I replied. "I'm taking it." I started ripping the page out slowly, so it didn't tear off any information. "Why? We can't read it. What do we want with a spell?" Sam asked. "I have no clue, but I'm supposed to take it. I took it in the dream. There was something else too. A piece of paper. Handwritten information on it. Like she had rewritten it, or something. It's supposed to be here, in the pages." I flipped through the next few pages, then noticed a yellowed corner of parchment paper just barely sticking out, towards the back of the book. I slid it out, and laughed. "Is that it?" Sam asked, in disbelief. I nodded. "What in the hell is going on?" Sam muttered. "You're only just now wondering that?" I joked, feeling better now that we had actually found something. "Okay, the desk. I found a key at the desk. "Let's look! What did the key go too?" he asked, routing around in one of the drawers. "Uh...the secret door," I answered. I walked to the desk and joined him in searching every drawer or crevice that I could find. It took a while, and I got frustrated again, when I couldn't find anything. "I can't remember where I found it! I don't even know if it would be in the same place either. Ugh!" I exclaimed, slamming the drawer that I had just finished looking through. When the desk jolted from the force, a small thin strip of wood popped out below the drawer. There was an old skeleton key taped to the top of the strip. "Sam..." I whispered, staring at the key. "I found it." "Yeah?" he looked over to me, and I nodded towards the key. "Great! Now, all we have to do is find that elusive door. You gonna get it?"I nodded, but I almost didn't want too. I couldn't tell if I was excited or scared. Maybe I was both. Whatever I found here was going to change everything. I could feel that. I just didn't know if it would be for better or worse. I leaned down and picked up the key, noticing how it felt hot in my hand. "Let's go," Sam said, pulling on my arm. I followed him out into the hallway, then stopped and looked around. Which way should we go? As soon as I thought the question, the left side of my hand, the one holding the key, started to burn. "Left," I said, turning towards the master bedroom. "Are you sure? How do you know?" Sam asked. I shook my head. "The key is telling me." He only looked at me skeptically, but didn't reply. We'd already experienced weirder things than this. When I stepped inside the bedroom, the temperature dropped, leaving us in an icy chill. I shivered, and looked around. I didn't even notice the furniture this time. All I was looking for was a door. "Check that other door. See if you can find something," I told Sam, pointing to the door on our right. I took the one at the back of the room on the left. When I opened it, I found a huge walk-in closet, full of different styles of clothes. I pushed the clothes back on the hanging rod, and felt around behind them. Moving the clothes got annoying, so I just pushed my way behind them, and turned on the flashlight on my phone. "I got nothing," I heard Sam say. "Come here and help me," I yelled out. I heard him walking into the closet. "Where are you?" he asked. "Behind the clothes. Help me feel around for a trap door or something. It's in here somewhere. I know it," I replied, grunting as I moved around the small space behind the clothes. We looked for a while, until my fingers found a dip and a groove that wasn't consistent with the wall. "Wait," I said, pressing my fingers along the line of the groove. I moved my light to have a better look. "It's a door. This is it!" I looked along the outline of the door, until my eyes rested on a small keyhole, that was almost blended in with the wall. I pushed the key into the lock, and twisted. When I heard the click, I released a breath that I hadn't known that I was holding. "Here we go," I said to Sam, then pushed the door at the top corner. It popped open, releasing a hiss of stagnant air. Sam grabbed the corner and pulled it open. It wasn't really tall enough so we had to stoop when we walked inside. It looked nothing like I remembered. There weren't any stairs leading down, but it was still dark as hell. We shown our lights ahead of us, but they couldn't seem to penetrate the darkness more than a couple of feet. "It's so quiet," Sam whispered, his voice seeming to disturb the silence. We walked on, until we came to another door. "Should we?" he asked. I nodded. "Yeah, we've come this far and there's nowhere else to go." I twisted the knob and pulled the door open. Shock was the only word that would describe what I saw. It was a long white hallway, with linoleum floors, and doors lining the walls. "This is new," I whispered, taking my first step into the hallway. Our shoes scuffed the floor, squeaking with every step. I was on high alert, fully expecting someone to notice us. The doors all had little windows on them, so I started looking through them. "There are people in here!" I exclaimed, pulling Sam over to look. Through the glass, we saw what looked like a hospital room...or maybe an asylum room. There was nothing in the room, except a hospital bed and the man lying on it. An IV drip was connected to one arm, along with one that looked like he was getting a blood transfusion. On the other side, he had the same machine, only it was draining his blood. What the fuck had we stumbled onto? "What the fuck?" Sam asked, in astonishment. "I don't know. Come on, let's keep looking. We haven't found it yet," I replied, dragging him away from the room. "We have to look in all of the rooms. It's here. Whatever it is, it's here!" I knew this because my necklace had started burning against my chest. We were so close. "Colby?" I heard Sam call me. When I looked over to him, he was holding his hand with fear in his eyes. "What's wrong?" "The ring. The ring is burning my hand," he replied. I smiled at him. "It's telling you that we're close. So close. Keep looking!" I exclaimed. Door after door, we saw the same thing. Random people, male and female, all lying on these beds, hooked up to machines. "What am I supposed to find?!" I yelled, forgetting that I should be quiet. Then I saw something. A door at the very end of the white hallway started to glow. The light got brighter and brighter, until I had to shield my eyes. I ran towards it, my hand half over, half off my eyes. The light dimmed the closer I got, until it completely burned out. I was standing in front of a door that looked like all the rest, except for one thing. There was a sign on the wall beside the door. It read "Eternal infusions." It gave me a bad feeling and I shivered again. I leaned up and peered through the little window, half terrified to see whatever was inside. Then I gasped, and my heart rose up in my throat, before it started trying to beat out of my chest. "ANNA!" I yelled, and started tearing at the knob to open it. Anna was here! She was lying on that bed, just like the rest of them! It was her! The door wasn't locked but it seemed to be jammed or something. I couldn't get it open so I yelled for Sam. "SAM! HELP ME!" He ran over to me, saw what I was trying to do, and started pulling without asking why. "On three," he said, holding onto the knob over my own hands. "One, Twoo, THREE!" he yelled. We both pulled as hard as we could, until the door finally gave way. We flew back and landed sprawled, onto the linoleum floor. I didn't waste time trying to gather my bearings. Instead, I flew up off of the floor, and ran into the room. "Oh my God, oh my God, Anna," I cried, taking her hand in mine. She was real. It was her actual body. She looked exactly the same. The same age as she was now. Only she was very, very solid! This was her actual body! It had to be...but how was this possible? Her raven hair was spread out around the pillow in a halo. Her full lips were pink and healthy, slightly parted from her breath. I placed my hand over her chest, where her heart was. "Oh," I choked out, wanting to cry. "She has a heartbeat. I don't understand." I felt the strong 'Thump, Thump' under my palm. I ran my fingers down her face, feeling her soft smooth skin under mine.  "It's..her," Sam murmured, coming to stand next to me. "How?" "I don't know. Help me get her out of here. This is what we are supposed to do," I replied, gently pulling the tape from her arm that was holding the IV in.  He started pulling the tape and needle from her other arm. He left the tube hanging, so I watched the slow 'drip...drip' of her blood coming out of the end. I looked at the machine that was sending her blood. I wanted to turn it off before I pulled that needle out. I really couldn't make anything of it. I saw a red button though, so I just pressed that. The machine let out a loud whining noise, then slowly shut down. I breathed a sigh of relief, then gently pulled the needle out of her arm. "Anna? Can you hear me?" I asked, leaning down to her ear. "I found you." She didn't stir an inch. Just kept lying there, like she was in a coma or something. I forced my arms up under her body, and lifted her from the bed. "Colby?" a very faint voice whispered. My eyes shot to emerald green ones that were halfway hooded. "Anna, baby, hey. You're okay. I've got you," I whispered, pulling her close to me. Then her eyes closed and she went limp again. 

A/N: THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY. IT IS THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK. I WILL BE CONTINUING THE STORY WITH THE SEQUEL CALLED 'INTO THE LIGHT.' HOPEFULLY, I WILL HAVE THE FIRST CHAPTER UP SOON. THANK YOU FOR READING!! I LOVE TO READ YOUR COMMENTS SO DON'T BE SHY! YOUR SUPPORT IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED