The Moon's Fangs | 1

4 | living hell

The entire house shook violently. My feet slipped on spilled tea and my hip smacked against the vibrating tiles. If I screamed, it couldn't be heard over the ceiling being ripped in two and an intense boom that caused everything in the house to jump.

I cringed, curling up in a ball against the kitchen island with my arms over my head. Dishes and appliances crashed to the tile around me. The china cabinet collapsed, smashing partly against the island.

I shoved myself out of the way before the china cabinet could spill its fragile contents on top of me. When I pulled myself up, I caught Nolan yanking Blaire out of the way as a giant blue arm swung at her.

My heart lurched in raw horror.

A being that could have easily passed as Ares, the God of War's monstrous stone-forged clone towered from the crater it made in my living room. It had a hulking, humanoid-type male form and looked like its entire body was carved from pure sapphires. Light bounced off its sharp edges as it turned its mass in my direction. Yellow-gemmed eyes locked on me like a gun at a target range.

My mind flashed back to the nightmare, to the illusion of the monster from inside the sphere. Whatever that monster had been killing, it reveled in it.

A paralyzing tremble overcame my body. The resemblance between the two was uncanny.

This can't be real. I'm still in a nightmare. This can't be real.

When it took a step toward me, the foundation cracked and splintered under its weight.

"Amelia!" Blaire cried out.

"Run! Get out of there!" Nolan yelled.

The crystal gladiator pulled a double-edged ax off its back made of the same element as itself. Gods. The blades were the size of a stop sign.

I couldn't move, let alone breathe. If I ran down the hall behind me, I'd be trapped in a dead-end if it followed me. If I made a run for the front door, it would slice me in half. My body trembled so hard, I couldn't bring myself to do anything but gape at the monster's dead, reflective stare.

The monster rose the ax over its head, preparing a single life-ending stroke, to slice me in two like a hunk of timber. The only thing between us was the kitchen island.

I screamed, collapsing back down to the tile as my legs lost the strength to stand. Sparks flew as the ax sliced through the top half of the island then clean into the stove behind me. Flames flickered up as an instant reaction. I could hear Nolan and Blaire yelling, but I couldn't understand a single word in the midst of everything else. My heart thundered against my eardrums, turning them hot.

Something struck the counter again above my head while I scrambled and ducked under the fallen china cabinet. Shards of glass scraped my knees, legs, and hands. Biting into every part of visible skin.

Blaire and Nolan both crouched down on the other side, reaching out for me with desperate hands. "Come on!" Blaire cried, voice breaking.

"Hurry!"

I reached out to their outstretched hands, but I wasn't fast enough. Something seized my ankle, and the next thing I knew, my back had slammed against the opposite wall. Darkness blistered my vision. I gasped for breath, but it had been completely knocked out of my lungs. I grasped for the smallest hints of air, however, the worst of the pain, the most pronounced, sourced from the side of my neck. The invisible, nonexistent snakebite burned white-hot, like someone pressed a searing branding stick against my bare skin.

An oxygen-deprived scream ripped past my lips.

~Save him, save you.~ the mantra echoed with intense urgency. The image of the black-opal ring pulsated in my mind.