Hush

Chapter Sixteen

Outside of the doorway that Hush had fallen through, Rune was standing, staring into the abyss, shocked. Hush had been pulled in so quickly, down under the darkness. If Rune had been paying more attention, he would've noticed that the darkness seemed to be moving.

But Rune wasn't paying attention.

Rune was simply staring, not moving, on his knees.

Hush has been there and then hadn't. And it had happened so fast...

Rune felt something grip his shoulder and call his name, but he shrugged it off. Again, it gripped his shoulder and this time shook Rune and called his name again, then said something, a single sentence that brought Rune back to himself. "He's not gone!"

Rune looked up at the face of a wispy girl, her eyes cold as ice. "What do you mean?" Rune asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"He's not gone," she repeats. "I can still feel the presence of his life. I don't know how, but he hasn't died. Now get up," she commands.

"But I saw him dragged in," Rune mutters.

The girl, Khanesi, Rune remembered, rolled her eyes and tugged on his sleeve. "And I can feel his magic radiating out of him. Get up."

Reluctantly, Rune stood, looking at the abyss again. Could Hush really still be alive in there? It didn't seem possible. How could something survive somewhere so... so dark?

"Come on," Khanesi commanded, pulling Rune away from the door, the darkness. Rune's mind was spinning. "We have to get him," Khanesi stated.

"Where?" Rune asked, following the girl. None of this seemed real to Rune, but he knew it was. In all its horridness, he knew all of this was real: A living house on the inside, a normal one on the outside. The hallway had shifted slightly, Rune realized, and the walls seemed to be speaking, groaning in agony.

"Where?" Rune asked again, locking his gaze on Khanesi, who was floating, rather than walking. "Where are we getting him from?"

Khanesi glanced at Rune and then back at the hallway in front of them, towards a ladder that was leading down, replacing the stairs. "The basement," she stated.