Anna Peregrine--Library of Souls

Chapter Ten

 We walked into the room, being led by Kim into a grove of evergreens, almost distracting me with their beauty. We kept walking as I took in the beauty of the loop. There was a sign that my uncle had promised us, one that pointed us in the direction we wanted to go into.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Argentina," the assistant answered.

We kept walking through the wilderness before coming the assistant brushed away some brush before freezing.

"What is it?" Jacob asked.

Kim pulled a handgun from his belt before firing it into the distance, making contact with something that screamed, and a creature of some sort rolled into the stream, dead.

"What is it?" Jacob asked.

"Dunno," the assistant answered. "But it was waiting for you."

I looked at it, and it wasn't a hollow, clearly because Kim could see it, but it was unlike any creature I have heard of before.

"Mr. Bentham said he didn't have any guns," I said to the assistant.

"He doesn't. This one's mine."

"Well, could we borrow it?"

"No," he pointed to a cave. "Go through there. Retrace your steps backward to the place we came from. Then you'll be with the wights."

"Where will you be?" Jacob asked.

"Here," Kim answered, sitting down.

Me and my boyfriend looked at each other before going into the stream, swimming to the cave. The water was ice cold, but I managed to get through it. When we got to where we had to be, I helped Jacob out.

"You're blue," I said, worriedly, wrapping my arms around him, trying to warm him up somewhat.

We started to retrace our steps on this side of the stream. The sign that Myron had placed wasn't where it was before. Clearly we had made it. We walked through the forest coming to a room, but unlike my uncle's, it wasn't furnished.

Jacob and I walked over to the door and pressed our ears to it. I could make out echoes, but from a far distance. I opened the door a crack to find a curving hall of stone, like a hospital. We made it.

I heard footsteps approaching and took my head away, not having any time to close the door. I got a glimpse of a man in a lab coat, but luckily he didn't see me. Once his steps receded, Jacob and I walked into the hallway, closing the door behind us.

Where to now?

The floor went uphill to the left and downhill to the right. Recalling what my uncle said, the prisoners weren't in the tower. Down.

We went right and hugged the wall, the soles of our shoes squeaked. We kept going until I heard footsteps. I quickly put my arm in front of Jacob, keeping back. The steps were ahead of us, and drawing close. We rushed to the closest door and closed it, our backs against it.

The room we entered was round and had drainage pipes all around it. At the end, there were a dozen men sitting around eating.

"Hey! How'd you get in there?" one asked.

"They're kids. Hey, this ain't a playground!", another said.

Americans. My uncle had expanded his army that far across the ocean. Oh my bird.

"Have you got that finger?" Jacob whispered to me. "Now seems like a good time to test it out."

We put on our masks before I rubbed a little bit of he woman's finger creating the dust before attempting to blow it at the men, but it only hovered above us.